Why do people fall victim to scams?

Most People think rationally as long as emotions aren't involved. As soon as emotions come into play people can take irrational decisions and do things they wouldn't have done otherwise.

If a person wants to be rich or is in serious need of money then someone promised to help him get the money then he might think irrationally even if knows that some risks are involved. Many scammers give big promises that targets people's core needs and dreams and that's why they work.

Once something appeals to a person's subconscious mind it might be very hard for that person to take a rational decisions. This is one reason why people sometimes pay much more for brands instead of buying similar cheaper products that have the same benefits.

The emotion of greed is very powerful that it can override rational thinking. A person can fall for a 'make money fast' scam because he wants to make large sums of money fast without doing much effort.

Some people want to deceive themselves and to believe in the scams because by doing so they can give themselves a bit of a false hope. If a person believes he can never be rich then he might want to find something to believe in to give him hope even if it wasn't rational to do so.

Many people are too lazy to do any effort or to go through the tough road. Many people want to make money without doing any work or exerting any extra effort. Many scams target people's laziness directly and that's why they fall for them. (See Why some people want everything fast?)

Many scams target people who don't have enough technical knowledge to understand how some things really work. When a person has less knowledge about something and few opposing beliefs it becomes much easier for scammers to drag him into their traps.

Some people fall for scams because they have very little life experience. People who have seen previous scams and who know that some marketers are actually scammers are less likely to fall for new scams.

Some people already know that some promises can hardly be met yet they try to take the risk of investing their money and getting out in the right time. Over confidence can lead to this type of mistake and a person might lose his money.

People who aren't emotionally intelligent can fail to control their emotions or preventing them from exceeding a certain threshold and so they might easily fall for scams that target human emotions. (See 20 Signs That You Are Emotionally Sensitive)

The subconscious mind can be exploited in different ways. Many scammers know about many of the techniques that can force people to take irrational decisions such as allowing them to visualize future outcomes, using scarcity to motive them to take fast decisions and many other methods.

Some people assume that all people are Good. Usually the ones who are really good think that way. By believing that everyone out there are like them they easily believe scammers and fall for scams.