How the Con Artist Became a Weird TV “Hero”
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- čas přidán 29. 07. 2024
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Today’s new era of con artists aren’t the hardened, film noir criminals of the past; they’re slick, manipulative social media scammers, or glamorous-looking hustlers determined to fake it until they make it. They seek power through first creating an image or idea around themselves. Con artistry is about gaming the system to accrue influence and status, and then leveraging that into concrete gains. Here’s our take on the modern con artist, and whether today’s scams and hustles are just becoming something we’re all expected to take part in.
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00:00 What does the con artist look like today?
03:03 The reason a conman is called an artist
07:01 Stamps.com
08:11 How do con artists get their start?
13:12 A world of good cons and bad cons
15:45 What happened to the truth? - Zábava
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Funny about that last line.
I am shocked that the everyday victims of these people get mocked or worse harassed.
Me too. It’s gross
It’s only because everyone thinks they’re too smart to get scammed. Which is exactly what scammers are relying on.
The tinder guy is still on social media and it shocks me. He has so many followers on Insta and so many girls falling for him, its disturbing
he is an attractive guy of course women still want him
I never felt bad for his victims. It’s one thing to make someone fall in love with you. It’s another thing to believe your handsome European boyfriend needs 100k in an hour and you send it to him without question. You deserve to be conned.
Serial killers and rapists have women fans. Is it that shocking that women are cray cray
It's the new age. I am so happy that I came from the 90's and I don't feel attraction for these internet con artists dudes, but he's like the George Cloney of 2020's for these young women.
Women fall for serial killers like Ted Bundy and even try to marry them it’s not very surprising they’d go after that guy. There’s a lot of desperate people out there
"I care a lot" really got shafted by no one understanding that it is a critique of who is successful under capitalism and not a feel good girl boss story. I feel like it's going to get a comeback in a few years once it starts clicking with people. The Netflix marketing department really had no idea what the assignment was.
THANK YOU! I didn’t like the movie that much for other reasons (I really wanted to though- Rosumund pike is underrated)
But that’s the message that so many missed, and instead people just turned it into fuel for anti feminist rhetoric.
Same people who didn’t get that fight club was a critique of capitalism and toxic masculinity.
The movie that ran 20mins too long. It was great until they didn't know when to end it.
No, it's not that the viewers "didn't get the message." I got the theme they were going for, but the plot was contrived and the 3rd act dropped the ball. The movie started off with a great idea but didn't know how to end it. Lots of potential, but ended up being a half baked.
The problem is that the audience takes the perspective of the sociopath not of the victim. We need more stories about victims that show their tragedy
“Worst Roommate Ever” does that very well.
True. Most of these con artist characters seem to be romanticised or idealised so much that it's like subconsciously telling the audience to root for them and believe what they were doing is either a cool thing to do or justified due to their upbringing or both. The conned victims were never given enough chances to be sympathised by the audience. Instead they were written with the "victim is stupid or desperate to heed the con artist's needs, hence it's the victim's fault for falling for an obvious con" narrative.
@@SuiLover That's why Trump was so successful. The people he screws over and destroys, not so much.
It depends on the victem. if the victem is well off the audience wont sympathize. If the victem is poor or an average joe, then the audience sees them as desperate and foolish for believing ssuch a too good to be true. But if they are sick, then you have rightious rage.
its a thin line.
@@SuiLover Indeed. I remember watching _Manhunt: Unabomber_ (and besides thinking that the moment that it "clicked" for the hunter when he was sitting a red light with no one around being silly) was how that it almost seemed to sympathize with Kaczynski. You only saw a brief scene with victim impact statements at the end.
See a show that included actual interviews with Kaczynski and he is not a sympathetic figure _at all._
It makes me deeply angry that the Tindr conman is now successful off the back of the documentary. People paying him for cameos is just infuriating. Every unearned grandiose thing he thinks about himself and his importance has been affirmed. Lack of consequences really gets to me.
Same. It’s infuriating to say the least
And meanwhile his victims are still in financial ruin trying to recover
Would you feel the same if the genders were reversed?
@@sary6256 Yes. 100% Injustice makes me deeply angry regardless of the gender.
I was just listening to the psychology in Seattle podcast on Anna Delvey. Dr Honda said a third reason we love these stories is watching a story about comeuppance. Us- good citizens- who do the right thing, at least we can sleep at night knowing that there’s consequences sometimes. Please note we have less movies about criminals getting away at the end. It fills us with existential dread to think evil goes unpunished. Even though honestly 99% of evil goes unpunished.
It’s really disturbing how so many con artists of today are praised and have gotten even more followers after they got caught.
I think guys follow him because they loved seeing pretty girls getting abused because they thought the women deserved it. And women fall for him because they think they can change him. Both kind of people are wrong. He is just a narcissist who has no morals.
People worship money and see poverty as a personal moral failing.
@@susannehuber3996 great insight
@@josefk7437 You hit the nail on its head 👍 They got followers because "the fans" see them as smart visionaries that only got caught. Like they no-so-secretly think the criminals are on go to a key to success, and they could have execute it better and get away with it.
It's a very American trait, the glamorosation of delinquency. Gangsters, serial murderers, white collars delinquents, etc have fans after their crimes and more content is churned out about them, every year.
One of my favorite shows is called Leverage. It's about a bunch of thieves and grifters literally conning rich ppl to give back to their victims. Glorified, I know, but it's super campy and I love it
We're really talking about con artists and scammers on screens without even mentioning Better Call Saul? Jimmy goes through the entire show struggling to do the right thing or taking the easy way out (and most exciting) and ends up scamming his way through his whole law career until it finally catches up to him in Breaking Bad.
And the irony is, the headline said TV heroes , but they mainly mentioned movies
I’ve been waiting for the take to finally talk about better call Saul for weeks but maybe they just don’t like it
weird af they snob BCS like the emmys does...especially cuz they already talked about the series before
I feel like this is a weird side effect of no one going to prison for the 08 financial crisis. Enough “elite deviance” means more of us peasants acting out and/or emulating those institutional scammers who always seem to get away with their schemes.
Scammers affect your critical thinking. That’s the core of the operation.
Missed a golden opportunity to talk about White Collar. Neal Caffrey has all the trappings of a typical con artist but is genuinely smart and cultured outside of that trade. He also has a strong moral compass, sense of humor, and truly cares about people. One of the best TV characters of the last decade.
I loved that show! Not only for Neil Caffrey but also for the strong relationship it showed with Elizabeth and Peter's marriage.
Also missed an opportunity to talk about better call Saul 😕
LEVERAGE. I could on for years about that show, it's my favorite! Criminals conning the criminally rich, modern day robin hood!
@@hilarygillis8592 OOh, that's also a good one!
I have always pledged myself that life and existence have no value unless they end in self-respect. Success for me is when my time comes and I stand in front of my memories tape, I smile and say: I respect myself, without regard to the respect of all the inhabitants of the earth for me, the important thing is that I did not lose my self-respect. Even if I didn't have any achievements, I didn't get them or try to get them in hideous ways
Well said
I think telling Anna Delvey apart from the Dropout's protagonist or Evan Hansen is very important. One hurt people and messed with medically serious issues, another played with a family's grief, while the other... Proved that multimillionaire powers won't help you even if you have ideas if you aren't already a millionaire?
It seems you s misunderstanding what Anna adelvey did.
It would be one thing if she represented herself honestly as someone that wasn't a millionaire and the bank rejected her despite her good idea.
However.
She lied every chance that she got. She lied about her inheritence. She lied about her identity. She created fake people in order to continue her deception. She charged thousands of dollars on someone else's credit card. She put her "friends" in a potentially dangerous situation that could have landed them in jail. She deposited bad checked and withdrew the money before she banks could catch on. She stole an airplane. She stole stays a hotels by lying about a wire transfer that was never coming.
Yes, Anna Delvey 100% deserves to be called a con artist right up there with Elizabeth Holmes and that tinder swindler.
Discuss why streaming services cancel their own shows after only one or two seasons
Probably because vocal cult fandoms aren't actually big enough to sustain a show. Also I'm sure there's a ton of contract stuff happening behind the scenes too.
@@jordanloux3883 I thought that but it’s like they say streaming is future but I’m like “Is it though?” 😒😒
@@tylerwatkins2923 There is no 'future,' just an endless stream of trends that rise and fall.
Oh, that would be OK. I like it when they are kind of meta and the topics that they discuss regarding the media.
@@tylerwatkins2923 same reason why cable cancels a show after one or two seasons
I remember watching the Fyre Festival Documentary and I thought: What if they were successful? How would event management change?
Everyone would demand or give anything to find out how they defied reality itself.
The thing is that Fyre festival could have worked if the guys in charge were competent and not con artists in way over their heads.
Honestly, thier team should have mutinied.
@@katherinealvarez9216 right? The whole team should have done something drastic. Instead he actually had a guy willing to suck d*ck to get a water truck released. Madness
Con artists should not be praised whatever the reason behind why they did what they did. They are criminals they should pay for the crimes they did. The focus should be on their victims they did wrong, they should get justice.
"What our simpathy for the con artist reveals is how little value we place on the truth, what matter is what you can get people to believe and how much can you profit from own self created world and that a scary world to live in"
It's rare nowadays agreeing so wholeheartedly with a statement found on a random video online, but I do and i did
I feel like this way of thinking would just doom everyone. I realize that no matter who they con it still affects people and benefits them alone. It's never helping anyone else. In the end it's just more people pulling people down. When we need to learn to cooperate and help each other instead.
The con artist became a TV hero because people like to watch them to feel better about themselves.
I’m hesitant to make too much of a claim about modern society because “trickster” stories literally go back to the earliest human mythology. People like winners. Cheaters look line winners (and bonus, they don’t have to be good at anything so it’s easier for us to identify with them than it is to identify with the people who spent years studying for their success). I really think it is as simple and timeless as that.
Never found people like this a "hero". Have nothing but disrespect for them
As soon as the con artist is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, the audience only sees his charisma and parties and will forget his assholeness. Audiences only notice today's party, but not tomorrow's hangover.
Genuinely surprised that this episode didn't feature Leverage, which, imo, is the best con show in existence.
Reminds me of steve jobs during the first iphone he had several of the same model on his shelf because at the time the iphones were very glitchy so each had a task were they wouldnt crash.
I am guessing people praise the con artist for many reasons. One is victims would rather believe con artists are smart than that they were gullible. Another is that people worship money. Lack of money is seen as a personal failing, so rich con artists are seen as superior. Blaming the victim is something else. Shaming the victim helps the con artist as well.
With catfishing I really wish people would let this idea that it’s somehow ok. Basing any relationship on lies is wrong and also to say it needs to be done for shallow reasons is kind of body shaming.
Human Civilisation has come a long way since Snake Oil.
I would say we all like the rich being taken down a peg but I think most people know there is a line. Like with the catfishing stuff I think there is a lot of disapproval there. We watch this stuff because we like seeing the rich given a reality check but also we like seeing the conster get there’s
Sure, people will think of them as heroes, until they are the ones getting conned.
I know this was the point, but I couldn't watch "Becoming Anna" - the voice that the actress used made my skin crawl!
I think that the wine story was particularly interesting.
"I would never fall for that scam" yeah bro as if no one mailed the Nigerian prince back two decades ago or no one fells victim to phone scams to this day.
Slippin' Jimmy wasn't even mentioned, very disappointed.
Couldn't be our precious Jimmy.
Cause everybody lies. Lies make people trend the truth makes you invisible.why do you think gossip sites and "exposure -esque" type youtube channels get thousands of views.
They are not my heroes.
I think I admire Anna, for her balls. I’m terrible at lying. At most, I can be diplomatically noncommittal, or tell a lie to spare someone’s feelings. People who can weave a complicated web of deceit, and not forget what lies they tell have a power I don’t possess.
Im surprised you didmt mention Sawyer from Lost! Hes the perfect example of what youre talking about and in the setting of other imperfect characters, i think he did a lot for the con artist
Part of the reason our society glorifies the con artists is the fact that the media portrays them as these modern day Robin hood which we love cause of this whole "eat the rich" nonsense. In truth a con artist cares only for themselves not the poor. Also fueling this love is an unspoken ency towards those who are successful. Many people think that if they cant make it no one should. Which is a toxic attitude to have but one that is encouraged by all these occupy wallstreters
I don’t like them but I don’t hate them. I pity them and I feel sorry for the victims.
I really wish this channel would inform us what movies they use in the comments. Pleaseeee
Maybe it's just me but when I think of con artists I think of characters like Neal Caffrey, James "Sawyer" Ford, and Saul Goodman...not any of these social media people.
Considering it says ‘tv hero’, yeah
"We" don't care if they're white or/and attractive 😑
Being a regular con sounds stressful, always fearing everything will come crashing down. A global level big time con has politicians in the pocket and others who will take the fall.
I dont see delvi as a con artist, she only over drew her own bank account. She did nothing that successful men haven't done to get success.
Exactly. And the people that wanted to use her she used them in return. It’s okay for corporations to use and exploit everyone but let an individual do it in return and it’s a problem. We get conned all the time by companies. No films about that though because no one wants to snitch on themselves and ruin their business.
I do consider myself part of the problem like I definetly scamming is wrong but I am still entertained by watching stories. I guess it always intresting to see how the person pulled it off and how people who believed it. It also a lesson to learn to be careful. Plus it easier true crime to watch then others.
I disagree who view people like Anna Delvey as Robin Hood’s cause the rich people were fine it’s the people working in the hotel who tended to get fired.
The Drop out did a good job of showing sympathy to Erica and Tyler who helped expose Elizabeth
I care a lot was hard because she was exploiting elderly it just wasent the best subject for a anti hero drama
“I care a lot,” I was hoping to forget that garbage movie. Horrible writing, horrible lead with no redeeming qualities. Just commenting to say that hated that movie.
@@Ishbikes I didn’t really like it either and was rooting for the mobster
What's the genre of jazz used in the first section? (What does the modern Con Artist look like?)
i think its contemplary
Everyone wants such skill.
I usually like the Take’s background music or don’t notice it. But in this video, it was louder than usual and super fast and stressful. It was hard to hear the speaking and it sounded like chaos a lot and made me feel crazy. Lmao. Maybe I’m just going crazy separately lol
I was scammed in my early 20s and learned from it.
We save our hate for people like Amber heard lol.
Oh, I don't hate... I'm just not a Big-Fan of them "Anymore"?!...😤🙄😔😒
You stop the con artists honestly by having a couple being killed in very gruesome ways and make it public
Or exposed in a public trial like Heard
you are a sick man N/A
@@lilij1915 you gotta make the supporters scared though and killing the con brutally is the way.
Should have put Trump in the thumbnail
*Fast dance in the limelight* before never being trusted by employers/investors/the public ever again?... also RIP to that *bed bath & beyond* CFO :/
I actually feel for Anna Delvey, because, she wasn't wrong, really. The banks were willing to invest in her idea when they thought she didn't need the money. Ain't that a kick in the head?
What do you mean by "anymore"? I wish!
you wish what?
The problem I think with con artists targeting rich people is that the average and the poor won't see that as a problem because they may be jealous of those who have more. That not all rich people got rich by doing bad things is then easily and conveniently forgotten.
But rich people are peope too, and in those case, they are victims.
Patriarchy, misogyny
Not one mention of the show White Collar
Yong Yea!
The real scam was Saul Goodman not being on this video
No mention of Ed, Edd n' Eddy?
I strongly doubt that Delveys parents did their best to be honest.
What do you mean "we don't care when they lie?" Do you have the ability to speak to everyone on the subject? Many of us very much care. However, caring about such things seems to equate to the individual's intelligence level. The lower the IQ, the more likely they won't care. So really, you should rephrase it to "Stupid people don't care when they are lied to."
Hard times call for entitlement and victim mentality
I have never tried to be anyone other than myself on social media so don't cover everyone with the same blanket. Now, I'm not on social media at all.
Also, I am pretty sure that the celebrities who sell crypto currency get paid in real money.
Its famous in Bollywood too. Look at Harshad Mehta
hehehe
Thumbs down for constant ads inside and out of the video.
White collar crime should always be punishable with the death penalty - what good is wealth in the grave?
I know you’re presenting this take with some nuance, but I simply cannot support a video that basically glorifies the “art” of screwing people over and hurting others just to get ahead. The more people who embrace this kind of mentality, the greater threat it poses to our society and social norms.
For the most part I have enjoyed your channel’s content, but this was a step too far - suggesting that we should all embrace the “con artist within ourselves.” Thus I have to submit a dislike for this video, and I have removed myself as a subscriber to your channel.
I hope in the future that the content you put out is more responsible, holding those who hurt others accountable for their actions instead of sympathizing with them as sympathetic anti-heros. It’s one thing to consume content that tells stories such as theirs that objectively are compelling; it’s quite another thing to implicitly support this incredibly harmful type of behavior. Please do better.
I watched the video, all the take I got is that the world is a scarier place cause the truth isn't what matters anymore. Not that everyone should also be con artists.
I don’t think the point of the video is to support or glorify the con artist. The point is to analyze WHY people would support or glorify the con artist. And why there is a fascination to ultimately destructive behavior. The video asks us (the audience) to critically analyze why we are so entranced.
“S’all good, man! 🫵🏼🫵🏼” - Jimmy McGill