Flim Flam, Deception and Manipulation
Part two. What is confidence artistry and who is the mark?
(continued from: The Monte and the Shills)
“By definition, a con artist is a manipulator who cheats, or tricks, others through persuading them to believe something that is not true”
-The Art of the Con and Why People Fall for It | Psychology Today
Do you have a passionate cause? Are you a single-issue voter? An activist? A donor, a concerned party? Are you desperate for something? Do you require money that you currently do not have? Are you over-confident in your first assessment? Do you share a common enemy with someone? Are you lonely and outcast? Searching for hope?
Are you a human being with human needs and feelings?
If so then you, my friend, are susceptible as any of us to confidence artistry.
A confidence scammer, be it any number of things; social engineering, catfishing, relation fraud or AstroTurf (co-opted and derailed toward a cause other than stated) organizations, requires trust from the marks.
The con plays on things you already believe or want to believe, fills you with hope that you may get what you desire, pretends loyalty.
“And I think it's because good cons are all based on the victim's need, and the successful con artist is the one, I guess, who can exploit that. I remember reading something about this, that one of the great traits of confidence tricksters is the level that they flatter their victim.” -Alfred Molina- actor
There are several examples such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD, which had been taken over by neo-prohibitionists looking to further their own ends according to the original founder. This type of dishonesty permeates the charitable foundation and activism orgs, and the dishonesty contributes to the undermining of the causes they claim to promote. That can be a bit more complex, and a little controversial and I promise to move onto the topic of flag waving banner bearing propagandists a little later… but let’s talk more about who the marks are.
Even highly trained professionals can be susceptible.
Let’s use a famous example of a large-scale confidence scam for this article where we can all agree that many people who were duped likely should have known better. One that also includes the examples of how a shill operates to provide the fraud with credibility to their peers.
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The case of the Quadro Tracker:
“The Quadro Tracker, also known as the Positive Molecular Locator, was a fake "detection device" sold by Quadro Corp. of Harleyville, South Carolina between 1993 and 1996. Around 1,000 were sold to police departments and school districts around the United States on the basis that it could detect hidden drugs, explosives, weapons and lost golf balls.”
Invented by a man named Wade Quattlebaum, The Quadro Tracker was busted as a phony device when an FBI agent named Ron Kelly, who was suspicious of the device immediately, ran it through the x-ray machine at a courthouse revealing it to be hollow
“The device consisted of three principal components. A "locator card" purportedly containing a "signature" of the object to be detected was inserted into a plastic "card reader" about the size of a tape cassette that could be attached to the user's belt. This was connected to a hand-held unit about 4 inches (10 cm) long to which a horizontally swivelling metal antenna was attached. The antenna would purportedly point to the item being sought when a suitable locator card was inserted into the "card reader"'“
The manufacturer made outrageous claims such as that the device could detect specific individuals regardless of disguise and told the victims of their fraudulent sales that these devices had been tested out by federal agencies when they had not
From 1993 to 1996 approximately one thousand of these faux detectors were sold at varying rates from 400$ to 8000$
In 1996 the FBI obtained an injunction against the device being made or sold and 3 of the Quadrocorp principals were charged with and later acquitted for mail fraud and conspiracy mail fraud
The FBI also sought out distributors of the device.
“Two Houston-based Assistant US Attorneys who had acted as distributors – Guy Womack, who later represented US Army Specialist Charles Graner in the 2003-04 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, and John Wagner – were implicated in the affair as licensed distributors for the Quadro Tracker in Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico and Wyoming. A court was told in April 1996 that Womack could be a target of an investigation of possible conflicts of interest, false statements to investigators about his involvement with the Quadro Tracker and possible use of federal office equipment for private business. During the hearing, Womack pleaded the Fifth Amendment on 42 occasions”
Womack was never charged but resigned and paid fines while saying he was innocent.
https://www.ndsn.org/feb97/quadro.html (h/t James Randi)
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You see, nobody is above being worked… The nature of strategy is never to be fooled again, that doesn’t mean that there is a single infallible human at the top of that pyramid of very strategic people, nobody is perfect, “a Taoist is only ever practicing”, and shit happens, especially when we are already invested in finding the answer that confirms our initial belief.
-Ted MD
Putin’s nooscope is probably empty as well!
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