Editorial: Fraud can affect anyone
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Fraud is one of those things that happens to other people. That’s what we want to believe.
That’s true of plenty of bad stuff in life. Fires, crimes, cancer — all of that is easier to accept when we distance ourselves from it.
But fraud carries a little something extra. Blame.
Someone who was targeted with a fraud can be subject to victim-blaming. That’s an added helping of shame no one deserves on top of the consequences of a crime — whether the simple but frustrating logistics of programming new passwords or the financial hell of unwinding identity theft.
The Federal Trade Commission said 2.4 million frauds were reported in 2022, with total losses exceeding $8.8 billion. That’s more than one fraud per person for the entire state of New Mexico. The dollar amount is a little over how much state money goes to the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania. It’s a massive amount.
And all those people can’t be stupid — we know they aren’t.
Not all of that fraud is someone falling for a Nigerian prince’s email. Some of it is savvy and tricky. New York Magazine financial advice columnist Charlotte Cowles admitted to becoming a victim in her February article, “How I Got Scammed Out of $50,000.” Despite being well-versed in the topic, she was taken by people posing as government employees to get cash.
It’s important for people to protect themselves. They need to report when fraud happens. They need to admit it to get help, even when that’s hard. But they can feel shame, which can prevent them from going to the authorities.
However, just as important is realizing this victimization is possible before it happens.
How often do you skip over warnings, rolling your eyes and fast-forwarding on a work training video about password protection? Do you report phishing attempts or just shrug them off?
We all want to think we are too smart to fall for it. But the number of frauds — and the growing number of cybercrimes — says we are all just one phone call or email or text away from disaster.