5. Con Artists Are As Human As The Rest Of Us
There is absolutely nothing new about con artists. They have been around since time immemorial and have been scanning people ever since then by preying on weaknesses and vulnerabilities that we know as cognitive biases or fallacies. For example, the “foot in the door” cognitive bias says that once we have already helped someone once, we’re willing to help them, even more, the next time. The sunk-cost cognitive bias says that we are eager to continue investing more and more money into what we know is a lost cause because we aren’t willing to admit that that money is gone.
Con artists are good at the game that they play, but they’re not always good enough. There have been numerous reports of “counter scammers” who run the same (or a similar) scam on another con artist. After all, they are only human and are liable to fall for the same thing that they perpetrate. The difference nowadays is simply that running a scam is much easier. You don’t need to plant yourself at Brooklyn Bridge or pay thousands in postage to send a letter to a bunch of people. You need an email address and a list of addresses to message.