To fight fraud, psychological scientists issue a call to arms

To fight fraud, psychological scientists issue a call to arms Gaby Clark Scientific Editor Andrew Zinin Lead Editor Journalist Charlotte Cowles received a call about suspicious activity on her Amazon account. A dentist named Daniel answered a call from a number listed as the local police. Mr. Lee, a retired engineer, was told he had to marry his newfound girlfriend so she could receive an inheritance. Though the stories of these fraud victims vary greatly, they each end with the same result—an unsuspecting individual is swindled out of money under false pretenses. In the most recent issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, these real-life accounts are used to illustrate how pervasive and indiscriminate scams, or fraud (terms the authors use interchangeably), can be. Scams are now one of the most common crimes in the world. In the United Kingdom, for example, scams account for 40% of all reported crimes. A 2024 report from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance states that about half of the world's population is faced with a scam solicitation at least once a week. The cost of scams worldwide is estimated to be more than $5 trillion USD a year—roughly equivalent to the combined 2024 budgets for Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. But victims often do not recoup their funds, and for close to 90% of cases, victims do not report that fraud occurred. In this issue, co-authors Yaniv Hanoch (University of Wolverhampton), Stacey Wood (Scripps College), Marguerite DeLiema (University of Minnesota), Duke Han (University of Southern California), and Peter Lichtenberg (Wayne State University) provide readers with an overview on the latest in fraud research. They also strive to highlight the urgency of fraud's impact, both to researchers and to individuals beyond academia who can collaborate on direct actions to mitigate it. "Tackling a widespread and complex phenomenon like fraud is not easy, but as previous examples illustrate, coordinated, cross-sector and multi-modality efforts can dramatically produce social and behavioral change," the authors wrote. "There is no doubt that psychologists can and should play a vital role in the fight against fraud. This is a call to arms." In a commentary accompanying the issue, Jacob Stanley and APS Fellow David Smith of Temple University build on the discussion with a focus on AI. They argue that to understand scams more fully, it is crucial to study them in real time. "Vulnerability unfolds over time, is amplified by the contexts in which people live and decide, and is increasingly exploited by digital systems designed for speed, scale, and convenience rather than reflection and verification," they wrote. "If fraud research is to keep pace, it must move beyond static profiles of 'at-risk' individuals and toward a richer science of how people, environments, and technologies interact to create exploitable moments." Publication details Yaniv Hanoch et al, The Scammers' Psychological Warfare: A Call to Arms, Psychological Science in the Public Interest (2026). DOI: 10.1177/15291006261431553 Journal information: Psychological Science in the Public Interest Provided by Association for Psychological Science