Aren’t we always attracted and even beguiled by the fictionalized stories of tricksters and fraudsters? Maybe it’s because they are everywhere. From news to podcasts and magazines, and now in the glamourous shows; We meet people like Anna Sorokin and Simon Leviev all the time. Perhaps they are living next door to you. Or maybe they are your co-workers. Or maybe they are a part of who you are! Don’t get me in a wrong way, but these diddlers are ruling the half-real-half-fictional world we are living in.

More scams on our way

Julia Garner starer Inventing Anna; The fictionalized account of a fake German heiress Anna Sorokin (Delvey now) is currently topping Netflix’s world popularity chart. Prior to it, Leviev gained a lot of fame after the streaming giant launched the documentary on him. If you aren’t aware, it legitimizes his romantic frauds on Tinder. And following the success of such stories, Disney+ is also releasing The Dropout, which will tell the tale of a health tech fraud. Well, of course, after the pandemic, health-tech frauds are nothing new to the human race.

However, as soon as these more strange than fiction docuseries hit our screens, we are more than interested in knowing their story! But have you ever wondered why this happens? Why we are so much psychologically connected to these scams? Maybe we are wondering if these fraudsters were always up for a crime? Or some circumstance turned them into crack heads? But Have you ever tried to figure out how much big role social media can play on their account? Um, confused? Let’s try to make it clear by taking Sorokin’s example.

All of it started with the Instagram handle of Anna Sorokin!

We are living in a generation that grew up learning Fake it ’til you make it kind of ideology. In Inventing Anna, we see Anna Delvey aka Julia Garner screaming at her boyfriend saying her arts foundation named after herself, naturally, will succeed because she deserves it. And her Instagram handle explains it all. After all, it helped her create the carefully curated image of a girl in love with fine arts and an heiress in the authority of big trust funds. An image that helped her make big friends and meet bigger investors.

Yes, we are talking about the same social media handle where you post your smallest life updates. The same place where you make online friends and enjoy their companionship. Well, that’s until they turn out to be Anna Sorokin! One of the many victims of Sorokin, Racheal Williams, whom we also see in the series, criticized the show, calling it ‘dangerous.’ She told Vanity Fair, “hunger for this type of entertainment urges media companies to make more of it, incentivising people like Anna and making [crime] seem like a viable career path.”

Stay alert while using social media

Perhaps all such scams and cons are somewhere inspired by wellness-centered memes that make millennials blindly follow the made-up inspiration that asks them to cross any border and go up to any lengths till they become millionaires from millennials right away. But that doesn’t mean you cut away from all of it. However, it is always a wise decision to follow your intuition and not blindly fall for #hustle and Thomas Shelby’s ‘they will ignore you until they need you‘ concepts that are polluting the young generation’s mindset.

DIVE DEEPER

All in all, motivation, optimism, and positive thinking are one thing, but never let yourself slip away influenced by such myths and be a victim of users posting half truth now and then. And, of course, saying NO when needed does no harm.