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The Neurological Basis of Con Games
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Nov 18, 2008 06:01 PM
from the doubting-thomas dept.
from the doubting-thomas dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "If we humans have such big brains, how can we get conned? Neuroeconomist Paul J. Zak has an interesting post on Psychology Today in which he recounts how he was the victim of a classic con called 'The Pigeon Drop' when he was a teenager and explains how con men take advantage of the Human Oxytocin Mediated Attachment System, called THOMAS, a powerful brain circuit that releases the neurochemical oxytocin when we are trusted and induces a desire to reciprocate the trust we have been shown. 'The key to a con is not that you trust the con man, but that he shows he trusts you. Con men ply their trade by appearing fragile or needing help, by seeming vulnerable,' writes Zak. 'Because of THOMAS, the human brain makes us feel good when we help others — this is the basis for attachment to family and friends and cooperation with strangers.' Zak's laboratory studies have shown that two percent of the college students he tested are 'unconditional nonreciprocators' who have learned how to simulate trustworthiness and would make good con men. Watch a video of Skeptics Society founder Michael Shermer running the classic pigeon drop on an unsuspecting victim and see if you wouldn't be taken in by a professional con man yourself."
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Uh... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Uh... (Score:5, Insightful)
At the same time, people can be over confident and what they know can deceive them. I would bet there is a set of cons that hit smart people harder.
On that note, I have meet some very smart but very stupid people.
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Re:Uh... (Score:5, Informative)
I would bet there is a set of cons that hit smart people harder.
You mean something like this stuff? [wikipedia.org]. Richard Feynman once observed that some smart people get taken because they don't want to believe they can be fooled. He was referring to people fooled by Uri Geller. He said he was different because "I'm smart enough to know that I'm dumb". Which is one of my favorite quotes of anything.
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Re:Uh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Since GP used the word 'spectrum', your hypothesis is full of fail.
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Re:Uh... (Score:5, Funny)
caused spontaneous erections after being injected in rats.
For the rats, right? Please say yes.
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I'd make a good one (Score:4, Insightful)
I think most fairly successful people in business have to have a little con man in them to some degree.
Re:I'd make a good one (Score:5, Insightful)
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Please stand up ... (Score:4, Funny)
If you know you would be taken in by a profession con man ... I'll trust you to let me know ;)
Explanation (Score:4, Interesting)
J.R. "Bob" Dobbs explains it eloquently: "You know how dumb the average person is? Well, by definition, half of 'em are even dumber than THAT."
Re:Explanation (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, that's originally a George Carlin joke.
And when most people retell it, they inevitably get into a geek debate about mean vs. average.
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Feeling good about hurting (Score:5, Insightful)
If cons work by making us feel good about helping the con man, then how come so many are based on the mark trying to rip off someone? In the pigeon drop, the mark is trying to rip off the con man. In insider-knowledge scams, the mark is trying to rip off honest traders or gamblers. With "white van" scams, the mark thinks he's buying stolen goods.
Re:Feeling good about hurting (Score:5, Insightful)
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Not me. (Score:5, Funny)
I don't easily trust strangers who inexplicably trust me. I'm not easily conned. I guess I have a doubting THOMAS.
Re:Not me. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like you have an inherent understanding of Thoreau. "If a man comes to you with the obvious intention of doing you good, run for your life."
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Fragile, needing help, seeming vulnerable... (Score:5, Insightful)
Con men ply their trade by appearing fragile or needing help, by seeming vulnerable...
Sounds like a few women I've dated. Sometimes, love and romance is also a con game, now isn't it?
When you get conned... (Score:5, Insightful)
...it's because you're a gullible fool. When I get conned, it's because someone "took advantage of the human oxytocin-mediated attachment system". Well, who wouldn't fall for that?
You can't con an honest man (Score:5, Insightful)
When dealing with $3,000 a light has to go off in your head that says "there are procedures for dealing with this". Go to the police. Tell the guy you'll walk to the nearest police station with him, or that you'll call the non-emergency number with your cel phone. The police will hold the money for a statutory limit, and if nobody claims it, THEN you might get it. YMMV on the laws in your jurisdiction and how honest the cops are.
Now, if you're not a totally honest man a different light goes off in your head. That light says "How can I get this money, nevermind the victim or due process".
Beware of modern neurophrenology (Score:5, Insightful)
We cannot view the brain as a simple modular system, which merely needs a circuit diagram drawn to discover its mysteries. Functional specialization no doubt exists, but in an interconnected and complex way that resists simple explanations of "oh, this part of the brain lit up during this therefore this". Localization alone tells us little, it is only in complement with studies of neurotransmitter mechanisms, single cell recordings, computational theories, and numerous other techniques of brain exploration that any real answers are going to be found. THOMAS doesn't explain anything, its just a piece in the puzzle.
Re:It's all about greed (Score:5, Insightful)
Forget all the babble about neurochemicals.
Forget all that scientific evidence...what, because you say so?
If you aren't greedy, if you aren't looking to get something for nothing, it will be nearly impossible for you to be conned.
So explain how a person is greedy without using the brain as a part of that explanation.
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Re:It's all about greed (Score:5, Insightful)
No, those are just the obvious con men. The ones 'everyone' knows about because after it's over 'everyone' goes "How stupid would you have to have been to fall for that."
Believe me, there are plenty of other people out there who are willing to con you that don't rely on your greed.
Ever been the fall guy? The one left holding the bag?
Ever get suckered into buying a lemon car from used car salemen.
Ever been suckered into being 'friend' that gets the 'ugly one' on a double date?
Ever donate to a charity because the guy on the TV asked you too and said "Your dollars can help".
Greed is a tool to catch the greedy. Compasion is the tool used to catch the compasionate. Pride is the tool used to catch the prideful (as in "You are too smart to ever fall for such an obvious con...)
There are plenty of clay feet out there to aim at, greed is just one of them.
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Re:It's all about greed (Score:5, Interesting)
And a confidence game is a scam that involves gaining someone's confidence and then using it to defraud them, which is exactly what every one of the examples above are.
Thanks for the unecessary condescendation though. Look! Another con word.
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Re:It's all about greed (Score:5, Informative)
Believe me, there are plenty of other people out there who are willing to con you that don't rely on your greed.
Care to point some of them out?
The Craigslist Bad Check scam [consumeraffairs.com], where the con sends a check for several thousand more than the asking price. They'll email you saying that their secretary made a mistake, but they trust you, so go ahead and cash it and send back the difference. It's a bad check, of course, but your bank won't notice for a few days, and then they'll hold you responsible for the difference, plus the check you just sent back.
The mark isn't working on greed. They don't expect to get anything more than the original asking price. The con works purely on feelings of trust.
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Re:It's all about greed (Score:5, Interesting)
They're not all stupid...
A friend of mine is a finance manager at a car dealership. Two women and a man came in about two months ago with a rather elaborate story. The first woman was married to the man, then fell in love with the second woman. The first woman wanted to buy a car, but had no credit history, although the social security number (and matching drivers license) she had provided was clean. Neither the other woman, or the husband, was willing to cosign. The woman also had all of the appropriate documentation for a credit less customer, addressed bills, paystubs, bank account balances, etc...
That night, the woman left my friend with a hefty down payment check, and the three left in a brand new, $30,000 car. The very next morning, the dealership was faxed the remainder of the information they needed to close out the deal. About two weeks later, when they were verifying the check and logging the deal, the bank let them know that the name on the check didn't match the name on the account. My friend did some digging, left the woman a message, and asked her to get back to him.
At this point, he called me, and told me the story. He hadn't put it together yet, but I couldn't stop laughing. The last thing he said to me, before I broke the news to him, was that the dealership probably wouldn't lose too much since they'd be able to repossess the car before they could put too many miles on it. I explained that they were long gone, and so was the car. It wasn't coming back, it was all a show, none of it was real. He checked out the cell phone, prepaid, checked out the paystub (manager said, "Another one! Have no idea who that is"), checked out the bills, fake account numbers. Everything was fake, the whole deal was a very elaborate hoax.
It's not hard to see why they succeeded. They came in with an elaborate story to distract and disarm. The more you're thinking about lesbians, the less you're thinking about proof. They were able to argue amongst themselves to great effect the entire time to further distract (e.g. "You left me for her, its not my problem, I had all you needed right here"). They also had all the answers and all the right explanations, there was no need to come back, they had all the information they required with them, and as they could see from the credit report, they knew what to bring because they'd already hit many other dealerships in the area.
The con artists also sweetened the deal for the dealership. My friend tried to reject the deal, but when the general manager found out that they were buying the car for sticker price with a maintenance plan, a very high profit deal, he told him to go ahead with it. They also took away the ability to verify the deal, and the incentive to verify the next day. They came in late in the day, when the banks were closed, and her job would have been closed, so they would have to take most of the information presented at face value. In addition, the additional information they requested was faxed over the next day to relieve suspicion.
The last thing they relied on was the most important, and that is the reluctance of those who have been scammed to report it. My dad uncovered a scam several years ago, where 21 people were taken for between $100k and $1M each over the course of a year, by a boat dealer. The dealer was never convicted, not because of the evidence, but because not a single person was willing to testify, publicly admitting their mistake. And before you think it couldn't happen to you, consider that even Al Capone was taken for $5,000 in the 1920s. Viktor Lustig approached Capone and offered to double his investment of $50,000 in 60 days. In 60 days, Lustig returned all $50,000 to Capone, and apologized that it didn't work, although he very much needed the money. Capone decided to give Lustig $5,000. What Capone didn't know, was that this is what Lustig had planned all along, he had never done anything but deposit the money in a bank account. In another case, Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower to
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Re:It's all about greed (Score:5, Funny)
Trust in paper documents seems to be lagging way behind the ability to forge them. How hard is it to scan/photoshop/print a utility bill these days?
I would say very hard.
Let me present to you, the HP PSC 2355, combined printer/scanner/hairdrier.
It won't scan unless I have toner in the printer. In addition, some errors present themselves, requiring you to press the ok button. Once you do this, it presents the same info again, requiring you to press the ok button...
The HP PSC 2355: "you just can't reason with it, and it simply will not stop until you are dead"
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Re:I feel I must apologize for the truth. (Score:5, Interesting)
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