In our last two posts, we created a fake product and then built a story around that product likely to appeal to a target audience, which we researched from the outset.
We patterned our bogus token on real, profitable drops from the past and are now ready to disseminate this fantasy to anyone who might believe it.
As I stressed in my last article, the story is the backbone of all effective scams, giving scammers the ability to maneuver, dodge, and redirect.
Specific details like technical requirements, positioning, or the specifics of building a sucker list are not our concern.
Our goal is to explore the role of a scammer in order to better understand why scams work and recognize these signs of deception in the future.
While we are specifically concerned about crypto and gambling and will certainly dive into the actual mechanics of that (the good and the bad) in the future, to conclude this series, let’s examine how the right story can sow the seeds of a simple but attractive idea through direct contact with people on our sucker list (as profiled and collected in Pt. 1) while avoiding the scrutiny that might come with a more public announcement.*
The Story
This is important for our particular story: Approved and reliable crypto gaming sites have agreed to adopt a shared blockchain for a token that can be more easily utilized for gambling across multiple sites with promises of enormous benefits and bonuses to players who use that coin.
Privately, we can whisper this lie into the electronic ears of anyone who might be susceptible, whereas publicly, we might be challenged too often and the lie exposed.
Told quietly and selectively, with an apparent need for secrecy, the idea that this is both true and potentially profitable can be supported by all kinds of fake evidence.
We could host small groups of potential victims – all profiled to avoid potential troublemakers – and show screenshots of emails, prototype interfaces, and even videos of well-known figures supporting the venture!
Each member of that group might then be privately encouraged to take some added opportunity to invest even more money, and using time pressure, targets can be forced into a decision.
The story is deliberately flexible to meet or deflect almost any challenge, and if the mark pushes back too hard, we simply remove the bait and play a game of psychological chicken where we don’t need to sell our product if they don’t want it since (in our story) there are ten other investors begging to be part of our pre-sale.
The Tactics
Whatever we choose to say, we simply have to avoid being judged outside the walls of our story – by that, I mean we limit the potential victim’s options to research or learn more from other sources.
The veneer of necessary secrecy helps to restrict options and anticipate what our targets’ might hear from others because no matter how much we urge secrecy (for our benefit), most potential investors or buyers will speak to someone, and we need to prepare for that when telling our story.
The method used is “pre-shaping perspective”, a powerful tool that has helped lead many scam victims to bankruptcy even though friends and associates tried desperately to discourage them.
Here’s how I might explain the deal and prepare the listener to defect to anyone who might discourage them in the future:
- We have secured contracts with several online casinos to take part in a single blockchain dedicated purely to gaming with crypto, using our new token as a form of online gaming chip valid across multiple platforms, allowing players to easily move from one game to another in search of best odds, bonuses, and deals.
- This gaming token will be supported by investments from multiple sources with a generous alpha for players and a direct share in forward profits once the tokens achieve their predicted value. Your initial allocation will – at a minimum – double your investment.
- Of course, we are keeping this very quiet as we are only looking for a limited number of investors up front, and demand will be very high once online casinos announce this new mechanism.
- I’m sure you are all aware of the XYZ drop/release where we made our backers an enormous profit within X months and, as with that opportunity, serious profits can be made on this side of the announcement, so we, please ask all of you to keep this quiet.
- People outside of this world simply don’t understand how money is generated, but if you look at XYZ, those are the same people who never believed, and I feel sorry for the people who took their advice and lost out.
All of this is bullshit, but it’s a good story for the right audience, making just enough sense to attract predictable inquiries, questions we can anticipate and fabricate proof if needed.
Remember, if someone pushes back too hard, they can be ring-fenced or controlled simply by delaying responses or keeping them away from other marks so they can’t blow the whistle publicly.
Of course, you can poke holes in this story but the more experience you have, the less likely this particular scam would target you. For the right victims – the people we profiled from the outset – we can easily deflect any challenge thanks to the flexible nature of our story.
All of these elements are designed so we can pull the rug on our marks as soon as we have their money, and there are examples of this kind of scam everywhere in the crypto space.
Does This Really Work?
In reality, things move a lot faster and are more chaotic than outsiders (or newbies) might imagine, so discerning scams from windfalls requires us to avoid getting swept up in manufactured tsunamis of blind enthusiasm.
A good friend (my own Crypto guru) recently pointed me to a potential pre-sale that promised enormous profits for people who sent – on faith – crypto to a wallet posted on X, probably making millions purely by claiming they made money for people in the past and could do so again.
Their story was built on name recognition, previous profitable events, and public engagement, building momentum through meme-driven fervor.
Bots? Fake screenshots? Phantom payments and manipulated media Possibly, but it can be very difficult to know what’s real unless you have a sense of what’s false.
In this world, genuine, valuable, profitable crypto scenarios are hyped, shaped, and driven in such a way that’s an absolute Godsend for con artists.
It’s your job to see past the avalanche of social media posts, ignore trolls, and recognize shills to analyze any proposition; to imagine yourself as a potential con artist and recognize how scammers might conjure the same scenario purely to bilk people out of money.
If enough elements meet the criteria for a potential scam, the best option is to walk away.
The objective of this series has been to role-play and think like the bad guys so we might recognize that thinking in the future and begin to gain a sense of when something might be ‘off’.
*Many rug-pulls and other crypto scams are very public thanks to a veil of anonymity offered by the medium, but often, even the most blatant rip-offs are successful thanks to factors distinct to this space that we will explore another time.