A monthly breakdown of scam tactics and the human behaviours behind them with Nick Harris, our Head of Financial Crime.
You are standing around a braai. The fire is doing its thing. Someone is guarding the garlic bread like it is a national asset. And then someone drops the story.
“Ag shame, did you hear about that aunty who got scammed on Facebook Marketplace. She was looking for accommodation.”
There is a moment of silence. Then the commentary starts.
“Eish these people must be careful hey.”
“Ja no, that would never happen to me.”
Someone adds, with confidence they have not earned: “You must just be alert.”
You nod. Because, obviously, you are not that person. You are smart and online. You have WhatsApp groups warning you about scams every second Tuesday.
Fast forward a week.
You are on the couch. It is late. You are tired and scrolling social media. And there they are: The sneakers. The exact ones, proper brand...on special! Not crazy cheap either, just cheap enough to feel like you are winning at life.
You think, let me just check quickly.
Limited stock.
Only a few left.
Now your brain is no longer thinking. It is sprinting. You click. You add to cart. You enter your card details. You pay.
And then… nothing.
No confirmation or email. And definitely no sneakers. Just that cold feeling in your stomach and the sudden realisation that next weekend, you are the story at the braai.
And this is where we get it wrong.
Fraud does not happen because people are stupid. It does not usually happen because people are greedy either. It happens because people are human. And criminals understand humans very well. Sometimes better than we understand ourselves.
A lot of what we know about this comes from the work of Martina Dove, author of The Fraud Vulnerability Scale. Her research focuses on the human behaviours that make people more likely to be scammed. Not intelligence or education, but behaviour.
And the uncomfortable truth is this: the same things that make us functional members of society are the things scammers use against us.
This series will unpack each of these vulnerability factors one by one. In plain South African language without any judgement or victim blaming.
Here are the core ones:
We are raised to respect authority. When someone sounds official, we listen. If a message says it is from your bank, SARS, a security team or some investigation unit with a serious name, your instinct is to cooperate. Not because you are foolish, but because you are polite and you do not want trouble.
Scammers know this. That is why they sound confident and important. It is amazing how fast common sense disappears when a message sounds like it might affect your money.
Fraud loves urgency. It feeds on it.
Act now.
Final notice.
Last chance.
When something feels urgent, your brain switches from thinking mode to reaction mode. That is not a personal weakness, it is biology. Scammers manufacture urgency on purpose. They know that a calm person checks, but a stressed person clicks.
This is simply how long you pause before acting. The longer you wait, the safer you are. Which is exactly why scammers rush you.
They do not want you to phone the bank or ask a friend. And they definitely do not want you to sleep on it.
South Africans are busy people. We like to sort things out quickly. Scammers count on that. After all, efficiency is great for life but terrible for fraud prevention!
This is your ability to question what you are seeing. To check links, notice small details or ask yourself if something makes sense.
The best scams look real. They use proper logos, correct language and convincing numbers.
Low vigilance is not carelessness, it is trust. And trust is a very South African thing.
This one is sneaky. It is the belief that bad things happen to other people. Not to you.
I would see it coming.
I am too careful for that.
They target old people, not me.
That belief makes us relaxed. And relaxed people stop checking.
So when we stand at a braai and say, “ag ja she was just stupid”, what we are really saying is, “I do not want to believe that this could happen to me.”
Victim shaming feels comforting. It creates distance but it also keeps us vulnerable.
Because fraud is not about stupidity or greed. It is about timing, pressure, trust and very normal human behaviour, applied at exactly the wrong moment.
This series will break down each of these vulnerability factors in more detail. We'll talk about how they show up in real life, how scammers exploit them and then what actually helps to keep you safe. Forget catchy slogans or long lectures. We are talking about real behaviour changes you can implement.
Because the truth is simple.
Fraud does not need you to be stupid or greedy. It just needs you to be human.
And once we understand that, we can stop blaming victims and start closing the gaps criminals rely on.
Credit for the vulnerability framework and the behavioural foundations used in this series goes to Martina Dove and her work on the Fraud Vulnerability Scale. Her research reminds us of something important: The question is not who is foolish enough to be scammed, the real question is why any of us ever think we are immune.
Written by Nick Harris, our Head of Financial Crime.
