Give con artists a run for their (your) money! 
This is not a thread for outing anyone as a con artist. If you do, FF will probably suspend you. If you have any other scam filtering ideas please post them.
'Con artist' is short for 'confidence artist'. They are good at gaining your confidence (trust) so that you willingly give them your money (or whatever the deal
calls for)
The bigger the claim, the higher the probability that it is a lie. If any given person told you they had a billion dollars what would be the chances that
were true? Extremely low. So whenever you hear a big claim (and you can give them money to get in on the action), the probability that it's a lie is sky high
Possible motivations to con at FF - To get your money, to get others to improve the system that they have (you give up your time and effort)
If they make a claim, the burden of PROOF is always on them. There is no burden to make yourself believe
They need payment? You need proof
What is proof? It's not a small number of cherry picked predictions.
Don't trust posted statements because they could have been doctored
Trade Explorers can be manipulated. However, if nothing in the TE is hidden and they don't work as a broker (they can add/delete trades), you can do your own analysis
Proof needs to be specific to their sales claims, e.g. if they say their system has >90% wins, they need to prove >that< specific system has achieved such a performance through forward testing for a long enough duration. You need to be able to analyse each trade. Be wary when they say they made 500% gains because they may have conveniently left out the fact that they went into massive drawdown because they didn't use an adequate exit strategy
If your greed and/desperation is controlling you, the con artist will place it on you to believe without providing any valid evidence.
If they make an excuse to avoid providing proof, you should walk away (this is assuming that they want something from you, or there is an offer on the table). This is one of the biggest redflags
If you get a certain amount of free value from a con artist, e.g. a free system, descriptive posts, that's not proof that their sales claims are true. Especially not if they make giant claims.
A con might play the 'it's (perpetually) in development so I don't have to do anything' game, e.g. their system is always being improved so it's not ready for a performance review, so that's the excuse for not providing completely impartial proof, i.e. a TE with all features set to public.
If a TE is put up, it will likely bomb. So it will be started in conditions where there is no/minimal loss to their credibility, i.e. with a stable base of followers who believe even though there is insufficient evidence to back up the given claims. No stop loss will be used because they want to make gains fast while showing minimal losses. Competitors in trading competitions frequently use this tactic, and that's why you see their previous competition accounts have >90% drawdown. But followers will be forgiving because the system is 'in development', or they'll make up any number of other reasons to excuse the poor performance
The system being traded in the TE may bear little resemblance to what's presented in the thread. This means the TE is irrelevant, but followers will believe that it is meaningful if they see a large gain
If it's a scam, it may just appear probable that they are deceiving you, rather than it being an obvious fact. Sometimes there will be a smokescreen to conceal
the truth, i.e. they'll make it look like they are doing something else while the deception is occurring. It gives them plausible deniability if someone tries to
call them out. Gullible people will require the deception to be spelled out for them explicitly and therefore continue to be duped
Even if you are highly intelligent, allowing greed/desperation to get the better of you will cloud your thinking. Apply emotion free logic
If called out, con artists will usually remain consistent with their deception strategy so they can carry on deceiving their easier targets. The consistency makes them appear more trustworthy.
Con artists love easy targets because those people take mental short cuts, rather than think things through thoroughly and logically
If the con artist gets a commitment from you, you will tend to keep to it in order to appear consistent with that commitment. If you make up your mind that the
con artist's claims are real, you will tend to keep believing in him and give him the benefit of the doubt even when red flags keep popping up (or maybe you
won't even notice them)
One of your criteria should not be whether they can bamboozle you with words. If you don't understand them, they are probably talking gibberish and aren't
enigmatic geniuses. This presupposes that you have an intellect and education level that is similar to or better than the con artist. If you aren't all that
educated, just don't buy things that you don't understand
A red diamond status makes it easier to deceive others because some people will think a red diamond member can be trusted automatically. Red diamond status is merely a popularity rating, not an integrity rating
A large 'ignore list' is a possible redflag if they have something to sell (or may in the future)
Just because a large number of people believe something, doesn't make it true. The earth was once flat, but that was proven wrong.
Followers and con artists will often say people who don't believe are naysayers, close-minded, idiots, trolls, etc, and then dismiss everything they say. This is
a genetic fallacy, i.e. Labeling people as fundamentally defective and because of that, believe they aren't worth listening to even if their arguments are
logical
A con artist will tend to avoid debating with skeptics. If they do, they resort to ambiguity (believers will apply their own meaning), obfuscation with advanced
jargon (believers will be bamboozled), contradiction (believers will let it pass as a simple mistake), and\or lies.
A con artist may agree to give you what you want, but of course they won't deliver (at least not in full). They will delay, delay, and delay forever.
Some con artists don't make any hints that they want something from you. They'll talk a big talk and let you make the offer of paying them first. They might even feign resistance to selling anything so that it seemed like your idea to buy
A con artist may appear quite pleasant and/or helpful. This tactic helps them stay under the radar, adds another facet to their plausible deniability ('He
wouldn't do that. He's a good guy!'), and this helps them build up followers who will defend them against skeptics. One to one, this facade of innocence is a
personal defense without having to apply any effort. Normal people don't usually challenge/attack innocent people, so it often takes a long time for this type of
con to get called out
A con artist may try to inoculate followers against thinking he is a con artist/lier by suggesting that people will say things to discredit him because those
posters are egotistical or stupid. It's like giving you a vaccine so that when a skeptic arrives, followers will dismiss them and think 'Pfft, he predicted this
would happen. Troll!'
A payment is a payment is a payment, whether the con artist calls it a commitment, a donation, or whatever. If you're giving money and then getting
goods/services, that's a purchase. They only call it something else to lessen psychological resistance to buying
If you pay the con artist and you aren't making money from his system, he'll likely blame your ability to trade the system rather than the system itself. They
will probably point out that other (fictitious) people are doing fine
Don't trust a person's answers to be honest if their honesty is in question
Scams are built on trust. How did they get your trust?
This is not a thread for outing anyone as a con artist. If you do, FF will probably suspend you. If you have any other scam filtering ideas please post them.
'Con artist' is short for 'confidence artist'. They are good at gaining your confidence (trust) so that you willingly give them your money (or whatever the deal
calls for)
The bigger the claim, the higher the probability that it is a lie. If any given person told you they had a billion dollars what would be the chances that
were true? Extremely low. So whenever you hear a big claim (and you can give them money to get in on the action), the probability that it's a lie is sky high
Possible motivations to con at FF - To get your money, to get others to improve the system that they have (you give up your time and effort)
If they make a claim, the burden of PROOF is always on them. There is no burden to make yourself believe
They need payment? You need proof
What is proof? It's not a small number of cherry picked predictions.
Don't trust posted statements because they could have been doctored
Trade Explorers can be manipulated. However, if nothing in the TE is hidden and they don't work as a broker (they can add/delete trades), you can do your own analysis
Proof needs to be specific to their sales claims, e.g. if they say their system has >90% wins, they need to prove >that< specific system has achieved such a performance through forward testing for a long enough duration. You need to be able to analyse each trade. Be wary when they say they made 500% gains because they may have conveniently left out the fact that they went into massive drawdown because they didn't use an adequate exit strategy
If your greed and/desperation is controlling you, the con artist will place it on you to believe without providing any valid evidence.
If they make an excuse to avoid providing proof, you should walk away (this is assuming that they want something from you, or there is an offer on the table). This is one of the biggest redflags
If you get a certain amount of free value from a con artist, e.g. a free system, descriptive posts, that's not proof that their sales claims are true. Especially not if they make giant claims.
A con might play the 'it's (perpetually) in development so I don't have to do anything' game, e.g. their system is always being improved so it's not ready for a performance review, so that's the excuse for not providing completely impartial proof, i.e. a TE with all features set to public.
If a TE is put up, it will likely bomb. So it will be started in conditions where there is no/minimal loss to their credibility, i.e. with a stable base of followers who believe even though there is insufficient evidence to back up the given claims. No stop loss will be used because they want to make gains fast while showing minimal losses. Competitors in trading competitions frequently use this tactic, and that's why you see their previous competition accounts have >90% drawdown. But followers will be forgiving because the system is 'in development', or they'll make up any number of other reasons to excuse the poor performance
The system being traded in the TE may bear little resemblance to what's presented in the thread. This means the TE is irrelevant, but followers will believe that it is meaningful if they see a large gain
If it's a scam, it may just appear probable that they are deceiving you, rather than it being an obvious fact. Sometimes there will be a smokescreen to conceal
the truth, i.e. they'll make it look like they are doing something else while the deception is occurring. It gives them plausible deniability if someone tries to
call them out. Gullible people will require the deception to be spelled out for them explicitly and therefore continue to be duped
Even if you are highly intelligent, allowing greed/desperation to get the better of you will cloud your thinking. Apply emotion free logic
If called out, con artists will usually remain consistent with their deception strategy so they can carry on deceiving their easier targets. The consistency makes them appear more trustworthy.
Con artists love easy targets because those people take mental short cuts, rather than think things through thoroughly and logically
If the con artist gets a commitment from you, you will tend to keep to it in order to appear consistent with that commitment. If you make up your mind that the
con artist's claims are real, you will tend to keep believing in him and give him the benefit of the doubt even when red flags keep popping up (or maybe you
won't even notice them)
One of your criteria should not be whether they can bamboozle you with words. If you don't understand them, they are probably talking gibberish and aren't
enigmatic geniuses. This presupposes that you have an intellect and education level that is similar to or better than the con artist. If you aren't all that
educated, just don't buy things that you don't understand
A red diamond status makes it easier to deceive others because some people will think a red diamond member can be trusted automatically. Red diamond status is merely a popularity rating, not an integrity rating
A large 'ignore list' is a possible redflag if they have something to sell (or may in the future)
Just because a large number of people believe something, doesn't make it true. The earth was once flat, but that was proven wrong.
Followers and con artists will often say people who don't believe are naysayers, close-minded, idiots, trolls, etc, and then dismiss everything they say. This is
a genetic fallacy, i.e. Labeling people as fundamentally defective and because of that, believe they aren't worth listening to even if their arguments are
logical
A con artist will tend to avoid debating with skeptics. If they do, they resort to ambiguity (believers will apply their own meaning), obfuscation with advanced
jargon (believers will be bamboozled), contradiction (believers will let it pass as a simple mistake), and\or lies.
A con artist may agree to give you what you want, but of course they won't deliver (at least not in full). They will delay, delay, and delay forever.
Some con artists don't make any hints that they want something from you. They'll talk a big talk and let you make the offer of paying them first. They might even feign resistance to selling anything so that it seemed like your idea to buy
A con artist may appear quite pleasant and/or helpful. This tactic helps them stay under the radar, adds another facet to their plausible deniability ('He
wouldn't do that. He's a good guy!'), and this helps them build up followers who will defend them against skeptics. One to one, this facade of innocence is a
personal defense without having to apply any effort. Normal people don't usually challenge/attack innocent people, so it often takes a long time for this type of
con to get called out
A con artist may try to inoculate followers against thinking he is a con artist/lier by suggesting that people will say things to discredit him because those
posters are egotistical or stupid. It's like giving you a vaccine so that when a skeptic arrives, followers will dismiss them and think 'Pfft, he predicted this
would happen. Troll!'
A payment is a payment is a payment, whether the con artist calls it a commitment, a donation, or whatever. If you're giving money and then getting
goods/services, that's a purchase. They only call it something else to lessen psychological resistance to buying
If you pay the con artist and you aren't making money from his system, he'll likely blame your ability to trade the system rather than the system itself. They
will probably point out that other (fictitious) people are doing fine
Don't trust a person's answers to be honest if their honesty is in question
Scams are built on trust. How did they get your trust?
. Far from it - as we know this is completely distinct from actually trading with hard-earned money - your money! I guess the moral of the story is - don't believe everything you see as the truth and nothing but the truth...
