Ekeing a living out of deception

approaches one man at an upmarket parking lot in Harare’s central business district.
Gingerly asking for some attention, which the man cannot resist, she asks whether he has some three dollars money to spare.
“You see”, she pleads, “I have just accidentally locked up my ignition keys in that Benz there and I need the money to catch a taxi home and get the spare keys. Please help”.
The gentleman gives her the money and she promptly leaves, thanking the man for his kindness and says something about him being blessed, etc.
Little does the man know that the lady does not have a car, and one in which she could leave the said keys.
In fact, this woman, prying on the gullibility of people like the said gentleman has been making quite a fortune out of such naked pretence.
In fact, the man is only told by an alert tout that the woman, and there are many of them, have been making a kill out of such exploits.
“Just go into the bar along the next street in the next 10 minutes and you will find her drinking from your money”, says the tout, trying to convince the man.
On second thoughts, the man decides to follow into the said bar. And lo and behold, she is taking her first sip.
Bitter, the man demands back his money and unwilling to draw attention from other guzzlers, she shoves US$2 into his hands and he pushes off, without demanding the other dollar.
This kind of situation has played out in different places and times and among different people as conning has become a full-time job for some people.
In a different scenario, one might be approached by one or two people who say that they had come in Harare to visit a sick relative in hospital and now they do not have money to go back home.
Then there are these women, soft as wool, heads aligned sideways, almost on bended knees, saying they have not been robbed, neither have they been conned nor lost the money, yet they need just a dollar to get them to say, Goromonzi or Domboshava.
The whole day they change positions, playing the same trick and pocketing the money.
Once in a while they invite the wrath of the same person after mistaking them for new clients. Some simply say they have lost money and are now stranded in town.
Certain children are duping the public with papers purporting illness, or plans for school development. No one has time to check their authenticity.
“Can you please assist?” they ask, heads tilted to the side, right hands stretched out hesitantly.
Looking at the sorry figure that the “beggars” will be, which is cut to dramatic proportions, the one pervading feeling is that of mercy, which often leads one to reach for the pocket, if one has the money.
That is, if they have not fallen victim to the trick before!
For those that have, they obviously know better.
“I won’t give these people any money,” declares one professional in the city.
“Once, I gave a woman money believing that she was starving only to realise that she was using the same trick on many people. It’s all a fraud”.
Con artists have almost become professionals who get into town dressed up conveniently – smartly for those who would want some “dignity” in the dishonourable trade, and ruggedly and pitifully for those that want to elicit mercy.
For the con artists they can go home comfortably well off with a “dollar-for-transport” con presumably going home with say US$10 a day if they manage to hoodwink 10 people.
While these street games might be able to be laughed off, or taken as one bad lesson, there have been bigger and more tragic incidents in which somebody could lose their belongings, cars, cash or even houses.
Many people tend to wonder why they continue to be victims of the con trade. The answer lies in part in the psychological realm.
It is about having to feel good for being generous, on one hand, and gullibility and credulity on the other.
An online publication www.psychologytoday.com says the primary motivator of people who are conned is greed.
It is said that the key to a con is not that you trust the conman, but that he shows trust.
“Social interactions engage a powerful brain circuit that releases the nuerochemical oxytocin when we are trusted and induces a desire to reciprocate the trust we have been shown even with strangers”, says the journal.
The journal reinforces what many people have seen on the street. It says conmen ply their trade by appearing fragile or needing help, by seeming vulnerable and sometimes appear as innocent by-standers who “just want to help”.
Because of oxytocin, and its effects on other parts of the brain, we feel good when we help others.
This is the basis for attachment to family and friends and cooperation with strangers.
However, Rebecca Chisamba, social commentator and host of the popular Mai Chisamba talk show, says that those who give money to con artists, whether motivated by pity or otherwise, are misguided and that results in them losing fortunes to the con artists.
“Some people want to be seen showing pity on the streets but there are proper institutions and real needy people and institutions that need help,” she said in an interview with The Herald.
She said that cons always appeared needier than they really are.
“Do not listen to the tales of these people”, she counsels.
“If you listen to what they say, that’s when you believe them. If you want to help disadvantaged people there are institutions through which you can channel your help”, she said.
She said that by giving money to con artists and beggars, people were inadvertently keeping the scourge of these people on the streets.
“If we do not give them for two days, they won’t return to the streets.
“However, if you give them, they remain. In fact, these people are making more money a day than most professionals do”, she said.
She also called for the apprehension of con artists saying if the cons are caught, people should effect a citizens’ arrest of the culprits.
Mai Chisamba gives kudos for those former beggars and con artists who have now turned to productive ventures such as selling brooms and “juice cards”.
“It is unAfrican to beg”, she said.
“In our culture you do not have to go around begging and eating other people’s food. Society frowns upon such people”, she added.
She says facing up to the cons will usually expose them, because they are cowards, and they will leave.
This piece of advice is also shared by one journal which says: “With a little cynicism and healthy doubt, it is possible to spot a con artist.
Always beware of schemes that sound too good to be true – they almost always are. One of the things that a con artist relies on is a desire to believe”.