“Fraud is an art, employing logic, facts, understanding victims and witnesses, and above all—imagination.”
(adapted from Mario Bekes, Investigative Scenarios)
Introduction – The Other Side of Imagination
Investigations and interrogations have occupied almost my entire working career.
The more I studied trends in criminal activity—whether blue-collar street crimes or sophisticated white-collar frauds—one thing always amazed me: how often the people I investigated relied on their imagination to commit unlawful acts.
They did not simply steal, cheat, or deceive mechanically. They created stories. They imagined identities, motives, and opportunities. And increasingly, they were taught by media—television dramas, online forums, social media, even podcasts—how to avoid being caught.
The irony is striking while criminals borrow imagination from the media to perfect their schemes, they forget that investigators will use an equally strong imagination to uncover who committed the act and why.
Just as I learned early in my career that imagination is essential to reconstruct the truth, I also realized that creativity is the criminal’s most powerful weapon in building deception.
Scenarios: The Fraudster’s Novels
If an investigator writes multiple “novels” in search of truth, the fraudster writes multiple “novels” in search of deception. The difference lies in intention.
Criminals create their own fraud scenarios that mirror investigative ones:
- General scenarios—weave stories that cover every angle of doubt (“I am a soldier overseas, I am investing your money safely, I am your future partner”).
- Special scenarios—target individual weaknesses in the victim: loneliness, greed, or fear.
- Timelines—rewrite the past (“I lost my wife in a car accident”) and project a false future (“we will build a life together once I return”).
- Non-confronting vs. Confronting scenarios—offer documents, receipts, or evidence when needed, but withdraw when suspicion arises.
- Accusative vs. defensive scenarios—shift blame onto others, preempt accusations, or play the victim to maintain trust.
What is new in the 21st century is the level of imagination available through social media. In the past, a fraudster could only deceive face-to-face or through letters and phone calls.
What is new in the 21st century is the level of imagination available through social media. In the past, a fraudster could only deceive face-to-face or through letters and phone calls.
Today, fraudsters have access to billions of digital “stages” where they can perform their scenarios.
On Instagram, con artists showcase fake lifestyles—borrowed cars, rented mansions, and staged photos that signal wealth and success.
On LinkedIn, corporate imposters create entire fraudulent CVs, using stock photos and fabricated job titles to lure investors or secure trust.
On Facebook, fake charities and fundraisers prey on sympathy during disasters.
On Tinder and dating apps, criminals build elaborate emotional scenarios, exploiting loneliness and hope to draw victims into financial or personal ruin.
And perhaps the most dangerous of all are the fake coaches and self-proclaimed gurus. They promise transformation—wealth, relationships, purpose, freedom—but deliver nothing except empty slogans and drained bank accounts.
These individuals weaponize imagination by selling a dream they never lived. They present fabricated success stories, Photoshop their achievements, and rent luxury backdrops to appear credible.
Just like a novelist creates characters, they create personas designed to inspire trust and admiration, all while hiding behind a paywall of “courses” and “exclusive memberships.”
These digital narratives—from romance scams to guru scams—are imaginative in their construction and relentless in their adaptation.
A fraudster might maintain several scenarios at once: the wealthy investor on LinkedIn, the grieving widower on Tinder, the luxury influencer on Instagram, and the life coach on Facebook—all designed to capture different audiences with different vulnerabilities.
Social media has, in effect, given criminals and fake gurus a publishing house for deception, where every platform is a new book cover and every algorithm a tool to reach readers.
Imagination here is no longer just an individual’s trick; it is amplified by technology, shared templates, and even online communities of scammers who exchange “scripts” the way novelists exchange drafts.
The outcome is the fraudster’s novel-writing workshop: the endless crafting of believable scenarios, rehearsed, tested, and adapted until victims willingly step inside the story.
Case Studies: Imagination in Crime
History is filled with examples of criminals who relied less on weapons and more on imagination.
- Charles Ponzi (1920s): Imagined a financial scheme built on international postal coupons. The idea was ludicrous in scale, yet so imaginative that thousands believed it.
- Frank Abagnale Jr. (Catch Me If You Can): Imagined himself into roles—pilot, doctor, lawyer—without formal training. His imagination created an aura of authority that institutions accepted as fact.
- Bernie Madoff: Imagined a flawless world of investment returns, fabricating statements that reassured investors for decades.
- The Tinder Swindler (Simon Leviev): Imagined luxury, danger, and romance—using photos of private jets, fake emergencies, and emotional pleas to extract millions.
Each case shows the same truth: crime is rarely just opportunity. It is the creative construction of a reality that others are persuaded to live in.
The Psychology of Criminal Imagination
Criminology has long recognized that crime is not only technical but also imaginative.
- Edwin Sutherland’s theory of differential association explains that criminals learn not only techniques but also the creative adaptations required to deceive.
- Behavioral psychologists Kahneman and Tversky remind us that victims are vulnerable to imaginative narratives because of cognitive biases—hope, fear, and trust cloud rational judgment.
- Fraud researchers point out that the most successful scams often exploit imagination symmetrically: the criminal imagines the lie, and the victim imagines it as truth.
Imagination here is weaponized. It is not used to find answers but to create questions, doubts, and illusions that keep victims compliant.
The Corporate Battlefield
Fraudsters do not limit themselves to individuals. Corporations are prime targets for imaginative deception. Fake invoices, phishing emails, or fabricated investment opportunities are modern fraud scenarios.
Just as investigators apply the Golden Questions of Criminalistics, so too do criminals. They ask:
- Which decision-maker is most likely to approve this invoice without conducting a thorough review?
- What system can be bypassed?
- When is the best time to strike—at the end of the quarter, during holidays, or in moments of stress?
- Why would they believe this story?
By thinking imaginatively, fraudsters exploit not only technical weaknesses but also human blind spots inside organizations.
The Battle of Minds
The crucial insight is this: criminals and investigators use the same weapon—imagination—but for opposite purposes.
- Investigators imagine being uncovered.
- Criminals imagine hiding.
- Investigators imagine possibilities for reaching the truth.
- Criminals imagine illusions to obscure truth.
I often assert that the battleground of investigation extends beyond the confines of the lab, interrogation room, or courtroom. It is fought in the imagination—the turning of scenarios, verto, vertere, verti, versum. The winner is the one whose imagination proves stronger, sharper, and closer to reality.
Conclusion: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Investigations and fraud share the same intellectual soil: imagination. The difference lies in intent. One side uses it to protect, the other to exploit.
For investigators, the challenge is not only to build their own scenarios but also to anticipate those being crafted by the criminal.
Ultimately, every crime starts as a narrative in someone’s mind. And every solved case ends in the dismantling of that story.
The battlefield, therefore, is not just physical. It is mental, psychological, and deeply imaginative.
The investigator who understands this will not just chase evidence—they will stay one step ahead of the fraudster’s canvas.