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Gen Digital’s Scam Artists campaign used EEG headsets to record three scam and identity-theft victims as they recalled their experiences, then turned those recordings into visual artwork. Announced on July 10, 2024, with psychologist and wellbeing expert Lee Chambers, the project aims to make cybercrime’s emotional consequences visible. It is an awareness campaign from a cybersecurity company—not a security product, clinical study, or proof that software can treat distress.
How Gen made the artwork
Gen says three participants—scam victim Moya Crockett, small-business scam victim Kyle Frank, and identity-theft victim Lynn Beattie—wore electroencephalography (EEG) headsets. They were prompted to recall emotional states associated with their experiences while Gen recorded brain activity. The recordings were then converted into visual artwork.
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- Canvas wall art size: 5 Panels wall art size is 10x12 inchx2, 10x16 inchx2, 10x24inchx1 (25x30cmx2, 25x40cmx2, 25x60cmx1), Dimension: 50''W x 24''H (125x60cm). Every canvas can be personalized, If you like to show your photos or pictures on the canvas, please contact us directly.
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The company also says participants were shown cyber-protection solutions and recorded again, in a session intended to represent improved wellbeing. In its description of Lynn’s sequence, Gen presents an initial relaxed state, increased activity it associates with anxiety, stress, and uncertain thinking as she recalls the incident, and a later shift toward relaxation after the introduction to protection solutions.
Those stages are not interchangeable kinds of evidence. EEG records electrical activity; the participant’s account supplies subjective context; and the images are an artistic interpretation of the recordings. The campaign’s color, shapes, or changes in activity should not be read as literal brain maps in which a particular visual feature independently proves fear, anxiety, or relief.
What the campaign can—and cannot—show
The premise gives an abstract harm a more immediate visual form: a scam can leave someone feeling angry, stressed, uncertain, or less in control, not simply out money or access to an account. Chambers described cyberattacks as potentially traumatic and their effects as potentially long-lasting. That is a campaign collaborator’s characterization, not a diagnosis of these participants or a conclusion that every victim experiences trauma.
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- Customer service: All canvas wall Art were strict quality control before leaving the factory. If you received any questions about the items, please contact us immediately. The colors may be slightly different from the screen display of different brands.
The public announcement does not describe participant selection in detail, the EEG equipment and analysis, control conditions, or the method used to turn readings into images. It therefore does not establish that EEG identified a specific emotion, that the effect of seeing protection solutions was caused by a product, or that any change lasted beyond the session. A short before-and-after exercise is not a clinical trial. The artwork works best as an awareness device, not as clinical evidence.
The announcement names Crockett, Frank, and Beattie but does not provide enough incident detail to responsibly reconstruct what happened to each person, what losses they faced, or how they recovered. Their inclusion can put human faces to the campaign without making their individual experiences evidence for every kind of cybercrime.
What Gen’s survey reported
Gen said a survey of 1,000 people in the United States, conducted in March 2024, found:
Rank #3
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| Survey response | Reported result |
|---|---|
| Believed they could be vulnerable to cybercrime | 69% |
| Among respondents who had suffered cyberattacks, reported anger | 56% |
| Among respondents who had suffered cyberattacks, reported stress | 51% |
| Had some form of cybersecurity solution | 52% |
| Said understanding optimism bias could make them more likely to consider cybersecurity measures | 63% |
These are Gen-commissioned survey findings, not independently validated national statistics. The campaign announcement does not give the full questionnaire, sampling frame, weighting, margin of error, detailed subgroup results, or a precise definition of “cybersecurity solution.” It also does not fully define which experiences counted as a “cyberattack.” The 69% figure is about respondents’ perceived vulnerability, not an objective measurement of how many Americans are vulnerable; the 52% figure cannot tell readers which protections people had or how effective they were.
Why optimism bias matters to the message
Gen and Chambers connect the project to optimism bias: the tendency to think a bad event is less likely to happen to you than to someone else. Someone may know that scams are common yet assume they will recognize the next convincing message. That gap between general awareness and personal risk is one reason campaigns use emotionally salient stories and images rather than relying only on technical instructions.
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- Art Print Packaging: Our paintings will be carefully packaged in bubble wrap and cardboard to hold it stable and avoid shipment damage. Ensure artwork reach to you in perfect condition.
- Suitable Places: Living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, dinning room, home, hotel, cafe, office. Due to the different brand of monitor setting the printing colors may appear slightly different from the image color.
Practical steps that do not depend on a paid security plan
Security software can be one layer of defense, but no product can reliably stop every impersonation attempt, authorized-payment scam, or case in which someone is persuaded to disclose information. Useful steps include:
- Use a unique password for every important account, stored in a reputable password manager.
- Enable multifactor authentication; use passkeys or an authenticator method where available.
- Treat unexpected payment, delivery, job, investment, and account-warning messages as untrusted. Verify through the organization’s official website or a number on a statement, not the link or phone number in the message.
- Keep phones, computers, browsers, operating systems, and security software updated.
- Turn on bank transaction alerts and review account and credit activity.
- If identity information has been exposed or misused, consider freezing credit and contact relevant financial institutions promptly.
- After an incident, preserve messages, receipts, account records, and other evidence; report the fraud promptly and seek support. Shame and self-blame can make it harder to ask for help, but they do not help resolve the incident.
Technical prevention and recovery are distinct from emotional recovery. Securing an account or disputing a payment may address immediate harm; it does not guarantee that distress will disappear. People affected by a scam may also need support from trusted people or appropriate wellbeing professionals.
Awareness campaign, with a commercial context
Gen positions Scam Artists as educational, while the campaign also promotes the work of a company that sells consumer cybersecurity and identity-protection services. Its corporate description identifies Norton and LifeLock among its brands, alongside Avast, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender, and CCleaner. Gen also said it blocked more than 14 billion attacks in the previous year; that is a company-reported figure, and the announcement does not supply the counting method needed to assess it independently.
Best Value
- Canvas Wall Art: 1 Piece wall art for living room come with a standard size 12X18" (30x45cm), stretched and framed pretty, light and ready to hang for home decor.
- Artwork ready to hang: 1 piece Canvas wall art was stretched by dry timber frame, and the paintings are light weight. Each panel also has hook mounted and traceless nails, can help you hung easily on the wall.
- Excellent quality: The canvas of wall art has no smell of oil painting, and has the highest durability. you can easy to clean with wet rags. Adopt advanced and excellent canvas printing technology can ensure that the image is clear and realistic.
- Home decor: A perfect wall decorations for living room, bedroom, kitchen, office, Hotel, dining room, office, bathroom. Canvas wall art as a gift for friends, family and lovers on Christmas, National day, Thanksgiving day, Mother's day, Father's day, Children's day, Easter, All Saints' Day, Halloween.
- Customer service: All canvas wall Art were strict quality control before leaving the factory. If you received any questions about the items, please contact us immediately. The colors may be slightly different from the screen display of different brands.
That context does not make the campaign’s subject unimportant, but it matters when evaluating the message. General measures such as unique passwords, multifactor authentication, software updates, bank alerts, and careful independent verification do not require buying a Gen product. Security tools can help with particular threats, but they cannot replace account-level protections or eliminate social engineering. The announcement’s description of participants moving toward a more relaxed state after being shown solutions is not evidence that a subscription treats trauma or guarantees protection.
Read as a piece of campaign artwork, Scam Artists offers a memorable way to suggest that cybercrime can have an emotional cost beyond financial loss. Read as research, its survey needs methodological context and its EEG imagery needs careful limits. Its strongest contribution is making the human impact harder to overlook—not proving a diagnosis, a treatment effect, or a product’s ability to prevent every scam.
Quick Recap
Gen’s July 10, 2024 campaign announcement
