Displayed wealth alone can attract marks regardless of personal charm

Evidence

The low-stakes Russian German grifter Anna Sorokin showed up in New York and reinvented herself as Anna Delvey, a supposed heiress to a solar-power fortune. Armed with magical thoughts, she collected a wide range of suckers who believed she would open an art-themed VIP club. Few found her personally alluring, but the prospect of her wealth attracted a host of potential business partners. “If you show them the money,” wrote journalist Jessica Pressler, “they will be virtually unable to see anything else.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 573

Categorization

• SHARE: For a friend interested in grift studies/Pressler’s writing — the ‘show the money’ line captures the whole Delvey dynamic in one sentence.
• XREF: connects to: Compliments and praise do not reliably pay the rent — Dolores DeLuce, Blow Jobs: A Guide to Making It in Show…, 133