Internal Factors Influencing Vulnerability to Telecom Fraud

Abstract

With the popularity of the Internet and electronic devices, the rate of telecommunication fraud is getting higher and higher. Most of the current research focuses on the prediction of telecom fraud through machine learning. This study, on the other hand, focuses on the people who have been defrauded and finds out how people's internal factors "cognitive flexibility", "critical thinking", "material desires" and social attributes influence "vulnerability to Telecom Fraud", trying to find out which mental characteristics make people more vulnerable to telecom fraud. This study uses SPSS 25.0 software for data analysis and draws results and conclusions through the methods of questionnaire survey and hypothesis testing. It discovers both cognitive flexibility and critical thinking are negatively correlated with vulnerability to telecom fraud, meaning that people with more cognitive flexibility and critical thinking were less likely to be telecom scammed. It also finds that people with higher disposable income are also more vulnerable to wire scams. Finally, this study discusses the discovered insights and put forward constructive suggestions for scholars and related departments.