The harsh truth of the world is that not everyone can be trusted. Not everyone will want to be our friend; They might even hate us outright.
They may disagree with our political views. Or we feel jealous of our professional and personal achievements.
Naturally, they will keep these feelings low, making it difficult to know who to trust.
Underneath the fake smiles and insults, there could be someone planning to see us become miserable.
Maybe they want to see us fail or embarrass ourselves in front of the boss.
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Maybe they’re secretly planning something bad for us — in which case, pay attention to these 12 signs to help you avoid falling into their trap.
1) They’re too cute for no good reason
Have you started to notice that someone has been meeting your needs more than usual?
It’s as if they are always there for you, buying you special gifts and serving you their food.
While it is normal for people to show their affection towards another person, this person may be a bit exaggerated.
This behavior bordering on obsession could mean one of two things: either they’re truly infatuated with you, or they’re faking it.
When someone seems so cheerful around you, always positive and smiling, it may be best to keep an arm’s length away from them – they may not be very honest about it.
2) Your friends start acting strange around you
After meeting this person, did your friends start acting differently around you? They may have started talking to you less, or even avoiding you altogether.
Maybe when they talk to you, it’s in a colder, more monotonous voice, as if they can’t wait to leave their conversation with you. Or they won’t even look you in the eye.
The people who conspire against you are often not trying to act alone; They recruit partners and influence people close to you.
They may have talked about you with your friends, smeared your name, and turned them against you.
3) They gossip about you from others
These people tend to let you know other people’s secrets to create a bond between you. When they share a piece of gossip with you, they may ask you to swear an oath not to tell anyone else.
What can be overlooked about this is that this type of behavior is probably something they do a lot of – which means they might gossip about you too.
When they ask you not to mention it to anyone, you automatically become their partner, whether you realize it or not.
They have brought you down to their level and will use your willingness to accept such gossip as a way to ruin your reputation in front of your other friends.
- They give indirect compliments
By playing nice and trying to hide their cheating personality, they tend to drop hints about their feelings for you in their “compliments.”
They might say something like, “Wow, I’m so surprised you got the job! Good for you!” Do they mean that you seemed incapable and unskilled?
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It takes a keen ear to read between the lines.
Once you start noticing that their compliments don’t seem to affect you in the right way, then you should start being wary of their other behavior.
Watch how they compliment others – If the only person they talk to this way is you, they may not like you as much as you thought.
5) They talk about things you know you didn’t do
One of their favorite phrases might be: “You have a bad memory.” This is a way for them to reinforce reality and make you doubt yourself.
You can remember a trip you took and you could swear you didn’t say anything mean to them, but they still claim they were insulted.
What you can do is pay attention when you’re alone; This means that there is no witness to support what did or did not happen between you.
It becomes your word against their word. They know it and will lure everyone around you into thinking you did something you swore you never did.
6) They are not there when you need them
One sign of friendship is being there for each other, especially when someone is feeling down or having a problem and needs help.
If you consider this person a “friend” of yours, it would be wise to consider the services you have provided them and those they have provided to you.
You can look back at how many times you were there to listen to their rants while they didn’t even bother to listen to yours.
They never seem to say “thank you” to you; They simply go about their days as if you didn’t help them. When they do this, they may be manipulating you and using you.
There is no real friendship there, so it would be wise to build distance between you.
7) They deliberately scare you
When they “joke” and say insulting things about you and you get hurt, they’ll say you’re just being sensitive.
They may even get angry with you when you call them out on their behavior.
They want to make you feel small with their annoying compliments.
They also want to keep bragging to you about how great their life is right now, just so you can feel bad about yourself.
They want to subtly discourage you from being motivated to succeed because you might outperform them.
They plan to keep you feeling down, which increases your self-doubt.
8) They act like a different person when you are with others
When they are with you, they can be very nice or even disrespectful towards you.
But when you see them with their other friends, it’s like you’re looking at a completely different person. Suddenly they were much happier and laughed a lot more.
And you see them change their personality depending on who they talk to their parents, their boss, or their other friends.
This type of behavior should not go unnoticed.
When someone is out of character, it may send the message that they think of you differently – they may love you or hate you.
It is difficult to trust someone unpredictable.
Although it’s hard to know what they feel, it’s still important to keep a close eye on it so you’re not too surprised that they’ve been plotting against you the whole time.
9) They tend to feel guilty
They want you to feel like the victim and that everything is your fault.
When you decline their invitation to go out, they start talking about how good friends always have each other’s backs and then wonder if you want to be a good friend or a bad friend.
They want to make you feel bad about your behavior and actions just because they don’t like you.
They manipulate you into always thinking that something is your fault.
They bring up things like how your family might feel if they had someone so mean. It is this emotional and intellectual bullying that you need to protect yourself from.
10) They are passive-aggressive
When you ask them what’s wrong, they tend to tell you they’re fine — even if they’re upset about something you said.
They are not honest with you about their feelings.
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One of the reasons they do this is because when the time comes to bring up their other friends, they will tarnish your name and keep blaming you for making them feel bad.
11) They lie out of heedlessness
When work instructions come, they’re not willing to tell you everything.
This way, when you go to present the finished product to your boss, you’ll be missing something — something they have that would easily solve the problem.
It makes them look like heroes and you look like an incompetent employee.
So be careful and always ask another source about something they said – it may be the truth, but it’s not the whole truth.
12) They pretend they don’t know what they are doing
When you confront them about their behavior, they will act stupid; They’ll say things like: “I don’t understand what you’re saying.” Or “You’re not very clear.” Even if you are as clear as possible.
When they claim ignorance, it is a way for them to wash their hands of their behavior and make themselves look like the victim.
In the long run, it would be wise to be the better person in the situation.
The very thing they are looking for in conspiring against you is for you to surrender.
Once you take revenge, you have stooped to their level.
A possible alternative action would be to simply confront them about it while maintaining respect.
