Published on 12, July, 2020
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 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.