2017年8月2日 星期三

Scam phone call victims, or are they?

I am puzzled with one phenomenon that from time to time there came reporting that someone were scammed over the phones and lost a great deal of money. More surprisingly the victims were not confined to those elderly with little education but also included university students.

I have installed incoming calls screening app so scam calls were largely reduced and indeed I ignored many suspicious or unfamiliar numbers because I am not in sales business so I can afford to ignore numbers I do not know of. I did come across a suspected scam call though long before when this type of scam has yet been exposed.

One day a guy rang me up saying I got a parcel but needed to verify my name. This incident happened long before the public awareness on scam phone call was drawn but instinct put me in alert. Despite I did not know what the problem was but it did not sound right for a courier to ask for my name when they knew it in the first place if they were really a courier holding my parcel. With much suspicion so I did not tell him my name. That scam happened in their version 1.0 which victims would be asked to browse a false website where a warrant with the victim's name was posed so the victim was lured that he/she was really wanted by the Chinese police. I think that's why they asked for my name right at the beginning.

Now this type or scam has evolved into 2.0 or 3.0 so scammers no longer ask for names. I do not know how exactly the victims were cheated now because I have not talked to any scammer since then. However I am just really puzzled why after 2 years since the first case was reported there were still so many people got scammed. Haven't they never read newspaper? never watched news report? or never chatted with someone on scam?

Some said perhaps those victims did hear about the cases but were confused when they received the scam calls in person. I am not sure and perhaps they are right. However, I hold another view. Scamming is all about the combat on intelligence between the two parties. Those has higher I.Q. win. When phone scam first happened victims usually lost. It does not has much about the I.Q. level but just because the victims have never come across such situation. However as and when more and more news reporting on this type of scam and it was brought to light yet people still got trapped. I really doubt on their brain. A normal people should know what the hack is going on as soon as the scammer talks. So please don't blame me I am mean when I concluded the victims nowadays are not stupid 蠢 but damn stupid死蠢。