Today I got scammed. A guy claiming to be a millionnaire from Dubaï hooked be and asked for some money as he lost his wallet. Once I was hooked, everything he did reinforced my belief that he was legit: - He had a nice car - He had a family in the car - He offered me a visit card - He didn't offer any form of retribution before I accepted to help already I lost 200€ but learned a lot: - Anyone can get hit by scammers, being smart and/or educated doesn't protect you. - We think ourselves smarter than we are... especially when we're smart. - We tend to blindly trust our peers or people we think are above us. Why did I withdraw 200€ for a 'millionnaire' while I would never do that for a homeless person?). - Once we're biased, it's virtually impossible to get rid of it unless proven wrong. In my case, I had to bring his 'jewelry' in a pawn shop to realize I got scammed. - When someone appeals to your value, it's very hard to say no. - The scammer got me mainly because: - He had kids, which triggered my emotional side and made me relate with him. - He gave a reward to me without me asking... or so I thought. Retrospectively, I realize he did that exactly when I was hesitating to withdraw some cash. - I was even comforted in my opinion of him as I felt like I was getting a good deal that was even unfair to him. - When confronted with urgent decicions to make, our critical thinking goes to sleep. => How do we fight psychological biases in real-time?