Cambodian Scam - One Universe Online
The press release was short on details about the representations made to potential recruits. But now there is a story in the Boston Globe which sheds more light on the alleged scam. The news story states that Seng Tam said "Don't tell anyone, she warned them. People grow jealous. We have suffered long enough. Now it is our people's time to be rich." (my emphasis added)
Why was this effective? Especially judged in light of the implausibility of the scheme.
One of the themes that I return to, when analyzing fraud, is how rationality is overwhelmed by the rush to action. The best and systematic analysis of this phenomena is found in Cialdini's book: Influuence, the Psychology of Persuasion.
What I like about Teng's compliance technique is: a) the use of illogical inference, which remains powerful despite being a falllacy, b) the effective appeal to a group identity, and c) the appeal to a powerful ethic of fairness.
Fallacy: "Don't tell anyone" (Cause its a big secret!)
Rich people don't have secrets that made them wealthy. By and large, they have skills which we cannot reproduce or have enough wealth to take on economic risks we cannot afford.
Group Identity: People grow jealous. We have suffered enough. (Course we did suffer at the hands of our very own.)
Coming from the Cambodian background in which talent and privilege were singled out, this is very clever in establishing a group identity.
Fairness: Now its our people's time to be rich. (As opposed to, it's our turn to be poor?)
Yes, if there were a god of material consumption it probably would be your time to be rich. But so far the evidence for the existence of such a deity is thin.
In this short paragraph, we have appeals to three of Cialdini's compliance factors: scarcity, authority and social proof. Not hard to imagine reason being overwhelmed.
Comments
Great reading, keep up the great posts.
Peace, JiggaDigga
Posted by: JiggaDigga | April 7, 2006 1:17 AM