A dead giveaway that you're dealing with an incompetent

received a dime of the money. He left town still

owing me two hundred dollars.

Any time the other person stresses something too

much, the street-educated mind begins to doubt him.

Often this "protesting too much" provides learned

ears a telltale clue that the other party is purposely

misleading him.

When a liar is pulling a fast one, he often soothe-

talks you in a too-reassuring, too-demonstrative way.

Uncomfortable about his lie, he nervously overcom-

pensates for his lack of substance.

When a person tells you over and over how he's

going to make money for you on a deal, and pats you

on the back saying, "I want to see you get everything

you've got coming to you," watch out. He's probably

patting you on the back so he can feel a soft place to

put the knife in.

If you stand to gain a lot from a deal a person

proposes, the terms of the deal will usually speak for

themselves-without his droning on and on about

your potential benefits. Look out if he repeats-I say

repeats-what you stand to gain over and over.

If a person proposes a deal, he must have some-··

thing to gain from it, or he wouldn't waste his

breath. And you can bet that the more the other

party harps on about making you money, the more

he stands to gain from the deal at your expense. A

person who proposes a deal with terms that favor you

doesn't feel a need to sell it excessively. He knows

that good terms speak for themselves. So he assumes something of a take-it-or-Ieave-it stance. The same dynamics that are at work in your busi-

ness dealings also show up in your personal rela-

tionships. A person you can trust doesn't need to

remind you of it. His or her behavior in the rela-

tionship will speak for itself, if he can be trusted. If a

person feels a need to remind you of his trustwor-

thiness, he's probably trying to use you.

Every con man who ever bilked me out of money

took pains to remind me that I could trust him before

he did it. Here I give you their exact words:

Hardy, $200: "You'll never regret this. Just as soon as

I get the money, I'll see that you're paid hack. I've

always paid you everything lowed you."

(Which was true, except for the last $200 that I never

recei ved a dime of.)

The Dallas man, $800 (I'll explain this one later):

"Rick, just tell me; have I ever failed to pay you a

penny lowed you?" (No, except for the last 80,000

penmes you owed me, none of which I ever saw

again.)

Con man from New York, $40: "I'll pay you for these

long distance calls the minute you get the phone hill.

You can count on me." (He made those calls on my

phone while I was at work, and w hen I got the phone

hill, he denied owing me for them. So I never saw the

money.)

Hot-check artist from EI Paso, Texas, $0: "Rick, I'd

never cheat a friend." (I realized that he had an easy

out when he decided not to pay me. I would no longer be classified as a "friend," and he didn't prom-

ise me that he wouldn't cheat an enemy. So I hooted

at his $ I 25 loan request.)

Surely you've grasped the moral of the story:

When a person tells you several times that you can

trust him, or if he tells you how much he's going to

do for you, panic and run. In no case should you

enter into any dealings with him that involve legal

tender.

Similarly you'll run into people who "protest too

much" in your private relationships that don't involve

money. As just one example, if you're a woman and

you meet a man who claims to be a strong supporter

of women's liberation, you might suspect that some-

thing is afoot. Men don't naturally assume such a

strong affirmative position on women's rights. So you

should wonder whether the one who does it is trying

to use you. I've heard several women complain about

men attempting to fast-talk them this way.

If a man really feels this way, his behavior in the

relationship should speak for itself. Then he

shouldn't feel any nervous need to remind you of

it--or to compensate with words for his lack of sub-

stance.

One way to know whether you're dealing with a

trustworthy person

Hardy used a commonsense tactic for sizing up a

person's trustworthiness: He listened to that person

tell the same story twice. As he listened, his mind carefully tape-recorded all the details to see if they

matched in both versions. Then he could tell how

consistent the two stories were. This degree of con-

sistency was his gauge of a person's honesty.

If a person relates a story differently each time he

tells it, you're probably dealing with an un-

trustworthy liar. Habitual liars soon get so used to

changing stories to fit the purpose at hand that they

often forget how they told the story the first time.

There's another closely related clue that should tell

you a person's too crooked to deal with. If you ever

hear a person you trust lie to someone else, it's time

you canceled your trust.

Hardy told me, "If a man lies to somebody else,

he'll lie to you. What makes you believe he'll think

any more of YOll down the line when it'll suit his. pur-

pose to lie to you?"

You see, people live by an internal code they have.

If their code lets them lie to an enemy, they'll do the

same to a "friend" when it will get them something

they want. People basically treat their "friends" the

same way they treat everybody else. After all, it's

easy to reclassify a friend as an "enemy" when he

gets in the way of something you're after, isn't it?

Never trust a person who lies to somebody else,

but says he won't lie to you because you're a pal.

Your "pal" status isn't set in concrete, you know.

Most of the users and con artists I lived around lied

this way-casually and as naturally as they breathed.

So you should be wary of dealing with people who

don't stick pretty close to the truth in every