7. Freely and frequently threaten your detractors with lawsuits. It will make a high percentage of them run for the tall grass, shut their mouths in fear.

8. Be the true crusader in every way. Stick closely to the scam artist's parable: To thine own self be true, and lie like hell to everyone else. Say you are not in this for the money. Piously proclaim your altruistic intent: to save humanity.

9. Make your pitch to groups of people who have had faith, trust, and American Way values instilled in them from birth. Many groupings of senior citizens, religious types, family farmers fill this bill. These are your primary targets

10. Among other preferred groups are those already pre-conditioned to accepting conspiracy theories, like those who believe in the Flat Earth Society railings against Round-Worlders, in UFO cover-ups, and JFK assassination plots.

11. Always get your victims to focus on theory and abstractions. When their minds stray from this, fog their attention, get it away from any kind of evidence which can be measured. (This is especially important when trying to pawn off worthless, hi-tech junk.)

12. Be bold, loud. Make your claims and proclamations to all who will hear. People tend to think something so transparently out in the open could not possibly be a fly-by-night undertaking.

13. Shoot for only a small, initial amount of up-front money. Maybe $49, say, for a tape, DVD, and / or an information kit of some kind.. This, on the premise that, once the sucker has paid a bit of his required dues,, it's easier to squeeze more out

14. You must have your investors forfeit their rights to legal action any way you can. Give them a--"ho hum, just routine"--document to sign. Pull this out from under a pile of documents, as if it is so insignificant it almost got lost. Or, hide your disclaimer in a nondisclosure agreement, in the smallest of small print you can arrange with your printer to crank out.

15. Enlist a small group of the most gullible to help you recruit the rest. (If you, as a potential participant, pay heed to the urgings of these discombobulated people, it would be like listening to a rap group named, Insane Clown Posse.)

It's all a head shaker. Trying to cut through the haze and figure the con man's' psychological approach is much like being forced into making a choice between having double vision and hearing a constant echo. But, it's worth the effort. Once you do sort it out and finally understand how to zero in on all of these traits and mannerisms, the working pattern of the con artist will be clearly spelled out for you. It is only then that you will be in the best position to protect yourself from any kind of curve ball he will throw your way.

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