The con man is a venerable part of American life, and his victims are frequently people who ought to have known better. The devil knows that intelligent people are easier to fool: they have more ways to talk themselves into Hell. Telling people to get out now before it’s too late is often a way to accelerate their descent. Pride pulls them down and shame keeps them from admitting it to exasperated friends and family who tried to intervene. People who finally have to admit they were conned, often because they have no money, because they’ve lost everything, will often admit that somewhere along the way they knew what was happening but they didn’t dare acknowledge it in the moment because the pain was too enormous, because the need to believe that it was all going to end with wealth and success was the only relief from that agony.
Timothy Burke
