Scam School — How A Con Artist Uses Fake Success Stories Against His Victims

This is the first of a series of articles exposing and dissecting current, real-world scams using irrational ideas to victimize real people. We’ll use each one to explore a different way that the perpetrators manipulate their victims. The goal is to shine a light on these schemes and educate readers about how they work.

It’s not that hard to sell a bogus get-rich-quick scheme or miracle cure. There’s a two-part process: you have to offer people something they want to believe in and some excuse for believing in it. If you offer both of those to enough people, you’ll find plenty of willing victims — even people who would normally be smart and skeptical enough to see through the tricks.

Scammers don’t have any problem offering people something they want, because they know all the things our hearts desire: we want to be richer, skinnier, healthier, and more successful. Just holding those things out like bait will hook a few gullible people, but not enough for a diligent con artist. That’s because most potential victims are skeptical enough (if only by a very slim margin) to be wary of deals that look too good to be true. To reach those wallets, scammers need to give them an excuse to believe that the gimmick is actually the real deal. It doesn’t have to be a good excuse, and in most scams, it isn’t. But if a victim really wants what the scammer is selling and starts to think it could actually work, they’ll convince themselves to say “yes.”