Not a week goes by without stories about scams appearing in popular media outlets. Given the ease with which scams can be circulated, they have become one of the most common crimes globally, inflicting high emotional, financial, and psychological tolls on millions of individuals. Despite their profound and pervasive impact, researchers know relatively little about why some individuals fall victim to scams but others remain immune to the techniques utilized by scammers to lure potential victims. For example, research thus far provides mixed results about the impact of demographic characteristics (e.g., age) as well as personality variables (e.g., risk taking) on individuals’ susceptibility to scams. Even less is known about how the nature or type of scam affects an individual’s susceptibility. Gaining a deeper understanding of these issues is the key to being able to develop preventive programs and reduce the prevalence of victimization. Here, we discuss some promising directions, existing gaps in current knowledge, and the need for decision scientists to address this important problem.

在流行媒体上出现有关骗局的故事要花上一周的时间。鉴于骗局易于传播，它们已成为全球最常见的犯罪之一，对数百万个人造成了极大的情感，经济和心理伤害。尽管产生了深远而广泛的影响，研究人员对为什么有些人成为诈骗的受害者却知之甚少，而另一些人仍然对诈骗者用来吸引潜在受害者的技术保持免疫力。例如，到目前为止，研究提供了有关人口统计学特征（例如年龄）以及人格变量（例如冒险）对个人易受骗的影响的混合结果。关于骗局的性质或类型如何影响个人的易感性知之甚少。对这些问题有更深入的了解是能够制定预防计划并减少受害率的关键。在这里，我们讨论了一些有希望的方向，当前知识的现有差距以及决策科学家解决这一重要问题的需求。