Cybercrime Booms As Scammers Hack Human Nature To Steal Billions
Cybercrime is ballooning as scammers learn to research their victims and fine-tune their psychological tricks.
The secret to comedy, according to the old joke, is timing. The same is true of cybercrime.
Mark learned this the hard way in 2017. He runs a real estate company in Seattle and asked us not to include his last name because of the possible repercussions for his business.
"The idea that someone was effectively able to dupe you ... is embarrassing," he says. "We're still kind of scratching our head over how it happened."
It started when someone hacked into his email conversation with a business partner. But the hackers didn't take over the email accounts. Instead, they lurked, monitoring the conversation and waiting for an opportunity.
When Mark and his partner mentioned a $50,000 disbursement owed to the partner, the scammers made
