If you realize that you can be hustled then you are not stupid. I was getting from you that you considered your self too aware to be hustled. And that kind of person is a prime mark. Find out what their belief system is, play into it and they will follow you like a little lamb.
Afterwards they might see what happened or they might not. Most of us don't like to think we are stupid or easily led.
The most effective and painful hustle is when it comes from family or friends. You are blind sided because you trust.
I have learned that it is especially effective when the person is gaslighted from the time of birth by his or her smart mother.
The person I know who survived, sanity intact, and escaped a mother like this is now effectively immune to gaslighting.