Thank you. I've found your comments very useful, not least because when younger I came uncomfortably close to being parted from a reasonable sum of money, by a group who understood the Dark Arts rather well. That was before I read Cialdini, but I'm not sure how well it would have sunk in without the object lesson.

I'm not good at thinking things are silly. That's great for getting suspension of disbelief and fun out of certain things (for example, I can enjoy JRPG plots :) but it's also a spot where one can be hit for massive damage.

As for the happy phrasing, I might have been thinking of this. (Warning: 4chan, albeit one of its nicer suburbs.)