Many people treat cyber threats and digital fraud as a new phenomenon that only appeared with the development of the internet. But fraud – intentional deceit to manipulate a victim – has always existed; it is just the tools that have changed.
In a recent online course for the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT), AI & Cybersecurity Strategist Tom Vazdar, chair of OPIT’s Master’s Degree in Enterprise Cybersecurity, demonstrated the striking parallels between some of the famous fraud cases of the 18th century and modern cyber fraud.
Why does the history of fraud matter?
Primarily because the psychology and fraud tactics have remained consistent over the centuries. While cybersecurity is a tool that can combat modern digital fraud threats, no defense strategy will be successful without addressing the underlying psychology and tactics.
These historical fraud cases Vazdar addresses offer valuable lessons for current and future cybersecurity approaches.
The South Sea Bubble (1720)
The South Sea Bubble was one of the first stock market crashes in history. While it may not have had the same far-reaching consequences as the Black Thursday crash of 1929 or the 2008 crash, it shows how fraud can lead to stock market bubbles and advantages for insider traders.
The South Sea Company was a British company that emerged to monopolize trade with the Spanish colonies in South America. The company promised investors significant returns but provided no evidence of its activities. This saw the stock prices grow from £100 to £1,000 in a matter of months, then crash when the company’s weakness was revealed.
Many people lost a significant amount of money, including Sir Isaac Newton, prompting the statement, “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.“
Investors often have no way to verify a company’s claim, making stock markets a fertile ground for manipulation and fraud since their inception. When one party has more information than another, it creates the opportunity for fraud. This can be seen today in Ponzi schemes, tech stock bubbles driven by manipulative media coverage, and initial cryptocurrency offerings.
The Diamond Necklace Affair (1784-1785)
The Diamond Necklace Affair is an infamous incident of fraud linked to the French Revolution. An early example of identity theft, it also demonstrates that the harm caused by such a crime can go far beyond financial.
A French aristocrat named Jeanne de la Mont convinced Cardinal Louis-René-Édouard, Prince de Rohan into thinking that he was buying a valuable diamond necklace on behalf of Queen Marie Antoinette. De la Mont forged letters from the queen and even had someone impersonate her for a meeting, all while convincing the cardinal of the need for secrecy. The cardinal overlooked several questionable issues because he believed he would gain political benefit from the transaction.
When the scheme finally exposed, it damaged Marie Antoinette’s reputation, despite her lack of involvement in the deception. The story reinforced the public perception of her as a frivolous aristocrat living off the labor of the people. This contributed to the overall resentment of the aristocracy that erupted in the French Revolution and likely played a role in Marie Antoinette’s death. Had she not been seen as frivolous, she might have been allowed to live after her husband’s death.
Today, impersonation scams work in similar ways. For example, a fraudster might forge communication from a CEO to convince employees to release funds or take some other action. The risk of this is only increasing with improved technology such as deepfakes.
Spanish Prisoner Scam (Late 1700s)
The Spanish Prisoner Scam will probably sound very familiar to anyone who received a “Nigerian prince” email in the early 2000s.
Victims received letters from a “wealthy Spanish prisoner” who needed their help to access his fortune. If they sent money to facilitate his escape and travel, he would reward them with greater riches when he regained his fortune. This was only one of many similar scams in the 1700s, often involving follow-up requests for additional payments before the scammer disappeared.
While the “Nigerian prince” scam received enough publicity that it became almost unbelievable that people could fall for it, if done well, these can be psychologically sophisticated scams. The stories play on people’s emotions, get them invested in the person, and enamor them with the idea of being someone helpful and important. A compelling narrative can diminish someone’s critical thinking and cause them to ignore red flags.
Today, these scams are more likely to take the form of inheritance fraud or a lottery scam, where, again, a person has to pay an advance fee to unlock a much bigger reward, playing on the common desire for easy money.
Evolution of Fraud
These examples make it clear that fraud is nothing new and that effective tactics have thrived over the centuries. Technology simply opens up new opportunities for fraud.
While 18th-century scammers had to rely on face-to-face contact and fraudulent letters, in the 19th century they could leverage the telegraph for “urgent” communication and newspaper ads to reach broader audiences. In the 20th century, there were telephones and television ads. Today, there are email, social media, and deepfakes, with new technologies emerging daily.
Rather than quack doctors offering miracle cures, we see online health scams selling diet pills and antiaging products. Rather than impersonating real people, we see fake social media accounts and catfishing. Fraudulent sites convince people to enter their bank details rather than asking them to send money. The anonymity of the digital world protects perpetrators.
But despite the technology changing, the underlying psychology that makes scams successful remains the same:
- Greed and the desire for easy money
- Fear of missing out and the belief that a response is urgent
- Social pressure to “keep up with the Joneses” and the “Bandwagon Effect”
- Trust in authority without verification
Therefore, the best protection against scams remains the same: critical thinking and skepticism, not technology.
Responding to Fraud
In conclusion, Vazdar shared a series of steps that people should take to protect themselves against fraud:
- Think before you click.
- Beware of secrecy and urgency.
- Verify identities.
- If it seems too good to be true, be skeptical.
- Use available security tools.
Those security tools have changed over time and will continue to change, but the underlying steps for identifying and preventing fraud remain the same.
For more insights from Vazdar and other experts in the field, consider enrolling in highly specialized and comprehensive programs like OPIT’s Enterprise Security Master’s program.
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From the same author
Read the articleDuring the Open Institute of Technology’s (OPIT’s) 2025 Graduation Day, we conducted interviews with many recent graduates to understand why they chose OPIT, how they felt about the course, and what advice they might give to others considering studying at OPIT.
Karina is an experienced FinTech professional who is an experienced integration manager, ERP specialist, and business analyst. She was interested in learning AI applications to expand her career possibilities, and she chose OPIT’s MSc in Applied Data Science & AI.
In the interview, Karina discussed why she chose OPIT over other courses of study, the main challenges she faced when completing the course while working full-time, and the kind of support she received from OPIT and other students.
Why Study at OPIT?
Karina explained that she was interested in enhancing her AI skills to take advantage of a major emerging technology in the FinTech field. She said that she was looking for a course that was affordable and that she could manage alongside her current demanding job. Karina noted that she did not have the luxury to take time off to become a full-time student.
She was principally looking at courses in the United States and the United Kingdom. She found that comprehensive courses were expensive, costing upwards of $50,000, and did not always offer flexible study options. Meanwhile, flexible courses that she could complete while working offered excellent individual modules, but didn’t always add up to a coherent whole. This was something that set OPIT apart.
Karina admits that she was initially skeptical when she encountered OPIT because, at the time, it was still very new. OPIT only started offering courses in September 2023, so 2025 was the first cohort of graduates.
Nevertheless, Karina was interested in OPIT’s affordable study options and the flexibility of fully remote learning and part-time options. She said that when she looked into the course, she realized that it aligned very closely with what she was looking for.
In particular, Karina noted that she was always wary of further study because of the level of mathematics required in most computer science courses. She appreciated that OPIT’s course focused on understanding the underlying core principles and the potential applications, rather than the fine programming and mathematical details. This made the course more applicable to her professional life.
OPIT’s MSc in Applied Data Science & AI
The course Karina took was OPIT’s MSc in Applied Data Science & AI. It is a three- to four-term course (13 weeks), which can take between one and two years to complete, depending on the pace you choose and whether you choose the 90 or 120 ECTS option. As well as part-time, there are also regular and fast-track options.
The course is fully online and completed in English, with an accessible tuition fee of €2,250 per term, which is €6,750 for the 90 ECTS course and €9,000 for the 120 ECTS course. Payment plans are available as are scholarships, and discounts are available if you pay the full amount upfront.
It matches foundational tech modules with business application modules to build a strong foundation. It then ends with a term-long research project culminating in a thesis. Internships with industry partners are encouraged and facilitated by OPIT, or professionals can work on projects within their own companies.
Entry requirements include a bachelor’s degree or equivalency in any field, including non-tech fields, and English proficiency to a B2 level.
Faculty members include Pierluigi Casale, a former Data Science and AI Innovation Officer for the European Parliament and Principal Data Scientist at TomTom; Paco Awissi, former VP at PSL Group and an instructor at McGill University; and Marzi Bakhshandeh, a Senior Product Manager at ING.
Challenges and Support
Karina shared that her biggest challenge while studying at OPIT was time management and juggling the heavy learning schedule with her hectic job. She admitted that when balancing the two, there were times when her social life suffered, but it was doable. The key to her success was organization, time management, and the support of the rest of the cohort.
According to Karina, the cohort WhatsApp group was often a lifeline that helped keep her focused and optimistic during challenging times. Sharing challenges with others in the same boat and seeing the example of her peers often helped.
The OPIT Cohort
OPIT has a wide and varied cohort with over 300 students studying remotely from 78 countries around the world. Around 80% of OPIT’s students are already working professionals who are currently employed at top companies in a variety of industries. This includes global tech firms such as Accenture, Cisco, and Broadcom, FinTech companies like UBS, PwC, Deloitte, and the First Bank of Nigeria, and innovative startups and enterprises like Dynatrace, Leonardo, and the Pharo Foundation.
Study Methods
This cohort meets in OPIT’s online classrooms, powered by the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). One of the world’s leading teaching and learning software, it acts as a virtual hub for all of OPIT’s academic activities, including live lectures and discussion boards. OPIT also uses the same portal to conduct continuous assessments and prepare students before final exams.
If you want to collaborate with other students, there is a collaboration tab where you can set up workrooms, and also an official Slack platform. Students tend to use WhatsApp for other informal communications.
If students need additional support, they can book an appointment with the course coordinator through Canvas to get advice on managing their workload and balancing their commitments. Students also get access to experienced career advisor Mike McCulloch, who can provide expert guidance.
A Supportive Environment
These services and resources create a supportive environment for OPIT students, which Karina says helped her throughout her course of study. Karina suggests organization and leaning into help from the community are the best ways to succeed when studying with OPIT.
Read the articleIn April 2025, Professor Francesco Derchi from the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT) and Chair of OPIT’s Digital Business programs entered the online classroom to talk about the current state of the Metaverse and what companies can do to engage with this technological shift. As an expert in digital marketing, he is well-placed to talk about how brands can leverage the Metaverse to further company goals.
Current State of the Metaverse
Francesco started by exploring what the Metaverse is and the rocky history of its development. Although many associate the term Metaverse with Mark Zuckerberg’s 2021 announcement of Meta’s pivot toward a virtual immersive experience co-created by users, the concept actually existed long before. In his 1992 novel Snow Crash, author Neal Stephenson described a very similar concept, with people using avatars to seamlessly step out of the real world and into a highly connected virtual world.
Zuckerberg’s announcement was not even the start of real Metaverse-like experiences. Released in 2003, Second Life is a virtual world in which multiple users come together and engage through avatars. Participation in Second Life peaked at about one million active users in 2007. Similarly, Minecraft, released in 2011, is a virtual world where users can explore and build, and it offers multiplayer options.
What set Zuckerberg’s vision apart from these earlier iterations is that he imagined a much broader virtual world, with almost limitless creation and interaction possibilities. However, this proved much more difficult in practice.
Both Meta and Microsoft started investing significantly in the Metaverse at around the same time, with Microsoft completing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard – a gaming company that creates virtual world games such as World of Warcraft – in 2023 and working with Epic Games to bring Fortnite to their Xbox cloud gaming platform.
But limited adoption of new Metaverse technology saw both Meta and Microsoft announce major layoffs and cutbacks on their Metaverse investments.
Open Garden Metaverse
One of the major issues for the big Metaverse vision is that it requires an open-garden Metaverse. Matthew Ball defined this kind of Metaverse in his 2022 book:
“A massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, entitlements, objects, communication, and payments.”
This vision requires an open Metaverse, a virtual world beyond any single company’s walled garden that allows interaction across platforms. With the current technology and state of the market, this is believed to be at least 10 years away.
With that in mind, Zuckerberg and Meta have pivoted away from expanding their Metaverse towards delivering devices such as AI glasses with augmented reality capabilities and virtual reality headsets.
Nevertheless, the Metaverse is still expanding today, but within walled garden contexts. Francesco pointed to Pokémon Go and Roblox as examples of Metaverse-esque words with enormous engagement and popularity.
Brands Engaging with the Metaverse: Nike Case Study
What does that mean for brands? Should they ignore the Metaverse until it becomes a more realistic proposition, or should they be establishing their Meta presence now?
Francesco used Nike’s successful approach to Meta engagement to show how brands can leverage the Metaverse today.
He pointed out that this was a strategic move from Nike to protect their brand. As a cultural phenomenon, people will naturally bring their affinity with Nike into the virtual space with them. If Nike doesn’t constantly monitor that presence, they can lose control of it. Rather than see this as a threat, Nike identified it as an opportunity. As people engage more online, their virtual appearance can become even more important than their physical appearance. Therefore, there is a space for Nike to occupy in this virtual world as a cultural icon.
Nike chose an ad hoc approach, going to users where they are and providing experiences within popular existing platforms.
As more than 1.5 million people play Fortnite every day, Nike started there, first selling a variety of virtual shoes that users can buy to kit out their avatars.
Roblox similarly has around 380 million monthly active users, so Nike entered the space and created NIKELAND, a purpose-built virtual area that offers a unique brand experience in the virtual world. For example, during NBA All-Star Week, LeBron James visited NIKELAND, where he coached and engaged with players. During the FIFA World Cup, NIKELAND let users claim two free soccer jerseys to show support for their favorite teams. According to statistics published at the end of 2023, in less than two years, NIKELAND had more than 34.9 million visitors, with over 13.4 billion hours of engagement and $185 million in NFT (non-fungible tokens or unique digital assets) sales.
Final Thoughts
Francesco concluded by discussing that while Nike has been successful in the Metaverse, this is not necessarily a success that will be simple for smaller brands to replicate. Nike was successful in the virtual world because they are a cultural phenomenon, and the Metaverse is a combination of technology and culture.
Therefore, brands today must decide how to engage with the current state of the Metaverse and prepare for its potential future expansion. Because existing Metaverses are walled gardens, brands also need to decide which Metaverses warrant investment or whether it is worth creating their own dedicated platforms. This all comes down to an appetite for risk.
Facing these types of challenges comes down to understanding the business potential of new technologies and making decisions based on risk and opportunity. OPIT’s BSc in Digital Business and MSc in Digital Business and Innovation help develop these skills, with Francesco also serving as program chair.
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During the Open Institute of Technology’s (OPIT’s) 2025 Graduation Day, we conducted interviews with many recent graduates to understand why they chose OPIT, how they felt about the course, and what advice they might give to others considering studying at OPIT.
Karina is an experienced FinTech professional who is an experienced integration manager, ERP specialist, and business analyst. She was interested in learning AI applications to expand her career possibilities, and she chose OPIT’s MSc in Applied Data Science & AI.
In the interview, Karina discussed why she chose OPIT over other courses of study, the main challenges she faced when completing the course while working full-time, and the kind of support she received from OPIT and other students.
Why Study at OPIT?
Karina explained that she was interested in enhancing her AI skills to take advantage of a major emerging technology in the FinTech field. She said that she was looking for a course that was affordable and that she could manage alongside her current demanding job. Karina noted that she did not have the luxury to take time off to become a full-time student.
She was principally looking at courses in the United States and the United Kingdom. She found that comprehensive courses were expensive, costing upwards of $50,000, and did not always offer flexible study options. Meanwhile, flexible courses that she could complete while working offered excellent individual modules, but didn’t always add up to a coherent whole. This was something that set OPIT apart.
Karina admits that she was initially skeptical when she encountered OPIT because, at the time, it was still very new. OPIT only started offering courses in September 2023, so 2025 was the first cohort of graduates.
Nevertheless, Karina was interested in OPIT’s affordable study options and the flexibility of fully remote learning and part-time options. She said that when she looked into the course, she realized that it aligned very closely with what she was looking for.
In particular, Karina noted that she was always wary of further study because of the level of mathematics required in most computer science courses. She appreciated that OPIT’s course focused on understanding the underlying core principles and the potential applications, rather than the fine programming and mathematical details. This made the course more applicable to her professional life.
OPIT’s MSc in Applied Data Science & AI
The course Karina took was OPIT’s MSc in Applied Data Science & AI. It is a three- to four-term course (13 weeks), which can take between one and two years to complete, depending on the pace you choose and whether you choose the 90 or 120 ECTS option. As well as part-time, there are also regular and fast-track options.
The course is fully online and completed in English, with an accessible tuition fee of €2,250 per term, which is €6,750 for the 90 ECTS course and €9,000 for the 120 ECTS course. Payment plans are available as are scholarships, and discounts are available if you pay the full amount upfront.
It matches foundational tech modules with business application modules to build a strong foundation. It then ends with a term-long research project culminating in a thesis. Internships with industry partners are encouraged and facilitated by OPIT, or professionals can work on projects within their own companies.
Entry requirements include a bachelor’s degree or equivalency in any field, including non-tech fields, and English proficiency to a B2 level.
Faculty members include Pierluigi Casale, a former Data Science and AI Innovation Officer for the European Parliament and Principal Data Scientist at TomTom; Paco Awissi, former VP at PSL Group and an instructor at McGill University; and Marzi Bakhshandeh, a Senior Product Manager at ING.
Challenges and Support
Karina shared that her biggest challenge while studying at OPIT was time management and juggling the heavy learning schedule with her hectic job. She admitted that when balancing the two, there were times when her social life suffered, but it was doable. The key to her success was organization, time management, and the support of the rest of the cohort.
According to Karina, the cohort WhatsApp group was often a lifeline that helped keep her focused and optimistic during challenging times. Sharing challenges with others in the same boat and seeing the example of her peers often helped.
The OPIT Cohort
OPIT has a wide and varied cohort with over 300 students studying remotely from 78 countries around the world. Around 80% of OPIT’s students are already working professionals who are currently employed at top companies in a variety of industries. This includes global tech firms such as Accenture, Cisco, and Broadcom, FinTech companies like UBS, PwC, Deloitte, and the First Bank of Nigeria, and innovative startups and enterprises like Dynatrace, Leonardo, and the Pharo Foundation.
Study Methods
This cohort meets in OPIT’s online classrooms, powered by the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). One of the world’s leading teaching and learning software, it acts as a virtual hub for all of OPIT’s academic activities, including live lectures and discussion boards. OPIT also uses the same portal to conduct continuous assessments and prepare students before final exams.
If you want to collaborate with other students, there is a collaboration tab where you can set up workrooms, and also an official Slack platform. Students tend to use WhatsApp for other informal communications.
If students need additional support, they can book an appointment with the course coordinator through Canvas to get advice on managing their workload and balancing their commitments. Students also get access to experienced career advisor Mike McCulloch, who can provide expert guidance.
A Supportive Environment
These services and resources create a supportive environment for OPIT students, which Karina says helped her throughout her course of study. Karina suggests organization and leaning into help from the community are the best ways to succeed when studying with OPIT.
In April 2025, Professor Francesco Derchi from the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT) and Chair of OPIT’s Digital Business programs entered the online classroom to talk about the current state of the Metaverse and what companies can do to engage with this technological shift. As an expert in digital marketing, he is well-placed to talk about how brands can leverage the Metaverse to further company goals.
Current State of the Metaverse
Francesco started by exploring what the Metaverse is and the rocky history of its development. Although many associate the term Metaverse with Mark Zuckerberg’s 2021 announcement of Meta’s pivot toward a virtual immersive experience co-created by users, the concept actually existed long before. In his 1992 novel Snow Crash, author Neal Stephenson described a very similar concept, with people using avatars to seamlessly step out of the real world and into a highly connected virtual world.
Zuckerberg’s announcement was not even the start of real Metaverse-like experiences. Released in 2003, Second Life is a virtual world in which multiple users come together and engage through avatars. Participation in Second Life peaked at about one million active users in 2007. Similarly, Minecraft, released in 2011, is a virtual world where users can explore and build, and it offers multiplayer options.
What set Zuckerberg’s vision apart from these earlier iterations is that he imagined a much broader virtual world, with almost limitless creation and interaction possibilities. However, this proved much more difficult in practice.
Both Meta and Microsoft started investing significantly in the Metaverse at around the same time, with Microsoft completing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard – a gaming company that creates virtual world games such as World of Warcraft – in 2023 and working with Epic Games to bring Fortnite to their Xbox cloud gaming platform.
But limited adoption of new Metaverse technology saw both Meta and Microsoft announce major layoffs and cutbacks on their Metaverse investments.
Open Garden Metaverse
One of the major issues for the big Metaverse vision is that it requires an open-garden Metaverse. Matthew Ball defined this kind of Metaverse in his 2022 book:
“A massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, entitlements, objects, communication, and payments.”
This vision requires an open Metaverse, a virtual world beyond any single company’s walled garden that allows interaction across platforms. With the current technology and state of the market, this is believed to be at least 10 years away.
With that in mind, Zuckerberg and Meta have pivoted away from expanding their Metaverse towards delivering devices such as AI glasses with augmented reality capabilities and virtual reality headsets.
Nevertheless, the Metaverse is still expanding today, but within walled garden contexts. Francesco pointed to Pokémon Go and Roblox as examples of Metaverse-esque words with enormous engagement and popularity.
Brands Engaging with the Metaverse: Nike Case Study
What does that mean for brands? Should they ignore the Metaverse until it becomes a more realistic proposition, or should they be establishing their Meta presence now?
Francesco used Nike’s successful approach to Meta engagement to show how brands can leverage the Metaverse today.
He pointed out that this was a strategic move from Nike to protect their brand. As a cultural phenomenon, people will naturally bring their affinity with Nike into the virtual space with them. If Nike doesn’t constantly monitor that presence, they can lose control of it. Rather than see this as a threat, Nike identified it as an opportunity. As people engage more online, their virtual appearance can become even more important than their physical appearance. Therefore, there is a space for Nike to occupy in this virtual world as a cultural icon.
Nike chose an ad hoc approach, going to users where they are and providing experiences within popular existing platforms.
As more than 1.5 million people play Fortnite every day, Nike started there, first selling a variety of virtual shoes that users can buy to kit out their avatars.
Roblox similarly has around 380 million monthly active users, so Nike entered the space and created NIKELAND, a purpose-built virtual area that offers a unique brand experience in the virtual world. For example, during NBA All-Star Week, LeBron James visited NIKELAND, where he coached and engaged with players. During the FIFA World Cup, NIKELAND let users claim two free soccer jerseys to show support for their favorite teams. According to statistics published at the end of 2023, in less than two years, NIKELAND had more than 34.9 million visitors, with over 13.4 billion hours of engagement and $185 million in NFT (non-fungible tokens or unique digital assets) sales.
Final Thoughts
Francesco concluded by discussing that while Nike has been successful in the Metaverse, this is not necessarily a success that will be simple for smaller brands to replicate. Nike was successful in the virtual world because they are a cultural phenomenon, and the Metaverse is a combination of technology and culture.
Therefore, brands today must decide how to engage with the current state of the Metaverse and prepare for its potential future expansion. Because existing Metaverses are walled gardens, brands also need to decide which Metaverses warrant investment or whether it is worth creating their own dedicated platforms. This all comes down to an appetite for risk.
Facing these types of challenges comes down to understanding the business potential of new technologies and making decisions based on risk and opportunity. OPIT’s BSc in Digital Business and MSc in Digital Business and Innovation help develop these skills, with Francesco also serving as program chair.
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