... I guess I've always given folks more credit for having brains and using them.
But the criminals do.
We laugh at the "dumb criminal" stories on late night TV, and the jokes that abound on the internet -- but the fact is that it takes little more than normal intelligence to be a "successful" criminal.
"Successful" in quotes, because sooner or later they will be caught and punished -- and that directly relates to the ease with which they are able to fool people into parting with their money. It is SO easy that they quickly get overconfident, and then they get sloppy, and then they get caught.
Why is it so easy to fool otherwise-intelligent people?
1. Most people are trusting and honest by nature. Most people will return a wallet with I.D. in it, and feel good about it. They may cheat (or "fudge" a little) on their income tax, but that is because they feel inclined to keep what is theirs -- not because they want to take from someone else.
2. People are brought up to respect authority -- but also to FEAR it. We respect the police, but we feel a little fearful when we see them parked on the highway, and we automatically step on the brake.
3. Criminals are good actors. They have to be. They know if they exude a sense of authority -- such as an email from a bank -- the average person will respect it and also fear it ("Your account will be closed unless you...") .
4. Fear -- even a little of it -- is a very powerful motivator. Never were truer words spoken than Roosevelt's: "All we have to fear is fear itself." The criminal does not have to be a genius to make that work for him.
