“Some such manipulative people put their talents to use in more socially acceptable and legal activities like sales and politics.”
They certainly do, @ucbalumnus, and I don’t fall for them either.
@jonri, interesting about NXIVM. I find MLM too cult-like in general for my tastes.
" In the school’s eyes he was a guest of the housemates."
Colleges I’m familiar with have limitations on how long a guest, even a family member, can stay on campus. The creepy dad in this story far exceeded these limits.
“Everybody thinks they’re too smart to fall for a scam right up to the point they do.”
I do think there are types that fall for this type of personality (and yes, they are many) but also those who don’t. We had a mini Bernie Madoff type situation in my community. I knew the guy was off the first time I met him but, yeah, some seemingly intelligent folks fell for his scam. I was surprised there were so many. In the case of Madoff and Holmes (and my neighbor), greed comes into play. The old adage “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is” comes to mind. This Larry guy and people like Manson have a different and IMO a more dangerous draw and influence which is more puzzling to me.
In this story, I was floored when Santos’ parents paid many hundreds of thousands of $$ for supposed “damages”. What was up with that?