A couple years ago, I encountered 2 con men on 2 separate occasions near my office in Bugis
And I allowed myself to be conned by them
Well… not totally
And you might be wondering why I did that
You see, I’m a hypnotist
And before you say I’m conning people into resolving their issues
Hypnosis is real, and it’s a natural phenomena
And trance occurs in every single human, at any point in time
And while I use hypnosis techniques ethically to help my clients resolve their issues
You can find pretty much anyone using similar techniques
For sales, persuasion, influence, education, etc
Which means, it’s everywhere
So perhaps you might want to be cautious around me just because I say I’m a hypnotist
I will highlight that I rather you be cautious around people who use such techniques unethically, and never tell you they are using it
And what I’ll be sharing later, could help you be more aware if someone is doing something funny to you
So read on if you are curious
Especially how a con man does it
First of all, going back to why I allowed myself to be conned in the first place
Largely, I was curious
I know how to use hypnosis to help people resolve issues like anxiety, depression, fears etc
But how exactly does a con man do it?
I could make a few guesses
But remain none the wiser unless I had first hand experience
I spent more time with con man 1 and not with con man 2, mainly due to time
Here’s my experience with con man 1
So i just had lunch one weekday afternoon
And my next client was like 2pm or 3pm, I cannot remember exactly now
I was strolling back and an Indian man with a turban (Perhaps he was a Sikh, but on hindsight, that could be a disguise) was walking towards me
He saw me, smiled and said, “Nice suit”
Technically it’s a vest but I accepted the compliment with a smile and said, “Thank you!”
Then he reach out his hand and said, “You look friendly and I think it’s fate we meet, my friend. My name is <blank>. How do I address you?”
(I cannot recall his name shrug)
I shook his hand and said, “My name is McKing”
Then he said, “I’m a psychologist, counsellor, astrologer, doctor, numerologist, astrologist, and I see your face, it’s very friendly, and you have good luck my friend.”
“Oh thank you”, I said, now wary that he might be one of those con men types
“Shall we go over there to have a chat?”, he said, pointing to the nearby coffee shop
Well I had nothing on for a while so… “Sure” and we went
Then he said, “I’m very thirsty, can you buy me a drink?”
“Ok”, and i went to buy a drink, however, I didn’t know what drink he will like, so turned back almost immediately and saw him quickly hiding his phone when I went back
“Erm… anything… tea will do”, he said, while hiding his phone behind him
I noticed of course, and pretended not to care
I suspected he might be Googling my name but me turning back mess him up I guess
I returned with a tea and a coffee for myself and facing him
Then he said a bunch of stuff
He said I have good luck shining on my face but I need to know how to maximise it
He said the last 3 years hasn’t been very good for me
He said some more stuff that I cannot remember
And then he wrote something in piece of paper and folded it and asked for my left hand
He placed it inside and told me to clench my fist
After which he starts talking some more
Then he asked, “Name a flower”
(If you want, you can name a flower in your mind too, and we see what happens in a moment)
I said the first flower that came to mind, “Orchid”
Then he asked whether I have any siblings, I answered two
Then he said, “You have two siblings? Plus you is three?”
Well yea… it’s three…
“Now open that piece of paper in your left hand, and if the paper has orchid and 3 on it, you can pass me $100 or $200”
Huh? What is this?
Puzzled, I opened the piece of paper in my left hand
Woah! It really was orchid and 3 on it (I’ll explain later)
What the heck??!
Ok that was entertaining, I will give him some cash to see more… opened my wallet and shit only $50
Ok la nevermind pass to him see what else he can do
Then he said some stuff like there are three particular years I need to watch out for
27, 35, 45 years of age
Cause they will have bad stuff happening
And he wrote on another piece of paper, folded it, and put in my left hand again
Then he said he will give me advice to counter the bad stuff
And then he asked me, “Name a colour, not red or white”
(Again what’s your colour?)
Blue came to my mind!
But I decided not to say it
I knew he wanted me to say blue (I’ll tell you why later)
So I said, “Yellow”
He frowned, “Another colour”
“Pink”
“Another colour”
“Green”
“Another colour”
“Orange”
“Another colour”
“Violet”
“Another colour”
“Indigo”
“Indigo is not a colour my friend”
“Indigo is a colour on the rainbow”
“Indigo isn’t a colour”
“Purple”
“Another colour”
“Grey”
“Another colour”
Ok I was running out of options, and I was getting bored so…
“Brown”
“Ok you said brown”, and he wrote brown on a piece of paper, as well as 2 more B below it
“Black”
“Black” and he scribbled black below brown
Idiot forcing me to choose blue…
“Blue”
“Aha! Blue! Now open the piece of paper and if it’s blue, give me $100 or $200”, he smiled
I smiled back, shook my head and let the paper drop from my hand without opening it
He looked shocked, and asked, “My friend, don’t you want the solutions to your problems?”
I said, “Nah I’m good”
Then I walked away
Ok that was the first encounter and I’ll break it down for you now what is happening
Firstly, with a smile, and a handshake, as well as with an introduction, this is a classic opening in sales
Wait sales? I thought you said it was a con
Well yea but that doesn’t mean a con man doesn’t use sales techniques right?
LOL
After which he says he is a psychologist, blah blah blah and this is a way to stand out and above your prospect
Yes, it’s another sales technique
Well, to me anyway
Ever meet someone that says, “Hi, I’m a speaker, trainer, author etc etc” and you feel awe by them or something?
Yea
That’s what he is doing
It’s meant to impress upon the prospect that he has more authority and if he wants to speak with you, you got to listen
Next, he said I look friendly and have good luck
“Cough”
It’s another sales technique…
While the first two you might hear it in a group workshop thingamajig
This third bit is best for a face to face, one to one setting
But in a group setting you might hear it too
For example, in a group setting, “Thank you for coming and I’m glad you are here, while everyone out there is spending time relaxing, you are spending time to learn from me how to etc etc”
Think of it as a potential ego boost
It’s a sales technique to drop the prospect’s guard against you
Very classic sales opening so far, let’s see what’s next
He asked me whether we can go to the coffee shop to sit and chat
This is a lead
It’s a somewhat sales technique, and somewhat persuasion technique
In hypnosis, we have something similar which I can share with you
It’s call the Yes Set principle
Basically, the idea is that if you can get the prospect to say yes 3 times or more, he will more likely say yes later on too
It’s also widely used in sales
Asking me to go to the coffee shop counts as 1st yes
He then ask me to buy a drink, which I agree
It’s the 2nd yes Whether or not he was Googling me, I wouldn’t know
But when I double back, I disrupted his thought pattern
Of course, maybe I didn’t do anything to him either
Shrug… I wouldn’t know
Later when we sat, he will be saying a few things here and there
Which are cold readings
Cold readings is a mentalist or psychology thing
It’s a general reading that fits at least 90% to 95% of the human population
For example, you, you are reading this, and I’m guessing you have relationship issues recently
Well duh, most people have relationship issues
Wait! I’m single, you might say that
Well singlehood is a relationship issue too!
That’s an example of a cold reading
Another example is, I can see that you’ve been stressed lately
Another duh
Anyway, I digress
After the 2 or 3 yeses he got from me, the cold readings will supposedly sound WAAA accurate from me in order to get more yeses
But it doesn’t work on me cause I know about cold readings
Then the paper with the orchid and the number 3
That was pretty cool
In my analysis, I have a guess of what happened
Did you play the flower name too by the way?
If you want, you can comment (truthfully) what was the first flower that came to your mind
I asked a few friends and while the females pretty much guess every other flower other than orchid
The males have limited flower vocab (it’s true sadly)
My guy friends gave either orchid or rose, and surprisingly, a lot more orchids than roses
Sorry this happened in 2017 or 2018 so I don’t have the exact number of responses now
I was sharing the experience with my friends then
Ok so that’s the mystery of the flower solved
I’m thinking cause we live in Singapore and our famous flowers are orchids
Generally speaking
This kind of means that he knows enough of Singapore culture to make such an accurate guess
Other countries might think of other flowers after all
What about the 3?
I think that’s a random thing
If I have only 1 sibling, he might ask the age gap
If I’m the only child, he’ll say parents and you make 3
Or if how many girlfriends have I had before
Or how long I’m single
Or how many kids I have if I’m married
Blah blah
After all, he is making conversation and getting information from you to say stuff that you want to hear
It’s… you guess it!
Another sales technique
Oh yea, forgot to define for you
The flower thing is a type of cold reading too, but more related to one’s country or culture
While the number is another sales technique
Then he blah blah attempts more cold reading stuff
Then give 3 random ages but maybe they aren’t so random?
I’m thinking those are the general ages that someone experiences “bad stuff”
Like mid life crisis, or job crisis, or marriage crisis or what ever
What do you think?
I was older than 27 and younger than 35 so that’s why he can “give me advice”
But since he didn’t say I nearly died at age 20, I find him hard to believe la
Then the colour thing
OMG
Well it’s a mentalist trick too
Why did I know he wanted me to say blue and I give all sorts of random colours instead?
Do you want to guess how I know?
Give you time to think
3…
2…
1…
What was your guess?
To me, it’s cause he said, “not red or white”
I don’t know if you watched America’s Funniest Home Videos
“Whether it’s red, white or blue… the funniest thing you do…”
It’s the colours of the American flag
Catchy song too
And since the song flows, “red, white or blue”
My first instinct was blue
I tested on my friends and quite a few got blue first too
But my amazement at this flower thing earlier plummeted
Simply because… if it was a wrong answer, he kept asking for another colour!
That was like OMG
And i really thought of all those colours ok?
He couldn’t tell I was playing with him lol
Ok… So I got bored at the end
While I did give him $50 for entertaining me with orchid (that was all I had)
I obviously didn’t want to give him anymore with such a poor performance with blue
So I left lor
Now when you relook at the above
You would notice many sales techniques, a couple of mentalist tricks, a bunch of cold readings, and a hypnotic idea of yes
That is what makes a con man a con man
It’s a sale process guys
He’s selling entertainment
Hahahaha
To me la
To others…
If he managed to convince you that you need his advice…
Then yea, you might take out more cash instead of saying no and walking away
Con man 2 was another short but interesting one
I was waiting for a client in my office on the ground floor and saw this Indian man wearing a turban (again, it could be a disguise) peering into my building
It was on Saturday so the lights were off and it was a bit dim
I took a couple of steps and he jumped!
He smiled, came up the stairs and apologise to me for peering it
He thought it was empty
I smiled and said the building is closed but I’m waiting for a client
He asked if he could chat with me for 5 minutes
I asked, what about?
He said he is a psychologist, mentalist, numerologist, astrologer, face reader, and intuitive psychic and that he saw something on my face
I smiled, thinking to myself, oh another one
I shook my head no, and said my client will be here in 5 minutes
He said he will be quick
I sighed and said ok, go ahead
He gestured to the nearby chairs and said, let’s have a seat
We sat and he said that i have a very friendly face however, i have a black mark on my face
I raised an eyebrow, and asked, “What do you mean?”
He smiled, “You have a very friendly face, but this opens you to being back-stabbed and betrayed by people around you, my friend”
He also said I’m currently in a better place compared to 3 to 4 years ago, but if I’m not careful, I will be in deep trouble
He continued talking and wrote something in a piece of paper
He asked me to name a color, to which, I smiled and shook no
He said he will give me good luck through this to counter my bad luck
And I said, “I’m actually a hypnotist”
Immediately, he had a sheepish grin, and quickly took back the paper and put in his pocket
I continued talking, “So I know what you have been doing, I will suggest you stop and go back to where you came”
He said “Sorry friend” and hurriedly left
And that’s a quick sharing experience of my encounters with 2 con men
And you probably will have noticed how the second con man did similar things like the first con man
So I shan’t say more
Except highlight that the second was using the angle of fear to sell
While the first used good luck and how to maximise the luck
Now I hope you manage to learn a couple of things and able to use this information to spot when someone is trying something funny with you
Til then, stay safe!
And don’t get conned
PS With reference to the recent incident of a con man, we can only guess what happened, and I’m going to guess the con man managed to get a few cold readings about the person which either he is not inclined to mention or he forgot about it, and that’s why there isn’t much details about the incident, but that’s my guess only 🙂
