8th Layer Insights

Not all deception hides in the shadows. Some of it walks right in — wearing a badge, a clipboard, or a lab coat.

In the latest issue of Deceptive Minds, I explore one of the most powerful tools in the scammer’s playbook: credibility theater — the subtle art of looking legitimate enough to bypass your skepticism.

Inside this issue:

🎭 Why we trust uniforms, logos, and titles more than facts

Because sometimes, the most dangerous deception doesn’t sneak past you — it gets waved through the front door.

Want to check out the print version? You can ⁠⁠get here as a LinkedIn newslette⁠r⁠. Or you can subscribe to the email version on my website: ⁠⁠https://TheDeceptionProject.com⁠⁠

Anything you'd like me to cover in a future edition?

Stay sharp,

— Perry

hello [at] 8thLayerMedia [dot] com

Check out The FAIK Files, episode 27: Prove Yourself!!

Link to my Google VEO 3 experiment, "The Sandwich Incident: https://youtu.be/DvsFm1XII6U

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If it made you panic, rage, or rush… it probably bypassed your cognitive defenses.

In the latest issue of Deceptive Minds, I dig into the dark cognitive malware of emotional hijacking: how scammers, manipulators, and even well-meaning voices use fear, urgency, outrage, and hope to short-circuit your critical thinking.

Inside:

🧠 Why your emotions beat your rational mind to the punch

📞 How scam messages and panic phishing bypass logic

📣 What viral rage-bait and fear-mongering have in common

🔥 Plus: how a single fire reshaped a nation — and how the “lie that felt true” still outperforms facts today

The stronger the feeling, the weaker the scrutiny.

Want the print version? It's available on LinkedIn or my website.

References:

Episode 26 of The FAIK Files:

Anthropic's Claude 4 Attempts to Blackmail a Researcher:

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Some lies try hard to fool you. Others just make it easy for you to believe them.

That’s the danger of cognitive fluency: the simpler something feels, the more likely we are to think it’s true.

In the latest issue of Deceptive Minds, I explore:

💡 The truth can feel complex and overwhelming. But, the best deceptions...are frictionless.

Want to check out the print version? You can ⁠⁠get here as a LinkedIn newslette⁠r⁠. Or you can subscribe to the email version on my website: ⁠⁠https://TheDeceptionProject.com⁠⁠

Anything you'd like me to cover in a future edition?

Stay sharp,

— Perry

hello [at] 8thLayerMedia [dot] com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends,

Let’s start with a weird truth: People don’t fall for things because they’re true. They fall for things because they’re plausible.

That’s the dark magic of deception — it doesn’t need to be airtight, or flawless, or even particularly clever. It just needs to feel true enough. Something your brain can accept without asking too many questions.

Welcome to the Plausibility Effect — the sneaky cognitive glitch that powers scams, fuels misinformation, and makes even the dumbest conspiracies stubbornly sticky.

Want to check out the print version? You can ⁠get here as a LinkedIn newsletter⁠. Or you can subscribe to the email version on my website: ⁠https://TheDeceptionProject.com⁠

Anything you'd like me to cover in a future edition?

Stay sharp,

— Perry

hello [at] 8thLayerMedia [dot] com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to issue #3 of Deceptive Minds: a newsletter about how we are fooled, how we fool ourselves, and what we can do about it.

In this week's episode: 🚨 Your attention is under attack! 🚨

From WWII rubber tanks to 2023’s phantom Paris bedbugs, the first strike of any scam is the same: steal your gaze, shape your reality. This issue of Deceptive Minds is all about “attention theft”—how con-artists, phishers, and AI-powered tricksters hijack that split-second between stimulus and thought…and what to do about it.

🕵️‍♂️🗞️I NSIDE:

Listen now: turn the tables on the impostors, and guard the one resource every attacker wants first: your focus.

Want to check out the print version? You can get here as a LinkedIn newsletter. Or you can subscribe to the email version on my website: https://TheDeceptionProject.com

Anything you'd like me to cover in a future edition?

Stay sharp,

— Perry

hello [at] 8thLayerMedia [dot] com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Here's issue 2 of Deceptive Minds: a newsletter about how we are fooled, how we fool ourselves, and what we can do about it.

🔥 Since starting this newsletter last week, we're already closing in on 3,000 subscribers to the print edition! 🔥 Huge thanks to everyone who's jumped in early!

This week, I'm diving into what I call the “artifacts of deception,” and why the flashy stuff (deepfakes, fake emails, cloned voices) isn’t the real trick you need to watch for.

Hope you enjoy this exploration into the hidden mechanics of how deception *really* works.

Here we go…

— Perry

The Deception Project

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Hey listeners, Perry Carpenter here. Yeah, it's been a while since I've posted this feed, but I've got something exciting that I think you'll be interested in. It's the audio version of a newsletter that I recently started.

The newsletter is called Deceptive Minds, and it's all about how we are fooled, how we fool ourselves, and what we can do about it.

In other words, it's the exact right newsletter for the 8th Layer Insights audience. So for the next little bit at least, I'm going to post these audio newsletters into the 8Li feed -- exactly where you are right now. We'll see if it grows into something else or if it fades into oblivion. But regardless, I hope you enjoy it while it's here.

So with that, let's get to episode one... or I guess I should call it issue number one of Deceptive Minds, the audio newsletter,

If you're interested in the print version, it's a LinkedIn newsletter and you can also subscribe on my new website, The Deception Project, at https://thedeceptionproject.com. So, regardless of your format of choice, unless you want to see my face reading this on video, you can get the audio version right here or you can read the print version on LinkedIn or in an email that will make its way to your inbox and hopefully not to your spam filter.

With that, let's go ahead and get to issue number one.

Thanks!

Perry

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Note: We're posting Perry's new show, "The FAIK Files", to this feed through the end of 2024. This will give you a chance to get a feel for the new show and subscribe to the new feed if you want to keep following in 2025.

Welcome back to the show that keeps you informed on all things artificial intelligence and natural nonsense.

In our holiday episode, Mason opens a rather unique Christmas present from Perry, we invite a special guest to help explain the infamous "Paperclip Maximizer" thought experiment, and we discuss an interesting (and somewhat disturbing) new AI Safety paper from Apollo Research.

Want to leave us a voicemail? Here's the magic link to do just that: https://sayhi.chat/FAIK

You can also join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/cThqEnMhJz

*** NOTES AND REFERENCES ***

An interesting cluster of new AI safety research papers:

Other Interesting Bits:

OpenAI Announces New o3 Reasoning Model:

*** THE BOILERPLATE ***

About The FAIK Files:

The FAIK Files is an offshoot project from Perry Carpenter's most recent book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions.

Check out Perry & Mason's other show, the Digital Folklore Podcast:

Want to connect with us? Here's how:

Connect with Perry:

Connect with Mason:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Note: We're posting Perry's new show, "The FAIK Files", to this feed through the end of the year. This will give you a chance to get a feel for the new show and subscribe to the new feed if you want to keep following in 2025.

Welcome back to the show that keeps you informed on all things artificial intelligence and natural nonsense.

Warning: today's episode gets a bit dark as we chat with seasoned prosecutor and founder of Operation Shamrock, Erin West, about a devastating combination of attacks known as "Pig Butchering" scams. We go deep into how they work and what we can do about them.

Want to leave us a voicemail? Here's the magic link to do just that: https://sayhi.chat/FAIK

You can also join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/cThqEnMhJz

*** NOTES AND REFERENCES ***

Learn more about Erin West

Pig Butchering Scams:

Ok, doomer! Let's talk P(doom):

*** THE BOILERPLATE ***

About The FAIK Files:

The FAIK Files is an offshoot project from Perry Carpenter's most recent book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions.

Check out Perry & Mason's other show, the Digital Folklore Podcast:

Want to connect with us? Here's how:

Connect with Perry:

Connect with Mason:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Note: We're posting Perry's new show, "The FAIK Files", to this feed through the end of the year. This will give you a chance to get a feel for the new show and subscribe to the new feed if you want to keep following in 2025.

Welcome back to The FAIK Files--- the show about artificial intelligence and natural nonsense!

In this week's episode:

Want to leave us a voicemail? Here's the magic link to do just that: https://sayhi.chat/FAIK

You can also join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/cThqEnMhJz

*** NOTES AND REFERENCES ***

The ChatGPT Privacy Patch Conspiracy:

Tencent's HunyuanVideo Release:

AI Dumpster Fire of the Week (The Sora Leak):

*** THE BOILERPLATE ***

About The FAIK Files:

The FAIK Files is an offshoot project from Perry Carpenter's most recent book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions.

Check out Perry & Mason's other show, the Digital Folklore Podcast:

Want to connect with us? Here's how:

Connect with Perry:

Connect with Mason:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices