The best conmen never have to steal a thing. They just ask, and people hand it over.
In this episode, Mary-Ann Ochota tells the story of William Thompson, the original "confidence man," who spent the 1840s asking wealthy strangers a simple question: do you have the confidence in me to lend me your watch until tomorrow? Most said yes, and never saw it again.
Writer and psychologist Maria Konnikova, author of The Confidence Game, explains how the same trick has echoed through history, from Charles Ponzi's fake investment scheme in 1920s Boston to Victor Lustig, who once sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal. The method barely changes: give someone a reason to trust you, then use that trust against them.
It raises an uncomfortable question. If con artists are so predictable, why do we keep falling for them? Cognitive neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott explains why humans are wired to believe people by default, and Maria, now a professional poker player herself, reveals what a table full of world class liars taught her about reading people, and being read.
It's the next step in a story about how trust gets built, and how it gets broken.
Trust Forward is a podcast from Sumsub, AI powered trust infrastructure for compliance operations at scale, made in collaboration with This is Distorted. Every story here is really a version of the same problem playing out in a different era. Today it plays out online, in the moment a business has to decide whether to trust a stranger on the other side of a screen. That's the problem Sumsub exists to solve.
Sumsub's Website: sumsub.com
Sumsub's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/sumsub
Sumsub's Instagram: instagram.com/sumsubcom
Sumsub on X: x.com/Sumsubcom
Sumsub's YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@sumsubcom
Mary-Ann Ochota on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mary-ann-ochota-frgs-9234aa61/
Maria Konnikova: linkedin.com/in/maria-konnikova-697256/
Professor Sophie Scott on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sophie-scott-179b6610/
Resources for this episode can be found here: https://trustforward.sumsub.com/episodes/the-art-of-the-con
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