Unfortunately, the classic car restoration world is rife with scammers, like many industries, with the biggest difference being the dollar amounts being dolled out by the unsuspecting hobbyist. We have written in the past about some of the scams we have witnessed as well as the tell-tale signs of shops to avoid, and the steps to selecting a better choice in restoration shops. The good news is there are honest shops out there that are capable of performing the high level of car restorations without the headaches. Understanding the scammer methods to take your hard-earned money and not deliver will also help you in making better restoration decisions, not to mention avoiding other scammers in the world.
Scammers often use psychological triggers to get an automatic response from you without you realizing it. Watch out for them next time you are approached, or even next time someone asks you for a favor. Some of the tricks they use are outlined below. When we are up against these influence strategies, getting caught up in a scam is not necessarily a reflection of our gullibility or poor judgement. It just shows how good the scammers are at manipulating us. Do not be clouded by influence triggers. Recognize them for what they are, and keep a clear head when making decisions.
Scammers Use the Following Tricks
Reciprocation
Scammers give you something, such as a ‘free’ gift or assistance, to get something in return, such as your agreement later. You are caught up feeling obliged to do something. Protect yourself from those sentiments by recognizing the gifts and favors as nothing more than devices to influence you to return the favor.
Commitment And Consistency
Someone will get you to commit to something early in the project, and later recall that initial agreement to get you to agree to something further. This ploy can make you feel ill at ease. To protect yourself, you should treat each commitment separately and ask yourself whether, under the circumstances, you would make the same choice as you did earlier. Your instinctive gut-feeling will provide the answer.
Social Proof
‘Everybody does it, so it must be right’ pretty well sums it up. The other person will refer to what the majority does to get you to agree. Objectively check the facts, your experience and judgement.
Liking
Good looks, similar interests or background, humor and other attractive characteristics are standard tools for the con-artist as well as of course for honest people who want to generate good rapport with you. If you like someone, you are more likely to go along with what they are suggesting. Your defense is to separate the issue on offer from the person offering it or associated with it.
Authority
Authority, in or out of uniform, will cause an automatic response in almost everyone. We appeal to and use authority all the time to justify or support our position. Scammers do it deliberately to hoodwink you into agreement. Your protection here is to ask whether the authority is relevant to the context.
Scarcity
The fear of missing out! Being told that this is the last chance or that there are only so few still available, leads most people to agree hastily before they have had the opportunity to think about what they’re doing. Some people have found themselves in horrible financial situations because they rushed into agreements or purchases in the fear of missing out. Your protection here is to separate your emotions from your decisions
Personalized Scams
Personalized scams occur when a scammer gathers your personal information and uses it to specifically target you with a scam. The fact that the scammer knows so much about you may lead you to believe they are legitimate.
Common Scammer Methods Used to Trick Victims (And How to Stay One Step Ahead)
Scammers often rely on our psychological biases to trick us into handing over important data or financial information – here is what you need to know.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by the number of scams that seem to be going around these days, you are not alone.
The problem? Although some scams remain pretty easy to spot, there are a growing number of scams that are harder to identify, with scammers using increasingly complex psychological tactics to ‘socially engineer’ their victims into handing over personal data or money.
So, what are these tactics? And how can you keep yourself safe from these kinds of schemes?
What Are the Main Psychological Tactics Scammers Use to Trick Their Victims?
Scammers use several tactics to pressure victims into making poorly judged decisions.
There are three main psychological techniques scammers are currently using to trick people – time pressure and illusions of scarcity, authority bias and greed and status.
Each of these techniques tend to apply to a different kind of fraud, but we warn that they can be used in any situation to force someone into making a poorly judged decision.
Time Pressure and Illusions of Scarcity
The first major tactic that we see is time pressure. We tend to make poor decisions when we are forced to act quickly – our reflective brains are much better at trying to think through an issue or problem. But we tend to make a lot of our decisions – about 95% of the decisions we make on a day-to-day basis – without reflecting on them.
If a scammer can get you to make an instinctive gut reaction to something, the more they are using that fast neural network to get you to do something instinctively rather than pausing. And that is why you see a lot of the messages around fraud being about pausing and thinking, even though it is really difficult.
Authority bias
One of the other tricks we see coming through is the use of authority bias, when somebody tries to make it sound like they are coming from a trust, knowledge, or authority position, whether they are trying to impersonate an authority figure, an officer, or an organization representative.
That kind of authority bias can make you panic, because you feel like you are being told something from someone at a trusted organization – and we like to feel like we can trust people in authority, so that can be played upon.
Greed And Status
The greed and status is a trick which is used in investment scams and other similar fraudulent schemes. We all like to feel that we are getting something that somebody else is not, and that drive can sometimes turn us into a very poor decision-maker, as we are motivated to take care of ourselves as opposed to others.
Scammers are experts at exploiting the fact people want to grow their assets or status, and that we can sometimes put our better judgement aside for a high return opportunity.
How Can You Keep Yourself Safe from These Scammer Methods?
Taking a moment to pause can help you to reassess the situation.
While many scams rely on their victims trusting people, we do not advise becoming wholly untrusting – instead, we recommend taking a few key steps to protect yourself.
“One of the best things you can do is stop and ask yourself, ‘Does it sound too good to be true?’ and think about what you’re doing.”
“You can also try to sense check things with others as well, because somebody who is not quite so caught up in the situation can give you a third person read of what is going on. It may not be enough to stop you, but it will give you a new perspective and give you that opportunity to step back.”
Finally
This may not have seemed like a post about cars, but it really is about saving you money and pain in restoring or maintaining your classic car by understanding scammer methods. The reason we bring this up is that in helping others I have found that many “unsavory” restoration shops do not have many or any poor Google or Yelp reviews, and the reason for this as we discussed previously most people do not want to admit publicly that they have been scammed out of their money and even worse maybe their prized classic car. Remember, the best step is not going down the wrong road but if you do then get off the train quickly and do not keep feeding money to the restoration shop as this just deepens the wounds and will not get the results you want.
