Business View Civil Municipal - July 2023

9 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 7 Once a victim transfers a substantial amount of money to the con artist, they are less likely to pull out. This phenomenon is known as the “sunk cost fallacy” . Research has shown people are likely to carry on investing money, time and effort in activities they have already invested in and ignore signs the endeavor isn’t in their best interests. When the victim runs out of money or tries to withdraw funds, they are blocked. The victim is left with not only financial devastation, but also the loss of what they may imagine to be their most intimate partnership. They are often too embarrassed to discuss the experience with friends and family or to report to the police. PayPal scams Fake payment requests are a common attack that works by volume rather than playing the long game. Payment requests appear to come from a genuine PayPal address. Fraudulent messages typically begin with a generic greeting, an urgent request and a fake link. For example, Dear User: You’ve received a payment, or you have paid too much. Please click link below for details. Users are directed to a spoofed website with a legitimate sounding name such as www. paypal.com/SpecialOffers and asked to enter their account information and password. Both of us have received these scam requests – and even we found them difficult to discern from legitimate PayPal request emails. These scams work through mimicry and play on the human tendency to trust authority. Legitimate PayPal correspondence is usually automatic bot language, so it is not difficult to imitate. But remember, genuine messages from PayPal will use your first and last name . The missing person scam This seems to be a new scam that exploits a