I found this fascinating article...
"Confessions of a Con Artist"
What strikes me is that the method of con artists have a lot in common with what is good sales technique... The main difference is, in business, you deliver what you promise. If a person is doing a con, they promise big, but don't deliver.
A couple of the things in common are...
* Building trust
* Using emotional appeals of various types
- these can be things like greed (such as when pitching an investment) or guilt (such as when promoting a charity)...
However, because you have to deliver on what you promise, I think sales and marketing is harder than conning people. A person who can fraudulently promise anything can make the "sale" much more easily, than someone who has to deliver on what they promise...
I guess the way not to be scammed is then to make sure they can actually deliver on their promises!
Any thoughts on this?
Confessions of a Con Artist
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fra...on-artist.html