Reviews
"Nobody sets out to be conned: we set out to become, in some way, better than we were before." Scams will always exist and perhaps the best (though not foolproof) way to not get trapped into one is to read about them so you can nip them at the bud. E.g. if you've read about Nigerian guys tying friendship bracelets on you in Paris, you would be able to quickly walk away from anyone coming towards you, with the intent of tying something on your wrist. I liked the stories and the explanations of human psychology using social psych terms. However, like others have commented, I think this book could have been shorter.
While I normally enjoy stories like these, this book disappointed. Konnikova set it up as an analysis as to why we fall for cons so much. Each chapter purported to either describe a different type of con or a different reason why people fall for cons. However, so many of the example stories that she devoted so much ink towards simply told the stories of successful cons. After a few chapters it became repetitive and something that I just skimmed to get to the end and on to the next book.
Super interesting, mildly terrifying. Terrifying because I could totally see myself falling for one of the cons, but hopefully I’ll be a bit better prepared now that I know more about the logic/tricks behind a con.
Some of my favorite stories center around con-men -- people who find a way to take advantage of others. In the movies this is generally robbing from the rich, but back here in reality this is people praying on the weak. This book is half history lesson of scams, and half analysis of them. The constraints and structure of a con is explored and deconstructed many times over, evaluating cons of different types.
