Damien Carrick: Now from secrets that get lifted from government, to how you and I sometimes inadvertently hand over information or money to con men. How do scammers manage to convince people to hand over their hard-earned cash?

To find the answer, perhaps we could talk to a police officer or a criminologist. But someone with a lateral take is magician Nicholas Johnson. He reckons that both magicians and scammers use the same box of tools: psychology and sleight of hand. In fact he's studied the dark arts of the scamster, and has some suggestions on how to stop your money from going up in smoke.

Nicholas Johnson: I think what I love most about con artists and the world of scammers is that they're criminals who manage to get their victims to hand over their possessions freely. Most thieves and robbers and the like, tend to use force, or deception, in order for them to take things, whereas a con artist manages to get their victim to freely give up their stuff. And I think that's what really fascinates me the most.

Damien Carrick: What makes people susceptible to con men?

Nicholas Johnson: The main thing that really makes people susceptible to con artists is the idea that we're going to get something for nothing. So it really buys into our greed; it buys into sometimes our lust, and at the same time, sometimes even our sense that we're going to do something good, so we're going to get a great feeling from helping someone out, we're going to make some money, we're going to meet a beautiful girl—it really ties into our basest desires, and that's what the con artist relies on.

There was a study done in the UK just in train stations. They would go up to people and ask them to do a survey, and said 'If you could just answer these ten questions, we will give you a free pen at the end.' And one of the questions was 'What is your security number?' So your PIN, or your email number and so on. And a whopping percentage of people were more than happy to hand over that information to a complete stranger in a train station, in exchange for a free pen, because the person looked like they were official.

Damien Carrick: Not much of a bargain.

Nicholas Johnson: Not much of a bargain, no, it was a pretty nice pen, though.

[On stage: I think it's important that if you are going to be a con artist that you learn how to lie to people. So what I thought we should do is actually bring up here on the stage some of the best liars in the room and see whether we can spot who's really good at it, and who's really bad at it. So I'm just going to have a look. Just by looking at people who here looks as if they may be a good liar. So we're looking for people with sort of cold, dead eyes, the kind of people who would just stab you for your Metlink card. Oh, right there, brilliant, fantastic. Come up, and give him a big round of applause. Fantastic ... ]

Most con artists rely on this idea that the victim is in control. The victim is the one who is controlling the situation. So a great example of that is the classic Nigerian email scam, the person who writes to you and says, 'I've got this money that I need to get out of the country, and I need your help.' So you're in control, you can help them, you can do a good deed, you can make some money, you've got this fantastic opportunity, and the con artist needs your help. It's not the con artist doing you a favour. So really, you feel like you're the one who's controlling the situation when really it's the con artist who knows the real deal.

On stage: That's a good guess, that is a very good guess. It's not a correct guess, you owe me $2. No, no, no, we'll settle up at the end of the night, that's fine. OK? What you really should have done is to actually bet on this one over here, but it's completely up to you whether you want to call me a liar and bet over here or whether you want to go with my choice which is right there. So what's it going to be? Are you going to bet there, or are you going to bet there? Am I telling the truth, or am I lying? OK, you do realise I'm a con man, that's $4 you owe me, OK, it's actually right there.]

Damien Carrick: Now you cut your teeth around carnival people and circus people, but have you also spoken to, or learned skills from the Real McCoy, the actual con men, the actual criminals?

Nicholas Johnson: Yes, I think the real con artists are the people who can really teach you the most. You can read books about it, you can talk to people who've had experience, the victims, but unless you can really get inside the mind of a con artist, you really won't ever understand exactly how it works. I've communicated a lot with some of the Nigerian scammers, the people who write those emails, because if they think maybe they're going to make a few dollars, they're always happy to spill the beans. And it's amazing that most of those people see it as a legitimate job. For them it's a bit like being a telemarketer, they're just working in an office, in a cubicle, sending out emails, trying to get leads just like a salesperson.

Damien Carrick: And they were happy to have an email dialogue with you?

Nicholas Johnson: They were, yes, but obviously they were fairly cagey about exact details of who they were and what they were doing, but I was surprised, many of them admitted that they were working for organised crime figures and organisations in their home country of Nigeria, and many of them were quite happy to say that they worked on commission and they made a bit of money based on how much money they brought in, and they were quite upfront about it. I think for a lot of con artists they're very proud of their work, and they like people to know exactly what they've gotten away with.

Damien Carrick: Tell me about some of the conversations you've had with people here in Australia.

Nicholas Johnson: I've met up with a few people who are pickpockets, and do small scale short cons, so they're the cons which are done on the street, door-to-door, some of them are people who've been caught and gone to jail and done their time, but some of them are still out there, and I was surprised how willing they were to sit down and have a beer and actually discuss what they do. The real thing I think about the Australian con artist, the ones we have here in Australia, particularly the short cons is that it's very much about personality, it's really—they love to buy into that whole idea of that sort of the larrikin Australian and the joker and the trickster that we love so much, and for many of them, they really feel like even if they get caught, or even if they don't get away with it, they feel like they're giving their victim a good story, you know, something to dine out over, something to discuss down at the pub. They think that's OK, you can scam somebody out of a couple of hundred bucks, because they're getting a good story in return.

Damien Carrick: That's one way of getting to sleep at night I guess.

Nicholas Johnson: Yes, it is interesting the justifications that con artists use. Some say it's a job, just like any other, 'I'm no different from a used car salesman, I'm selling a dream instead of selling a car.' So I like that one. The other explanation is, 'You can't con an honest man.' Now that's this idea that because you're buying into people's greed and their gluttony and their lust and so on, that those people are guilty. The victim is just as guilty as the con artist, and therefore they get what's coming to them.' Of course we know that's just not true and that it's really just an excuse that they're using.

Damien Carrick: Tell me about some of these short cons that the Australian people that you've spoken to engage in.

Nicholas Johnson: Sure. My all-time favourite one only makes the con artist a few dollars every time he does it, but I absolutely love it. These guys used to go door-to-door in the 1970s selling lightbulbs and they would offer to replace every single lightbulb in your house, so all your old lightbulbs would be replaced with a brand new lightbulb, and it would cost you, say $5, so a fraction of the cost of what new lightbulbs would cost. So the man comes in, he replaces each lightbulb, every single one in the house, and does it, you can check, and they all work, and then he takes all the lightbulbs that he's just taken from the person's house, goes next door and then sells them the same lightbulbs again. So it's really just moving lightbulbs from one house to another and charging people a fee to do it.

But there's all sorts of those homemaker scams, people offering to seal your roof so they say, 'We'll put a fresh coat of tar on your roof', or 'We'll re-seal your driveway'. In actual fact all they do is get old black sump oil and smooth it over the roof or smooth it over the driveway. You come home and it looks like wet tar, and so 'Don't step on it for 24 hours', and of course 24 hours later they're long gone with the money, and you're left with a sticky, smelly driveway.

Damien Carrick: You've spoken to some of the con artists. Have you ever spoken to any of the victims?

Nicholas Johnson: I have. I've spoken to a lot of victims. I get a lot of emails from victims and for me, I really love the world of the con artist and I have a real grudging respect for what they do, and I love hearing the stories. But hearing from the victims, you really realise that these scams have a real financial and emotional impact on the people involved. I spoke to a man just the other day who'd lost $5,000 investing in what he thought was an internet marketing company, and it was just a scam, it was basically an American-based pyramid scheme where the only way you make money is of course to try and convince other people to sign up to the scam. And he was absolutely heartbroken. He could afford to lose the money, for him it was only a few thousand dollars, but it wasn't that he lost the money that upset him so much, it was the fact that he really lost control, that he thought he was in control of what was going on, and that he really felt like that he couldn't trust the internet, couldn't trust other people making particular offers to him, that he couldn't really trust himself and his decision-making abilities. And that's really I think for a lot of people, where they feel the hardest hit.

[On stage: All right, so we're going to bet them. Here we go. You bet $1 and then I see your dollar and raise $10, then you bet $10 I bet $100, and then I bet $1,000, then it'll be your shoes, I bet my jacket, you bet your wife, I bet my first-born child. We put everything we own on the table, I reach into my pocket, put my last dollar down on the table and call, What do you have?' Two sixes. Yes, I think I've got you beat, because I have one, two, three, four, five, six of a kind. Six kings, ladies and gentlemen. Give him a big round of applause though anyway. Thank you very much for playing. Thank you.]

Damien Carrick: When I saw your show the other night, you hammered a nail up your nostril and it was horrible, it was funny, and it was compelling. And how common are scams involving that kind of physical illusion, and what kinds of motivations do they have?

Nicholas Johnson: Sure. What you're referring to there is what they call 'psychic surgery', so you'll see photographs of people and video of people reaching inside somebody's stomach, blood spurting everywhere, they'll pull out a tumour which they'll throw into a bowl, wave their hands over the person's stomach and they're instantly as good as new and restored with absolutely no cut whatsoever. Or in the case of the nail in the head, they'll get a nail and actually hammer it into somebody's face, just below the nostrils, that's sticking out horizontal. You maybe get a pair of forceps and sort of force them in there and pretend to pull something out, and these kind of gruesome, disgusting displays are so compelling to watch and so intense to experience that people feel that it must be doing you some good, it must be medical and it must be worth paying for. And sadly, lots of people hand over cash for these bogus operations.

Damien Carrick: And that happens here in Australia, or are we talking about vulnerable uneducated people in Third World countries?

Nicholas Johnson: No, it happens all over Australia. We had a guy in the Western Suburbs of Sydney trying to pull this a few years ago, and he was using a technique and a particular device which can be bought for $10 from any magic shop. So it's like a magic trick, and he was using it in order to pretend to be reaching into someone's stomach and pulling out guts and disgusting things. So it happens in Australia, it happens overseas more often, however because people in Western countries have perhaps more money and more resources, what happens is you'll get tour organisers will get together and they will get a group of people who are very sick and actually fly over to the countries, pay thousands of dollars, say in the Philippines, get themselves 'cured', and then come back to Australia. So you've actually got not only are the people performing the surgery making money, you have tour operators, hotel operators and various other people along the chain actually making money from the sick and the vulnerable, even though they're not performing the scam themselves.

Damien Carrick: Magician Nicholas Johnson, who likes to refer to himself as 'Australia's Honest Con Man'.

Damien Carrick: That's The Law Report for this week. A big Thank You to producer Erica Vowles and also to technical producer, Joel Church.