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SUMMARY:Psychology of scams - David Modic\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20131022T151500Z
DTEND:20131022T161500Z
UID:TALK48317@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Laurent Simon
DESCRIPTION:*Abstract:*\nThere are some interesting specifics concerning c
 rime. A lot of thought has\nbeen put into perpetrating it and into prevent
 ing it. There are pedestrian\ntypes of crime\; those that require no parti
 cular skill or intelligence to\ndo. Crime\, where potential victims have n
 o say in the matter and are\, so to\nspeak\, innocent. There are also othe
 r types of crime. Crime where there\nneeds to be interaction between the p
 otential victim and the offender.\nCrimes\, where the criminals need to th
 ink on their feet or carefully plan.\nWhite collar crime or fraud as it is
  also called\, is often in this latter\ncategory.  \n\nInternet fraud spec
 ifically has recently received much attention in the\nfield of social scie
 nces. Some researchers (e.g. Marian Fitzgerald from\nOxford) suggest that 
 an overall perception of decline in crime numbers\nshould be attributed to
  offenders moving online. This is\, broadly speaking\,\nan application of 
 classic criminological theory to the phenomena of\ncybercrime (i.e. the ov
 erall crime incidence rate stays roughly the same\nover the years. So\, if
  specific crime numbers decline\, then there is bound\nto be another type 
 of crime that rises). \n\nIf we accept a certain level of victim facilitat
 ion in fraud\, then the\nmechanisms that may influence a potential victim 
 become important. This talk\nshows an impact of several social psychologic
 al factors on the level of\ncompliance with Internet scams (i.e. scam comp
 liance). A scale of\nSusceptibility to Persuasion was developed\, validate
 d and then applied to\nthe phenomena of scam compliance in two studies. Fo
 ur reliable factors\ncontributing to susceptibility to persuasion emerged.
  The Susceptibility to\nPersuasion scale was then used to predict overall 
 lifetime (study 1) and\ntime-limited (study 2) scam compliance across the 
 three stages of scams\n(i.e. finding the scam plausible\, responding to it
  and losing funds to the\nscam)\, with lack of self-control emerging as th
 e strongest predictor of\ncompliance across both studies.\n\n*Bio:*\nBorn 
 in Ljubljana\, Slovenia in 1973. Finished high-school for computer\nscienc
 es in 1991. Enrolled into University of Ljubljana\, Department for\nSocial
  Pedagogy in 1993. Received BSc (distinction) in 1999\, with GPA of\n9.0/1
 0.00. Enrolled into MSc at the University of Ljubljana\, Department for\nS
 ocial Pedagogy in 2001\, awarded MSc (distinction) in 2006. Applied for a\
 nresearch position at the University of Exeter in 2007\, was accepted in 2
 008.\nIn 2009 became an Exeter Graduate Fellow. HEA certified in 2010. Cer
 tified\nTransactional Analysis Counsellor (CTAC). PhD in Psychology awarde
 d in 2013\nfrom University of Exeter. Currently a research associate at th
 e Computer\nLab\, here\, at Cambridge.\n\nMy research interests broadly in
 clude psychology of Internet fraud and\ntopics connected to it. The topics
  include psychology of will /\nself-control\, social psychology\, psycholo
 gy of persuasion\, decision making\nprocesses\, cyber-criminology\, victim
 ology and personality psychology.\n\nThe other area I am interested in is 
 psychotherapy from the perspective of\nthe practitioner.\n
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 2\, Computer Laboratory\, William Gates Building
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