From Food to Friendship: How Scammers Prey on Our Most Basic Needs
Scammers are opportunists. Nasty ones. They prey on the most fundamental human needs: On the surface, a food-assistance scam and a fake-friend scam may seem worlds apart. One promises food, the other companionship. But underneath, they follow the same psychological playbook: build trust, create urgency, extract resources. In this blog, we’ll unpack two real-world scams – SNAP scams and friendship scams – how they work, why they work, and, most importantly, how to fight back against them.