The lie is as old, as the world.  It grieves us to say, but lie and swindle are present in almost all human relations.  Any person, voluntarily or not, lies to others many times: once he has done it for boasting, next time he did  for avoiding responsibility, whereas for some people lying is a “professional quality”.

All adult people know about fraud, but people, despite being informed on that, continue to be swindled.  Fraud exists, and it will for long be a peculiar mechanism, used for the purpose of satisfying people’s desires.
A lie and a fraud cannot be viewed as means of expressing personal opinion; it is an intentional deed that is aimed at misleading somebody.  A lies is put into action, when there is a problem to achieve certain purposes.
The first “function” of a lie is the protection of material interests, protection material and intellectual values of their own or their relatives from possible changes. If a lie can help to protect material values, then it also “can” multiply them.  That is why some people come to a decision to commit fraudulent actions to gain profit.
The second “function” of a lie is to maintain material welfare.
The third “function” is aggression.  Using lie and fraud people try to override other people, and fulfill their own intentions by using them.
There are various methods for swindling and deceiving other people. Anything can serve an instrument for deceiving: an argument, a thing, a phenomenon.  Although the main instrument for swindling is the language, there are various other “assisting” conditions, which make a lie more close to the reality.  Many swindlers pay close attention to the outfit, as they know, that people create their opinion on strangers, judging on their looks.  Besides, a certain outfit indicates the person’s social status, in old times it was more vivid and regulated. Apart from the usual outfit, there is also a so-called special uniform of certain professions, the presence of which serves a peculiar business card.  Swindlers often disguise themselves to instill confidence, and their gullible victims forget, or are too timid, to ask for an ID.
For a swindler it to disguise is not enough, he has to “strengthen” the initially obtained confidence by his conversation and certain actions.  So, they behave politely, smile, an easily converse, etc.  To obtain confidence, swindlers use an old and well-tried method, which is to mimic the interlocutor, his expressions, and movements.  Besides, swindlers also use the method of touches.  Psychologists know about that method, when the swindler, by accidentally touching the victim, creates an involuntary intimate attitude toward the victim.
Professional swindlers also know the “advice”, which came from the remote past, i.e. the advice from magicians.  For example, the open palm was always symbolizing honesty, sincerity, confidence.
To catch their victims into their trap, the swindlers fabricate different legends. The contents of the legend depend on the victim’s peculiar features.
To inspire confidence, the swindlers prefer to leave the impression of a naïve and pure person, thus lulling victim’s vigilance.
Sometimes swindlers also make use of the victim’s psychological and physiological conditions: vigilance of ill, tired, disappointed people is certainly weakened, and the swindlers take advantage of it.  Aside from that, they intentionally focus the attention of the victim on a thing or phenomenon, thus distracting the victim’s attention.  For that purpose the swindler involves him in a huge flow of information.
Nowadays, the swindlers more often introduce themselves as the specialists for “settling the matters”.  As a rule, people become victims of swindle in cases, when they try to evade the law and to fulfill their wanted deal, using illegal methods.  Usually, when making use of the services, implemented by an unknown mediator, it is necessary to clarify and specify all details of the deal, in that case the probability of the fraud uncovering is big.  There is evidence, that saving of couple of thousand drams isn’t worth handing important deals to strangers, who may disappear with your money at any minute.  The best option is to choose the specialized organizations.  Even in this case it is necessary to make a precise choice and try avoiding unknown organizations, having suspicious geography of origin and one or two employees.
Swindlers also make use of sexual features as their weapon. For an attractive woman it is not difficult to distract the attention or vigilance of a man, instinctive reflexes often prevent the analytical reason of the stronger sex.
For attracting confidence of their victims some swindlers prefer to have dinner with them.  One of the “positive” sides of this tactics is the influence of alcohol, which weakens the vigilance of the victim in a “natural” way.