Phorced to Phish: Benefits of a Phishing Equilibrium

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

A salesman calls up to offer you a “much” better phone plan. Before you know, you have changed to this new plan, which not only exceeds your needs, but also “procures” a six-month free subscription to an online music service. You needed neither and pay more: you have just been “phished” as Akerlof and Shiller would say in their recent book Phishing for Phools. Furthermore, their phishing equilibrium dictates that if your company does not phish others will, so you phish to survive. The purpose of this paper is to present a formal analysis of phishing and phishing equilibria with surprising potential benefits to consumers rather than scamsters.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberRBF-07-2016-0045
JournalReview of Behavioral Finance
Volume10
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)183-191
Number of pages9
ISSN1940-5979
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Jun 2018

ID: 197813157