No one’s completely sure why people fall for phishing scams, but at least some of the problem seems to be due to temporary forgetting. Unsuspecting readers turn into victims in part because they’re thrown off balance by phishing scams: The messages set up a tense context, one in which readers will suffer some sort of harm if they ignore the message or earn great riches if they heed it. The unsettling message — an e-mail from the IRS, PayPal, or Citi asking you to take immediate action regarding your account — sets up a context with powerful motivating forces. Readers in these contexts are less likely to think carefully about the dangers of their activities and, despite warnings they may have heard, more likely to release confidential information.

As you work on your PACT chart, you’ll want to consider not only your audience but also a secondary set of texts to see whether you can determine what sorts of things draw victims in. Consider constructing a supplemental PACT chart that analyzes the scam texts.

Locate some resources that discuss strategies for avoiding or detecting phishing scams. (If you use any of them directly, you’ll want to cite the source of your information.)