Putting the 'con' in 'con artist'

Johnson’s convincing impersonation of a plain-clothes police officer is due to be featured in Nine’s upcoming reality TV series The Real Hustle, a show that is dedicated to demonstrating just how easy it is to pull off scams and swindles.

Speaking from the experience he had of persuading a jewellery store employee to part with valuable items that he and his equally bogus partner claimed were required to be used as “evidence” in a money laundering investigation, Johnson agrees with Sergeant Kaesar that exuding an air of command is the key to the imposter’s success.

“The ‘con’ in con-artist stands for confidence”, Johnson points out. “Really in this type of situation it is a case of the impersonator tending to feel the authority of their role. They’ll start to feel like they are a police officer and gain the confidence that comes with it. Because no one questions them, they become bolder and may start to see opportunities for easy theft.”

Johnson and his partner Adam Mada went into the store just after a third con-artist, whom they claimed was a criminal they had been keeping under surveillance, had been browsing there. Johnson says the two were able to persuade a jewellery store employee to part with thousands of dollars’ worth of stock without ever showing proper identification.

“Because we took control of the situation, were rude and abrupt the person was very quick to do everything we asked”, Johnson explains. “They put the goods in plastic bags and let us walk out of the shop. If somebody has a job in a society where we are told to listen to people in positions of authority and do what they say then people are likely to cooperate.”

The location of the jewellery store was also a factor, according to Johnson. “It was in a shopping centre with lots of people around. The store employee certainly didn’t want to make a scene involving police.”

If victims don’t think to look at ID, then what persuades them that a person is who they say they are? Johnson believes that “we look for signifiers, so that an actor playing a doctor in a TV ad can sell us a product just as well as a real doctor could because we identify them with the role of the doctor regardless of any actual evidence of qualifications. A successful con artist will always show rather then tell they are a person of influence.”

Impersonating police is a common enough scam, according to Johnson. “There have been situations where people have stolen police cars and gone around pulling people over, searching them and confiscating their property. It happens quite regularly around the world.”

When a reporter asked how the victim who was robbed in Richmond was feeling after his ordeal, Sergeant Kaesar said he “was very distraught, he’s ashamed, and he feels very vulnerable”. How can we protect ourselves against falling prey to a similar scam? Johnson advises that we should examine closely the credentials of anyone who approaches us claiming to be in a position of authority. “The more powerful someone seems to be”, he says, “the more careful we need to be in checking their identity and qualifications”.