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Comment by flerchin | Hacker News Reader

Sounds like the Long Con became the Longer Con.

I really hope you are wrong, but did the journalist check the following sentence or they take the report at face value?

> Although they have not met each other again since, she continued to provide him with financial assistance until he completed his degree a few years ago and got a job in the American oil sector.

It's an egregious journalistic fraud if they phrased it that way when what they really meant was "he claims he completed..."

It would be a scandalous.

I guess it's possible but "put me through college" seems like a pretty lousy con.

Sounds like a great con to me. It's literally worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Yeah, it's a lot of money to commit to up-front, but it's oddly specific, few people are gonna agree to it, and they could easily just ask to cut the checks directly to the school.

How is getting someone else to pay for your schooling not a con?

Well, if someone says "please pay for my schooling," and you agree, and then your money is actually used for schooling, I think it's a bit of a stretch of the definition of "con" to call it one. Both parties are clear about what's happening -- seems more like a gift than a swindle.

A con is asking someone to pay for one thing and then doing something else with the money.

When it is an investment in the next generation?

Most of the time it's just called "parenthood."

Well, now I know how to reduce US students debts.

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