"Con artists are often portrayed on screen as comic or heroic figures. Think Sergeant Bilko, or Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting. The people they're cheating out of money tend to be far worse than they are, so our sympathies stay with the tricksters."
"But in real life, it's usually the blameless little people who get caught in the trap."
Television and film frequently depict con artists as charming protagonists, exemplified by characters like Sergeant Bilko and the leads in The Sting. These narratives typically frame the victims as morally corrupt individuals deserving of deception, positioning audiences to sympathize with the tricksters. However, reality diverges sharply from entertainment. In actual con schemes, the victims are typically ordinary, blameless individuals who suffer genuine financial and personal harm. The romanticization of con artistry in media obscures the genuine damage these crimes inflict on vulnerable populations.
Read at Independent
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