Are you smarter than a scammer? Play this game.

Take this quiz to find out if you can spot what’s real

and what’s fake

No matter how cautious and untrusting you are, you could still end up falling for a scam. One reason is that scammers change their tactics constantly.

In 2022, 2.4 million Americans reported to the Federal Trade Commission that they were victims of a scam, losing nearly $8.8 billion, a 30 percent increase from 2021. Most reported scam attempts come via email, followed by phone calls and text messages, and the most popular types of scams are people pretending to work in businesses or government agencies.

Learn more about how to keep yourself safe by testing your instincts below and guessing whether each instance is a scam, using real-life examples.

(Heather Kelly. www.washingtonpost.com, 09.08.2023. Adaptado)

Scam – fraud.

Scammer – a person who commits a fraud.

Choice is our ability to make decisions when presented with two or more options. The psychology of choice explores why we subconsciously make the decisions we do, what motivates those decisions, and what needs these decisions are meant to satisfy.

I don’t know about you, but I get stressed when someone asks me what I want for lunch. Food delivery apps give us hundreds of restaurants willing to bring our meals right to our door. Entertainment apps give us thousands of movie titles to choose from on a Friday night.

We live in an unprecedented age of options. And that can make choice difficult.

Choice is the purest expression of free will – the freedom to choose allows us to shape our lives exactly how we wish (provided we have the resources to do so).

But choice is difficult because it also represents sacrifice. Choosing something inherently means giving up something else – something we might want tomorrow, or next week – and that won’t be available to us if we don’t grab it today.

All choices are made to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.

(Leslie Ye. The Psychology of Choice: How to Make Easier Decisions.

https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/the-psychology-of-choice. 25.07. 2019.

Acesso em 02.08.2023. Adaptado)

Do you think of cats as nocturnal animals, asleep most of the day and awake at night?

Are cats nocturnal? Unlike bats, for example, cats are not technically nocturnal. Instead, ‘cats are crepuscular,’ explains Michelle Lugones, a veterinarian at Best Friends Animal Society. ‘This means that they are wired to be most active at dusk and dawn.’

‘Many people think that cats are nocturnal because most people who have a cat will attest to the fact that their cat wakes them up in the middle of the night regularly,’ Dr. Lugones says. ‘But that overnight activity usually correlates to their crepuscular tendencies.’

Even though they’re not actually nocturnal, cats certainly do a lot of snoozing during the day. But while they sleep 12 and 15 hours a day, they’re not lazy, or even very deep sleepers! Cats are always ‘on the alert’ – even in their sleep. This means that if there’s a loud sound, they may wake up and instantly be bright and alert. It’s a protective mechanism designed to keep wild animals safe from predators and able to catch prey if the opportunity arises.

(Meghan Jones. Are Cats Nocturnal? Your Cat’s Overnight Activity,

Explained. https://www.rd.com/article/are-cats-nocturnal/.

02.05.2023. Acesso em 08.08.2023. Adaptado)