Cons at scale | Seth’s Blog

Conventional con males do their work one particular person at a time. It’s a laborious course of, incomes belief and the good thing about the doubt earlier than finally ripping somebody off.

Towards the tip of my dad’s life, shameless/shameful cellphone salespeople did simply this and stole his belief, his time and his cash.

Like most issues, industrialists wish to do it sooner and larger.

Scammy junk mail was apparent even at a distance. The labels, the stamps, the typography–all of it signaled that this wasn’t private.

And the occasional cellphone salesperson, calling from a boiler room–we may inform.

Now, as knowledge acquisition continues to scale and turn out to be ever extra granular, the hustle is getting extra private.

It’s in an uncanny valley–nearly actual, however not fairly. And naturally, the space retains getting shorter.

So the mail merge, the cellphone spam, the fake intimacy of a stranger. They proceed to blur the strains between private and customized.

The tip result’s going to be a shrinking of our previously-widening circle of belief.

The advantage of the doubt is priceless. I’ve no persistence for individuals who wish to take it away from us.