Protesters sit behind a police line outside a government office in central Beijing Oct 20, 2008. Hundreds of people in Beijing argued with police outside a government office, demanding help to recover money from a get-rich-quick scheme involving tree plantations to stem desertification. More than 30,000 investors, mostly retirees, sunk over a billion yuan into a company's tree-planting scheme in the arid northern region of Inner Mongolia, lured by promises of quadrupled returns within eight years. -- REUTERS/David Gray
These masters of manipulation have learnt the art of gaining your trust — and getting you to empty your pocket.
SOME years ago, I wrote about con artists and how some people can be easily persuaded to part with their hard-earned money. In the article, I mentioned that I’d received a scam e-mail from a Nigerian widow. You know, the one that talks about the millions of dollars idling in a bank account, waiting for a saviour (you, the reliable, trustworthy e-mail recipient) to help transfer the funds out of the reach of some despotic leader who was responsible for her husband’s death.
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