Fraud With Sad Stories And Why We Are Victims

Fraudulent tweet (Source: Capture Twitter screen)

JAKARTA - Citizens on Twitter social media are suspected of being deceived by a woman selling a cake. This scam selling sad stories is not the first time this has happened. We discussed this case with a psychologist to answer why our society tends to fall victim to this kind of fraud.

The owner of the Twitter account @grumpysfd, who was later suspected of having the real name Putri Islami, Regina Subarja, is suspected of deceiving netizens by selling pity. At first he told me that his mother's cake merchandise was deceived by irresponsible people.

In his thread, he said that his mother had a big loss because a customer canceled his order unilaterally and suddenly. This woman admitted that she did not know how to help her mother overcome this huge loss other than through Twitter.

He includes photos of cakes and market snacks in the thread. In addition, in her tweets, Putri Islami also included a photo of the cake that was claimed to be ordered by the perpetrator.

Less than one day, the woman's upload has gained 32 thousand likes. Initially, many felt sorry for the story of Putri Islami. Citizens are busy giving support and even sending some money to give to Putri Islami.

TWITTER PLEASE DO YOUR MAGIC😭🙏🏻My mother was tricked by other people and really lost badly😭 I don't know what to do except via Twitter. Mum I got a large order of this cake but suddenly the order was canceled then my mother's number was blocked 😭 pic.twitter.com/JPmobZxByk

- seba (@grumpysfd) February 14, 2021

But after a few hours passed, the netizen sniffed that the thread was odd. The reason is, after being traced, the uploaded photos actually belonged to other people who were selling online on Facebook.

A netizen has contacted the owner of the actual cake photo via Facebook. The photo was taken by the woman who made the thread without permission.

In addition, the photo of the person he said had been shared with people in need was also taken from Google. The photo belongs to the Public Kitchen Shelter, which was uploaded on Twitter @virawny.

Hey, if you want to cheat, it's not hard to do this !!!! @grumpysfd Already there is direct proof, I've chatted directly to the original owner of the photo. pic.twitter.com/OK4wBxAdDr

- Hime 彡 (@virawny) February 14, 2021

Support for him turned into blasphemy by netizens. They turned around asking for clarification on the alleged fraud case. This is because some people have fallen victim to it. And fraud like this is not the first time this has happened. Even the victims targeted famous artists.

Not the first

A similar case occurred late last month. Musician Kunto Aji was the one who exposed the case.

According to Kunto Aji's confession quoted by Medcom, initially the owner of a Twitter account named @rakaikey asked the victim for Rp.50,000 in cash via direct message. In order to convince the victim, he sold sad stories.

The perpetrator asked Kunto Aji to provide information on job vacancies. Because he admits that he lives alone and runs out of money to eat.

It turns out that the victim who owns the @rakaikey account is not just Kunto Aji. Some of the artists who have transferred money to him are singer Fiersa Besari, influencers Kristo Immanuel, and Zarry Hendrik.

Luckily, Kunto Aji and those who became victims did not investigate the case. And Kunto deleted his story on Twitter after the perpetrator returned the money.

Out of sympathy

The victims of this kind of fraud do not basically feel empathy, but sympathy. To understand how many victims were deceived in this case we need to know these two differences.

Psychologist from the University of Indonesia Firman Ramdhani as quoted by Detik explained that empathy really fully understands why he can think of helping someone. Thanks to empathy, a person's emotions can also arise.

"If we are empathetic personally, we know what kind of person he is, and we will help. Help doesn't have to be with money," said Firman.

On the other hand, the sympathy of the Word is an act that does not require deeper understanding of the problems of others. What arises when people feel sympathy is pity by imagining what it would be like to be in the position of someone in distress.

This sympathy or pity is what makes someone moved to help the person who made him compassionate. This includes giving money or doing things that person needs. Then why are there not a few victims of this kind of fraud?

[/ read_more]

Why is the victim so massive?

Psychologist Kasandra Putranto explained that the massive number of victims of this fraud case that sells sadness is none other than that our nation is known to be generous. "Basically we are a nation that likes to help others," said Kasandra to VOI.

However, Kasandra said that this noble attitude should be balanced with intellectual, emotional and social intelligence. Because those who are still victims of this fraud, according to Kasandra, have limited intellectual intelligence.

This limitation, said Kasandra, makes someone less able to understand that he is being cheated. "Not being able to understand that self is being deceived."

One of the reasons, said Kasandra, is the lack of literacy culture. "One of them is the lack of literacy culture," said Kasandra.

But there is nothing wrong with donations. It's just that, we have to be more vigilant because there will always be people trying to find profit. "What is not a matter of donation is that many are deceived," he concluded.

BERNAS Others

[/ read_more]