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Former CIA Agent Explains How He Made Targets Fall For Him

Former CIA Agent Explains How He Made Targets Fall For Him

Andrew Bustamante spent years undercover, stealing secrets from terrorists and drug cartels

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Andrew Bustamante is a former CIA spy, who used to steal secrets from some of the world's most dangerous terrorists and gangs.

Speaking to LADbible, Andy - who now teaches people how to use spy skills in their everyday life - says it was all about confusing his targets into believing there was a connection.

But while Hollywood would have us believe it's all beautiful women and fast cars, Andy says the reality is slightly different.

He says: "We all find ourselves in a position where we have to find someone of the opposite sex and motivate them to be with us.

"So you will have to find women, you will have to find men, you will have to find homosexual men, you will have to find transgender people.

"We never want to try and build a personal, romantic relationship, but the level of trust that you build with a target enamours them to you, because you're the only other person in the world that knows what they're going through, because that's the kind of relationship you want."

He adds: "As soon as somebody comes into your 'secret life', cognitively, they're gonna confuse romance for relationship. And that's where it gets really tricky. So that part is true.

Andy Bustamante used to be a CIA spy, tasked with stealing secrets from some of the most dangerous people in the world.
Supplied

"The part that's not true is it's very rare that beautiful people are put in charge of secrets.

"So yes, you're wooing a woman in some kind of way, but when she falls in love with you, she's like a 300-pound gorilla and, like, a leading general for some third world country.

"So that's, like, that's not ideal, right? They don't put that on TV. It's not something James Bond's putting up with."

And this doesn't happen overnight either. There's a process Andy used in order to make a target fall for him.

He explains: "If you want secrets into how a certain coffee shop makes its signature coffee... you want to recruit somebody from that coffee shop.

"Then, you have to start what we call a series of 'assessment conversations'. So you won't get it in one conversation. Nobody falls in love, nobody trusts a stranger in one meeting.

"And we just start having conversations with that barista about broad things first, and we work towards broad topics that make them expose personal topics. So it's, like, 'Hey, have you ever worked somewhere else?' 'Oh, I used to work as a waitress'.

"Then, you start a practice that we call 'perspective versus perception'. Most people look at the world through their own perception. The world revolves around me. What CIA trains you to do is gain outside perspective.

He says it was rarely like a Bond film.
Supplied

"So when that barista tells me she used to be a waitress, what does that tell me? That tells me that for the last two jobs, she's been in the service industry, a low wage service industry... like, she probably doesn't have a lot of nice things.

"I use that to gain some perspective. And take the question a level deeper. 'Oh, what restaurant did you used to work at? Sometimes I hear that those customers are rude on that side of town', right? You make a joke.

"She's gonna start telling you more and more. 'Oh, yeah, they were rude. But that's okay. Because, you know, my faith tells me that you're supposed to forgive all people'.

"It's something we call 'windows and doors' at the agency. When somebody opens a door, they're basically opening a conversation topic that you can ask any question you want, right? 'My faith'. That's a wide open door for you to say, 'What is your faith?'"

"The human psyche, no matter what country you're from, no matter what your culture is, if you open a conversational door, and someone asks you a follow-up question, the human brain wants to answer that question."

He adds: "Once you get into someone's brain, once you understand their 'secret personal life', their personal secrets, they trust you enough to tell you any secret they have."

You can learn more about Andy's spy skills on his website.

Featured Image Credit: Supplied

Topics: US News, James Bond