A sharing by Ling Sing Lin
Almost daily, we receive scam telephone calls, and the reverse, government agencies warning us to beware of scam calls. The volume of scams make me think that we have a new job category called scammer. We learn that even intelligent and educated people can get scammed.
There are many types of scams, with most of them trying to deceive you to transmit personal and banking information to imposter websites (called phishing) , so that they can empty your bank accounts.
The commonest scams are investment scams, job scams, e-commerce scams, internet love scams, impersonating government officials scams, and lottery/prize scams. The modus operandi is to use electronic media, which includes the phone. When a person is looking to make money, is looking for a job, looking for love, hoping to get a good deal for an online purchase, etc, you are vulnerable to scams. The deals offered are too good to pass up, and there is often an urgency, as someone else will snap up the deal if you are not quick enough. The scammers have reached a level of sophistication where even those who have been forewarned have been duped. They can scam a large number of people who are total strangers to them, as they typically use electronic media.
Confidence Tricksters
This is when the con man (or con artist or confidence trickster) takes advantage of a person they know, and use their charm to swindle the victim of large sums of money. He targets individuals or small groups.
People use the words scam and con interchangeably, as a scammer and a con artist are similar in that they both engage in deceptive practices to relieve people of their money. But they have different methods and target different groups of people.
Biblical examples
The con artist is not a new concept. The serpent conned Eve to take a bite of the apple. Jacob conned his almost-blind father with a bowl of delicious soup, to give him the blessing of the first-born, thus robbing his first-born twin brother Esau, of his birthright.
Infamous Con Artists
Remember the news item of the former China tour guide who conned an elderly widow to give him control of her assets?
Then there was the retired doctor with dementia who was conned to give $5 million to her maid, a construction worker and an engineer.
Bernie Madoff, an American financier executed the largest Ponzi scheme in history, defrauding thousands of investors out of billions of dollars.
There are also stories of people who obtained money by deceit from a parent, spouse or friend, or who conned them to sell houses after which the con artist appropriated the money.
There are numerous stories of travelers who have been conned by wily tricksters. I have heard several such stories about Istanbul.
Shoe Shine Boy
This is a first person account by my friend LHS, of a con job by a shoe shine boy in Istanbul.
More than 10 years ago, in Istanbul, shoe shines were all over the place. This roving shoe-shine on foot walked past us in a little park, not far from a busy road, in broad daylight . He dropped a brush with a loud thud (on a concrete pavement) in front of us, which he could not have not realized. Innocently with good intent we picked it up and went after him to return it. Then started a drama of profusely thanking us for saving his livelihood by returning the brush. In a flash, he was down on his knees shining my shoes, supposedly as a gesture of thanks, despite my protest, and there was nothing I could do unless I kicked him in the face and risked starting a riot. He then began a sob story about how a relative in Ankara needed money for medical expenses even as he continued the unsolicited polish (polished he was in his act!) against my continued protest. After what seemed like endlessness, to end the ordeal, I handed him some money but he had the audacity to ask for more. Can’t remember how much I parted with but it was certainly tens of USD, just to stop his peskiness. The shoe shine “boy” was not a pitiful kid. He was an intimidating bullish man in his 30s or 40s.
Take Home Message
People who scam or con others have no conscience. Some have anti-social personality disorders. However, not all con artists are sociopaths, but all sociopaths are con artists.
lingsinglin
Dr Ling Sing Lin is a medical doctor by training. She worked in MOH HQ for many years, in policy making and administrative positions, until her retirement.
