The recent COVID-19 crisis has been followed by an epidemic of fraud. This study aims to evaluate cases of COVID-19-related fraud to identify cognitive heuristics that influence decision-making under the pressure of crisis conditions.
An analysis of fraud advisories and cases relating to COVID-19 is conducted and matched against various types of cognitive heuristics to explain their influence on victims of crisis fraud.
The affect, availability, cue-familiarity, representativeness and scarcity heuristics are identified and explained to have a substantial influence on risk evaluations of crisis fraud.
The findings from this study can help individuals avoid fraud victimisation by helping them understand psychological vulnerabilities that they may be unaware of under the pressure of crisis conditions.
