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Financial education
Whether it arrives as a message, a meeting or an opportunity, dishonest financial requests share a small set of features. Learn them once.
Dishonest financial requests do not all look alike, but they rely on a small set of techniques. Learn the techniques rather than the individual stories, and new variations stop working too.
"Today only." "Before the office closes." "She is in hospital now."
Urgency is not incidental to these requests — it is the mechanism. It exists to stop you doing the checking that would end the attempt.
"Do not tell the others yet." "This is only for a few people." "Keep it between us."
Legitimate financial arrangements do not require you to avoid discussing them with the people who would notice a problem.
A payment request that skips the usual approval. A supplier who wants to be paid differently this once. An instruction that arrives by message instead of at a meeting.
Any offer of high returns with little or no risk. Any promise of a guaranteed percentage. Any arrangement where the money to pay you appears to come from recruiting more participants rather than from a real activity.
Your PIN. A one-time code. Your password. Your card details "to verify."
No legitimate organisation requires these. The request is the evidence.
Suggestions that a good friend, relative, or committed member would agree without all these questions.
This is deliberate. Turning your reluctance into a question about your character is a technique, not a coincidence.
Three steps, applicable to almost everything:
1. Stop. Do not decide while the pressure is on you. Nothing legitimate is lost by waiting an hour.
2. Verify independently. Use a number, address or channel you already had — never one supplied in the request itself. Contact details inside a suspicious message are part of the message.
3. Tell someone. Describe the request out loud to a person not involved in it. Saying it out loud reveals a surprising amount, and it removes the secrecy the request depends on.
You are a higher-value target than an individual member, and you are handling money that is not yours.
Say no, or say not yet.
You are not obliged to justify declining a financial request. "I need to check this first" is a complete answer, and a person who cannot accept it has answered your question for you.
