Seduction as a manipulation tactic uses flattery, charm, and excessive attention deliberately to build a target's trust and affection, lowering their guard before the manipulator asks for something or moves against their interests. The emotional reward of feeling valued or admired is often strong enough that the target overlooks red flags they'd otherwise notice, precisely because those red flags would mean giving up a feeling they've come to want.
George Simon's clinical observation is that this tactic works on its own timeline — the charm typically precedes the actual harm by enough time that the connection between them isn't obvious when the harm eventually arrives. Robert Hare's research on psychopathy adds a further layer: for some people, the charm isn't even strategic in a calculated sense — it's simply how they operate, a practiced social mode aimed at getting what they want with no attachment behind it at all.