Includes index

Preface -- Hacking HumanOS -- The dark side of entrepreneurship -- Star power: the world's oldest grift -- Megachurches and megabucks: turning God into Mammon -- Born digital: dawn of the AI grift -- Trust me, I'm a charlatan -- Digital alchemy: the crypto grift -- Charlatans in high places -- QAnonsense: where we go one, we go nuts -- How charlatans took over the culture wars -- Ten million psychopaths

"For centuries charlatans have been bamboozling victims. But today, charlatanry is more lucrative and global than ever. Using the power of digital technology, our age's charlatans have spun a worldwide web of exploitation on an unprecedented scale. In Charlatans, global affairs experts Moises Naim and Francisco Toro investigate how charlatans fool us and why they've become so influential today. They argue that modern charlatans exploit the same weak points in human cognition as the snake oil salesmen of the old west. They earn our trust, trick us into believing they have some special skill or knowledge, then exploit us. In some ways, nothing has changed. But, today, charlatans are digital, viral, and global. Whether they're health gurus pushing pseudoscience or crypto bros orchestrating Ponzi schemes, modern charlatans rapidly amass worldwide audiences on the internet and social media, using a common set of strategies. These hucksters swiftly swindle unsuspecting victims, as our slow-moving institutions struggle to respond. Packed with insights on how to avoid being duped by charlatans, this is an eye-opening journey through the brazen deception and brutal victimization at the heart of this new global scourge"-- Provided by publisher