Defense
Not being fooled.
By a model, or by a person. The useful stance is not suspicion of everything. It is a habit of asking where this came from, before you act on it.
The new kind
Text, a face, a voice, a short video: all of these can be made to order. A byline can be copied. A familiar chat layout can be copied. The question is not "does this look real." Real-looking is now cheap. The question is whether you can trace it.
A voice note that sounds like your uncle, asking for a transfer before the bank closes, is the same shape as an old trick. The voice is the new part. The hurry is not.
The old kind
Repetition, fear, flattery, a deadline. Older than print. A forwarded "exam leak," a stock tip "from inside," a health cure "doctors will not tell you." The machine did not invent these. It made them personal, and it made a thousand of them before lunch.
What to do, in order
- Do not act inside the feeling. Name it. That is Occlumency.
- Ask for the first source, not the forward. That is Priori Incantatem.
- If money, a password, or a one-time code is in the message, stop. Call the person on a number you already had, not the number in the message.
- If it is a claim about the world, write the observation separate from the conclusion. If you cannot, you do not have it yet.
A daily minimum, so the drill exists when you are rushed: one specific memory in the morning. One repetition you noticed. One thing you did not forward.
The person who does this is not paranoid. They are literate. The spells →