BONUS: Scams, Magic and the Art of Deception With Alexis Conran
The Perfect Scam
AARP
4.5 • 980 Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2022
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this bonus episode, host Bob Sullivan welcomes special guest Alexis Conran. Conran’s insight into the mind of a con man comes from acting as one on the popular BBC show The Real Hustle. On the series, Conran, an actual trained magician, and his team perpetrate scams on unsuspecting consumers and then reveal the crimes to the victims (now in the hundreds), all in the name of educating the public. Conran discusses what he’s learned about the criminal mindset and what he has identified as the elements of deception.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week on the perfect scam. |
| 0:04.0 | What psychological principles are involved to convince someone of your story? |
| 0:10.0 | Because essentially Bob, that's it, isn't it? |
| 0:12.0 | A scam is a story. It's a narrative. |
| 0:14.0 | And my job as a hustler is just to get you to believe in me and believe in the story. |
| 0:18.0 | That's all I'm trying to do. |
| 0:22.0 | Welcome back to the perfect scam. I'm your host Bob Sullivan. We've completed |
| 0:29.0 | another season of heart-wrenching scams. Victims attacked at their absolute low point, one dying of |
| 0:36.6 | cancer, another just looking for a roommate after a divorce, still another looking to help disabled veterans. |
| 0:44.8 | Each story is different, but what do they all have in common? |
| 0:48.4 | A heartless criminal or a sophisticated network of professional con artists who will stop at nothing, willing to do things |
| 0:56.2 | most of us would never dream of doing in order to steal. So today's bonus episode is a little different. |
| 1:05.0 | We wanted to help you understand what's going on in the minds of these criminals. |
| 1:09.0 | So, we're going to talk with one. |
| 1:12.0 | Alexis Conran is one of the most famous con men in the world. |
| 1:17.0 | He's not a real con man. |
| 1:19.0 | He just plays one on TV. |
| 1:21.0 | It only takes minutes for her to attach a high-tech skimming device that is used by Crux the world over. |
| 1:27.0 | He's the star of a BBC show called The Real Hustle, which has aired or been copied in 70 countries over the better part of a decade. |
| 1:38.0 | A real-life train magician in the show, Conran and his band of thieves architect hundreds of crimes on |
| 1:46.5 | unknowing consumers, film them all with hidden cameras, then reveal the crimes |
| 1:52.0 | to the victims, all in the name of educating the public about |
... |
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