From internet scams to Ponzi schemes, there is no shortage in the number of people who are out to make a dishonest buck.

Does the prevalence of scammers indicate that there are too many especially gullible people to feed the predatory nature of con artists?

Psychologist and science writer Maria Konnikova interviewed dozens of con artists.  She tells Steve Fast people fall for scams not because we are particularly naive.

“This is what they do and they’re really good at it,” Konnikova says. “I think that we need to realize that there is go good defense. Skepticism, intelligence, there is nothing that is going to prepare you because the first step of the con, the ‘put-up,’ is where the con artists really psychologically analyze you.”

we are predisposed to believing people who have a good story.

Konnikova, writes about the history and psychology of scammers and the scammed in her book “The Confidence Game.”

That Nigerian prince who emails you asking for a small loan? That’s the same scam that has been around for a century or more under different names like “The Spanish Prisoner.”

Konnikova says these con games are nothing new.

“The con techniques, the con approaches, even the stories, are not just universal, but universal throughout time,” she says.

Listen to the interview: Maria Konnikova on The Steve Fast Show

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