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Other Applications 347

THE DEAD DONKEY the truck driver, ‘just watch me. Of course, I
won’t say it is dead.’
A truck driver moved to Texas and bought
an old donkey from a farmer for $100. The A month went by before the two men met
farmer agreed to deliver the animal the again. ‘What happened to the dead donkey?’
next day but he telephoned to say it had asked the farmer. ‘I raffled him off and sold
died in the night. ‘Don’t worry,’ said the 500 tickets at $2 a throw and made a profit of
truck driver, ‘just deliver the dead body’. $996.’ ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’ the farmer
The puzzled farmer asked what he intended asked. ‘Sure,’ replied the truck driver, ‘the
to do and the truck driver said he planned winner was really pissed off, so I gave him
to ‘Raffle him off’. ‘You can’t raffle a dead back double his money and kept the rest.’
donkey’, said the farmer. ‘I sure can’, said

Although the conman may have to repay some victims, or deliver some of what he has prom-
ised, the majority of losers will fund the few winners, leaving him with a substantial profit.

Safe money
The fourth hard fact is that conmen usually put their money in safe havens where the victims
have little chance of recovering it. The current classic is to have the proceeds of crime laun-
dered through false identities, nominee companies, international business corporations or
asset protection trusts, so that while the villains retain control, their ownership is obscured.
Thus the chances of most victims getting their money back without positive assistance from
the conman are remote. Even then, one of the characteristics of a good conman is that once
his scam has been exposed, he feigns bankruptcy.5

The bottom line

There are classic situations in which conmen operate, and standard profiles. But the bottom
line is that – before entering into any significant personal or business transaction – you must
consciously examine the fundamentals: take a step back and ask yourself: ‘Am I being had
over?’ This, in more polite terms, is known as remaining alert and it is the first step in the
cunning plan.

For every credibility gap, there is a gullibility fill.
If they accept your first offer, you gave away too much

OBJECTIVES

Your objectives in the area of achievement lies, and suspected and actual conmen, are three-
fold. The first is to establish the truth so that you can make a balanced decision based on fact
rather than on fiction. This means that you want to avoid bad deals and close those that could
be good. The second objective is to decide whether the potential reward from the proposed
deal is worth the risk. The third objective is to determine whether or not, by catching the con-
man with his pants down, you can turn the tables and obtain a far better deal than he ever
intended. This is a potentially dangerous and unusual objective, but remember that a person
is at his most vulnerable when he has been caught out in a lie.

5 Although very few are and feigning financial distress is part of the scam