Mother and Reddit user u/throwawaymom-65 went through a devastating tragedy — her daughter died.

But instead of trying to support the woman, her manager decided to contribute to her unbearable pain.

Upon her return to the office, she learned that the low-life went around collecting donations from everyone and then pocketed the money and left the company.

“Who steals from a deceased child?” the mom asked in her post on r/antiwork, where she explained what happened.

After this woman lost her daughter, her coworkers put together a grievance fund

Image credits: gpointstudio (not the actual photo)

But her manager took all the money and quit

Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)

Image credits: throwawaymom-65

It’s hard to know for certain the exact reason behind the manager’s behavior, but according to lawyer Vince Scopelliti, who holds degrees in law and psychology and has more than 27 years of experience working within and managing investigations, some of the most common motivations for commiting fraud are:

• Financial pressure. A person might commit fraud due to their own money problems. This can be a result of unfortunate circumstances, such as in the case of a relationship breakdown, or more strongly self-inflicted, from living a lavish lifestyle beyond their means or getting into serious gambling debt.
• Peer pressure. A person might be pressured to collaborate in a fraud at work, and go along with it to be accepted in the ‘in group’ or to avoid harassment.
• Personality traits. Certain personality types may be more inclined towards committing fraud – such as opportunists, narcissists, or people who like to lord it over or manipulate other people, and who enjoy the challenge of beating the system and fooling others.
• Disgruntlement. In some cases, resentment can be involved – such as where an employee feels overlooked for a promotion or pay increase they feel they deserved, or where they feel victimised or treated unfairly (whether real or imagined).

Image credits: Dylan Gillis (not the actual photo)

Scopelliti said rationalization can also play a part, with a perpetrator justifying their actions to alleviate guilt, telling themselves things like “I deserve it.”

As her story went viral, the mom provided more information on the situation

We can’t blame the Redditor’s coworkers for not seeing this coming, either. There’s a popular stereotype, saying that older people with reduced cognitive abilities are the most likely to be scammed. But according to research published by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), many other people are vulnerable, too.

In fact, according to their data, self-confidence is one factor that causes people to fall for scams. People of any age who believe they are too smart or well-informed to be tricked are very likely to become victims.

Many schemes depend on a psychological technique that’s now called social engineering. People make bad decisions when an emotion becomes so strong that the higher-level thinking parts of the brain essentially shut down. Strong feelings, such as fear or anger can cause people to make choices they wouldn’t make at other times.

Only in this particular case, the con artist didn’t need to invent a scenario, they just played on people’s existing emotions.

And people shared advice on how she should proceed

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