Ruse
Lying the American Dream from Hollywood to Wall Street
by Robert Kerbeck
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Pub Date 22 Feb 2022 | Archive Date 7 Jan 2022
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Description
“Kerbeck’s juicy memoir tells riveting tales [with] the thrill of a spy novel. . . Kerbeck bares all of his wild business secrets within the world of corporate espionage” — Foreword Reviews
"Robert Kerbeck has mastered the art of social engineering, or what he calls 'rusing', and taken it to a whole new level." — Frank Abagnale, author of Catch Me If You Can
B-list actor, A-list corporate spy. . .
In the world of high finance, multibillion-dollar Wall Street banks greedily guard their secrets. Enter Robert Kerbeck, a working actor who made his real money lying on the phone, charming people into revealing their employers’ most valuable information. In this exhilarating memoir that will appeal to fans of The Wolf of Wall Street and Catch Me If You Can, unsuspecting receptionists, assistants, and bigshot executives all fall victim to “the Ruse.”
After college, Kerbeck rushed to New York to try to make it as an actor. But to support himself, he’d need a survival job, and before he knew it, while his pals were waiting tables, he began his apprenticeship as a corporate spy.
As his acting career started to take off, he found himself hobnobbing with Hollywood luminaries: drinking with Paul Newman, taking J.Lo to a Dodgers game, touring E.R. sets with George Clooney. He even worked with O.J. Simpson the week before he became America’s most notorious double murderer.
Before long, however, his once promising acting career slowed while the corporate espionage business took off. The ruse job was supposed to have been temporary, but Kerbeck became one of the world’s best practitioners of this deceptive—and illegal—trade. His income jumped from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year.
Until the inevitable crash…
Kerbeck shares the lies he told, the celebrities he screwed (and those who screwed him), the cons he ran, and the money he made—and lost—along the way.
Advance Praise
"Social engineering, or scamming, is something I did at an early age. Robert Kerbeck has mastered the art of social engineering, or what he calls 'rusing', and taken it to a whole new level. In a world of too much information, Kerbeck has used that to his great success."
— Frank Abagnale, author of Catch Me If You Can and Scam Me If You Can
“An irresistible portrait of actors and grifters in the work-a-day world of corporate espionage.”
— Jess Walter, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Beautiful Ruins
"Ruse is a Tale of Two Lives: Kerbeck's acting career and his fascinating life as a corporate con man/spy. If you like celeb gossip, you’ll go for the first, but I prefer the second since it exposes the very dark, greedy, narcissistic side of Wall Street and Big Business in general. Kerbeck out-cons the top con-artists -- sophisticated CEOs. And he does it over the phone. Wow! In my day I had to fly around the world!"
— John Perkins, New York Times bestselling author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
"Kerbeck has a very compelling writing style and can pull off humor, too, which isn’t easy. I really enjoyed Ruse.”
— Bradley Hope, New York Times bestselling author of Billion Dollar Whale
"Ruse lives at a truly unique intersection of Hollywood meets Wall Street, and I found myself laughing with and rooting for Robert throughout this book. His personality leaps off the page — he’s a great storyteller and Ruse is a can’t miss best seller."
— Rob Golenberg, Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed Showtime series Your Honor
"In Ruse, Robert Kerbeck reveals himself to be a scoundrel, a raconteur, and a masterful storyteller. In the course of becoming an unlikely corporate intelligence spy, his various masks are so seamless that readers are swept along in his mythic transformation. Sometimes, memoirs become self-involved and forget to give readers a good story. Not here. What other book features a narrator attending a soiree at Paul Newman’s Manhattan apartment, and appearing in an O.J. Simpson exercise video? And that’s just for starters. This compelling page-turner is both insightful and an absolute hoot.”
— Sue William Silverman, author of How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences
"Robert Kerbeck’s memoir, Ruse, is a riveting tale of desire and deception in a world where lies are necessary currency and where con artists can end up convincing everyone, even themselves. Ruse offers a fascinating portrait of a life negotiated through a web of fabrications."
— Lee Martin, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and author of Gone the Hard Road
“I loved Ruse! What a crazy story, and believe me, I know crazy. Successful spies are great storytellers, and Robert Kerbeck ranks up there with the best of them."
— Valerie Plame, author of Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House
"A deliciously outrageous, you-can’t-make-this-shit-up caper. Kerbeck takes us on his unlikely transformation from almost-a-star actor to multi-millionaire corporate sleuth. As it turns out, you don’t need to climb the greasy rungs of the ladder to make a killing; all you need is a telephone and your wits.”
— Erik Edstrom, author of Un-American: A Soldier’s Reckoning of Our Longest War
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781586423162 |
| PRICE | US$16.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 288 |
Featured Reviews
Valerie S, Reviewer
I found this book fascinating. It was stranger than fiction with the surprises it revealed. A biography of how the author got seduced into the world of lying to get inside information, for profit. As well as how it takes over his entire life at one point. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Robert Kerbeck, and the publisher.
Helen W, Reviewer
An interesting insight in how corporate America have plausible deniability for the gathering of information. How the information is highly prized. The effect on Roberts life and his choices.
The economic collapses and the ripple effect on business and home.
Peter D, Reviewer
I was more than pleasantly surprised when I read Ruse and can honestly say it is the most enjoyable biography I have ever read. Robert Kerbeck pulls no punches when he gives his opinions and views on well known and not so well known individuals. At times I was so engrossed, it was like reading a mystery thriller by one of my favourite authors and I had difficulty putting it down.
A no holds barred breath of fresh air with just the right amount of name dropping.. Highly recommended.
Paul V, Reviewer
This is pretty interesting. This is the opposite of the average person's experience, which is probably why it makes a good book. And of course that this actually happened makes it more compelling. Recommended.
Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!
Tara L, Book Trade Professional
Ruse by Robert Kerbeck was a wild ride! As I was reading, I couldn't stop thinking that Ruse would make a blockbuster movie (similar to Catch Me if You Can) and hoping that a major studio had already bought the rights! The author has had an incredible life and is a very gifted storyteller. Highly recommend!
Alan M, Reviewer
Kerbeck’s story mixes something fairly familiar – actor wanabee who doesn’t make the grade, with something I’d never seen written about before – making money by “rusing” major corporations; conning them into handing over details of their top performing employees and selling this data to head hunting firms. On paper, it may sound a bit niche, but after a slightly slow start, Kerbeck’s punchy, no nonsense story telling makes it a real page turner.
Kerbeck knew he didn’t want to join his father’s car dealership. He sought creativity over commerce. Despite being a natural at selling cars, he set his sights on becoming an actor. To keep a roof over his head while he waits for his big break, instead of bartending or waiting at tables, he accepts a gig working for a woman who employs a couple of actors. Their job is to ring Wall Street firms and talk them in to handing over the names, job titles and performance figures of people working in their biggest revenue generating departments. This data on so called “passive candidates” carries a premium value because it features people who aren’t already on headhunters books and their performance figures come from the horse’s mouth.
Kerbeck’s intends his ability to “ruse” companies to be secondary to his acting aspirations, and whilst it clearly provides a good income to his boss, he strives to make headway on stage or screen. There are plenty of juicy anecdotes drawn from his time as an actor, all told with candid sharpness (names are named), and a generous helping of self-effacing mockery.
He auditions for Reservoir Dogs, Thelma & Louise, often down to last two for a part but never getting to be the “one”. His stage work in NY earns him an invite to become a member of New York’s Actors Studio and he finds himself alongside Allison Janney, James Gandolfini and Karen Allen, giving readings to Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward. He credits those who helped him out but doesn’t shy away from calling out how some of the old school members – including current Actor’s Studio Artistic Director Estelle Parsons and Co-President Ellen Burstyn – seemed more concerned with putting new members down than providing a helping hand. George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, and OJ Simpson also pop up, and there’s a brief encounter with Yoko Ono that’s worth buying the book for on its own. He proudly points out that the collectors card for the character he played in Deep Space Nine is so sought after it’s sold for over $2.
Quite how many readers will be absorbed by the mix of showbiz dirt and murky recruitment practices remains to be seen, but as an occasional user of headhunters and an even more occasional recipient of their interest, I found his explanation of how his “rusing” had to get bolder and more obviously fraudulent as companies got wiser intriguing. Tongue in cheek enquiries maksed behind stories of bogus academic research became ineffective as companies wised up so Kerbeck started to impersonate “insiders” from tax or compliance, even finding ways to spoof phone systems so that calls showed internal caller IDs. As his acting career peters out his rusing abilities make him a millionaire who is increasingly uncomfortable with the way in which he makes money, and loathes the people he has to work with. Scrabbling for income after the global banking collapse kills the recruitment market dead overnight he joins a firm that prove to be even bigger con men than he is, an irony that isn’t lost on him.
Kerbeck now writes books and screenplays, but still gets the occasional research project. He maintains he now collects data without any subterfuge perversely helped by the way LinkedIn has normalised the disclosure of personal data in the public domain, and is sustained by the major corporations that are happy to buy his data without asking a single question about he obtained it.
Gayle N, Reviewer
Robert Kerbeck started out wanting to be an actor & initially he was fairly successful with lead roles in plays which translated into smaller roles in film & TV. After several years though, good acting roles were starting to dry up, & so Kerbeck decided to concentrate on his side gig - working as someone who obtains information on the movers & shakers on Wall Street so that they can be headhunted. It's a job that requires a specific skill set; quick thinking, gift of the gab, improvisation, & a willingness to sometimes bend the line when it comes to getting that all important information. Kerbeck was one of the few who could be a success at this line of work, which meant that he started his own company at one point. Then came to Crash of 2008 ......
I'm not sure what exactly motivated me to request to read an ARC of this book but I'm glad I did. You would think that a book about 'rusing' to facilitate data collection could be rather staid & dry, but that is absolutely not the case here. The author definitely has a way with the written word, not just the spoken, as he takes the reader on a journey through his life. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys memoirs/non-fiction.
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Steerforth Press, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
Ann M, Reviewer
Buckle your seatbelts for an extremely enjoyable and entertaining ride through Hollywood, the Actor's Studio, corporate espionage and the world of global search firms ("headhunters"). Kerbeck started off as an actor and it is amazing how learning to play different characters serves him well in the corporate espionage world. He is an incredible storyteller and I feel like I got a real sense of his inner thoughts and feelings as opposed to just describing what happened. That is what really stands out for me about this book -- the tales he tell remind me of Frank Abagnale's "Catch Me If You Can" which I read awhile ago, and at the same time he is willing to make himself vulnerable and likeable. Having worked in the corporate setting most of my career, I could relate to some of the competitive dynamics he describes as well as his struggle to rationalize what he does for a living when his 8 year old son confronts him about it. The rise of Linkedin changed the game because now this secret data about people and where they work and what they do has become more widely available. This book also highlights ways people can be conned or influenced to give up information they probably shouldn't and I also found this to be valuable as well. Thank you to Netgalley and Steerforth for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Overall, I highly recommend this very interesting and entertaining read!
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