How does the ‘size of the prize’ affect our susceptibility to phishing scams?

Sarah Louise Smith. 2015

Abstract
‘Phishing scams’ attempt to gain sensitive information, such as bank details, through a means of unsolicited contact by promising the individual a false reward (Hong, 2012). Previous research has suggested that individuals are likely to comply if the scam contains an incentive that highly motivates the victim and engages the individual into thinking positively about the prize (Fischer, Lea & Evans, 2013). The current research, in addition to investigating past research theories further, also attempts to uncover whether there could be a difference in compliance rates due to the way in which the ‘scam’ is delivered. Forty-two participants rated various scams containing different levels of incentive as well as emotion, on scales that measured underlying psychological processes. Half the sample were sent the scams via ‘Email’, and half looked at the scams on ‘Paper’. Significant main effects for ‘Value’, ‘Motivation’, ‘Affect’ and ‘Positivity’ were uncovered; however, there was no significant difference found on ratings of ‘Trust’ within or between groups. These results appear to support previous findings that participants would feel driven to comply with a scam that contained a prize of high incentive (Ariely et al. 2009), as well as positively-charged statements (Fischer et al. 2013). However, in review of the results as a whole, it appears that there are more factors at play when one chooses to comply with a scam. Further investigation would be needed to examine whether the delivery format of a scam affects compliance rates.