No, they did NOT use hypnosis to rob people despite all the reports otherwise.

A whole slew of reports are coming out now that Sartaz Ali and Sheru Hussain have been arrested for using hypnosis to rob people. Uh, no, at least not from the descriptions of their activities. These folks were conmen, pure and simple. They would pose as police officers and get elderly folks to put their valuables into bags for safe keeping. They likely then did a simple distraction and switch on the bags. It’s a very very old con game and has nothing to do with hypnosis. This is simple manipulation of perception based upon what Robert Cialdini called the Law of Power/Authority in his work on social influence. Folks who’ve taken certain of my live courses or seen certain of my shows have seen me use the same principle to take billfolds with no hypnosis involved. I have literally walked up to the president of a major bank and walked away with his wallet with no questions asked within a moment (although, unlike conmen, I returned the wallet afterwards). Hypnosis is not required, it’s simple unethical application of social influence, misdirection, and simple switch. It is so ridiculous how many headlines on this case are using hypnosis to grab readers and manipulate their understanding of the story when the actual content of the story does not have anything to do with hypnosis . . . if I dress up like a police officer and say I’m an officer of the law and there to help teach you how to protect your valuables, that’s NOT hypnosis, it’s simply lying. See http://www.indianexpress.com/news/they-used-hypnosis-to-rob-elderly/758468/ for one of many reports on this case with a clear description of their method which has nothing to do with hypnosis. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.