Cybersecurity expert: even informed people can fall victim to scammers

On the TV24 programme “Uz līnijas”, programmer and cybersecurity blogger Elviss Strazdiņš discussed why any person can become a scam victim, even if they were previously aware of that particular type of fraud.

He described a case in which someone trying to buy a quad bike received a fake invoice. Although this person had already seen Strazdiņš's video warning about fake invoices, they still trusted the scammers and lost 5,000 euros.

Is it simply carelessness?

During the programme, a listener asked whether such fraud isn't in a way a price people pay for their own carelessness or excessive openness. Strazdiņš replied that people often write to him expressing surprise at how other victims behaved, but assuming the victim is simply to blame or not smart enough is not accurate.

He explained that a person may know one specific fraud scheme very well and avoid falling for it, while being completely unaware of another scheme they have never encountered before. Everyone, he said, has their own limits of knowledge.

Everyone has knowledge gaps

To illustrate this, Strazdiņš used the example of African countries — not everyone would be able to name the largest countries in Africa, and that wouldn't make them foolish; it would simply show that everyone has areas where their knowledge is limited. The same applies to cybersecurity.

When training companies and talking to people, Strazdiņš said he regularly asks various questions about cybersecurity risks. Often people admit that no one had ever told them about a particular risk before, and they hadn't even imagined that such a type of attack was possible.

For this reason, Strazdiņš believes a scam victim should not automatically be labelled an idiot. A person can be well informed about one type of fraud while knowing nothing about another — and it is precisely in that gap of knowledge that scammers find their opportunity to deceive.