Cognitive Heist series #6: The Shill

Some cons don’t succeed because of the smooth-talking seller. Instead, they succeed because of the crowd. Enter The Shill -- a hidden accomplice pretending to be just another customer, audience member, or lucky passerby. They're in the crowd, acting as a 'normal' audience member... all with the goal of bringing validation to the con-artist's claims. They clap first, they nod enthusiastically. They “buy” the tonic. They shout “this stuff really works!” And we believe them… because we think they’re one of us. That’s the power of the shill: weaponized trust and manufactured consensus. Next time: The Trojan Gift - when the real danger is hidden inside the prize. ===== In other news: ===== The FAIK Files: It's a Personality Problem: Audio version: YouTube version: Interesting Thing of the Week: The Washington Post has a great article titled, "Making cash off ‘AI slop’: The surreal video business taking over the web." The article covers the -- as the title states -- AI Slop: the internet's latest hustle. Get the book, FAIK! Just a quick reminder that I've got a great book out that's all about deepfakes, disinformation, and deception. Be sure to check it out if you haven't already: P.P.S -- Did you know that we have an text version of this newsletter? Check it out on LinkedIn or my Website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can listen to Cognitive Heist series #6: The Shill online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Cognitive Heist series #6: The Shill is an episode from 8th Layer Insights by Perry Carpenter | N2K Networks.

This episode is 9:23 long.

This episode was published on Sep 6, 2025.

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