Stephen Grossman

© 2019-2020

Don’t Remain a Victim of Fraud

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Being victimised by fraud is not only a financial assault but a psychological one. Fraudsters employ deception, often with great stealth, playing on human emotions like trust, greed, embarrassment, love, fear, etc. Like a guitar virtuoso, the fraudster plays on various emotions, pressing the right chords just the right way at the right time and with the right pressure.

Fraudsters and extortionists count on their victims being left in a state of confusion and embarrassment. Despite anger and a thirst for revenge being among the first earliest emotions and reactions from victims, the obfuscation and subterfuge employed by the criminals leaves most financially and technically unable to pursue their nemesis. Or so many victims think. And even for those with means, the emotional tax paid and the length of time and effort needed to go after the criminals often leaves even the most strong-willed victims tired and deflated after a period of time. https://www.acfe.com/fraud-examiner.aspx?id=4294989200

Do Exactly What Fraudsters Don’t Expect You To Do

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The heartless a-holes who stole your money or property or company or identity count on you feeling confused, intimidated and eventually giving in to a sense of futility in the chase for justice and or asset recovery. They rely on that psychological effect because the fraudster is essentially a chicken, a very greedy, sociopathic chicken. 

Fraudsters care about money, taking what they believe belongs to them, domination over another with a financial reward as icing on the cake, revenge with a financial reward as icing on the cake . . . a sense of entitlement and that they can have your cake and eat it too. 

So the key to going after them is to do exactly what they expect you not to do. Go after them! Go after their money! That’s what matters most to them. Everybody leaves a trail, even in the age of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Money moves and when it does, wherever and however it travels, it leaves a trail—a digital trail, a document trail and people trail. And once it’s received, the vast majority of fraudsters spend it. They are impulsive people who require immediate financial gratification (they will buy things for themselves with your money) despite the fact that some are also very patient, careful planners. In that dichotomy lies the pursuer’s opportunity to exploit. 

And despite their threats and despite the fact some are indeed truly violent people, most fraudsters are actually quite spineless individuals who themselves fear violence, which they know they’d face in prison. Like physical domestic abusers and child abusers, fraudsters are often dogs whose barks are worse than their bites (aside from the chunks of financial meat they’ve bitten off from your company.

Use the right people who have the right toolkit. The team should be able to leverage knowledge of asset recovery and cyber tracking, use legal mechanisms when appropriate and, perhaps most importantly, the team should be running on a plan built on an accurate behavioural profiles of the criminals in order to think through their subterfuge in order to locate them and to use the profile to mess with them, to get in their heads and to potentially negotiate effectively with them. 

Pursuit of Your Nemesis Can Be Possible & Rewarding

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Pursuit of your nemesis can be both possible and rewarding, emotionally and financially. Taking back what is rightfully yours, and stopping people from hurting others, is not only your right but should be your obligation. Fraudsters count on you quitting or being too embarrassed to start actions against them. 

The only thing fraudsters should count on is not getting away with it!

Eagle Photo by Dulcey Lima

Money Photo by Dmitry Demidko