The confidence game

Most people are taught that it's wrong to lie.

Not embellishing the truth, I mean an outright deception of reality. Very few people have mastered the "skill" and those who can do it well are often rewarded. I was horrified to learn that a friend was swindled out of her savings by her boyfriend. She was smart, beautiful, with a great job and expensive taste. So what made her a mark?

A "mark" can be anyone, no matter how careful a person is they are always susceptible to a con. Using our own greed, vanity, naivety, kindness, cruelty, and of course, pride. I now cringe when I hear anyone "ridiculing" a person when they are at their most vulnerable. The natural reaction to such an incident is usually "how stupid", "what a fool", "they should have known better". Have you ever thought that? Told a person that? I have. I now check myself.

I recently received one of those letters from South Africa asking for a temporary loan so that they could get access to a large sum of money, promising a "cut" if I did so. After a nice laugh, I promptly shred the page. So what to do? Learn, forgive yourself, and learn. For the next month or two I'll be posting about one incredible "confidence man/woman/group" or another. Historical, modern, and across the globe. Maybe I'll learn a thing or too, and marvel at the gall of it all.

A double life

I happened upon this book in the library and thoroughly enjoyed it. Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman, Lover, Betrayer, Hero, Spy. A handsome, yet not overly unique face of an Englishman, Edward Arnold Chapman born November 16, 1914 was headed on a path of crime and years of imprisonment before the second World War.

Stuck in jail for theft, the prison soon became occupied by the Germans who would later transfer him to Fort de Romainville in Paris. And the rest is history... Playing the dangerous game of a double agent, he was first recruited by the Nazis to commit acts of sabotage against his home country. During his almost "fantastical" career he would manage to gain not only the trust and admiration of the Nazi party, but serve as a double agent for MI5, funnelling mis-information into the Axis camp.

Reputed to never get his stories crossed, he was an excellent liar, capable of diverting suspicion during the most compromising situations. The ultimate playboy, he could charm the opposite sex with astonishing ease, maintaining separate relationships to two fiancées on opposite sides during the war, Freda Stevenson in England and Dagmar Lahlum in Norway.

A James Bond in real life! I'm not surprised to learn that Tom Hanks has acquired the rights to the book for a film adaptation. I can't wait.