Woman in Chinatown hypnotized by thieves

[drm604]

http://www.necn.com/05/04/12/Woman-in-Chinatown-hypnotized-by-thieves/landing.html?blockID=702498&feedID=4206

Boston’s Chinatown is where an older Chinese woman says she was hypnotized on the street, turning money and other valuables to a group of scam artists while under a trance.

The woman - who speaks only Cantonese - says she was approached by three Asian women on Monday.

They tapped her on the shoulder, and started asking her questions about her family. After that, the woman told police, she was hypnotized.

She says she then went to her apartment - gathered up jewelry and $160,000 in cash and brought it to the Boston Common, where she gave it to the thieves.

Supposedly this has also happened in other cities and is commonplace in China.
Obviously, groups of thieves are not going around hypnotizing people and robbing them. So what's the story here? Some kind of mass hysteria? Insurance scams? People looking for attention?

[Shadowflash]

1. uuhh....

Yeah.

[laconicsax]

2. It's probably similar to what Derren Brown did in a show.

Basically he tricks passersby into handing over their wallet, keys, etc.

It's just a matter of exploiting weaknesses in human psychology.

[plcdude]

3. Is there an

explanation for this or is this just theater?

[laconicsax]

4. I'm sure an explanation exists.

My best guess is that it has to do with change blindness:

-Ask if they'll "give" you something (directions)
-Before they give the directions, give them something physical (bottle).
-Ask for something physical in return (wallet).

Since they already agreed to give you something, the change in what they're giving you isn't realized.