This is a book about cons, here is a rundown of each chapter's contents along with what I think are the most important parts.
CHAPTER 1: THE GRIFTER AND THE MARK
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This chapter introduces the grifter( conner) and mark(victim), are some people born grifters, it is nature or/and nurture that creates them? Contrary to what you might think there is no such thing as a typical mark, different people fall for different scams and emotional turmoil can make people more susceptible to scams in general.
CHAPTER 2: THE PUT-UP
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This chapter covers how the grifter finds the mark and discovers their weaknesses. Familiarity and trust are used to seduce the mark. Fake fortune tellers are used to illustrate these points.
CHAPTER 3: THE PLAY
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This chapter is how powerful emotions can override people's logic and reason, when delivered through a compelling narrative it makes for potent stuff. Different emotions effect people in different ways effecting how they can be duped.
CHAPTER 4 :THE ROPE
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The rope is the persuasion used by the grifter, some examples are claiming to be an authority figure(because people respect and obey authority figures), asking for a small amount then once the mark says yes asking for a large amount ( works better than just asking for a large amount because giving a small amount puts the person in a giving mood), or the opposite asking for a huge amount that is rejected then asking for a smaller amount ( works better than just asking for the smaller amount because the mark feels guilty for turning down the large amount). The that's-not-all where the grifter keeps bolting claim on to claim making the purchase sound better and better, this approach gets better sales than just hearing the offer right away. Or the grifter can just try overwhelming the mark with too much information rendering them unable to make sensible decisions.
CHAPTER FIVE: 5 THE TALE
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The average person thinks their above average and can spot a scam, other people might fall for those kind of things but not them, this is their lucky break, they deserve this great opportunity because they are special. Unfortunately this kind of thinking makes people easier to scam, and most tragically of all when the scam is over the "I am too clever to fall for scams" belief makes it harder for people to admit to themselves they have been scammed.
CHAPTER SIX: 6 THE CONVINCER
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People have a unrealistic bias towards a happy future so if things are going well now they believe it will continue in the future, the Ponzi scheme is a classic example of a scam that works well until it eventually fails, "well it appears to be working" would be valid justification only in the short term. Also people don't want to jump ship on something doing well, the thought of losing out on something they could have had is not nice.
CHAPTER SEVEN: 7 THE BREAKDOWN
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When the mark starts losing out, they have a dilemma, do they drop out or keep going? The mark can often double down thinking they can endure the current problems actually deepening their commitment, having to admit they are been scammed can be painful and conflict with their current beliefs (cognitive dissonance).
CHAPTER 8: THE SEND AND THE TOUCH
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The send is where the mark is recommitted, that is asked to invest increasing greater time and resources into the con artist's scheme and in the touch, the con finally comes to fruition and the mark is completely irrevocably fleeced. The sunk cost fallacy means that people stick with things because they have already invested in it and do not want to lose what has been invested already. Once we have invested heavily it comes hard to be objective and warning signs are ignored. The things we have gain the "endowment effect" becoming all the better just because we own it.
CHAPTER 9: THE BLOW-OFF AND THE FIX
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The blow off is how the con ends and the fix is dealing with the angry mark, The mark may not realise they been duped so then no fix is needed and even if the mark does realise they have been had they might decided to do nothing for fear of social embarrassment of having been conned.
CHAPTER 10: THE (REAL) OLDEST PROFESSION
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This chapter focus on religious cons, specifically cults as the ultimate example of the con.
"Nobody joins a cult, Sullivan repeated often and emphatically. People join something that will give them meaning. “They join a group that’s going to promote peace and freedom throughout the world or that’s going to save animals, or they’re going to help orphans or something. But nobody joins a cult.” Nobody embraces false beliefs: we embrace something we think is as true as it gets. Nobody sets out to be conned: we set out to become, in some way, better than we were before.
Con artists, at their best and worst, give us meaning. We fall for them because it would make our lives better if the reality they proposed were indeed true. They give us a sense of purpose, of value, of direction.
That, in the end, is the true power of belief. It gives us hope. If we are endlessly skeptical, endlessly miserly with our trust, endlessly unwilling to accept the possibilities of the world, we despair. To live a good life we must, almost by definition, be open to belief, of one form or another. And that is why the confidence game is both the oldest there is and the last one that will still be standing when all other professions have faded away.
Ultimately, what a confidence artist sells is hope. Hope that you’ll be happier, healthier, richer, loved, accepted, better looking, younger, smarter, a deeper, more fulfilled human being— hope that the you that will emerge on the other side will be somehow superior to the you that came in."
CONCLUSION
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This book is a very interesting read not just for the information about cons but about the nature of belief. I could nit pick some parts and religious people may find the book offensive but I thoroughly recommend it.
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