All too often we are guilty of simply signing up …
It goes without saying. We’ve all been struck with curiosity to at least momentarily consider outrageous claims and assertions. We encounter them almost constantly on just about every forum found on the internet – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. It takes a lesson in discourse all too often to come to our senses and rationalize what we are hearing and/or being motivated/manipulated to do. Many salesmen, politicians, clergy, educators, media types (reporters, commentators, talk show host, news anchors, TV celebrities) and other occupational types all use such claims to entice their unwitting victims into engaging with them so they can psychologically manipulate them with their antisocial narcissistic techniques and personalities.
I’m not saying you can’t earn $200k+, but it has the ring of a rather lofty claim.
These social manipulators like to win your confidence using a mired of techniques like overtly using the Socratic method to get you to agree to their point. In asking guided questions they make you feel as if you are the one in decision making control only to be confronted with subconsciously convincing yourself of the answer “they” want to hear and often submitting to “their” will as if it were your deepest desire and belief. Psychologist that stoop to this level of manipulation are the most despicable, grooming, purposely winning and misusing a individual’s trust, assuming authority indirectly over their victum. The internet only embolden and empowers these manipulators, Wendy Patrick describes these individuals in the Psychology Today article “The Stealthiest Predator” and warns us:
Some of the most treacherous individuals engage in disturbing behavior that, because it is legal, often goes unreported. Beware the insidious designs of the charismatic social predator.
By Wendy L. Patrick, Ph.D., published May 1, 2018 – last reviewed on July 2, 2018
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201805/the-stealthiest-predator
Online social networks, chat and forums give these “social predators” a means to source new victims for whatever their nefarious purpose.
The commonality is that they prey on victims’ emotions or resources, either for their own gain or simply because they enjoy doing so.
Money is often the motivation, although there are plenty of instances where there is a pleasure in manipulating and/or controlling someone as well (a good number of psychopaths). Being in a vulnerable state only make you a more unwitting victim. Described as career coaches, pay for play employment sweat houses and others are evermore present on the web looking for opportunity to prey on the those that lack credibility in some manner – unemployed, social status, legal infractions, or other situational factors.
With unemployment high and rising, more people are streaming onto the Web in search of jobs — but running into costly scams. Like job seekers, criminals are after moneymaking opportunities online. And they’re setting increasingly sophisticated traps to prey on the desperation of the jobless, whose guards are down amid eroding savings, swelling debts and calamities like foreclosure and bankruptcy. Victims can ill afford another financial setback. “If you are a con artist, having more people out of work to deal with increases your odds of finding a victim,” says Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum. “They are thriving right now. If business weren’t good for the scammers, we wouldn’t be getting so many complaints.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/technology/personaltech/06basics.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=40C3F73ABF5C7A70F686BB6CE5D26F12&gwt=pay&assetType=REGIWALL
So buyer beware. Make sure you read the fine print below all those claims of aspiration as well. When I read something that addresses recourse from the purchase of a service (like a coaching service) that reads “What if I am unhappy with the course?” and the answer is “I would never want you to be unahppy! If you are unsatisfied, contact me and let me know how I can improve the course” – that says I’m now working for your in critiquing your short comings, you’re further manipulating me into doing your work for you by aiding and abetting your activities. Nope. Not going there. Vague uncommitted reassurances result in false and misleading outcomes. Look for a commitment with legal recourse and enter into a legitimate contract – and have that contract reviewed and understood BEFORE signing anything. Leave nothing to chance, address every ambiguity.
As you seek out your new romance, search for that new job (yes there are those that “claim” to be career coaches), shop for that new car or house, simply beware – if it sounds to be too good, it probably is.