How Easy it is to Fool People

This week's The New Yorker includes an amazing story of a Frenchman named Frédéric Bourdin, a man who over the years has passed himself off as abandoned teenagers or missing children:

Over the years, Bourdin had insinuated himself into youth shelters, orphanages, foster homes, junior high schools, and children’s hospitals. His trail of cons extended to, among other places, Spain, Germany, Belgium, England, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Bosnia, Portugal, Austria, Slovakia, France, Sweden, Denmark, and America. The U.S. State Department warned that he was an “exceedingly clever” man who posed as a desperate child in order to “win sympathy,” and a French prosecutor called him “an incredible illusionist whose perversity is matched only by his intelligence.” Bourdin himself has said, “I am a manipulator. . . . My job is to manipulate.”

This man was able to pose as a missing teenager from San Antonio, Texas. He fooled the missing boy's family even though his eyes are brown and the boy's were blue. The story forcefully reminds us of how easy it is to fool us when we want to believe. Skepticism is a healthy trait.