The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Consumers’ response to mass market scam solicitations: profiling scams and responses

Consumers’ response to mass market scam solicitations: profiling scams and responses
Consumers’ response to mass market scam solicitations: profiling scams and responses
Mass marketing scams (MMSs) impact millions of people with financial losses in the billions. Understanding what types of MMSs work is key to reducing the compliance rate. Inspired by Simon’s work, we designed an experiment to examine how four different types of MMSs impact interest in and intention to respond to solicitations. We first conducted a cluster analysis on 215 actual MMS solicitations. The analysis revealed four distinct types of solicitations: negative-cold, one-reward letters, high emotionality, high scarcity letters where the prize is mentioned often, very colorful multi-prize letters, and low emotionality, low scarcity cold letters. In a second experiment, 281 participants (recruited on MTurk) were randomly assigned to read one of the four types of solicitations. Our data revealed differences in intention to respond by sending money. Furthermore, younger (vs. older) individuals indicated a higher interest in the solicitation and higher intention to send in money and rated the solicitations as significantly more beneficial and less risky. Finally, perceptions of risks and benefits were the main driving force behind compliance beyond interest and intention to comply. In line with Simon’s ideas, our study highlights the need to examine both the environment (the types of solicitations) and the decision-maker.
Cluster analysis, fraud, mass marketing solicitation, need for cognition
1068-316X
Klapatch, Lukas
b9fb1728-657b-457e-aeef-1cdba10ab245
Hanoch, Yaniv
3cf08e80-8bda-4d3b-af1c-46c858aa9f39
Wood, Stacey
144d2e8e-7bce-4a3c-99d9-763162561b2d
Hengerer, David
f7992db0-5a38-4ac2-a0fe-2eee1903e79e
Klapatch, Lukas
b9fb1728-657b-457e-aeef-1cdba10ab245
Hanoch, Yaniv
3cf08e80-8bda-4d3b-af1c-46c858aa9f39
Wood, Stacey
144d2e8e-7bce-4a3c-99d9-763162561b2d
Hengerer, David
f7992db0-5a38-4ac2-a0fe-2eee1903e79e

Klapatch, Lukas, Hanoch, Yaniv, Wood, Stacey and Hengerer, David (2022) Consumers’ response to mass market scam solicitations: profiling scams and responses. Psychology, Crime, and Law. (doi:10.1080/1068316X.2022.2038599).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Mass marketing scams (MMSs) impact millions of people with financial losses in the billions. Understanding what types of MMSs work is key to reducing the compliance rate. Inspired by Simon’s work, we designed an experiment to examine how four different types of MMSs impact interest in and intention to respond to solicitations. We first conducted a cluster analysis on 215 actual MMS solicitations. The analysis revealed four distinct types of solicitations: negative-cold, one-reward letters, high emotionality, high scarcity letters where the prize is mentioned often, very colorful multi-prize letters, and low emotionality, low scarcity cold letters. In a second experiment, 281 participants (recruited on MTurk) were randomly assigned to read one of the four types of solicitations. Our data revealed differences in intention to respond by sending money. Furthermore, younger (vs. older) individuals indicated a higher interest in the solicitation and higher intention to send in money and rated the solicitations as significantly more beneficial and less risky. Finally, perceptions of risks and benefits were the main driving force behind compliance beyond interest and intention to comply. In line with Simon’s ideas, our study highlights the need to examine both the environment (the types of solicitations) and the decision-maker.

Text
1068316X.2022 - Version of Record
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (2MB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 25 January 2022
Published date: 17 February 2022
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords: Cluster analysis, fraud, mass marketing solicitation, need for cognition

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 455223
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/455223
ISSN: 1068-316X
PURE UUID: eac1632f-f51a-4350-8d61-68330a7445df
ORCID for Yaniv Hanoch: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9453-4588

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 15 Mar 2022 17:44
Last modified: 05 Jun 2024 19:44

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Lukas Klapatch
Author: Yaniv Hanoch ORCID iD
Author: Stacey Wood
Author: David Hengerer

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×