John Le Carre, author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, A Perfect Spy , and many other remarkable books, grew up as the son of a polished, engaging lifelong con man. Le Carre was struck as a youngster to discover that, successful as his father was in deceiving others, he was also gullible, a victim more than once to another con man or woman. Which just goes to show that everyone is at risk of being taken in by a social engineer, even another social engineer.