The expert spoke about the use of emotions of fear and greed by scammers in schemes.

The attackers, implementing their fraudulent schemes, take advantage of two human emotions — fear and greed. This was announced on January 31 by Natalia Kolbasina, head of corporate well-being programs at the Findorovye service of the National Center for Financial Literacy.

"Greed and fear are two powerful human emotions that scammers play on...> when scammers scare us and rush us, there is a sharp release of cortisol, the stress hormone. High levels of cortisol block the work of the prefrontal cortex of the brain, the area responsible for logic, critical thinking and common sense," she told RIA Novosti.

According to the statistics provided by the expert, in 90% of cases, criminals managed to commit thefts after their victims independently gave them such an opportunity, voicing codes or confirming the operation.

Being under the influence of scammers, Russians, as Kolbasina clarified, act based on their instincts — the brain begins to send signals prompting immediate action. The specialist added that absolutely anyone can get into the so-called "stress corridor", because no one is immune from psychological vulnerability.

Getting an appointment: scammers started deceiving Russians under the guise of school psychologists

They send out phishing links and extort money.

Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation reported on November 10, 2025 that fraudsters using deepfakes (technology for synthesizing media content using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms) in their scams are trying to convince citizens that their relatives are in trouble. The department clarified that criminals generate phrases such as "Mom (or dad), I'm in trouble, I need money urgently," "I have problems, help me," and "It's urgent, transfer to this card."

On December 30 of the same year, Mikhail Khors, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, urged Russians not to try to outplay phone scammers. He stated that callers can record a person's voice and subsequently use it for their own purposes. In this regard, he recommended speaking as simply as possible in telephone conversations with strangers, avoiding complex formulations and long phrases.

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