Psychologist Nigel Latta is fronting a new TVNZ series called 'You've Been Scammed'.
In his long and varied career, Nigel Latta has covered everything from murderers to children, finances to Antarctica, and a whole host of things in between.
For his latest series, though, Latta is taking on one of the biggest problems plaguing Kiwis today - scams.
In his new TVNZ show Youve Been Scammed, the psychologist looks at the various types of scams that are ruining peoples lives, and the traits we have that make us vulnerable to being targeted.
Speaking to Paula Bennett on her NZ Herald podcast Ask Me Anything, Latta said he was drawn into investigating this as the scale of the issue is astounding.
I do think its kind of ironic because everyones getting so wound up about, you know, teenagers driving cars into buildings, but if you think about the scale of the problem and harm caused - and Im not saying those things dont cause harm and trauma to people - but also, people are losing millions and millions of dollars.
And these are not just millionaires losing millions of dollars. These are people losing 300 bucks here, 50 bucks here, 1,000 here, who cant afford to lose that much.
He said theres often this stereotype that gullible, greedy people get targeted, but the scammers know theres an amount of money that they can maintain before it raises suspicions.
One thing that will make scamming more difficult in the coming years is the rise of artificial intelligence.
Poor grammar and spelling always used to be a thing. It used to be a way to do it, but... if it hasnt already disappeared, it will completely disappear. And video and audio stuff will get better too. I think Google are working on a thing where, like, you give it three seconds of someone talking and it can generate really convincing-sounding stuff.
But at the same time, the white-hat people can be using that stuff for good too. NetSafe has this fantastic chatbot they created - if you are being scammed or you think you are a scammy email, you send it to this chatbot, and then it basically just engages the scammer in this ridiculous conversation.
While Latta is focused on scams for now, he told Bennett that bureaucracy is one area he hopes to explore in a later project, and the psychology of politicians and public servants.
Latta noted everyones nervous systems have had a thorough jangling after the Covid pandemic, but its not being helped by increasing societal divisions.
The worlds taken this weird turn too, because its difficult to have a nuanced conversation about something cause youre either basically for everything, in which case youre woke, or youre against it, in which case youre Jordan Peterson. And so theres no middle ground.
Bennett noted that she raised this in a column the other week about why its hard to be a white man in New Zealand. Latta said its difficult because there are a lot of times white guys with beards screw things up, but its not all of them.
Whats difficult, I think, is as soon as you say stuff like that, the Jordan Peterson crowd go, Yeah, thats right, were all victims. Its so hard being us. No, its not. Its like, if you want to be successful, the best thing to do is be a white middle-class heterosexual man. Like, its the best thing to do. And as soon as you say that, theyll go, Oh, youre woke. And its like, no, its actually true.
You dont have to agree with everything and disagree with everything. You can have an opinion, and it doesnt mean that you should get yelled at or shut down or any of those sorts of things. Like, freedom of speech is kind of important - even this freedom to say dumb stuff.
Listen to the full podcast to hear more from Nigel Latta and Paula on scams and the state of society.
Ask Me Anything is an NZ Herald podcast, hosted by Paula Bennett. New episodes are out every Sunday.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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