Why Does Every Scam Feel Familiar?

I Studied Two Century-Old "Scam Manuals" and Discovered That 99% of Today's Frauds Still Follow These 5 Steps

From fortune-telling stalls to livestreams, from underworld slang to AI face-swapping: the tools have changed a hundred times over the century. The core of every scam is still the same psychological program that has run for hundreds of years.

In 1927, in Beijing, a young man named Bi Lianshou spent his days telling fortunes on the street. At night, he went to storytelling teahouses and "stole books."

He didn't take them off the shelf. He memorized entire texts on the spot. History of the Western Han, History of the Sui and Tang, Water Margin—classic after classic, packed into his head.

Later, he apprenticed in the storytelling trade, took the stage name Lian Kuoru, and rose to fame in the capital with a rare manuscript of Eastern Han. His nicknames were "Eight-Armed Nezha" and "King of the Silent Streets." But what made him remembered by later generations was not his storytelling. He left behind a singular book: Jianghu Congtan (Collected Talks of the Underworld).

At the same time, in the Cantonese-speaking regions of southern China, another secretive group operated. They did not tell stories. They ran scams. Among them circulated a secret oral manual: The Yingyao Chapter.

One book documented the underworld. The other distilled the art of swindling. One from the north, one from the south—one open, one hidden. Put these two books side by side, and an uncomfortable truth emerges:

The scams of a hundred years ago have barely evolved.

Only the tools have changed. Fortune-telling stalls became livestreams. Paper notes became apps. Street hustlers became online "gurus." But the underlying logic that manipulates people has never shifted.

I. Two "Scam Manuals," One Human Nature

Jianghu Congtan was written by Lian Kuoru under the pen name "Yun Youke" (Cloud Traveler). It ran serially in Beijing's Shiyan Bao from 1935 and was published in book form in 1938. It does not document legends. It documents the real underworld: fortune-tellers, medicine peddlers, magicians, storytellers, traveling performers—and their internal jargon, known as "Chun Dian."

"Chun Dian" is coded language. There was a saying among the underworld:

"Rather give away a gold ingot than a single word of Chun."

Trade secrets were more valuable than gold. When Jianghu Congtan was published, Lian did not use his real name. He knew that writing down the rules of the underworld meant exposing some people's livelihood.

The Yingyao Chapter came from a special group in the Guangzhou area during the late Qing and early Republic period—the Jiangxiang Sect. The term "Yingyao" is telling. "Ying" means a person's background, family history, and connections. "Yao" means using skillful techniques to surface that information.

In simple terms:

You don't need to know them. You need them to believe you know them.

That is the highest level of underworld deception. The Jiangxiang Sect even built an organizational hierarchy modeled on the imperial exams. The leader was called "Grand Scholar." Below him were Number One Scholar, Second Place, Third Place, Hanlin Academician, Presented Scholar, and Provincial Graduate. They passed down three core manuals:

• The Yingyao Chapter: reading people and extracting information

• The Zhafei Chapter: manufacturing mystique

• The Abao Chapter: orchestrating large-scale scams

In 1959, Yu Cheng, a Jiangxiang Sect member, answered a government call to document old society practices. He wrote Records of the "Jiangxiang Sect" — A Superstitious Fraud Ring from the Old Era. A system once known only within the underworld was exposed to the public.

II. Why Fortune-Tellers Seem to "Get It Right"

Why do some fortune-tellers seem so accurate? They can say: "You've had family conflicts lately." "You're under a lot of work pressure." "The past few years haven't been smooth for you." It sounds like they know your past.

Jianghu Congtan dissects this routine. Skilled fortune-tellers don't predict the future. They observe, probe, and suggest. The underworld summarized their key steps:

Shen (Presence): Establish an identity first. Through clothing, posture, and speech, make yourself seem unlike an ordinary person. When people face a "master," they lower their defenses.

Qiao (Probing): Don't ask directly. Use vague statements to test: "You've had some worries lately, haven't you?" "Is someone in your family causing you concern?" If the other person nods, information flows.

Da (Striking): Suddenly deliver a bold pronouncement: "You're facing a major hurdle this year." "Someone in your family isn't getting along with you." When people are shocked, they instinctively search for explanations.

Ting (Listening): The real information doesn't come from what he says. It comes from what you say. Your age, accent, clothing, reactions, pauses—all clues.

Qian (Closing): End with vague language. Vague can never be wrong.

This is exactly what psychology calls the Barnum Effect: people readily believe that broad, vague descriptions that apply to almost everyone are uniquely tailored to them.

III. The Six-Character Formula: How Scammers Control You Step by Step

If Jianghu Congtan documents underworld experience, The Yingyao Chapter reads more like a psychological manipulation manual. It summarizes six principles:

Shen (Observe): Watch clothing, movements, speech, habits. What's the modern equivalent? Big-data profiling. In the past, they looked at shoes and socks. Today, they browse your social media feed. Same essence: finding information.

Qiao (Probe): Don't give answers. Create opportunities for the target to expose themselves.

Da (Strike): Suddenly breach psychological defenses. Leave the target stunned and unable to think.

Qian (Threaten): Manufacture fear. Tell them: "If you don't act, there will be serious consequences."

Long (Elevate): Offer hope. Tell them: "Your fate is quite good—you just lack a method."

Mai (Sell): Finally, demonstrate "power." Package the gathered information as your own judgment. Make the target think: "He understands me."

The most crucial part:

First humble, then elevate.

First create fear. Then provide a solution. This is the classic structure of countless scams. Medical scams: "You have a health problem." Investment scams: "This opportunity will disappear immediately." Relationship scams: "If you don't change, no one will love you." Scare them, then sell them hope.

IV. The 5 Steps No Scam Can Escape

Studying both books together reveals that most scams follow a fixed structure—past or present.

Step 1: Build a Persona

Scammers don't sell products first. They sell identities. Master, expert, guru, success story—first make you believe: "This person is worth trusting."

In 2025, a finance manager at a multinational company in Hong Kong received a video conference instruction. On screen, his UK-based CFO appeared clear-faced, spoke with an authentic accent, and urgently ordered him to transfer HKD 200 million to an overseas account. The manager complied. Only afterward did he discover that every "executive" in the meeting except himself was a Deepfake—faces and voices all AI-generated. The scammers used no flashy psychological tricks. They did just one thing: flawlessly replicating authority and familiarity. They even skipped the "probing" step. Big-data profiles already told them the manager's social network. AI models generated the boss's face and voice.

Step 2: Build Trust

• In the past: Chun Dian, shills, underworld reputation.

• Today: curated social-media profiles, success stories, follower counts.

• One purpose: lower your defenses.

Jianghu Congtan emphasizes that old-timers spent considerable time on "Pan Dao"—using underworld slang to test whether the other party was also from the underworld—before laying out their scheme. Today's AI scams bypass this entirely. They use "video calls"—the medium modern people trust most—to shut down the victim's logical brain within seconds.

Step 3: Find the Weakness

Scammers don't attack everyone. They look for your gaps:

• Those who fear disease

• Those who dread failure

• Those desperate to get rich

• Those starved for companionship

In the past, Jiangxiang Sect members trained for years to assess a person's wealth through clothing, speech, and complexion. Today, recommendation algorithms do the work. You search "palpitations at midnight." Three days later, you're served a livestream selling "ancestral remedies that cure cardiovascular disease." You follow crypto traders. AI judges you risk-tolerant, and an ad for "guaranteed AI quantitative profits" lands in your feed. You browse luxury goods and linger on price-comparison sites. A "rich, handsome" persona in a pig-butchering scam targets you.

Every click sells out your subconscious.

Step 4: Manufacture Emotion

This is the most critical step—making you incapable of thinking clearly.

• Fear: "You'll miss your only chance."

• Greed: "Guaranteed profit with zero risk."

• Vanity: "You're different from ordinary people."

The AI face-swap impersonation scam pushes this to its extreme. Scammers, having learned your child is studying abroad and hard to reach due to time differences, bombard you with high-frequency emotional shocks—"car accident needs bail money," "urgent project deposit shortfall"—stimulating your amygdala, the brain's fear center. A century ago, fortune-tellers ground through the "probing" step for hours before daring to ask for money. Today, the entire process is compressed into tens of minutes.

Step 5: Fast Harvest

Once you're in an emotional state, you enter the payment stage.

• In the past: "Closing the deal."

• Today: top-up, investment, course purchase, transfer.

• The names have changed. The logic hasn't.

Most crucially: scammers do everything to make you "not tell anyone." Don't hang up. Don't forward the message. Sign a confidentiality agreement. It's an exclusive opportunity. Every move blocks you from a third party. The Yingyao Chapter feared nothing more than "bystanders seeing clearly." Today is no different.

V. Smart People Get Scammed Too

Many assume those who are scammed must be foolish. Not true. Many scams target not intelligence, but psychological mechanisms.

First, the Barnum Effect

Vague descriptions make people project themselves onto them. "You appear strong on the outside but are sensitive inside." "You've gone through hardships in the past." Most people find such statements accurate.

Second, the Alternation of Fear and Hope

Scammers excel at emotional manipulation—first scare you, then give you hope. When emotions swing, judgment deteriorates.

Third, Confirmation Bias

People remember information that matches their expectations. The "master" got three things right. The ten he got wrong are automatically ignored.

So scammers exploit not ignorance, but the default settings of human psychology.

VI. New Scams, Old Skins

Run any modern scam through the five-step model, and it fits.

Investment fraud

• Past: "A fortune-making opportunity is here."

• Today: "AI gold rush, insider projects, guaranteed returns."

Romance scams

• Past: Pretend to be deeply in love, steal money.

• Today: Pig-butchering schemes, online dating fraud.

Health scams

• Past: Secret family recipes, miracle cures.

• Today: Livestream "healers," supplement scams.

Fortune-telling scams

• Past: Stall-based disaster-avoidance rituals.

• Today: AI fortune-telling, astrology quizzes, paid destiny readings.

The tools advance. The routines don't. Scammers have never been up against phones. They've always been up against people.

VII. How to Fight Back: Four Rules

Studying these scams isn't about learning to deceive. It's about learning not to be deceived. The Yingyao Chapter is about information asymmetry. The scammer knows your information. You don't know his intent.

Countermeasures are straightforward:

First, don't reveal your cards easily.

The more someone asks about you, the more cautious you should be. Lian Kuoru hid his real name when publishing Jianghu Congtan. He knew: once you give away information, control is no longer in your hands. Today, every post you make on social media and every like you click is a database entry in the scammer's eyes.

Second, don't take their emotional bait.

Sudden fear, sudden flattery—don't act. The stronger the emotion, the more you need calm. AI scams have one critical weakness: they demand extreme immediacy. Deepfake videos become detectable if they run too long, usually lasting only a few minutes. When you hear an "urgent transfer" request, hang up proactively. Call back on a verified number. Wait ten minutes before calling again. Most AI scams will fall apart because the backend can't sustain real-time rendering.

Third, delay every payment.

Important decisions should never be made under pressure. Any "decide now," "today only," "transfer immediately" language is a red flag. Agree on a "family verification code" with your loved ones—a physical sign or childhood secret known only to you, recorded nowhere digitally. Any transfer must match that code.

Fourth, actively verify with a third party.

Scammers fear your suspicion less than your asking someone else. Modern psychology confirms that if you speak aloud to a real friend about a pending payment, your prefrontal cortex activates, reducing impulsive decisions by up to 70%.

Remember this:

If someone asks you to pay and prevents you from checking with anyone else, treat it as a scam first.

Conclusion

Lian Kuoru wrote Jianghu Congtan not for sensationalism. He chronicled an era. But what he recorded was not the underworld. It was human nature.

The Yingyao Chapter contains this line:

"When you gain much, do not reveal it all; beware that within the true there may be false."

Read backwards, it applies equally today. Others may know your information—but that doesn't mean they understand you. Others may see your vulnerabilities—but that doesn't mean they want to help you. We have left too much "Ying" across the internet. The "truth" we see—video, voice, credentials—is filled with falsehood.

From the Ming-Qing fortune stalls to today's livestreams. From street hustlers to AI face-swappers. Only the tools have changed. What hasn't changed: fear, greed, vanity, and wishful thinking.

These four things existed hundreds of years ago. They still exist today.

That is why studying scams matters: to understand why people fall for them.

Once you understand the structure of a scam, you no longer see a single con artist. You see a program that has been running for hundreds of years. The next time you see a familiar face on a screen and hear an anxious voice, wait. Hang up. Let your emotions settle. Let reason return.

Any stream of information that demands you pay while in extreme fear or excitement, and forbids you from verifying with a second person—no matter how many layers of AI it wears—

It's still that same old stall beneath the Tianqiao bridge from a hundred years ago.