Simple pickup are examples of guys who did it recently.
The darker, and more dollars, can be found at /r/seduction and darker still is /r/TheRedPill/
Every few years there seem to be a fad about these things, HN used to have these pick up artist posts pop up regularly until about 2 years ago. I got the impression that there was a large SV contingent involved in the pickup artist scene which eventually spawned the brogrammer movement, though no-one openly discusses it.
Wild speculation ofc...