Con artists

[frorider]

Fascinating read on this guy who invented a history as a pro cyclist, decorated soldier, lawyer, etc: https://cyclingtips.com/2022/04/expo...e-pro-cyclist/

It’s like reading a Netflix doc.

Got any con artist stories?

[::: :::]

Yeah, I read that story too. Just an amazing arc of events…

When called on his lies for the story, he’s still trying to manipulate the reporter even as he’s forced to admit to things.

(my brain went to political figures first so I’ll not add those here)

[jono]

It was a good read. I came away thinking that the con artist has the easiest entry point in communities with deep addictions they want to share. I think passionate people are probably easier to convince because they want to accept the excitement of the newbie as genuine.

Money. Cycling. Guns. What's next for Nick? Politics? Religion? Backcountry skiing? Soup?

[JimmyCarter]

Thought this was another crypto thread.

Someone had linked that article the other day, but I’ll be damned if I remember where.

[frorider]

Thought this was another crypto thread.

.

Thought about making a joke to that effect but I was too lazy.

I’m one of those people who gets really stressed about maintaining a fiction. For example, if we’re planning a surprise bday party and I’m supposed to ‘stop by my house to get something I forgot’ with the birthday person in my car it stresses the fuck outta me. So it’s fascinating to read about these con artists…seems like a stressful shitty way to live.

[::: :::]

Thought about making a joke to that effect but I was too lazy.

I’m one of those people who gets really stressed about maintaining a fiction. For example, if we’re planning a surprise bday party and I’m supposed to ‘stop by my house to get something I forgot’ with the birthday person in my car it stresses the fuck outta me. So it’s fascinating to read about these con artists…seems like a stressful shitty way to live.

that’s what’s so fascinating: they’re not stressed until after the con is blown..

[Mudfoot]

that’s what’s so fascinating: they’re not stressed until after the con is blown..

Anyone interested in con artists and the psychology behind it should check out the Amazon Prime 3 season 30-episode series Sneaky Peat with Giovani Ribisi. It is fiction but a good drama with lots of scamming.

[mcski]

Angel Martin was the best worst con artist ever

[SKIP IN7RO]

"The Dropout" Elizabeth Holmes/Theranos story. She conned some high level people and even got one to disown his own grandson for whistleblowing.

[rideit]

And then there is Trump, most successful one EVAR.

[sirbumpsalot]

Sticking with the sports con/cheat story line google "Frank Meza" - I believe we discussed that on the bike thread a couple years ago:

https://www.outsideonline.com/health...athoner-death/

[bennymac]

Thought this was another crypto thread.

Someone had linked that article the other day, but I’ll be damned if I remember where.

I posted it in the “best longform magazine articles” thread - but yeah there are enough of these stories around that a dedicated thread is appropriate.

To continue the sports theme this lady is a student mental health counselor at an expensive private university:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/s...lon-cheat.html

There is also a follow up article from NYT where they prove she cheated in Whistler.

I find this shit fascinating

[Buster Highmen]

That was an exhausting read, but a nugget of our times.

But this is not just a tale of a single deceiver and those that fell under his spell – it’s an allegory for the global assault on truth. And that’s why it matters: if the news cycle over the past few years has shown us anything, it’s that reality itself is under siege, and the institutions that we should be able to trust are either unable or unwilling to do a thing about it.

[Ted Striker]

Angel Martin was the best worst con artist ever

Solid Rockford Files reference

[mcski]

At the tone leave your name and number

[Pow4Brains]

The chick went over and above: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt8740976/


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[leroy jenkins]

You guys remember ISkiBC?

Got in all sorts of flame wars on here, and when the mods said they were going to out his aliases it drew criticism for over moderation, the lively humorous atmosphere the many obviously tongue in cheek aliases created was valued by many. Once they did out his aliases, though, it revealed a completely deranged amount of arguing with himself through aliases in a way that made no fucking sense, was not humorous at all, and was designed to deceive rather than entertain.

[bennymac]

steepconcrete made an alias in order to have conversations with himself and post supporting statements to his BS - wasn't so much fascinating as it was pathetic

[leroy jenkins]

I wasn't around for that I guess, yea that is pathetic, but not as weird, it makes a certain kind of sense in a pathetic desperate for validation kind of way. ISkiBC did it to fight with himself and have huge ongoing multiple thread spanning flame wars. I still can't wrap my head around that in any way that makes sense, even in a crazy way. I mean hitler was nuts but there was crazy person logic at play at least. No idea wtf ISkiBC's deal was. Honestly think it might have been multiple personality Dissociative Identity Disorder or whatever they're calling it these days.

[ill-advised strategy]

I wasn't around for that I guess, yea that is pathetic, but not as weird, it makes a certain kind of sense in a pathetic desperate for validation kind of way. ISkiBC did it to fight with himself and have huge ongoing multiple thread spanning flame wars. I still can't wrap my head around that in any way that makes sense, even in a crazy way. I mean hitler was nuts but there was crazy person logic at play at least. No idea wtf ISkiBC's deal was. Honestly think it might have been multiple personality Dissociative Identity Disorder or whatever they're calling it these days.

I guess…
Also there’s something in there that touches a theme I’ve been pondering for a while now: there are numerous discordant views of what this forum is, how it’s supposed to be used, what to expect from it, etc.

One of those views seems to be that fiction and characters are all a part of it. That view manifests intermittent clashes with the view that this is more like a club of honest people sharing their own honest views and experiences, where fictional writing and fictional characters are an offense to the general order.

It seems possible IskiBC, and others, were doing something not unlike writing dialogue in a novel or a screenplay. We don’t think of those writers as inherently mental because the social framework of what they’re doing is well understood…but then you have guys like Andy Kaufman and Sasha Baron-Cohen and Nathan Fielder who take fictional nonsense into the real world. There’s a thrill in getting away with it, there’s humor in the absurdity of ridiculous characters interacting with dumbfounded real people, there’s tension in the risk, there’s appreciation for the skill in improvisation.
The real question about iskibc is whether he was grounded in reality while he did it, and then you have that basic “what exactly is an Internet forum and what’s acceptable in that environment” question, where some people are going to be fine with somebody dicking around playing characters that argue with each other, and others are set in a mentality that we’re all real except for the username…so something like iskibc comes off as split personality mental case stuff.

A lot of the discord on here comes from different competing concepts of how posting on the internet is supposed to work and what the ground rules are.
It’s not solved, and I’m not sure it’s solvable, given how intuitive and entrenched some of the views are.

[chicken feathers]

I worked with a woman a few years ago who was a bad con artist. A supervisor hired her on their way out. She would lie and cheat constantly. Her work background made any sense, in the two years she was there we couldn't figure out what her past position(s) and work exp. were because she constantly lied. Thankfully she moved on. She sucked.

^ IAS - I watched her cheat during a pack test. She brought her own vest-questionable given her character, and when she thought no one was watching she would run.

[Buster Highmen]

t is supposed to work and what the ground rules are.
It’s not solved, and I’m not sure it’s solvable, given how intuitive and entrenched some of the views are.

How about making fun of someones miscarriage?

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

About halfway through Sneaky Pete....entertaining.

A lot of people like to claim they were SpecOps in our military. I don't call them out but ask a couple of questions that only people that have been in the game would answer even remotely correctly. When I am sure they are full of shit, I just ignore them.

[leroy jenkins]

I guess…
Also there’s something in there that touches a theme I’ve been pondering for a while now: there are numerous discordant views of what this forum is, how it’s supposed to be used, what to expect from it, etc.

One of those views seems to be that fiction and characters are all a part of it. That view manifests intermittent clashes with the view that this is more like a club of honest people sharing their own honest views and experiences, where fictional writing and fictional characters are an offense to the general order.

It seems possible IskiBC, and others, were doing something not unlike writing dialogue in a novel or a screenplay. We don’t think of those writers as inherently mental because the social framework of what they’re doing is well understood…but then you have guys like Andy Kaufman and Sasha Baron-Cohen and Nathan Fielder who take fictional nonsense into the real world. There’s a thrill in getting away with it, there’s humor in the absurdity of ridiculous characters interacting with dumbfounded real people, there’s tension in the risk, there’s appreciation for the skill in improvisation.
The real question about iskibc is whether he was grounded in reality while he did it, and then you have that basic “what exactly is an Internet forum and what’s acceptable in that environment” question, where some people are going to be fine with somebody dicking around playing characters that argue with each other, and others are set in a mentality that we’re all real except for the username…so something like iskibc comes off as split personality mental case stuff.

A lot of the discord on here comes from different competing concepts of how posting on the internet is supposed to work and what the ground rules are.
It’s not solved, and I’m not sure it’s solvable, given how intuitive and entrenched some of the views are.

Yea, for the record I have no and have never had an aliases, and when referrgin to the ones people valued, they were they ones everyone knew were someone's alias, operated purely for collective entertainment. Like aliases with the name of a public figure that died decades ago, Nikola Tesla, etc. They'd chime in every once in a while with an on topic joke when their name was brought up and that was about it. Deceipt had nothing to do with those.

I know there were some good ones but I can't remember them.

But yea I get what you mean, but at the same time, I think theres a level of crazy to ISkiBC arguing with himself that was probably a lot less deliberate than anything Sasha Baron Cohen does.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Yea, for the record I have no and have never had an aliases, and when referrgin to the ones people valued, they were they ones everyone knew were someone's alias, operated purely for collective entertainment. Like aliases with the name of a public figure that died decades ago, Nikola Tesla, etc. They'd chime in every once in a while with an on topic joke when their name was brought up and that was about it. Deceipt had nothing to do with those.

I know there were some good ones but I can't remember them.

But yea I get what you mean, but at the same time, I think theres a level of crazy to ISkiBC arguing with himself that was probably a lot less deliberate than anything Sasha Baron Cohen does.

Okay Butch


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