ANATOMY OF A FRAUD SCAM | The Investigator

The Anatomy of a fraud Scam: Understanding Social Engineering, Emotional Manipulation, and Victim Behaviour in fraud offences, 25 June 2026

Workshop provides a unique insight into the psychology of fraud offences from Dr Nicola Harding, one of the UK’s leading criminologists and financial crime experts.

Our event focuses on scams not as isolated incidents, but as deliberately engineered psychological processes.

Delegates will be taken inside the mechanics of social engineering to understand how ordinary people are guided, step by step, into decisions they would never make under normal conditions.

Rather than asking ‘why didn’t they spot it?’, the session reframes scams as designed experiences that manipulate attention, emotion, trust, and timing. This approach is particularly relevant for professionals working in fraud prevention, customer protection, investigations, and frontline response roles.

Session One: Why Social Engineering Works

By the end of this session, delegates will be able to:

Explain social engineering as a deliberate process of behavioural manipulation rather than opportunistic deception.
Identify the emotional and cognitive conditions that make individuals more susceptible to scams.
Describe the typical emotional journey of a scam victim and how analytical thinking becomes compromised.
Recognise why intelligence, education, or experience do not reliably protect people from scams under pressure.

The first session establishes social engineering as a form of behavioural design with malicious intent. Delegates explore how scammers exploit predictable human responses to fear, urgency, authority, and loss, and why stress and emotional pressure reliably override analytical thinking. The session introduces the idea of the victim’s emotional journey, showing how attention narrows and cognitive capacity shifts long before any money moves.

Session Two: The CREATE Framework – How Scams Move People from Attention to Action

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

Apply the CREATE framework (Cue, Reaction, Evaluation, Ability, Timing, Experience) to analyse real-world scams.
Identify how scammers shape victim judgement and behaviour at each stage of the process.
Recognise the points at which a scam is most vulnerable to interruption.
Use behavioural analysis rather than factual completeness to assess scam risk in progress.

The second session introduces the CREATE framework (Cue, Reaction, Evaluation, Ability, Timing, Experience) as a structured way to understand how scams unfold in real time. Participants examine how scammers trigger emotional reactions, shape judgement, simplify action, and isolate victims from support. The framework provides a shared analytical lens for identifying where a scam is “working” and where it might be interrupted.

Session Three: Breaking the Spell – Intervention, Response, and Harm Reduction

By the end of this session, delegates will be able to:

Explain why many scams persist after warnings, bank contact, or initial losses.
Recognise the role of financial institutions and professionals as psychological first responders.
Identify response approaches that reduce harm, increase disclosure, and support effective intervention.
Distinguish between investigative questioning and behavioural stabilisation in scam response.

The final session focuses on what happens after suspicion arises. Delegates will explore why many scams continue even after bank contact, warnings, or financial loss -particularly in long-term frauds such as romance and investment scams.

The session reframes financial institutions and professionals as psychological first responders, whose language, tone, and timing can either disrupt manipulation or unintentionally reinforce it. Emphasis is placed on empathy, behavioural insight, and intelligence-gathering rather than confrontation or blame.

By the end of the workshop, delegates will understand scams as engineered behavioural systems, can recognise the emotional and cognitive shifts involved, and are better equipped to identify, interrupt, and respond to scams in a way that reduces harm and improves outcomes for both customers and institutions.

HOW TO BOOK

Cost: £219 + VAT (GBP) per delegate per workshop (LEA and Government Agency rate). £259.50 + VAT (Industry rate), per delegate

Group bookings: We offer various discounts for group bookings depending on numbers, please contact us for details.

Student discount: We offer a 35% discount on all of our online events/workshops on condition of payment by card and a valid University email address.

Booking: Please send the delegates name(s), email address(es) and purchase order (made out to The Investigator) to booking@the-investigator.co.uk or telephone +44(0)844 660 8707 for further information.

Payment can be made by PayPal/debit/credit card. The meeting link will be sent out 7 days before the event.