Mountebanks and Deception

 

mountebank - noun - a person who deceives others, especially in order to trick them out of their money; a charlatan (Google).

As I was immersed in reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned, a homage to a failing upperclass romantic union during the Jazz Age, I came across the unfamiliar mountebank. At first, I tried to define it myself, using contextual clues, but couldn't. Ergo, I did what anyone else would do: I Googled the meaning on my iPhone. The definition did not surprise me because I am sure that there were plenty of charlatans back in Scott's day who tried and succeeded at pulling the wool over the eyes of the privileged few. 

Of course, since human nature doesn't evolve over time, mountebanks still survive and often thrive today because they have so many outlets that enable them to succeed. Most don't call them by this sophisticated term, though. Most just call them "scammers," and they are ubiquitous. From Dickensian child pickpockets on the streets of Istanbul to Internet hackers that defy physical borders, we among the honest are at the mercy of deceivers. 

Unfortunately, we senior citizens tend to be the fairest game. I can't tell you how many times I have thwarted con men. Just last week, a bogus company got a hold of my gmail and emailed me an invoice for a product that I never purchased. When I called the phone number associated with the bill for more information, a man with a thick Indian accent attempted to take me through a litany of procedures on my laptop, most likely meant to render it vulnerable to unlawful invasion. After I threatened to call my bank to report the suspected breach, the individual hung up on me, solidifying my supposition: that neither he nor his organization was legitimate. 

Mountebank P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute." Although all grifters know this to be true to an extent, we can fight back by relinquishing our naivete. We can educate ourselves about scams and learn not to accept anything or anyone at face value as there will always be con artists, dressed up, dressed down or invisible to the naked eye.

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