Gullible!

Ever since I can remember I’ve always been gullible at school I fell for most pranks and as an adult once I got fired from my job because I kept getting scammed by customers one example is a lady came in and picked up loads of stuff when I was serving her at the end she asked for 2 packets of cigarettes as soon as I gave them to her she said oh no I’ve left my wallet in my car I’ll leave my shopping and come back I believed her waited 15 minutes and then I looked through the bag everything was there but the cigarettes she scammed me I’d like to say this is the only time something like this has happened to me but it’s one of many is this because I have autism? Or am I just too trusting.

  • I think is a pretty good way to look at things.

  • I used to be gullible/trusting, now I don't trust anyone.  Expect the worst and you'll never be disappointed.  Plus anything less can be considered a bonus.

  • I think it's quite common among autistic people because we tend to be too trusting and don't detect ulterior motives, instead assuming everyone's intentions are transparent and they will do what they say. This is easy for nasty people to exploit.

    It's a similar reason to why autistic people are sometimes last to get a joke.

    My coping mechanism for this after being scammed a few times is basically to never trust anyone now. It's not ideal because I also don't trust friends or family, but if I can't work out people's motives or tell when people are lying then I have to use a blanket rule, so if I assume everyone is lying or out to trick me then I'm protected.

    This has led to many arguments with friends and family getting angry/upset with me when I don't believe them and accuse them of lying, but it's better than being tricked. Plus sometimes people close to me do trick me when making fun at my expense, so it's easier to assume everyone is out to get me.

  • Its not just u. I recently gave away 60,000$ to a stranger from my company because I thought it was supposed to given to the owner and it was an emergency. My autism had me miss every red flag. Its important that we know our limits and the on alert for these things. we get taken advantage of so often and fall victims to scams like I did.

  • Yeah I’m really going to try to be more cautious from now on.

  • I imagine tweaking the level of trust in certain situations might help? It'd be nice to continue being trusting in general but to choose occasions in which you employ less trust - ie when there's potential for significant loss if the trust is broken.

    That shopping trip example sounds pretty harsh and disappointing.

    I've been screwed over by being too trusting. In specific areas where it really hurt me, I've (hopefully) learned not to do that.

  • Exactly in lots of ways I’m quite intelligent and others completely useless but I still wouldn’t want to change.

  • They're too cute for us.

    We have the brains, but not the know-how.