I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of the “long con.”
Movies about grifters, or guys who plan these long and elaborate schemes to extract money out of people.
Some people, when they steal money, just show up with some guns and demand the cash, then get the heck out of dodge.
But highly skilled con artists come up with elaborate plans to make their “marks” feel like giving away their hard earned cash is the best possible idea.
As P.T. Barnum famously said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Sadly, most of these cons are used all the time, and most of us don’t even know it.
Except when they’re done legally, they’re not called, “cons.”
They’re called “advertising,” and “political campaigning.”
Using elaborate schemes, stories and ideas to separate us from our money, and our belief systems.
For example, there’s a law of persuasion called “Scarcity,” where if we think something is in short supply, it will automatically make us want it more.
Maybe not enough to buy this right away, but more than we would have if we thought it was in unlimited supply.
Advertisers use this all the time.
“One Time Offer.”
“Limited Supply.”
“Act Now Before Supplies Run Out.”
One example is a guy who wanted to sell his car. He spent some money cleaning it up, so it looked nice. He put an ad in the paper, and offered it for a really good price.
Then, as expected, he got a lot of calls.
But then, he told all the people to come at the same time.
Then they all showed up, and started a bidding war.
Pretty soon the car sold for 40% more than he was asking.
It worked so well, he did this again and again. Buy a used car, spend some money making it look nice, putting in the paper for a cheap price, and then scheduling everybody to come see it at the same time.
The truth is that scarcity is just one of many triggers that can be used against us against our will.
Or, that you can use on others.
However, if you are going to use these on others, be warned. They are very powerful, and if you don’t have their best interests in mind, they WILL come back to haunt you.
To learn how, click the link below: