Here’s why you are constantly fighting off scammers

Freakonomics Radio, a podcast that is downloaded roughly 3 million times per month, sought the expertise of Mark Frank, professor in the Department of Communication, for its episode titled “Here’s Why You Are Constantly Fighting Off Scammers.” Frank, an internationally recognized expert on nonverbal communication and digital misinformation, said “part of the reason why cons work is because we want them to work. We want to believe we’re getting the deal, we’re getting the special thing.” Frank has interviewed human scam artists. He knows how they think, and why they’re successful. “They’re really good at identifying your motives. And they feed those back to you, it’s one of the things that gives you the confidence, it makes you feel they understand you. Social media, A.I., the world being connected, has turbocharged this.”