Inside the Mind of a Con Artist

Hi! I’m Alex and I am a con artist.

Who in the world is a con artist?

Con comes from the word confidence and a con artist is someone who fools you, manipulates you and robs you using his superpower- confidence.

Yes, that is what I’m good at. I manipulate for a living.

People also call me a grifter, a swindler, and a con man but I like to use the term “con artist” (sounds more respectable, you know.)

The target or victim of the con is called the “mark”.

A Con-Artist’s Field of Expertise :

Keeping aside morality and ethics for a few minutes, let me tell you about my abilities (not to brag).

1. Manipulation

I am an excellent manipulator. I can manipulate you and trick you into making decisions and choices you think can never make.

2. Awareness of Psychology and Thought Process

I know how your mind works. I can assess the thought process behind your reactions and I can even make you follow my plan and you would feel like doing that was totally your idea.

“The best con-artist is the one who makes the mark feel like the whole idea was theirs.” ~ Haalim(The Dreamer) by Nemrah Ahmed

3. Acting

I am a marvelous actor( I’m not bragging, I just know my abilities ). I can make up cover stories on the spot and tell lies that will sound perfectly true to your ears.

4. Reading Body Language

A skill I’ve acquired through much practice is reading body language. I can assess your feelings and thoughts just by looking at your way of sitting, standing, the direction of your feet, eye movements and movement of your fingers and limbs. I can analyze your personality from your handshakes or handwriting. I can decode your body’s messages!

In simple words, con artists are ‘fancy’ scammers. Having a deep understanding of human psychology, these grifters use several techniques to get what they want.

Psychological Principles that Con Artists Use:

1. They Exploit Your Dishonesty

When the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, I conned a wealthy man and made him believe that I had the original Mona Lisa ( it was fake though). I sold that to him in the black market for a huge amount of money.

After he realized that he had been conned, he couldn’t even report that. How could he? He would get in trouble for buying a stolen painting on the black market.

That is what I mean by exploiting the mark’s dishonesty.

2. They Take Advantage of Need and Greed

You might be thinking that a dumb person is easy to con but it is quite the opposite. Intelligent or sensible people are preferred targets as they are quick to see their benefit. Everyone is greedy for success, for money, and fame. This greed forces people to make irrational decisions.

Con-artists make offers that make the target see their dreams coming alive. People can go to any extent when they see their dreams getting fulfilled.

A metal dealer in Paris bought the Eiffel Tower for $70,000 from a con-artist Victor Lustig to get the rights to demolish it and take ownership of 7000 tons of metal. Lustig conned him by exploiting his greed and setting up a bid. When the metal dealer saw that he might lose the bid and miss out, he paid the highest amount and got conned.

He was not even ready to admit that he had been conned because he was embarrassed to the core.

3. They Use Your First Name

Con artists usually go undercover, make up a perfectly believable cover story and enter the mark’s life as a new character. This character is a part of the plot that the con man has designed to achieve the desired aim.

They use your first name. According to psychologists, when someone addresses us by our first name in a frank manner, we make ourselves believe that they might be an old acquaintance.

We tend to make friends with them quickly and develop a sense of liking for them.

4. They Get You Talking

They initiate interesting conversations and soon the mark is bonding with the con man over something they are passionate about like baseball, soccer, books, or cars.

I’m not telling you to never make friends but if a friendship escalates rapidly and soon a request is thrown at you, it might be a red flag!

“The victim doesn’t ask questions, he answers them”

The victim is usually the one who answers a lot of questions and tells their heart out to their “new friend”. Everyone wants to be heard and con-artists are great listeners.

5. Time Pressure

Just like shop owners set a 50% off sale for a limited time, con artists also create a sense of urgency. People tend to make irrational decisions when they feel like they will miss out on something so con-artists set a ticking clock and their offers are valid for a limited amount of time.

When the mark feels like he will miss a great opportunity to fulfill his lifelong dream, he dumps sensibility and makes decisions of which he feels embarrassed in the future.

6. The Foot in the Door Technique:

The conman would ask you a small favor like ‘kindly give me a review of the new pair of headphones you’ve got’ and you being the nicest person on the planet would say ‘Why not? Sure.’

And the next week, they’d ask for another favor and you won’t say no to them because we tend to say yes to someone we have said yes in the past.

Eventually, they would con you into doing some apparently harmless favor that will guarantee their success at getting what they wanted from you in the first place.

7. The Door in the Face Technique

This technique is quite the opposite of the previous one.

The con man asks you for a huge favor, like “ Can you babysit my sister for a day (for free).” It is something you’d definitely say No to.

We tend to feel guilty for saying No to someone so the next time the conman asks you for a rather smaller favor, you immediately say “yes” to compensate for the previous ‘No’.

So, these are the signs to look for in a person to identify him as a con artists.

Beware of these manipulators!

If you ever get conned, report it. It does not imply that you are stupid. hence, you got conned. It means you are vulnerable. Con artists don't target ‘intelligence’, they target ‘emotions’.

If you want to know more about con artist, ‘The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It… Every Time’ by Maria Konnikova

Note: This is NOT an affiliate link; this book was my choice.