Victim Turned Vigilante Hunts Con Artists and Shares Most Common Red Flags

Anatomy of a Con Artist by Jonathan Walton

The art of the con is just as much a part of human nature as the need for food, shelter, water and clothing. People have been attempting to get something for nothing, or get by with something, for as long as humans have been contemplating the meaning of life.

In Anatomy Of A Con Artist, author and podcaster Johnathan Walton, himself a victim of a con artist, describes the 14 different red flags that con artists exhibit when attempting to take advantage of an unsuspecting neighbor or colleague.

Walton discusses how important it is for us to recognize these red flags and what to do if we get involved with a potential con artist, supporting each red flag with examples of real people who have been conned.

A How-To Manual for Spotting Scammers

Con artists, Walton relates, can exhibit the behavior that they most need in order to gain a foothold in the lives of people they want to scam. These behaviors can range from being extra friendly to experiencing the same kinds of illness or trauma that their victims have been through, and having similar, if not shared, backgrounds. Many times, con artists identify their victims through opportunities to take advantage of their vulnerabilities.

Con artists are quick to determine the best avenue for gaining entry into their victim’s world, and once they have made entry, quick to determine their chosen con and quick to depart if they think the victims have figured them out. Con artists do not scam one individual or one family, but rather scam multiple people, usually across multiple cities and states, until they are caught. 

Anatomy Of A Con Artist reads like a how-to manual for spotting con artists and what to do if the reader ever becomes involved with someone who may not be who they claim to be. As mentioned earlier, Walton writes in detail about people who have been scammed and have reached out to him for advice.

Personal Experience and Hunt for Justice

Walton also uses his own encounter with a con artist who claimed to be descended from Irish royalty. This person had moved into Waltons’ building and became part of his life during a fight to regain an amenity that the tenants had lost. The con artist worked their way into Walton’s inner circle over a period of 4 years.

Walton was scammed out of a large amount of money, and when the con artist was discovered and jailed, Walton was told that getting his money back would be extremely difficult.

Therein lies the difficulty with recovering from becoming involved with a con artist. The victim will always find it extremely hard to recoup their losses. Many times, the con artist has scammed the victim in order to pay someone else they are conning. These convoluted attempts to maintain the appearance of legitimacy will result in a web so tangled that years can go by before the victim sees any restitution, if they see any at all.

Anatomy Of A Con Artist does an excellent job of detailing the elaborate nature of many cons. Anyone interested in how criminals think, how criminals manipulate and how criminals seem, in many instances, to get away with their crimes, would do well to read and learn from Anatomy Of A Con Artist.