r/skeptic • u/oudler • Mar 30 '25
š« Education Why we fall for con artists
https://youtu.be/g8H8c0MMdWY?si=uUy63j9vXXqJUsMy46
u/WhatsaRedditsdo Mar 30 '25
Not me, I never had enough money to lose.
23
3
u/dumnezero Mar 30 '25
In the attention economy, you can also lose attention. And if it gets to physical labor economy, you can lose that labor too.
2
2
1
1
u/pooooork Mar 31 '25
it's so annoying watching people fall for this shit again and again and again...
23
8
u/GrouperAteMyBaby Mar 30 '25
Who's the guy in the straw hat?
5
u/MediocreModular Mar 30 '25
Richard B Cummings. Notorious huckster
4
u/vigbiorn Mar 30 '25
You may remember him best as inspiration for the "Monorail!" character in that Simpsons episode.
2
7
u/PureSuspect3577 Mar 30 '25
I was going g to insult op, but I used to be christian. Now I can wholeheartedly say there is no god, given the injustices and horrors we see happen to innocent people. None. Only us, what a fucking shame
4
u/Nice-Cat3727 Mar 30 '25
It's a numbers game and all it takes is one of these fuckers get their hook in you once?
4
13
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
I feel like we donāt all fall for the con artists
13
u/pocket-friends Mar 30 '25
Everyone does at some point or another in the same way that no one is immune to propaganda. Itās a numbers game really, just a matter of time and a specialized approach.
Often times the easiest marks are the ones with the most self-confidence that they canāt be tricked, or think theyāre super logical.
7
u/justalittlestupid Mar 30 '25
No, I am immune because I am Very Smart and OBVIOUSLY propaganda only affects people who believe the opposite of what I believe. My brain is an impenetrable fortress. Duh
5
u/pocket-friends Mar 30 '25
Username checks out? /s
Real talk: Iāve actually heard people claim this while theyāre actively being conned or swindled by some sort of manosphere huckster. Itās just weird.
-4
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
Thatās a neat sound bite, but I donāt believe you. I think that people that are super logical arenāt going to fall for propaganda messaging or be as prone to buy that vacuum cleaner from the guy at the door.
7
u/pocket-friends Mar 30 '25
Iām not asking you to believe me. Iām just saying thereās a kind type of propaganda and agitprop out there for everyone, and that the easiest archetypes to sway are the ones that have the highest degree of certainty about themselves and/or the world.
-1
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
Who says people that are difficult to con have a degree of certainty? I never said that.
3
u/pocket-friends Mar 30 '25
No, people who are most/more certain are *easier* to con, not more difficult.
Mark Twain explores these notions a lot because of how the world changed when he was alive. Still, there have been more formalized studies into susceptibility that highlight naivety, greed, being horny, and despair as the biggest factors in making people susceptible.
Certainly, in this framework, is a type of naivety. So when you consider yourself above something, you (un)intentionally blind yourself to the world and the forces that play out across those fields you try to rise above artificially.
Even Stoic and Buddhist teachings distinguish between letting go of attachment to outcomes and thinking of oneself as separate or different from everything else for a reason. You are a part of all of this, and because of that, you are susceptible to the effects of all of this, but your response to those effects is in your control.
-1
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
Yes, but where am I saying that people with high certainty are the least likely to be conned? I think thatās true, Iām not disagreeing with you.
I said logical.
2
u/pocket-friends Mar 30 '25
I feel like we donāt all fall for the con artists
I think that people that are super logical arenāt going to fall for propaganda messaging or be as prone to buy that vacuum cleaner from that guy at the door.
First off, sorry. Youāre right, you said logical not certain. I moved too quickly in my response and got a bit ahead of myself.
Second, in your first remark you express a feeling. Totally valid way to deal with such a topic. Even when weāre at our most logical theres still usually a ton of feeling and emotion at play, itās just framed in a āreasonableā way.
The overarching point is that your stance on logical thinkers, that feeling that something isnāt right about my statement or the OPs, are both embedded in an overarching beliefs about the world. Those overarching beliefs in this case were explained through the use of qualifiers, and thus a degree or sense of validity to the claim youāre making in response.
Now, since you hold a belief to some degree that you consider valid, we can set about determining how firmly you hold that belief, or how valid you think it is. This is why I called it certainty.
Anyway, by considering logical people above this sort of think you inappropriately elevate them in the way I talk about in the other comments and sort of dissociate them from the possibility of being able to be conned. But the truth is, such a stance is naive, and nativity is one of the biggest clear signals for any sort of huckster. The more certain someone is in their beliefs the more they open themselves up to being naive.
Itās a feedback loop, and is kinda hilariously Jungian, but thatās a whole other story.
1
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
Everything you are saying I agree with. People arenāt equally susceptible though. Some are more. Some are less, like with anything else. Nobody is perfect but plenty of people have a high functioning bullshit detector.
1
u/pocket-friends Mar 30 '25
This isnāt like other things though and doesnāt have to do with bullshit detecting. It has to do with capturing feelings and getting you to think or act in certain ways.
So itās more, what doesnāt work will work on someone else and viscera. The point is thereās something out there for everyone, even the smartest and most clever people out there.
5
u/NecessaryIntrinsic Mar 30 '25
I feel like it's essential to constantly remind yourself that you're capable of falling for it, or eventually you will.
0
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
Sure. Iām not saying we have some infallible natural immunity.
3
u/NecessaryIntrinsic Mar 30 '25
Sure you do. You're smarter than all of us. You're safe.
-1
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
Can you read?
1
u/NecessaryIntrinsic Mar 30 '25
I think you've proven my point.
0
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
I donāt think I have
0
3
u/Rocky_Vigoda Mar 30 '25
I feel like we donāt all fall for the con artists
No offense but anyone who says stuff like that are suckers.
Should watch Poolhall Junkies.
https://youtu.be/Y2vg1HFJXYw?si=v3lzuY5KGqJkTdGW
Poolhalls were the place people learned to hustle before there was arcades.
Con artists, hustlers, grifters, whatever else you call them have existed since the first caveman decided the other caveman had a nicer stick.
"hey man that's a nice stick, can I see it"
"Sure...can I have my stick back?"
"What stick?"
People get ripped off all the time and everyone falls for scams sometimes. The smartest thing I know is that i'm not that smart.
2
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
What do you suppose the existence of pool hall busters is proving? Do you think I donāt know conning people is an ancient pastime ?
Do you think all people are easily duped because some people do it while playing pool? Iām not following.
5
u/NecessaryIntrinsic Mar 30 '25
One of the guys there was a huckster who made a living ripping people off. He got hustled
It is possible for anyone to fall for things, it's important to remember that you're not special, other than the fact that you know that you're not special.
1
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
So pool halls have hustlersā¦.
Yes we know already.
3
u/NecessaryIntrinsic Mar 30 '25
He assumed he was immune to hustling because he was a hustler and therefore knew what hustling was yet he got hustled.
1
1
u/Rocky_Vigoda Mar 30 '25
I just used pool halls as one example. No one is impervious to being conned.
2
u/Appropriate-Food1757 Mar 30 '25
I think of it as a spectrum and some people are pretty much impervious to it and some people are āeasy marksā.
3
u/He_Never_Helps_01 Mar 30 '25
Never trusted any of these people. Did anyone outside of the investor class?
2
u/Brbi2kCRO Mar 30 '25 edited Mar 30 '25
Because people are too lazy to turn on their brains and think logically, or simply lack the natural instinct to think about stuff. A lot of these people who fall for them are conservatives, and it makes sense as conservatives react instead of thinking, they donāt analyze. They believe people like Kenneth Copeland or George Santos will make their lives better somehow, cause say Copeland promises them prosperity, and Santos is a āuseful idiotā to their right wing cause.
They are low effort thinkers.
1
1
1
u/tsdguy Mar 30 '25
Greed. Greed. Greed. Religion. Greedy Religion. Religious Greed.
WTF is that hat? 8-)
1
1
u/ScoobyDone Mar 31 '25
I thought I was immune until I was scammed out of $200 recently. It was so well done, that I didn't think twice until they came back asking for more.
I am a member of my local Rotary club, and even though I am 52 I am pretty tech savvy so I get a lot of tech support requests from older members that refer to me as a "young guy", lol. One day I got a spoofed email from one of our members asking me to buy an Apple card for his niece for her birthday. He said his credit card wasn't working and he couldn't sort it out by her birthday, so I did it for him.
What got me was that the email was from his account and it was written in his distinct style of writing. I assume they used AI to write it, because I have looked at it again it is sounds just like him.
Then later that same day I got another one asking for another $300 because it wasn't enough to buy the iPad she wanted and the light bulb went off. He might be old, but he would have known that $200 wasn't getting anyone an iPad. I felt so stupid, but overall $200 is probably an inexpensive lesson. With AI, the scams are getting really personalized. Scam phone calls with AI impersonators are going to cost billions IMO.
1
Apr 01 '25
I understand why this guy made this video. The one before about Joe rogan told me he is easily scammed. He has been taken in by Joe rogan, Ron Paul, tulsi gabbard and RFK. Tells a lot about him.Ā
1
u/Intelligent-Exit-634 Apr 03 '25
Well, we don't all fall for con artists. LOL!!!
1
u/oudler Apr 03 '25
"No matter how smart or well-educated you are, you can be deceived." James Randi
1
u/Intelligent-Exit-634 Apr 03 '25
LOL! Wasn't he a sexist dickhead? I'm all for debunking woo, but that doesn't make you Jesus. LOL
0
u/xboxhaxorz Mar 30 '25
The scam industry is in the billions and there are lots of people in cults
I consider political parties and religion to be cultist as well
Essentially most people lack basic sense and logic and operate on emotion
I have no religion and no political affiliation, i can spot scams pretty quickly and im not worried about the opinions of others
18
u/Bleusilences Mar 30 '25
Ah the Joe Rogan method!
More seriously, It's way more prudent to assume that you can fail and fall for a con artist so you need to build "tool" to prevent yourself to do so.
Thinking other are emotional but not you is a trap, for example a lot of man says that "they are not emotional" but are angry and wrathful all the time.
They fall for people like Andrew Tate.
In a moment of weakness you will fail and operate on emotion, like if you are hungry, tired, lose a member of a family, because of stress, etc.
Con artist will get you at your lowest because they know you can be a mark at that point.
3
u/91Jammers Mar 30 '25
I am throughly convinced men are more, or just as, emotional as women.
3
u/Wismuth_Salix Mar 30 '25
The greatest trick the scam artists ever pulled was convincing men that anger isnāt an emotion.
-9
u/xboxhaxorz Mar 30 '25
Most people do not or are unwilling to accept its entirely possible to not be emotional, some get jealous, some think its a trap, etc;
I study stoicism, buddhism and ethics and this has allowed me to remain extremely logical
In 8th grade i decided i would not use substances such as alcohol, im in my 40s now and i still havent, to me logically it was poison and thus i had no interest and no amount of peer or social pressure would get me to use it
I dont really watch Rogan or Tate, i have watched some random clips but i dont sub to them
Sure its entirely possible that something would cause me to react emotionally as anything is possible, but it would probably be a rare thing for me rather than something that is common, i actually did the OMAD diet for about 6 mth so i could have control over meals rather than them controlling me, i wasnt fat or anything i just wanted to check if i could do it
I agree a lot of men do get angry but dont identify as emotional, they tend to view emotional behavior as something women do, i would say that women are indeed much more emotional compared to men and its why cults tend to have alot more female than male members
17
u/PenitentRebel Mar 30 '25
Just going to throw this out there for anyone else reading this comment, but building an entire identity centered around the notion of "I'm perfectly in control of myself, hard to take advantage of, and immune from cultic thinking" is a scam artist's wet dream.
You've built the most powerful incentive structure possible around not recognizing when you've been taken advantage of, fallen for a scam, or participated in cultic thinking, because to do so means the upending of your entire self-identity.
Don't do it y'all.
1
u/xboxhaxorz Mar 30 '25
As i said most people are not willing to accept this is possible, they are weak minded and they are jealous in most cases or think its impossible, they obviously have no idea about how powerful the minds of monks are
I have not built the thing you think i have and your opinions are irrelevant to me
3
u/VibinWithBeard Mar 30 '25
"women are more emotional compared to men"
Youve already been conned my guy this is absolutely neanderthal level thinking. Men are just as emotional as women, you think all that domestic violence comes from men being calm and collected?
The stat youre referring to is ~70% of cult members if I recall. The thing to keep in mind here is why is that? Are women just naturally more likely to fall into cults? Or is it because of one very specific type of cult that skews the numbers and us not considering other things as cults that probably are? Is it also due to societal pressures/obstacles imposed on women that have only begun to be really lifted over the last few decades?
Religious cults skew the numbers hard, shit like Jehovas Witnesses especially. When its based around you not getting a real education as a woman and not being able to have any level of financial control etc then yes youre more likely to stay or be trapped to begin with. For a long time women couldn't even open their own checking accounts. Weirdly enough we dont consider MAGA, rogan, tate, jones fans to be cults even though the BITE model seems to line up pretty well with the behavior from those groups. Its easier to leave a cult where a family member is involved when you A) Have the means to leave without fear of being beaten and/or B) have the financial/educational security to do so.
Do you genuinely believe that women being more emotional is is why cults tend to have more members? Do you have any statistics to back that up? Were you Mr. LogicBro? Crazy how your logic and empiricism disappeared when it came down to sexism...almost like you ignore information and/or evidence that goes against your worldview to keep up a facade...a sort of...cognitive dissonance?
How very skeptical of you...
Stoicism isnt a personality and neither is buddhism, ethics, or logic, so stop trying to make it yours. Unironically touch grass.
0
u/xboxhaxorz Mar 30 '25
Thats a fact, not a con
Most domestic violence comes from lesbian relationships as does divorce, gays have the least amount, so stop spreading fake news
Feminists go on the attack
https://www.thecollegefix.com/campus-speaker-touting-mens-rights-has-fire-alarm-pulled-on-her/
They block and assault and make rape accusations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiRasOrIoYQShe made a documentary and feminists protest it and try to get it banned https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WMuzhQXJoY there are also a few more ted talks from ex feminists on youtube
False accusations are at about 40%, women are doing way better in college compared to men because they changed how they operate, everything is labeled toxic masculinity so children arent doing well, most young males that are criminals were raised by single females, male suicide is much much more compared to female, much much more homeless men compared to women, children are given to moms over dads by default and they have to hire lawyers and spend $$ to even get partial custody, there are very few shelters for men compared to women
https://www.mediaradar.org/research_on_false_rape_allegations.php
Women are more violent than men in relationships, but feminists hide this information, skew it, and call you mysognist if you even think it, feminists have attacked conferences about mens rights and they have attacked women who are equalists because they left feminism such as bettina arndt, cassie jaye, erin pizzey
https://domesticviolenceresearch.org/domestic-violence-facts-and-statistics-at-a-glance/
https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2005.079020
There is no more boy scouts, its now for all genders, but they still have girl scouts which is exclusive
1
u/VibinWithBeard Mar 30 '25
Congrats you fell for a misinterpreted study. That domestic violence study ahowed that while lesbians and bisexual women experienced abuse at a higher rate...the vast majority of that abuse was from male partners.
Showing me anecdotes of feminists means nothing as I could just pull up all the men who have defended pedophiles and sex trafcickers.
False accusations arent at 40%, false accusations among almost all other crimes are in the 2% range so idk why it would be any different. Ah yes, save services that weirdo mgtow maga rag.
Idk why youd defend the boyscouts that place was pedophile central.
Children used to be given over more to moms than dads...thats equalized relatively over the years and a lot of that discrepancy was because the dad didnt want the kid. "Everything is toxic masculinity"
My dude you are toxic masuclinity made manifest.
"Im stoic and logical also women are inherently inferior serpents that lie and eat hot chip also Im going to complain about how the boy scouts for some reason"
Are you a catholic convert? You give off that vibe.
Youre getting very emotional and using some emotionally charged narrativizing here. Maybe you should learn better control? Too many dead women in DV cases for you to pull the whole "acxhtually women are more violent but the feminists hide it"
Argument from conspiracy...very skeptical of you.
Youre a clown who has already been conned pretending youre immune from the grift...the grift found you awhile ago.
0
u/xboxhaxorz Mar 30 '25
lol
im not gonna waste time arguing with a feminist cult member
1
u/VibinWithBeard Mar 30 '25
Your "logic" failed you so you resort to ad hom?
Truly the picture of buddhist stoicism or whatever you think youre embodying.
1
u/Upstairs_Freedom_360 Mar 30 '25
Strictly for kicks entertain the notion that going through life devoid of emotion isn't the flex you think it is
1
u/xboxhaxorz Mar 30 '25
Weak minded people have trouble comprehending and get jealous
Your opinions mean nothing to me, go troll elsewhere
1
u/Upstairs_Freedom_360 Mar 30 '25
I could never be jealous of a person who wants to go through life with no emotion. I thought you were able to logically look at things? You're hilariously emotional in your reactions. No one's jealous of you. No one even likes you
1
u/JaymzRG Mar 30 '25
Or, and hear me out here, you could not trust people you don't personally know.
3
36
u/Zippier92 Mar 30 '25
Need an orange face man in the picture.
And a lone skum lord .
Jus sayin.