At the core some people are able to be conned because they are being offered something that they want. Much of the time it revolves around money. Nigerian letter scams work essentially because of greed, someone really believing that someone is offering the 10 percent of an insane amount of money (money that smacks of illegality, or that some government or another has “lost track of”) just for the use of their bank account to legitimize it. Face it, most people will properly question someone randomly contacting them and essentially saying “Listen you don’t know me, but I’ll give you 1.2 Million dollars if I can use your bank account for this transaction. But the cons that send these out (formerly by fax and now as spam at the rate of dozens per week) know that eventually they will hit upon that one person who will think “Wow, I could really use 1.2 Million dollars, what have I got to lose?” What they’ve got to lose of course is their money (and in extreme cases their liberty when they find themselves trapped in a foreign country with out a passport stamp because their new found friends have “contacts” that enables them to skip the immigration people).
Most people, when they hear stories such as this one, will think “How could they be so naive?” or stupid. But often intelligence has very little to do with it. I consider my father a very intelligent man, and yet he was the victim of con man when he was a young man, on the trip of a lifetime with a friend. But with the right bait, the right incentive, a skillful conman will exploit our desires. And it might not even be something we want for ourselves. Many people fall victim because they are being offered a chance to be altruistic, and the con man exploits their desires to be a good, generous, caring person. Most often the victims are elderly, or young, but without a healthy dose of skepticism any one can fall prey to a good con man.
This particular con started on the west coast, when Leo ran into two of the Australians. When casual conversation turned to “what do you do?” as it often does, the trap was set in motion. Young active people with a taste for outdoor adventures they were intrigued when Leo related how he was an outfitter, an outfitter who ran river rafting tours in the Yukon, on the wild Yukon River. No doubt at some point someone would mention how they would love to do something like that, and subtly this job offer would seem to have been initiated by them, when nothing could be farther from the truth.
As the conversation deepened, Leo would realize that he hadn’t hired all the crew he needed for the year and if they were serious maybe he could hire them, really they’d be doing him a favour. It was just too bad that there was only two of them, but luckily they knew a couple of other Australians tourists, who’d also love to do something like that. And the trap grabbed in two more.
After that it is just a matter of deepening the hole that was being dug. The Yukon River was still frozen this time of year and his season wouldn’t start for a little while. He had been planning on doing a little more traveling on his way back home, but why didn’t he hire them now, they could all travel back together, see some of the country (which after all was why they were here in the first place) and slowly work their way back in time for his first clients. And of course they’d be on the payroll, and he’d look after all the traveling expenses. A dream job. Heck I’m tempted, why wouldn’t the four victims be?
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