5 Simple Ways for Scam Victims-Survivors to Avoid Common Thinking Errors During Scam Recovery
Helping Scam Victims-Survivors Control Their Decision Making and Biases
Primary Category:
Authors:
• Vianey Gonzalez B.Sc(Psych) – Licensed Psychologist, Specialty in Crime Victim Trauma Therapy, Neuropsychologist, Certified Deception Professional, Psychology Advisory Panel & Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
• Tim McGuinness, Ph.D., DFin, MCPO, MAnth – Anthropologist, Scientist, Polymath, Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
About This Article
Recovering from a scam is a challenging process that often involves addressing thinking errors that can impede decision-making and emotional recovery. Scam victims may fall into common traps such as cognitive biases, emotional reasoning, overconfidence, and all-or-nothing thinking, which can cloud judgment and hinder progress.
Additionally, biases like hindsight and memory distortion can lead to excessive guilt, while ignoring the role of randomness may cause victims to overanalyze events. Victims may also struggle with attributional bias, either taking too much or too little blame. To move forward, it’s important to recognize these thinking errors, seek objective feedback, and practice self-awareness.
By reshaping how decisions are made and understanding the psychological factors at play, scam victims can regain confidence and control during their recovery process.

Five Ways for Scam Victims-Survivors to Avoid Common Thinking (Decision-Making) Errors During Scam Recovery
Plus: Tackling Unawareness, Memory Bias, Randomness, and Attributional Bias in Decision-Making
Recovering from a scam is a deeply emotional and challenging process, especially when it comes to Decision-Making. Scam victims often struggle with decision-making and fall prey to thinking errors similar to those that led to their victimization. Beyond basic cognitive pitfalls, there are deeper psychological biases that can further complicate the recovery process. Recognizing these errors and understanding how they influence our thinking can help scam victims make better, more informed decisions as they heal.
Here’s a brief guide to avoiding common thinking (Decision-Making) errors during scam recovery, including key biases that can hinder progress.
Recognizing Cognitive Biases
After falling for a scam, victims often replay past decisions and may develop patterns of negative thinking. Common biases like confirmation bias—where people focus only on information that confirms what they already believe—can cloud judgment and impede recovery.
How to Address It: Seek advice from objective sources such as trusted friends, therapists, or support groups. This external feedback can help you assess the situation more clearly and prevent you from getting stuck in harmful self-reinforcing loops. Cultivate an open mind and be willing to challenge your assumptions.
Avoiding Emotional Reasoning
Emotional reasoning happens when victims allow their feelings to dictate decisions, overriding logic. Scam victims may make choices based on fear, anger, or shame, rather than thinking rationally about their next steps.
How to Address It: Learn to separate your emotions from the facts. Writing down your thoughts or talking them out with someone can help you ground your decision-making in reason, not reaction. Take time before making important decisions to ensure your emotions aren’t driving your choices.
Understanding Overconfidence and Being “Unskilled and Unaware of It”
Overconfidence can emerge after a scam, as victims might believe that being tricked once makes them wiser and less vulnerable. However, the Dunning-Kruger effect—where unskilled individuals overestimate their knowledge or abilities—can further complicate recovery. Victims may underestimate future risks or believe they won’t fall for another scam without fully understanding how they were misled the first time.
How to Address It: Acknowledge that you may not know everything about scams or deception tactics. Always stay cautious, continue to educate yourself about new and evolving scams, and seek professional guidance when necessary. Being aware of your limitations can make you more vigilant in the future.
Escaping the Trap of “All or Nothing” Thinking
Victims may fall into “all or nothing” thinking—believing that because they were scammed once, they’ll always be vulnerable. This mindset can create hopelessness, and victims may feel like they’ll never recover or rebuild trust.
How to Address It: Recognize that life isn’t black and white. Recovery happens in stages, and small improvements are still progress. Break down big challenges into manageable steps, and acknowledge your progress along the way. This can help you regain a sense of control over your life and decisions.
Combating Hindsight Bias and Memory Bias
Hindsight bias occurs when people believe they “should have known” about the scam after it’s happened. Similarly, memory bias—the tendency to misremember events in a way that fits current beliefs—can distort the victim’s recollection of what actually happened. These biases can lead to excessive guilt, shame, and self-blame.
How to Address It: Understand that scammers are experts at manipulation, and no one can predict the future perfectly. Instead of beating yourself up over what you “should have known,” focus on what you’ve learned and how to protect yourself going forward. It’s essential to be kind to yourself and recognize that memory isn’t always accurate, especially in high-stress situations.
Ignoring the Role of Randomness
After a scam, victims often try to make sense of their experience by seeking patterns or reasons for what happened. This can lead to ignoring the role of randomness in events. Victims may overanalyze every detail, trying to find a definitive cause, when in reality, many scams exploit random chance.
How to Address It: Accept that not everything has a clear reason or pattern. Scams often rely on randomness to find victims—just because you were targeted doesn’t mean it was your fault or that you did something specific to deserve it. Embrace the idea that some things are out of your control, and focus on the things you can control moving forward.
Attributional Bias: Taking Too Much or Too Little Blame
Attributional bias occurs when people either over-attribute their actions to personal factors or externalize the blame entirely. Scam victims might swing between blaming themselves too harshly for the scam or placing all the blame on external factors. Both extremes can hinder recovery.
How to Address It: Balance personal responsibility with understanding the external factors involved in the scam. Recognize that while you may have made mistakes, the scammer is ultimately the one at fault. Working with a therapist or support group can help you find a healthy middle ground in assigning responsibility.
Conclusion
Recovering from a scam involves not only healing emotionally and financially but also reshaping how you approach decision-making in the future. By understanding and addressing thinking errors—such as overconfidence, emotional reasoning, and biases like hindsight and attributional bias—scam victims can regain control of their thoughts and actions during the recovery process.
It’s important to stay mindful of these thinking errors and practice self-awareness, objectivity, and self-compassion as you navigate your recovery. Building better mental habits can help you move forward with confidence and resilience.
Please Rate This Article
Please Leave Us Your Comment
Also, tell us of any topics we might have missed.
Thank you for your comment. You may receive an email to follow up. We never share your data with marketers.
-/ 30 /-
What do you think about this?
Please share your thoughts in a comment above!
-/ 30 /-
What do you think about this?
Please share your thoughts in a comment above!
ARTICLE RATING
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CATEGORIES
MOST POPULAR COMMENTED ARTICLES
POPULAR ARTICLES
U.S. & Canada Suicide Lifeline 988
![NavyLogo@4x-81[1]](https://scamsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/NavyLogo@4x-811.png)
ARTICLE META
WHAT PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT LATEST SITE COMMENTS
See Comments for this Article at the Bottom of the Page
on Scam Victim Resistance In Support Groups Therapy Or Counseling Can Destroy Opportunities For Recovery – 2024: “Working with either a support group or therapist to me means a self commitment to actively participating in the therapy.…” Jun 24, 21:01
on ‘I Just Want To Forget It’ – Denial & Avoidance Are Natural But Will Not Help Scam Victims On Their Path To Recovery From Scams – 2024: “My financial loss, the shock and betrayal of the crime ending all combined to fray my nerves and spend hours…” Jun 24, 20:10
on You Hate Being Told What To Do? How Your Rebellious Mentality Can Sabotage Your Recovery – 2025: “I am a bit of a rebel, and the moment someone tells me to do something, worse, does it even…” Jun 24, 15:04
on You Hate Being Told What To Do? How Your Rebellious Mentality Can Sabotage Your Recovery – 2025: “You are very welcome” Jun 24, 03:01
on You Hate Being Told What To Do? How Your Rebellious Mentality Can Sabotage Your Recovery – 2025: “This is a great article, which makes perfect sense as to why anyone would resist the help offered to them.…” Jun 23, 20:01
on Scam Victims’ Responsibilities – 2021 [Updated 2025]: “Thank you for this article. As I continue my journey, I focus on the here and now and let the…” Jun 21, 16:26
on Scam Victims Avoid Or Escape The Aftermath Of Scams – How Denial And Distraction Avoid Confronting Reality – 2024: “In the earliest days after my crime I felt powerless, helpless and weak. I had been through so much in…” Jun 21, 14:46
on Problems and Opportunities – Thoughts on Psychological Reframing – 2025: “An article that really helped me look at the problems in my life from a different point of view and…” Jun 21, 14:42
on Scam Victims Avoid Or Escape The Aftermath Of Scams – How Denial And Distraction Avoid Confronting Reality – 2024: “Thank you for another great article! This discussion of avoidance and other tactics some can use to deny the existence…” Jun 17, 12:20
on Helping Scam Victims Understand The Social Isolation Risks After A Relationship Scam – 2024: “This article very informatively shows the risk of social isolation especially after a scam. Although I can acknowledge the list…” Jun 17, 11:31
on Do Scam Victims Become Cynics After Their Scam Experience? 2023: “I have long held the belief that I am more a realist than a cynic. I believe that together we…” Jun 17, 11:11
on Magical Thinking – How Biased & Delusional Thinking Enslaves Scam Victims: “I fell for the allure of having a friendship with the celebrity that was impersonated in my crime. I didn’t…” Jun 17, 10:14
on Rebuilding Trust: The Scam Victim’s Journey from Victimhood to Empowerment – 2024: “Trusting is still very much a work in progress for me, both in myself and my judgment of others who…” Jun 12, 23:30
on Words & Text Manipulation – The Secret Manipulation Technique Even Scammers Don’t Know About But Use – 2025: “This was triggering for me. It completely explains how my scam played out, with each step, including the final message.…” Jun 9, 23:18
on Toxic Self-Narratives That Feeds Depression in Scam Victims 2023: “Very informative article on negative self talk. I ran into this subject back in February. I had called the company…” Jun 9, 19:29
on Learning And The Challenges That A Scam Victim Faces From Trauma And Related Cognitive Effects – 2024: “For months after the scam ended I couldn’t process and/or retain much of anything I read. When I first joined…” Jun 9, 16:20
on Maitri – Loving Kindness in Buddhist Philosophy Applied to Scam Victims – 2025: “I loved this article. I will take any and all suggestions on how to be kinder to myself so I…” Jun 9, 15:36
on Scam Victim Remorse – 2025: “This is a very complicated issue. I haven’t arrived at the place of self-trust yet. I’m learning more every day…” Jun 8, 23:44
on The Butterfly Effect And Scam Victims – 2024: “As a victim who doesn’t have a lot of recovery and healing time under their belt (8 months), I hadn’t…” Jun 6, 21:19
Important Information for New Scam Victims
Please visit www.ScamVictimsSupport.org – a SCARS Website for New Scam Victims & Sextortion Victims
SCARS Institute now offers a free recovery program at www.SCARSeducation.org
Please visit www.ScamPsychology.org – to more fully understand the psychological concepts involved in scams and scam victim recovery
If you are looking for local trauma counselors, please visit counseling.AgainstScams.org
If you need to speak with someone now, you can dial 988 or find phone numbers for crisis hotlines all around the world here: www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines
Statement About Victim Blaming
Some of our articles discuss various aspects of victims. This is both about better understanding victims (the science of victimology) and their behaviors and psychology. This helps us to educate victims/survivors about why these crimes happened and not to blame themselves, better develop recovery programs, and help victims avoid scams in the future. At times, this may sound like blaming the victim, but it does not blame scam victims; we are simply explaining the hows and whys of the experience victims have.
These articles, about the Psychology of Scams or Victim Psychology – meaning that all humans have psychological or cognitive characteristics in common that can either be exploited or work against us – help us all to understand the unique challenges victims face before, during, and after scams, fraud, or cybercrimes. These sometimes talk about some of the vulnerabilities the scammers exploit. Victims rarely have control of them or are even aware of them, until something like a scam happens, and then they can learn how their mind works and how to overcome these mechanisms.
Articles like these help victims and others understand these processes and how to help prevent them from being exploited again or to help them recover more easily by understanding their post-scam behaviors. Learn more about the Psychology of Scams at www.ScamPsychology.org
SCARS INSTITUTE RESOURCES:
If You Have Been Victimized By A Scam Or Cybercrime
♦ If you are a victim of scams, go to www.ScamVictimsSupport.org for real knowledge and help
♦ Enroll in SCARS Scam Survivor’s School now at www.SCARSeducation.org
♦ To report criminals, visit https://reporting.AgainstScams.org – we will NEVER give your data to money recovery companies like some do!
♦ Follow us and find our podcasts, webinars, and helpful videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RomancescamsNowcom
♦ Learn about the Psychology of Scams at www.ScamPsychology.org
♦ Dig deeper into the reality of scams, fraud, and cybercrime at www.ScamsNOW.com and www.RomanceScamsNOW.com
♦ Scam Survivor’s Stories: www.ScamSurvivorStories.org
♦ For Scam Victim Advocates visit www.ScamVictimsAdvocates.org
♦ See more scammer photos on www.ScammerPhotos.com
You can also find the SCARS Institute on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and TruthSocial
Psychology Disclaimer:
All articles about psychology and the human brain on this website are for information & education only
The information provided in this and other SCARS articles are intended for educational and self-help purposes only and should not be construed as a substitute for professional therapy or counseling.
Note about Mindfulness: Mindfulness practices have the potential to create psychological distress for some individuals. Please consult a mental health professional or experienced meditation instructor for guidance should you encounter difficulties.
While any self-help techniques outlined herein may be beneficial for scam victims seeking to recover from their experience and move towards recovery, it is important to consult with a qualified mental health professional before initiating any course of action. Each individual’s experience and needs are unique, and what works for one person may not be suitable for another.
Additionally, any approach may not be appropriate for individuals with certain pre-existing mental health conditions or trauma histories. It is advisable to seek guidance from a licensed therapist or counselor who can provide personalized support, guidance, and treatment tailored to your specific needs.
If you are experiencing significant distress or emotional difficulties related to a scam or other traumatic event, please consult your doctor or mental health provider for appropriate care and support.
Also read our SCARS Institute Statement about Professional Care for Scam Victims – click here
If you are in crisis, feeling desperate, or in despair, please call 988 or your local crisis hotline.
More ScamsNOW.com Articles
A Question of Trust
At the SCARS Institute, we invite you to do your own research on the topics we speak about and publish. Our team investigates the subject being discussed, especially when it comes to understanding the scam victims-survivors’ experience. You can do Google searches, but in many cases, you will have to wade through scientific papers and studies. However, remember that biases and perspectives matter and influence the outcome. Regardless, we encourage you to explore these topics as thoroughly as you can for your own awareness.
Leave a Reply