How scams work
How scams work, in seven stages.
Each stage has something that stops it, and the further in, the more it takes. A setting on a phone stops many first approaches, not all. By the sixth it takes another person, and no setting will do it. The order is the scammer’s, not yours.
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They find you
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Stage 01 Where they got your information, and how to stop the calls
Reaching you is somebody’s job. Phone, door, mail, email, or an account you already trust.
A first approach carries no tell. One that looked wrong would have been thrown away.
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Stage 02 The stories they use, and the rule you set beforehand
Before anything is asked for, you are given a story you are already in: a grandchild who needs help, a chance to get in early, somebody who treats you as worth talking to.
People do spot it. They go ahead anyway.
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They build it
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Stage 03 Why they pass every check, and the one thing they cannot fake
You wonder, so you check: the number, the name, the website, the statement. All of it holds up.
You did check. That was the point.
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Stage 04 What they ask for, and what to refuse
The first request is small, and frequently not money at all.
Nobody made you. That was built too.
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It moves
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Stage 05 How the money leaves, and the last person who can stop it
The money leaves, by a route chosen for who is standing nearby when it does.
A limit on the account, or a call to check first, stops it here.
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Stage 06 Why it never stops at one payment, and the rule that ends it
More is asked for, and every request is justified by what is already in.
It is no longer a question about them. It is a question about the money.
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After
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Stage 07 What happens after the money is gone, and who calls next
It stops. Nobody explains, nobody is caught, and nothing arrives in the post.
The silence is not what happens after. It is the last stage.
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