How can you tell is someone is faking wealth?

[Teadrinker11]

When the hell is someone genuinely wealthy rather than just trying to be all flash but when in truth there's no real money behind the facade?

@Eggshausted

Money shouts, wealth whispers….

Which category does the Queen fall into?

16. They seem slightly nervous or overly keen to impress staff in luxury locations (shops, restaurants, hotels) If someone seems a tiny bit on edge when dealing with staff at these places they're probably faking it. Pop culture (Pretty Woman) have conditioned everyone to believe that staff at these places tend to be arrogant or judgemental if you don't meet certain criteria. In reality, luxury company employees are entirely normal people earning entirely normal salaries and they are just keen to do their job. Most wealthy people get used to the "luxury service environment" and politics of tipping. A fake person will get more anxious because they either don't have that much money to spare on tips or just don't understand how it work.

I love how people here genuinely think “the wealthy” act as one homogeneous group. Of course they don’t.

I knew this thread would have the usual crap about old money types being so lovely and understated and gracious as compared to crass upstart footballers and their Burberry clad ilk. This country is so embarrassing.

When they call you telling you their enemies are after them and they can’t use their cards because they will be tracked down and killed and there’s no one else in their circle of millionaires they could possibly ask to borrow 25K from to tide them over but you… I’d say that was fake.

Shoes. Expensive handbag or watch but cheap shoes.

@DetailMouse

I used to say the really rich don't flaunt it and that's true in many cases, but surely there are enough examples of pop stars, footballers etc (who we can assume are fairly wealthy) living very flash lifestyles, to know that flashy doesn't automatically mean there's no money there?

I think usually, if you're close enough to someone to be thinking about their money, you'd know where their money comes from and whether that adds up.

And yes, if they're rich they won't need loans from you.

There are plenty of rich people who flash it. There are so many stereotypes on here. Look at Inventing Anna. You can tell she was not wealthy. Yes she sometimes had money, but at other times she was making excuses about her Trust Fund not coming through. With anyone consistency and whether things add up tell you if they are being truthful or not.

It’s bollocks that the truly wealthy don’t boast or flaunt it. We’ve known a handful of super-wealthy people and at least two of them were/are massive flaunters! Not true for all of them of course.

The flaunters don’t directly mention sums of money, except in one case with respect to how much he sold his business for before retiring at 40, but particularly when booze fuelled, will reference accoutrements of wealth that they have or have had in the past. I think it’s born of a misplaced insecurity in at least one case. The men I’m thinking of are actually very nice blokes, I don’t know why they feel compelled to do it and in their cases they certainly aren’t doing it to make others feel small, but they are trying to impress.

None of the flaunters I’ve met are old money, but some of the old money people I’ve known use other means to signal their superiority. The county set where I grew up were strangely parochial and clannish in their customs so when they first met you and found out where you lived they would exclaim “Oh! So do you know the Smyth-Betteridges? The Hothams? The Rymers? - reeling off a biblical style list of the local landowners and other worthies. You might be asked where you ski, where you went to school (if young), and my mother used to be asked if I was going to Queen Charlotte’s Ball I think it was. No. They all favoured the same places for holidays etc. It was a mirror image of how DH remembers the older dockers’ families being where he grew up on a very working class council estate. They all went to the same pub and to the same place on holiday and when they went anywhere whether it was Wembley for the Rugby League final or Cyprus, they’d adopt a pub on the first night and they’d never go anywhere else. Every fucking year. His ex’s family were like that and it drove him mad. The last straw for him was sitting in “their” London pub and realising they’d replicated the seating positions they had in their local. 🤣

I really don’t think there are fail-safe tells for the truly wealthy as like the rest of the population they are all different. The Carphone Warehouse bloke was on Desert Island Discs recently and he used budget airlines and couldn’t bring himself to “waste” money on business or first class.

@Hoolihan I agree. Britain is a country of cap doffers. I wish people would have more self-respect.

@PaperTulip Or maybe they have just come into money and are not used to going to those type of places?

I was brought up wearing jumble sale clothes. My parents were very well off! My Mum had an amazing outfit for our wedding!

I live in an area with a lot of wealthy people. Old money and new money. But I don't think I could tell if any of them are faking it. How could you really tell unless you knew them closely?

This is such an interesting question, I’ve been watching inventing Anna and can’t believe it was based on a true story. Somehow she duped very wealthy people to think she was very wealthy, essentially just by her demeanour

This is just going to drag up all the typical mn stuff of ‘old money is graceful and lovely and dog hair and old wellies’ and ‘poor people are chavvy and tacky and take out loans to buy Michael Korrs while their kids don’t even have shoes,’ but realistically there’s only one answer to your question - you can not indefinitely tell if someone is rich or not unless you hold them at knife point and demand to see their online banking account. And it shouldn’t matter anyway. If someone is lying to you that will come out one way or another because that type of deep running insecurity will show in other areas.

I worked abroad in a number of private hospitals and got to met and treat some seriously wealthy patients but unless you moved in the same social circles you’d have been unlikely to meet them. They had personal assistants and their own security. Different world.

@christingle2 yes loads of very wealthy people believed her based on her demeanour and having expensive clothes. I found it interesting that it was some of the ordinary working people who released she was a scammer, long before the very wealthy people did.

I wonder whether they thought she was one of them because they simply couldn't believe anyone could breach the great divide and fool then? How dare she!

It's the difference between 'old money' and 'new money' - class vs flash; shout vs silent

Good to see all the usual stereotypical tropes wheeled out about real money being all classy and understated etc etc. I am pretty sure there as many different types of rich people as there are poor. I mean I'd hardly call the likes of Paris Hilton classy or understated, and I believe she is fairly well off. Some rich people are humble and low profile, some are flash wankers, and I expect most are somewhere in between.

Some wealthy people live their lives under the radar. They neither buy the cheapest nor the most expensive in food or clothing or anything else for that matter. It's all about what they like, what makes them happy and what they're prepared to spend on any item or product IMO. If they choose a cheap option, I reckon it's because that's because they prefer whatever it is and the price point. High net worth doesn't mean you have to go for the more expensive choices just BECAUSE you can afford to not think about cost.
I know someone who gave a large sum to a political party and was outed by a member of that party. The donor was ragged mercilessly and aggressively by some acquaintances who thought they'd do better to have given to food banks, homeless or 'the poor', which I thought was patronising in the extreme.
The acquaintances obviously had no idea of the work done for 3 not for profit charities.

@RainbowMum11 No, it really isn’t.

Wealth is such an arbitrary thing though.

I feel wealthy because I have no debts and enough disposable in the bank available to pay for all the things I want or need. My wants and needs extend to some fancy food in the trolley and a decent pair of running trainers or a properly waterproof coat when I’ve worn out the old ones. I have no desire to own expensive cars, handbags or jewellery.

I think nowadays it’s impossible to gauge how wealthy someone is by their outward appearance.

I think it's hard to know unless you're familiar with the trappings of wealth. Re the tinder swindler me and DH watched it separately and his immediate observations were 1. those watches are definitely not worth £100,000 even if they're real 2. is that his private jet? Whose is it? Where did he lease it from? I wouldn't know how much a watch was worth and have no idea how private jets work but DH is familiar with that stuff.

My take on the tinder swindler is that he does have money but not as much as he makes out and that he gets a kick out of conning women. Unless he's involved in other scams I really don't think the life savings of a few European women are enough to fund the lifestyle he's living.

What amount of money/income does everyone think makes someone "wealthy"?
I think there is a level of wealth that most of us have limited comprehension of. Personally I think it's obscene that individuals can have so much money and make money from simply having money.

What people count as wealthy is probably different for each of us. I'm sure there's probably a difference between being comfortable and wealthy. Wealthy to me is having a sizable buffer to account for life's ups and downs, no mortgage or the ability to pay off the mortgage quickly if you wanted, having the option to outsource domestic duties, comfortably affording private schooling, having the option to spend a high disposable income on whatever you'd like, comfortable retirement plans, probably some investments. It's not the super rich bracket but I think it's still quite wealthy.

What I find bizarre is the trend in wanting to appear wealthy/affluent. In recent years I've had newly colleagues straight out of university who have the handbags with endless labels all over, all the beauty treatments, the weekends away uploading photos from fairly pricey hotel rooms, Audi/BMWs on PCP, and everything about their outlook is about being seen to have material status symbols. I find this sort of desire to present a designer lifestyle to be quite odd and it's not something I've seen the wealthy people I know do.

Agree money shoots wealth whispers. I work for a private client family office and manage clients investments and their families money etc.

Those from “old” money families are more discreet. Yes they have properties in ski resorts and fly in “the jet” but they’re not flashy. You wouldn’t know it to look at them.

The “new” money families however….