1. I recently watched #TindlerSwindler the Netflix film chronicling the exploits of conman Simon Leviev (among his many aliases). People like that have something called chutzpah - a sheer audacity or nerve to do the unthinkable & more often than not they get away with it!
2. People might laugh at the women who fell for his con artistry but having worked in financial regulation some years back, you won’t believe the many senior professionals and learned people who fall victim to con artists like Leviev. Everyone is vulnerable!
3. The thing about con artists is they first give you confidence that what you’re doing is absolutely the right thing. They make you believe in them. And earn your trust. A common version are cults who essentially run Ponzi schemes among the poor in the name of religious beliefs
4. These guys run smooth operations, selling anything from bracelets to water, making you believe they are “anointed”. When something good happens you attribute it to those items. But con artists know that statistically there’s a chance of good thing happening to everyone!
5. I saw doctors, dentists, professors falling for swindlers. Their target market is usually the retired or nearly-retired. They know they are easily tempted by the lure of a jackpot & they make enticing promises. But it ends in tears when they lose all their life savings.
6. Back at college in the 90s there were analogue versions of the Tinder Swindler. They exploited the confusion and excitement of freshers’ week. They would join us at the UZ Students Union bar and pretend to be one of us. Freshers’ week was called “the gold rush”.
7. With all the new students arriving, seasoned lads (they were called UBA - university bachelors association) literally raced to find love. That’s when the con artists struck. They pretended to be UBA! They would have mastered the language, habits, everything to look the part!
8. They would have done their research and picked the so-called “prestigious” degrees as their course. Engineering was easy because it was large and had several departments which made hard to say someone was lying. I recall one chap who claimed to be studying medicine.
9. The chap faked his way through the gold rushes until he was found out one year. The thing is among medicine guys he would say he’s doing Law. And among Law guys he would say he’s doing Engineering. But one day he was found out. The math didn’t add up!
10. But he was one of several such characters. They would borrow money from the ladies, or even from the chaps they befriended at the SU bar claiming their payout had been delayed. Afterwards, they just disappeared into thin air!
11. I wouldn’t be surprised if these chaps are still there, milling around colleges during freshers’ week and conning their way! We all have moments of weakness and these con artists know how to exploit them to their advantage!
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