Designing One Good Scam

What makes someone trustworthy?

Good looks? A healthy tan? British accent? Ivy League background? Best Selling Author? All of the above? We conducted a casting session and then tested which of the actors appeared most trustworthy. Once we had our actor, we then tested other details about his character; do glasses make you look smarter, which colour of tie says trust?

At the same time, we tested different first and last names, different company names, different logo and colour schemes. We even tested which font appeared to be the most trustworthy (it’s Baskerville).

TRUSTED SOURCES

People have a high level of trust when it comes to Google’s search results. A common behaviour is to Google someone you don’t know. We knew that getting our scammer at the top of Google search results was important to gaining our targets trust.

To do this, we needed a number of different places online and strategies to quickly rise the ranks which included a professional designed website, LinkedIn profile, social media handles, Reddit testimonials and a sold-out best-selling novel found on Amazon and eBay.

Using the red flags of investment fraud throughout the campaign, we promoted and held a fake real estate investment seminar featuring a fictitious financier and investment firm. Midway through the seminar, we revealed the con while sharing the story of an Alberta businessman who took his own life after being defrauded for more than $300,000. Together, the seminar and story demonstrated that investment fraud really could happen to anyone.