Hey, everyone. Sebastian here. I just wanted to let everybody listening know that I'm going to be a featured speaker this year at the

Intelligent Speech Conference. The Intelligent Speech Conference is an online conference that brings together a

diverse group of podcasters and other content creators and their fans. It's going to be held November 4th, and it's entirely

online this year. The theme for the 2023 conference is contingencies when history meets the backup plan. I'm going to be giving a keynote address and

participating in a roundtable with history on fires, Danieli Bollelli. So if you think you want to participate, go to

IntelligentSpeechOnline.com to get the early bird tickets now. Also use coupon code

fake to save 10% on your ticket. That sounds cool to you. I'll see you on November 4th.

Have you ever heard of the leather jacket scam?

It's a classic grift used by two-bit con men all over the world.

Takes only a few minutes to perform and the most effective grifters have been known to scam hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars out of their

victims using this one quick maneuver.

What distinguishes the leather jacket scam from most other quick hustles is its clever use of props, costumes and a

beguiling backstory. This scam combines the ornate trappings of a long con with the speed of a mugging. Allow me to break this down for you.

In the leather jacket scam, the con artist will approach their mark quickly, sometimes on foot or sometimes in a car.

This person will be well dressed or just well dressed enough to suggest that they are wealthy or important.

On a closer inspection, one might discover that this con artist's expensive seeming Rolex is actually a fake, but one of the keys to this

grift is speed. The mark shouldn't have too much time to evaluate the quality of the costume.

To that end, the con artist will claim to be in a great rush. He has a plane to catch or a meeting to get to or some other pressing

engagement, but as luck would have it, he's out of gas and has no cash to refuel his expensive rental car, which needs to be

returned as soon as possible. The con artist will then tell the mark that he's actually just visiting the country. He works in fashion, you see, and was in town for a runway show or a meeting with

distributors or some other fashiony sounding thing. This grift works especially well if the grifter looks or sounds like they might be Italian.

Often the con artist will claim to be from Milan, a city whose name is synonymous with fashion.

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