From snake-oil salesmen to crypto grifters, the "fascinating" (Fareed Zakaria) story of charlatans—and why we fall for them
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 Moisés Naím and Quico 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.
About the Author
Moisés Naím is distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was the editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine for over a decade, and his column on global affairs is syndicated to dozens of publications worldwide. Naím is the author of Illicit, What Is Happening to Us?, and the New York Times bestseller The End of Power. He is based in Washington, DC.
Quico Toro is a writer and editor who serves as the global opinion columnist for the Washington Post. He is based in Tokyo, Japan.
Praise For…
“Compelling and disturbing.”—Nature
“Timely, often witty.”—Washington Independent Review of Books
“The authors show how any one of us can easily fall prey, because what charlatans do best is reflect our dreams back to us… Against an arsenal of exploitative technologies, understanding our vulnerabilities is our best shield.”—Kirkus
“A wry examination of deceptions and why we fall for them.” —Library Journal
“We live in an era of liars, fakers, grifters and charlatans. Moises Naim and Quico Toro explain how this happened, and what it means, in eloquent, urgent prose.”—Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag
“The world has always been full of scam artists and con men. But did you ever wonder why we are so susceptible to their tricks? And why we seem particularly susceptible these days? Moisés Naím and Quico Toro have written a fascinating book that tells the stories, gives us explanations, and even has some thoughts on what to do about these charlatans.”—Fareed Zakaria, author of Age of Revolutions
“Who would have thought it would be so enthralling to read about the ways we have been bamboozled by hucksters throughout human history—from ancient alchemists to Dr. Oz, and from Trump University to the infinitely cunning frontiers of AI? Telling this twisted tale with a combination of precision and verve, Moisés Naím and Quico Toro place us—the chumps—squarely at the heart of the story. Charlatans is at once a dazzling carnival of grifters and a cautionary tale.”—Marie Arana, author of Bolívar and inaugural literary director of the Library of Congress
“Why do so many smart people get duped? Naim and Toro’s Charlatans isn't a story of unscrupulous villains and unsuspecting victims, but a masterful dissection of the drivers and vulnerabilities—in our tech, our psychology, and our institutional antibodies—that make us all targets for exploitation. Essential reading for understanding and surviving our golden age of deception.”—Ian Bremmer, president, The Eurasia Group
