The Snare of the Deception of Confidence Tricksters

Note: This article is an unedited excerpt from a book being written to be entitled "The Snares of a Deceptive Society".
Introduction
The author has been prompted to write this article after experiences he and some close friends had at the hands of con men.

Con men always exploit a given circumstance in order to make monetary gains out of it.

Such a circumstance is usually brought out by a need to improve one's financial position. One may need to improve sales of goods in a shop or to rent out some property or services for cash.

The con man would study the financial position of his potential victim before he strikes.

It is my hope that a number of the readers who were likely to become future victims of these people would take precautions to protect themselves.

This article does not claim to be the "be-it-all" or a "crime-busting" manual to prevent one from being conned.

The author takes no responsibility for loss or gain incurred by the reader as a result of the advice or opinion given in this article.

Case One:
Hardware Shops

Non Government Organizations (NGOs) are renowned for doing a very commendable job of supplementing Government efforts in undertaking developmental projects in the country. This is more so in rural areas where they are involved in projects such as building orphanages, schools and healthy centres.

NGOs are known to be well funded by the foreign countries that sponsor them and if any supply company is approached to provide some goods they are usually assured that the payment will be prompt. This is unlike other institutions who take longer to make payment for services rendered.

It was in 2007 during the Heroes and Unity holiday, which extended from Sunday up to Tuesday, when a group of four young men came to one city on the Copperbelt.

The day was a Saturday at around midday; one group went to an IT and computer hardware shop and presented a Bank Certified Cheque to the manager of the shop worth $5,000 for the purchase of five Computers for an orphanage in the Northern Province.

Meanwhile another group went to the industrial area and approached a hardware shop with another cheque for $2,500 for the purchase of some electrical cables for the same orphanage.

At the computer hardware shop they did not encounter any problems. However, at the other shop they were told that there were only cables worth $1,500 in stock and the rest could be collected from their warehouse which was a few kilometres from the shop.

The owner of the shop selling cables saw an opportunity to make a good profit. He organized to purchase the remaining cable from nearby hardware shops at $850 which he sold to the unsuspecting NGO officials.

Whilst the men were waiting for the other cable to be delivered, they were feted by the shop owner who was glad to make such a big sale a few minutes before the shop closed at 12:45 hrs. Up to this time the day has been bad for business as $150 worth of sales were realized from 8:00 hrs when the shop opened.

In order not to raise any suspicious activity the men at the cable shop made telephone calls using their mobile phones to the other group who were purchasing computers for the orphanage. The three men were clad in expensive looking three-piece suits and were wearing expensive perfume which is normally used by the affluent in society. They had hired a 3 ton Mitsubishi Canter light truck which was painted with the logo of the purported orphanage. The shop keeper could therefore not suspect anything strange with the three men.

The computer shopkeeper took the cheque to the Bank before close of business where it bounced and referred to the owner of the cheque.

This information about the conmen did not filter to the cable shop owner at the time he was organizing for more cables.

The conversation by mobile phones between the con men was actually for telling the other group at the cable shop to remain calm, as police were alerted of the bounced $5,000 cheque from the computer shop. They were told to flee should they sense that the shop owner was getting suspicious.

The three men at the cable shop managed to keep calm until the cable was delivered at 13:30 hrs, some forty five minutes after the official closure time for shops on Saturdays.


During the long weekend the cable supplier heard a story of a group of men who got away with five computers using a forged cheque. This did not worry him at all because the ones who came to his shop “looked” genuine.

When the long weekend holiday was over, the cable shop businessman took the cheque to the Bank.

He was shocked when he was told that the cheque was not genuine!

For starters, a Bank Certified Cheque is never hand written except for the signature of the Bank manager. They are usually machine printed with the figures written in perforation on the cheque. Secondly, the name of the Bank had changed from "So and So" Bank Ltd. to "So and So" Bank Plc!

The man soon started to sweat profusely when he realized that he was also duped in a similar fashion to the computer shop. He was admitted in hospital with a life threatening BP of 200 over 130 mm of mercury.

When he recovered, he was given a $200 bill for medical treatment from the hospital.

His only consolation was that he was tricked out of $2,500 worth of goods which was half of the amount stolen from the computer shop. He shivered when the thought came to him if the situation had been vice versa!


Case two:
Serial Conman!

In May 2009 a man showed interest to be a new tenant of a house in the Midlands.

The owner of the house was staying on the Copperbelt.

The house required some renovations to be done before it was to be occupied. The owner agreed with the tenant, who was to do the renovations and the amount spent would be deductible from the rental fee.

The owner of the house was to be paid about $4,000 in rentals in advance for 3 months. This was less the renovation cost.

The man moved into the house and commenced on the renovations. He promised the Landlord that payment of rentals would be effected within two weeks.

The Landlord was made to check his Bank account on the Copperbelt, for the promised rental payment, on several occasions from mid May 2009. After ten days without being paid, he realized that he had been duped.

The owner of the house travelled to the Midlands without informing the tenant.

On being confronted by the owner of the house, the tenant produced a Bank receipt. The receipt showed a cheque deposit of $25,000 into the man's bank account. He claimed that it was from a parastatal Company.

On closer examination, the receipt turned up to be fake and the matter was reported to police for investigation.

On sensing danger, the con man fled and disappeared.

Police investigations revealed that a vehicle he was using, during the time of renovations of the house, was hired from a certain lady.

The hiring was at $400 per week for a "Project" in Southern Province. She had not been paid $1,400!

A man, who lured the lady into hiring her vehicle to the con man, had claimed to be working at a certain Lodge. He was, in fact, a shill for the con man. He had introduced the con man to the owner of the vehicle. He told her that the man was one of their guests.

On checking with the Lodge it was found that the con man owed $1,000 in unsettled bills!

A businessman was made to supply building sand worth about $500. He was told the stone was to be used for the house renovations. The businessman was told that the house belonged to the con man.

One man and his lady friend were made to pay the con man $800 in advance. This was for rental of the cottage of the house for four months. The couple were not aware that the house did not belong to the man at the time of payment.

They realised that they have been tricked when the lady was about to shift into the cottage on 4 June 2009. The matter was reported to Police.

At the time of writing, it was not known how many other people had been victim to this crafty man, who was believed to belong to a syndicate of con men yet to be arrested and interviewed by Police!






What is a Confidence Trickster?

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org ), a confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or a group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, confidence trickster or a con artist.

Confidence men or women exploit human characteristics such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility and naiveté. The common factor is that the mark relies on the good faith of the con artist.

Just as there is no typical profile for swindlers, neither is there one for their victims. Virtually anyone can fall prey to fraudulent crimes.

Shills, also known as accomplices, help manipulate the mark into accepting the con man’s plan.


How Does One Identify a Con Man?

Though there is no foolproof way one can really identify a con man, the following may assist one to be on the look out for one.


If a promise is made to you like “The money is being deposited into your account within the next two days”, and nothing happens, he will accuse someone else for not fulfilling the promise. “You know these small banks they take longer to do their transactions”. This is not true because the transactions are done electronically. The size of the Bank has nothing to do with how fast they operate.


In order to win your confidence, you maybe told of huge amounts of payments he expects to receive from some source. For example you will be told something like “I am expecting a payment of $40,000 from one Company where I did some work for them”. This is not true because if the man is an established businessman, why should he wait for payment from anybody to pay you $3,000 for your services? From experience, in Zambia, cheques of over $20,000 are not usually issued for immediate payment.

If there is delay in paying you, he may promise you to pay you a smaller amount by borrowing from his colleagues whilst the bigger amount pending is being “processed”. Do not fall for this fallacy; he is just trying to buy time before he disappears. Insist on giving you the transaction number for the transfer and ask him to fax or e-mail you a scanned copy of the bank transfer. If he does not do it, then you are being cheated.

He will show sympathy to you for the delay in payment and promise to compensate you for the inconvenience or loss of business as a result of the delay. There is no one who can compensate you for your loss as a result of his inaction. Why he should compensate you anywhere?

When you talk him in stern language, he will tend to forget some of the facts about your deal. For example, he will give you a wrong figure of how much he owes you or in some cases he might forget the exact details of your agreement.”I’ll be able to pay you for the sale of your house (the deal was to rent the house not to sell it!) by next week. Don’t try to correct him as you talk to him and see how far he goes in cheating you! This gives him more rope to hang himself. An agitated con man loses focus because all his “generator” of tricks comes to a standstill when he is challenged.

There will be a general pattern in the way he is giving you excuses. He may say “I am sure all will be fine by next Monday, considering the weekend is around the corner, and Banks don’t work at weekends”. The weekend is his best time to give you excuses because he knows you’ll be busy with Church Service and other social functions. If you tell him that you have a busy schedule, he will encourage you to attend to them without worrying how much he owes you. He might even tell you that he is also have a busy schedule at “Church”. This gives him a break to devise more excuses for you for the coming week!

When you send him an e-mail to query or clarify anything, he will not reply to it. Instead, he will ring you. Why is this so? Because an e-mail can be reproduced in court as incriminating evidence. A telephone call, unless recorded, can not be reproduced.

The same goes for SMS you send to him. Most of them will be answered by a verbal conversation.SMS can, however, be converted into printable format on the higher version cell phones and pocket PCs. If you have a cell phone that can record a conversation, arrange to make some recordings of them. The only setback is most cell phones that record; make a bleeping sound every five seconds during recording. A cleverer con man would be alerted by this and avoid his voice to be recorded.

When you talk to him and you put him under pressure, he will tend to stammer and speak in low tones. Some con men tend to talk very fast so that you can not get what they are trying to tell you.

He will not answer some of your calls and later say he had left the phone in the car as he was in the Bank organising for the money. This is not true because why leave the phone in the car when he could have just switched it off? When he is not answering the phone it means he is still planning how to tell you another convincing story at the next conversation.


He will tend to “over respect” you, by referring to you as “Boss”, “Father” or “Big Man” most of the time, when you speak to him. This is to give you a false of sense that he is an honest man. What he really means is “You fool” or “Sucker” you will never get your money!

When you ring him, after he has not given you a reason for not honouring his earlier promise, he would tell you something like “Let me come back to you as I am in a meeting now” or “I am driving”. If he does not ring you as promised, then you are rest assured that he will not ring back!
If you ever meet him, and he is carrying more than one cell phone, if you notice that he changes SIM cards, be assured that he has more “customers” than you. If someone calls him and he answers any of the phones, take note of how he responds. Is he cutting off the caller? Is he saying “Let me come back to you?” If he says more than one sentence, note whether his conversation with the caller is friendly or hostile? Con men have a lot of people chasing them and trying to catch up with them.
If whilst talking to him, and he rings someone else, note whether he is talking loudly or quietly. The latter indicates that he is consulting someone for advice. If he talks in a language or slang you do not understand, he is probably up to no good.
Do not tell him, on the phone, that you are aware that he is just cheating you. There is a danger of him fleeing before you confront him.
Confront him without notice, and do so in the presence of at least two witnesses. You don’t have to give him the full details of your witnesses at first. If one of the witnesses is a law enforcement officer, you can only reveal this to him at an appropriate time. Introduce him by his true name and tell him that he is a friend or relative.






General Guidelines


Establish the true identity and authenticity of the person you are dealing with. If he claims to be a businessman, ask for his business cards and establish the premises where he is operating from. Do not deal with briefcase businessmen.

Find out what business he has done with any organisation, ask for proof of that or make an effort to check for yourself, if you know someone in that organisation. Most big organisations have a computerised system of their Suppliers and Contractors. An established business would have done business with several organisations, so you have a way to double check the information given to you.

Take photos of the vehicle he is using and if possible his own photo. You can ask someone to take a photo of yourself and him as you do transactions together. If he refuses to have his photo taken do not force him as you may chase a potential good tenant. If need be, do so without alerting him.

All payments to you should be done by direct deposit into your Bank account either by cash or a bank transfer. Bank transfers should be confirmed before payment is considered done. Do not listen to information like “The money will reflect on your account in two days’ time.”

Do not give him goods or services before payment is done. A Bank Certified Cheque only becomes cash once you see it reflected in your account. Do not be cheated that the goods or service are required urgently. You may told something like “We are running behind schedule on the Project which must be completed before next Independence celebrations”. There is no urgency for anything unless proof is shown that human life is at stake.

Do not accept to be invited to go to his Bank to witness the deposition of the money into your account. Why should you witness the transaction when you can check if it has been done on your own?



Do not accept payment to be given to you in cash in an isolated place. There is a danger of the money being grabbed from you soon after “payment” or the “money” may be counterfeit.

Do not accept cash to be given to you even if it is in a Bank. You could be arrested right there, if the money turns up to be counterfeit, when you try to deposit it in your account. The con man would have slipped away from the scene and leave you to face the law on your own!

Do not accept to go to secluded places alone for any meetings. Some con men use attractive young ladies as shills, to persuade you to go to some rendezvous. You could be walking into an ambush and get mugged, robbed or even worse. You should only do so go with an escort of law enforcement officers, if an arrest is planned for the con men.

Ensure than you correspond with him by e-mail which should be copied to his boss, his colleagues, your family or your friends. If he does not reply and insists on verbal conversations by phone, start recording them!

Do not trust information given to you verbally by third parties such as “We know him, he is our regular customer”.

You should be concerned if he calls you from a different cell number he has not previously called you from, unless you were given the other number at the beginning. Why should he use different cell phone numbers? If you notice that one of the numbers you knew before is no longer in use, this should alert you that he has just successfully conned one victim and has thrown away the SIM card!

Crooks are everywhere; some of them work for reputable organisations you would not expect to do harm to you. Crooks in these organisations do their criminal activities behind the backs of their bosses. Before you commit yourself, verify that you are dealing with genuine people in the organisation. This is of course not easy, unless you presume that, all are not genuine until proven otherwise! In this case use your personal judgement or intuition. Put it in prayer for God’s guidance.

Do not give him your physical address until you have established his true identity and authenticity.


If you suspect that something is amiss, do not show him at first. This should only be done when all indications point to the fact that you have been dealing with a con man.

Houses for Rent

Establish where he is currently residing and ask him why he is shifting from that place. You could be dealing with a habitual rent defaulter. If he renting the house he wants to vacate, find out from his current landlord why he is changing accommodation.

If he says he is shifting because he wants to move into a bigger house, find out who are members of his family and meet them if possible. You may be shown some photos of the children and wife stuck in a purse. This is not usually a guarantee that the family is still together. Some men, who have turned into crooks, usually have their wives running away from them, and they keep their photos as a means of solace.

If he tells you that the wife is out of the country for studies, find out which institution she is at. A lot of con men have no clue about foreign universities.

When the tenant is shifting into your house, be suspicious if all or most of the household goods being put into your house are new. You will notice that furniture, bedding and cooking utensils are removed from wrappers. These could have just been bought on hire purchase from a furnishing company. You could be dealing with someone who will not pay for them and disappear after sometime. Find out where the old household goods are if you were told that tenant has shifted from another place.


Avoid doing all your transactions by correspondence. A lot of people are conned due to the fact that they are not able to track what is exactly is happening on the ground. If you are renting your property which is in another town or city where you live, take time off to travel there and meet the potential tenant in person.

Avoid delegating transactions to your child or spouse, unless they have legal rights over the property.



Do not send him your personal documents such as Title Deeds, Certificates and IDs in colour, by electronic or mechanical means. Some Conmen can use these to forge them for criminal activity. If you have to send them, do so in black and white format. As an additional precaution, ensure that the documents are embossed with “Scanned Copy” written across them. Such documents should only be sent after seeking legal advice if you are not sure.

If some renovation work is required to be done, and the tenant agrees to pay for them, ensure that he is not given access to the premises until full payment is done. The date of the effective date of the start of the tenancy period should thereafter, be agreed in advance by both parties. This should be clearly stated in the Tenancy Agreement.

Renovation work should be supervised by people you have appointed and approved by the tenant. You should have access to all the documentation regarding the renovations. The scope of work and a bill of quantities approved by both parties should be put in place. Do not depend on information from third parties.

You should not sign the Tenancy Agreement until full payment has been done. Do not accept partial payments in the hope that more will be done later.

Vehicles for Sale

When you advertise you car in the press do not send a picture of it, just describe what it is. There is no vehicle in the market that is known how it looks like. If you send a photo of it, you maybe met by a group of “interested people” who want to buy it in a car park. They would then tell you to drive them to a place where payment will be done in cash. In the process your car could be grabbed from you or you could get hurt.

Describe your vehicle in simple language. What you should remember is you are selling a vehicle which is subject to viewing and inspection before purchase. Don’t use flamboyant language such as “full house” or “immaculate condition”.

Do not allow potential buyers to take the car for a “test drive” on their own. You will never see it again!


Do not allow yourself to accompany potential buyers for a “test drive “with them. You could be attacked in the process. If a test drive is insisted, let it be done with the assistance of law enforcement officers or garages.

I personally do not like sticking “For Sale “stickers on vehicles, especially expensive ones. It attracts a lot of attention and con men are always on the look out for such vehicles and plan how to steal them from the owners.

The Showdown

When you realise that you have been conned and you still have your property or services not yet delivered, do the following:

Confront him in the presence of witnesses; if possible get a law enforcement officer disguised as a friend or relative.

Do not shout at him or show anger. An angry man is not focussed on the issue at hand. The right approach is to stay cool. Some victims of con men have turned into villains by assaulting the cheating person. This would complicate the case being handled.


Tell him in the face that you have lost confidence in him.

If he still tries to show you that he is not a crook, tell him that you will take audio and or video recordings of his commitments in the presence of witnesses. Immediately send these recordings and photos to him by e-mail and copy it to interested parties. The con man is almost certain to flee once he realises that his false promises he had just made have been disclosed and are now known by more people! A con man depends on buying time to plan more falsehoods. If he is taken by surprise he flees.