Asperger's/ASD and being vulnerable to being exploited

firemonkey

Being vulnerable to exploitation  was mentioned at the post dx appointment, and in a letter sent summarising that appointment. 

This morning I had a FB message from someone I know, who makes a lot of high range IQ tests, asking if I could lend him 10 Euros. I've lent at least once before. He sets up umpteen sites and creates quite a lot of tests. Those sites are often  abandoned with tests not even having a preliminary norm. 

I'm not sure it would qualify as a 'special interest' but  I  really like doing tests, IQ or otherwise. Personally speaking the desire to do such tests can affect my judgement in a less than positive way.

I do wonder how many others on the spectrum find that their 'special interest' can affect their judgement.

verity

Did he pay it back?

I find it odd that someone would ask to "borrow" 10 EUR online. Do you know this person in offline?  It is soemthing you might do if you have forgotten your wallet or perhaps homeless.. It is not a huge amount but for people whoa re not working or on low income every little helps.  typically people will ask for donation toward a cause. It is fairly typical if people enjoy content or services that some of them might voluntary pay a donation in form of a subscription and there are sites specifically fr that. Charity site and Crowd funding are not free of con artist, however for soemthign very clear cut like content, people generally knwo what it is they are getting, knwo they are receiving it, and know if they can afford it.

Personally feel people who ask to to borrow things when they have no intention of returning or paying back are manipulative, generally I would avoid such people as if they will do that to you who knwo what else they are cable of. Certainly they

I do think ASD folk might be more vulnerable especially around interests. Manipulative people are focus on what people are interested in. It is a behaviour of psychopathy to learn about what people like and try an imitate that in order to win over their rust.

Having said that, I would say this in the lower level of exploitation, but it is somethign to watch out for. You are under no obligation to lend this person money.

firemonkey

He's American, but lives in Romania. I've not met him offline. Some others who are on the group have raised doubts about him i.e   that he's very  money orientated . Sites are set up and a fee has to be paid to join. That's not unusual for high IQ societies , but his  get abandoned rather quickly, and a new site that requires payment to be a member is set up . All these have tests that require a payment  to be scored(par for the course re high range tests, but he creates many that are abandoned with payment having been made but not even a preliminary score provided. 

I discussed this with another member of the group, and he got the same  message asking if he could lend him 10 Euros

verity

"high IQ societies" I personally feel this is a false economy.

What do you expect to get out of these groups?

I personally feel that being in a group like this, in itself makes you vulnerable to be exploited and you should be very careful and manage your exceptions. I mean no offence I'm just going on my own experience. Others may have enjoyed the company of such people.

Manipulation works on knowing what interests and motivates a person and what their weaknesses are. If a site is set up to target a particular focus like IQ they already have done half the work in figuring that out. 

You can't really verify data your don't control. That means the scores and also people's identity and back story. You have to ask what people's motivation is for setting up such sites.

If IQ was a measure of success, and to a certain extent it is a predictor (with some heavy caveats), then they don't need to flash their IQ scores around to prove they are successful. 

There are plenty of sites that involve all sort of problem solving and mental ask that don't work off the IQ test association.

Really once you have done 1-2 tests three is very little need to re-take the test as an adult regularly unless you simply enjoy it. Those trying to beat the test, are kind of missing the point.

firemonkey

verity said:

"high IQ societies" I personally feel this is a false economy.

What do you expect to get out of these groups?

I personally feel that being in a group like this, in itself makes you vulnerable to be exploited and you should be very careful and manage your exceptions. I mean no offence I'm just going on my own experience. Others may have enjoyed the company of such people.

Manipulation works on knowing what interests and motivates a person and what their weaknesses are. If a site is set up to target a particular focus like IQ they already have done half the work in figuring that out. 

You can't really verify data your don't control. That means the scores and also people's identity and back story. You have to ask what people's motivation is for setting up such sites.

If IQ was a measure of success, and to a certain extent it is a predictor (with some heavy caveats), then they don't need to flash their IQ scores around to prove they are successful. 

There are plenty of sites that involve all sort of problem solving and mental ask that don't work off the IQ test association.

Really once you have done 1-2 tests three is very little need to re-take the test as an adult regularly unless you simply enjoy it. Those trying to beat the test, are kind of missing the point.

I joined primarily because I like doing tests. I found I did OK on some, which makes a change from being totally useless at a lot of things. I know from the published results of such tests  they're not set up to give you a good result come what may.

I'm not in debt because of my liking for such tests.     These are some doctors who are  listed on the World Genius directory.

Better score than me (based on best proctored or high range test score)

Dr Evangelos Katsioulis,  psychiatrist
Dr George Petasis  Studied Medicine in Aristotle University Thessaloniki Greece. Managing Director of Allonse Ltd New Media Services.
Dr Benoit Desjardins  Associate Professor of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania  

Dr Claus Volko  Computer and Medical Scientist

Dr Paul Moroz  Professor Paul Moroz BSc(Hons) MBBS PhD(Dist) FRACS. Surgical Oncologist and Professor of Surgery 

Same score as me

Dr Nikolaos Katevas, MDs, BSc, MSc, PhDc  

Worse score than me

Dr Eick Sternhagen  Fields of education: Economy, Latin, ev. theology, Doctorate in Latin of late Middle Ages, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster – WWU, University of Münster, Germany.

Dr Manahel Thabet  The youngest – and only – Arab with a PhD in Financial Engineering, she writes research papers on quantum mathematics. Her work to revolutionize our understanding of math and physics is poised to earn her a second PhD, at the age of 32.

Dr Donato Stolfa  Nutritionist Biologist Specialized in Human Nutrition

 Dr Jeremy Saget  Weightless Flight Surgeon
ZeroG Instructor
United Nations rotary wing Aeromedical Evacuations Flight Surgeon

 Dr Bishoy Goubran  Bishoy Goubran, MD. Is a clinical researcher in the field of Behavioral and Cardiovascular medicine. Bishoy’s research line is in psychosomatic medicine

Dr Daniel Piersee  Doctor of Pharmacy in Pharmacy @ University of Iowa

Dr Jawdat Wehbe  Cardiologist - electrophysiologist · Heart and vessels 

There are some who tout for answers on places like Reddit, but that's very much a minority of  people.

Most people in such societies are perfectly respectable, though a fair number of them are somewhat 'socially awkward', based on things they have said.

verity

The lesson to take away from this is while there might be some correlation between IQ and success, the clear correlation with genius or at least by  any "reasonable" definition genius is not there.

In other words, people with high IQ can lead average lives for above average IQ people. There is not necessarily massive differences between adjacent percentiles.

Genius is part creativity, part the ability to process the ideas, but crucially timing plays a big part in it. A score over 160 is just a score over 160. This is may be a great score, I'm not knocking it, but it is not enough to make someone a genius IMO. Genius is demonstrated  by some major advance in mankind.

With executive dysfunction I would love to have greater processing capabilities. This is only becuase I have awareness of the work I would focus on, and understand enough to appreciate the challenges. If I didn't I wouldn't care.

I feel no need to celebrate anything beyond my control.

verity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman

IQ score 125

firemonkey

The Endogenous Personality is a term I have devised for the type of personality characteristic of a genius: the personality of one who is inner-orientated: inner-directed, inner-driven, inner-motivated; one who uses inner modes of thinking, inner evaluations; one who is to a high degree autonomous, self-sufficient; one who is relatively indifferent to social pressures, influences and inducements.

https://iqpersonalitygenius.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-endogenous-personality-its.html

Hylian

I am somewhat vulnerable to being exploited. I'm not good at deciphering people's actual intentions when they ask things of me, so I've had people use me for money, as a babysitter, etc. When people ask for help, even if my judgment does say that I should say "No," to them, I feel guilty for thinking badly of their intentions and give in.

People who do this also use the things I'm interested in/like doing, like family members asking me to constantly take care of their animals and/or kids without giving me compensation they promised, since they know I'll say "Yes," and won't hound them for what they said they'd give me afterwards.

Amity

I have a record of being vulnerable to exploitation, even into mid adulthood I didnt understand the extent to which people cant be trusted, nor did I understand that my definition of trust and being decent was quite different to other peoples. That I should retain my idealism only for those I can truly trust.

When Im anxious that a flat 'No' would cause a scene, Ive learned for the most part to say things like 'not right now' 'maybe later' 'I'll see' 'I'll get back to you' 'I will think about it' etc. Sometimes I get caught off guard and find myself saying yes to something I dont want to do and I have to go back and say no to the person later. I hate that part, but not as much as I hate feeling used or exploited.

Hylian

Amity said:

I have a record of being vulnerable to exploitation, even into mid adulthood I didnt understand the extent to which people cant be trusted, nor did I understand that my definition of trust and being decent was quite different to other peoples. That I should retain my idealism only for those I can truly trust.

When Im anxious that a flat 'No' would cause a scene, Ive learned for the most part to say things like 'not right now' 'maybe later' 'I'll see' 'I'll get back to you' 'I will think about it' etc. Sometimes I get caught off guard and find myself saying yes to something I dont want to do and I have to go back and say no to the person later. I hate that part, but not as much as I hate feeling used or exploited.

I have a similar issue. Sometimes I also get caught off guard and say "Yes," and then have to work up the courage to back track later. I usually just come up with an excuse (like telling them I'm ill/realized I have an appointment for something) because I am too timid to just say I changed my mind.

firemonkey

I can find it very difficult to say 'no'.