I try to keep in mind that if a con looks obvious to me, I'm just not the kind of mark the con was designed for. Why will a fish bite on bait that doesn't look edible to me? Because it looks delicious to them. It was made to look delicious to them though a long process of trial and error.

For a long while I was fascinated that people could get caught up in cults. It was very much not the kind of thing I would fall for. So I read a bunch of memoirs from people who had left/escaped cults and eventually it made a lot of sense to me. I would still never fall for one, but I can see how they take advantage of basic human drives and the weaknesses of their particular kind of victim.