Not all scams are created equally, and the ones people are most likely to fall for these days definitely feel different from those a few years ago, as comedian Jordan Davis and others discussed on Threads.
Every era has its own trends, so maybe each has its own scams as well? While scams from the past were pretty easy to spot as being ridiculous, it can be a little harder to pick up on what’s not legit now. Advancing technology has made this possible, but it seems like the economy has played a role, too.
We all remember getting quite a few emails about a Nigerian prince who would send you money if you only sent him some first, and they were honestly hilarious. (Which part of that hypothetical situation was supposed to make sense, after all?) Now, scams feel like they’re tailored to our struggling economy.
Davis lamented, “The economy is so cooked, scammers went from ‘a Nigerian prince wants to send you MILLIONS’ to ‘we are hiring remote positions, apply now’ texts.”
While Davis surely said this for laughs, others pointed out how it was simultaneously concerning and true. “Pivot from fantasy wealth to realistic desperation,” one said. Another called it a “recession indicator.”
There are no more messages full of filler information about a foreign royal who will eventually make you rich. Instead, scammers are relying on people giving up money and personal information because they desperately need work, and even some of the smartest people are getting caught up in it.
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The most recent data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics said there were 7.6 million unemployed people in the United States. 6 million of those people reported that they actually wanted to find a job.
When some people face unemployment, they are lucky enough to do so with help from loved ones or a substantial emergency fund. But if you don’t have those options, you would be absolutely desperate to find work so you could support yourself and your family.
Scammers are preying on this fear. According to NBC News, people lost $220 million to job scams in the first half of 2024. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that scammers tend to use remote jobs that require little effort to reel people in. Sometimes they do this through text messages that feel fishy, but they also use job postings on legitimate websites you think you can trust.
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Kati Daffin, the assistant director of the FTC’s division of marketing practices, explained, “Most of the people who end up losing money to a scammer are behaving pretty rationally. Scammers are sophisticated, and they keep changing their tactics.”
A Gallup poll found that 15% of Americans had been scammed, or that someone in their household had. As unfortunate as it sounds, this can quite literally affect anyone. Being smart or saying you could never be taken in does not mean you’re immune. Scammers actually know how to psychologically manipulate their victims, so everyone is at risk, and no one deserves judgment.
Mikhail Nilov | Pexels
This is a really challenging time economically. Antimonopoly advocate Matt Stoller coined the term “boomcession” to describe the cycle we’re stuck in of things looking good on paper while people are struggling in reality.
It may have been easy to understand that a random Nigerian prince was not actually going to pay you back for helping him, but when you’re absolutely desperate, and your next meal or rent payment is hanging in the balance, there’s no telling what someone could get away with.
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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
