Yesterday I nearly got robbed without a gun; worst of all, I did it to myself.

I’m a pretty trusting guy, which occasionally comes back to bite me. The whole TechTrotter trip is built on the notion that I can trust people whom I only know through a social media profile, be it LinkedIn, Facebook, CouchSurfing or Twitter or A Small World. The apartment where I’m living and nearly all of my social connections are the result of some form of social media. To date, I’ve been overwhelmed by how helpful people have been to me as a complete stranger, and their willingess to help me find new people to interview.

However, my trusting nature nearly got the better of me. At The Hub Sao Paulo, I met with investor, Mike Nicklas, the American who helped to co-found Amanaie, Social Smart and Startupi, along with Brazilian partners such as Gilberto Jr.

On our way to find a coffee shop where we could chat, a harried looking man approached us and said “You’re the only ones who can help me.” At first I couldn’t believe my ears. He was speaking  but he came closer he began to unravel a tale of misery that included being mugged and spending three hours in the police station, where he was offered no help and no ride home. For R$ 32 he could get a taxi home and on Monday he would have his secretary send me the money back.

Bullshit! I have heard every bit of this story before and spun 70 different ways, yet we still fell for it. Perhaps it was the fact he said he was a teacher, or because his story was convincing and heart-wrenching, or just the fact he was speaking to us in American English (he said he was from Kansas), but I took a R$ 50 note out of my wallet and handed it over to him. Initially, I was going to give him a subway ticket, but I left them all at home. As I did this, I knew I would never see the money again, but I didn’t care. “Steve,” as he called himself, even asked me if I wanted to take down his information so I could retrieve the money Monday when his school re-opened. I wasn’t going to because I already knew I had been had.

At just that moment, a young Brazilian approached us and asked Steve if he was the American teacher who had been mugged and couldn’t get home. He proceeded to tell us that our “teacher” had been working the same scam on Bela Cintra for three weeks and he scolded the hustler for taking our money.

I felt bad taking back the cash I had already given to him, since he scammed it fair and square, and he protested gently, but I told him that his card had been pulled. He probably was also aware that he was only three blocks from a police station and he wouldn’t be hard to track down if necessary.

With the money back in my pocket, I was relieved that we met a more trustworthy and honest stranger, but I was kicking myself for being taken in by a confidence man. In New York I never would have let this happen, but occasionally, the story is so good I have to pay the grifter something for an innovative yarn.

But back to my original point; scamming is the world’s oldest innovation.

While some say that prostitution is the world’s oldest occupation, the flesh trade is a bricks and mortar business where a service is exchanged for money. A scam is the opposite, where money is extracted based on a plausible scenario concocted by the scammer. In the end, the mark is left with the feeling that he has done a good thing, and, in many cases he will see his initial investment or even a return on it.

My countrymen in Nigeria may be the world’s greatest scammers and it would be truly amusing to conduct a scamming Olympics to see who was the best out there. While legitimate startups exists in Nigeria, the sad fact is that Nigerian e-commerce is known for it’s cyber scams, known as 419s. Perhaps the best reason why there are so many scams that originate in Nigeria boils down to economic reasons; although the country can boast of vast human capital there are few outlets for people to realize their true potential. Also, becasue people are educated in English-language schools from day one, there is a giant potential pool of English-speaking marks or “mugus” to be exploited via letter, email or Facebook.

While I can say that I have not, to date, fallen for an Internet scam, their sophistication is truly remarkable. Further, the fact that people keep getting taken in always astounds.The problem, of course, is that if the same ingenuity were applied to less clandesting activities, it’s entirely possible that the entrepreneurial spirit could help alleviate the problems that are hampering growth in the first place.

As someone who lives in New York and feels like he’s seen all the hustles, all I can say is kudos to “Steve” for his innovative approach to the old confidence scheme. The imagination and creativity to fabricate a story nearly worked. Were it not for some outside intervention, you would have my money now.