The anatomy of a scam

Four moving parts.

Contact, story, urgency, payment

Almost every scam has these four. The contact is unexpected, the story explains why, urgency prevents checking, and the payment method is chosen to be irreversible.

Change any one part and the scam usually collapses.
The story varies endlessly; the structure barely changes.

Why intelligence does not protect you

These scripts are refined against thousands of targets. Being caught means you met a professional under pressure, not that you were careless.