What do you call someone who exploits people and their confidence using ‘clever speech’? [closed]

Solution 1:

Sophistry is crafty speech intended to deceive, not necessarily out and out lying. So then a

sophist

is someone who does it. This is mostly just to win arguments though, not necessarily to get people to do things. That would be a demagogue, but that is someone, yes, who is clever with words but in a very specific way, appealing to the listener's baser instincts.

Solution 2:

Not quite a single word, but silver tongued probably fits.

Solution 3:

A "Snake oil salesman" is someone who uses speech to get people to believe something through their words alone and not through any empirical evidence.

Or...

"Wheedler" - from "wheedle":

v. whee·dled, whee·dling, whee·dles v.tr.

To persuade or attempt to persuade by flattery or guile; cajole.

To obtain through the use of flattery or guile: a swindler who wheedled my life savings out of me.

v.intr.

To use flattery or cajolery to achieve one's ends.

Solution 4:

Glib: fluent and easy, often in an insincere or deceptive way, artfully persuasive in speech; "a glib tongue"; "a smooth-tongued hypocrite".

Solution 5:

This kind of person sounds like a charismatic authority—someone who holds power through a cult of personality.