The tactics they use would NEVER work now

People even before the internet could make phone calls and ask questions to attorneys, but they didn't most of the time. They get taken in by the sales con. If you thought enough that you better check this out, then you weren't the type that would have fallen for their con. The people want badly to believe what is being told to them. They are selling a dream. This isn't the same as one bank saying they have the highest paying CD in the country, where you would check it out easily, it's a fantasy they want to take part of.

You know many people actually get taken by all those e-mail scams, right? Not ten years ago. Today. Right now.

Information is worthless if you're too dumb or gullible to access it.

If anything people have gotten more gullible since the internet arrived.Everyday i get emails from various banks asking for my details,of course i delete them but i guarantee you thousands of idiots are falling for this and many other scams.

I don't think the situation in the scene would play much different in 2013. Part of Lingk's character, is that he accepts things at face value. Levine is a man in his 60's in a business suit. Nothing indicates that he couldn't be a V-P with American Express. To suggest that Lingk would just whip out his smart phone and search for all the V-P's at American Express, is a bit of a stretch I think.

A more reasonable updated script, would have Lingk's wife searching the web, and finding numerous consumer complaints against Premier Properties. With Lingk showing up at the office with a print out, and having Roma attempt to rationalize why the complaints are invalid.

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People get taken by blatant lies all the time whether it's charitable scams up to the out and out rape and pillaging of our country by banks, politicians, you name it.

Just because the knowledge is there doesn't mean people use it. And these days, people are less and less able to use their brains for critical thinking. The technology has been elevated but the thinking skills are still required.

Daddy! He's killed Steve and he's jamming the door with him!

So if you were introduced to someone you thought was the VP of American Express you would whip out your phone and check it on the spot? You could do that but you would look a little crazy. Sure you could think to do it later at home but then you run into "what was his name again?" "Did he say American Express or some part of American Express?"

I went to the American Express site and they listed a bunch of VPs but no pictures. You would probably run into that. Some people like to have a bit of privacy and not want their pictures on the web and some companies recognize that. Today people claim to be all kinds of things and sometimes they are caught because of the internet and sometimes they are not. Big scams happen all the time.

All they were doing was selling land. It’s worth was subjective depending on how quickly the investor was looking for a profitable return.

All land eventually appreciates in value, but it can take decades.

People buy land today expecting a fast profit and end up selling at a loss or breaking even.

So those “tactics” are still applied. People believe that they can make a tonne of money from selling and buying land. That’s what the tactic taps into. The desire to make a killing. Nothings really changed. The same applies to the property market.

How do you think bitcoin works? It’s the modern day version of this. How can people be that stupid right? Oh wait. Same shit different decade.

As for job titles? People embellish their job titles on LinkedIn everywhere. It’s rife and easy to do. The amount of Recruitment Consultants going by the title of “Associate Director” is off the charts. It’s common place. It’s easier now to create an embellished profile for credibility than it was pre Internet. That’s how the so called “internet influencers” make a living. Most of them haven’t achieved squat, and yet they have people paying them for business advice.

It’s the same thing.

TheCaretaker