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(Redirected from Scam)
It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. (|Discuss)
A 'confidence trick' or 'confidence game', also known as a 'con', 'scam', 'swindle', 'grift', 'bunko' or 'flim flam', is an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons (known as the "mark") usually with the goal of financial or other gain. (For confidence tricks dealing with information theft or computers see social engineering.)
The first known usage of the term "confidence man" was in 1849; it was used by the press during the trial of William Thompson. Thompson chatted with strangers until he asked if they had the confidence to lend him their watches, whereupon he would walk off with the watch; he was captured when a victim recognized him on the street.[1]
Persons of any level of intelligence are potentially vulnerable to deception by experienced con artists. Confidence tricks exploit human weaknesses like greed, dishonesty, vanity, but also virtues like honesty, compassion, or a naïve expectation of good faith on the part of the con artist.
Confidence tricksters often rely on the greed and dishonesty of the mark, who may attempt to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he or she has been manipulated into losing from the very beginning. This is such a general principle in confidence tricks that there is a saying among con men that "you can't cheat an honest man."[3]
However, some tricks depend on the honesty of the victim. In a common scam, as part of an apparently legitimate transaction, the victim is sent a worthless check, which the victim then deposits. The victim is then urged to forward the apparent value of the check to the trickster as cash, possibly keeping a small portion of the money as a commission, which they may do before discovering the cheque bounces. Another fashionable scenario (as of 2006) has the victim recruited as a "financial agent" to collect "business debts". Paper checks are not always involved: funds may be transferred electronically from another victim.
Sometimes con men rely on naive individuals who put their confidence in get-rich-quick schemes, such as "too good to be true" investments. It may take years for the wider community to discover that such investment schemes are bogus, and usually it is too late, as many people have lost their life savings in something they have been convinced to invest in.
The 'confidence trickster', 'con man', 'swindler', 'grifter', 'scam artist' or 'con artist' often works with one or more accomplices called shills, who help manipulate the mark into the con man's trick or dishonest plan. In a traditional confidence trick, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to win money or some other prize by doing some task. The accomplices may pretend to be random strangers who have won and benefited from successfully performing the task.
Confidence tricks are difficult to classify, because they keep changing, and often contain elements of more than one type.
'Get-rich-quick schemes' are so varied they nearly defy description. Everything from fake franchises, real estate "sure things", how-to-get-rich books and wealth-building seminars, self-help gurus, sure-fire inventions, useless products, chain letters, fortune tellers, quack doctors, miracle pharmaceuticals, charms and talismans are all used to separate the mark from his money. Variations include the 'pyramid scheme', Ponzi scheme, Matrix sale, and Multi-level Marketing.
'Salting' is the term for a scam in which gems or gold ore are planted in a mine or on the landscape, duping the greedy mark into purchasing shares in a worthless or non-existent mining company.[4] For a 19th-century example, see the Diamond hoax of 1872; for a modern example, involving imaginary gold deposits in Borneo, see Bre-X. Popularized in the HBO Series Deadwood (TV) season 1 when Al Swearingen and E.B. Farnum trick Brom Garret in to believing gold is to be found on the claim Swearingen intends to sell him.
The 'Spanish Prisoner' scam — and its modern variant, the 'advance fee fraud' or 'Nigerian scam' — take advantage of the victim's greed. The basic premise involves enlisting the mark to aid in retrieving some stolen money from its hiding place. The victim sometimes believes he can cheat the con artists out of their money, but anyone trying this has already fallen for the essential con by believing that the money is there to steal. See also Black money scam. Note that the classic Spanish Prisoner trick also contains an element of the romance scam (see below).
Many con men employ extra tricks to keep the victim from going to the police. A common ploy of investment scammers is to encourage a mark to use money concealed from tax authorities. The mark cannot go to the authorities without revealing that he or she has committed tax fraud. Many swindles involve a minor element of crime or some other misdeed. The mark is made to think that he or she will gain money by helping fraudsters get huge sums out of a country (the classic Nigerian scam). The mark cannot go to the police without revealing that he or she planned to commit a crime him- or herself.
A recent twist on the Nigerian fraud scheme, the mark is told he is helping someone overseas collect "debts" from corporate clients. Large cheques stolen from businesses are mailed to the mark. These cheques are altered to reflect the mark's name, and the mark is then asked to cash them and transfer all but a percentage of the funds (his commission) to the con artist. The cheques are often completely genuine, except that the "pay to" information has been expertly changed. This exposes the mark not only to enormous debt when the bank reclaims the money from his or her account, but also to criminal charges for money laundering. A more modern variation is to use laser-printed counterfeit checks with the proper account numbers and payer information.
Romance fraud, when fraudsters seduce people only to target their money, is an old type of fraud. It received high attention in Sweden around 1950 when a man (Gustaf Raskenstam) had had relationships with more than one hundred lonely women, and been engaged with many of them, often several at the same time. He took a lot of money and went to prison for fraud. His contact ads usually had the headline "Sun and spring" ("sol och vår" in Swedish). This type of behaviour is since called "sol och vårande" in Swedish).
The traditional 'Romance scam' has now moved into internet dating sites. The con actively cultivates a romantic relationship, which often involves promises of marriage. However, after some time it becomes evident that the Internet "sweetheart" is stuck in his home country, lacking the money to leave the country and thus unable to be united with the mark. The scam then becomes an 'Advance-fee fraud' or a 'check fraud'. A wide variety of reasons can be offered for the trickster's lack of cash, but rather than just borrow the money from the victim (Advance Fee fraud), the con man normally declares that they have checks which the victim can cash on their behalf and remit the money via a non-reversible transfer service to help facilitate the trip (check fraud). Of course, the checks are forged or stolen and the con man never makes the trip: the hapless victim ends up with a large debt and an aching heart. This scam can be seen in the movie Nights of Cabiria.
Gold brick scams involve selling a tangible item for more than it is worth; named after selling the victim a supposed gold bar that turns out to be gold-coated lead.
The '1883 "No Cents" Liberty Head nickel', a scam developed by con artists that electroplated Liberty Head nickels, intending to make storeowners believe that the gold-plated nickel was a $5 coin.
The 'Coin collecting scam' is a scam that preys on inexperienced collectors, coins or otherwise. The con man convinces the mark by stating that a high-priced collection is for sale at a lower amount. The coin collector then buys the entire collection thinking it is actually valuable.
'Pig-in-a-poke' originated in the late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce, but apparently rats and cats were not. The con entails a sale of a "suckling pig", in a "poke" (bag). The bag ostensibly contains a live healthy little pig, but actually contains a cat (not particularly prized as a source of meat, and at any rate, quite unlikely to grow to be a large hog). If one "buys a pig in a poke" without looking in the bag (a common colloquial expression in the English language, meaning "to be a sucker"), the person has bought something of lesser value than was assumed, and has learned firsthand the lesson caveat emptor. It is also said to be where the phrase 'letting the cat out of the bag' comes from, although there may be other explanations.
The 'Thai gem scam' involves layers of con men and helpers who tell a tourist in Bangkok of an opportunity to earn money by buying duty-free jewelry and having it shipped back to the tourist's home country. The mark is driven around the city in a tuk-tuk operated by one of the con men, who ensures that the mark meets one helper after another, until the mark is convinced to buy the jewelry from a store also operated by the swindlers. This scam has been operating for 20 years in Bangkok and is alleged to be protected by Thai police and politicians. A similar scam usually runs in parallel for custom-made suits. Many tourists are hit by con men touting both goods.
People shopping for pirated software, illegal pornographic images, bootleg music, drugs, firearms or other forbidden or controlled goods may be unable to report swindles to the police. An example is the "big screen TV in back of the truck"; the TV is touted as "hot" (stolen), so it will be sold for a very low price. The TV is in fact defective or broken, and has bricks inside its otherwise gutted case to give it heft. When it is plugged in, of course, it doesn't work - and the buyer has no legal recourse without admitting to attempted purchase of stolen goods.
The 'badger game' extortion is often perpetrated on married men. The mark is deliberately coerced into a compromising position, a supposed affair for example, then threatened with public exposure of his acts unless blackmail money is paid.
'The Melon Drop' is a scam in which the scammer will intentionally bump into the mark and drop a package containing broken glass that has already been broken. He will claim that the contents were broken by the clumsiness of the mark, and demand money to replace them. This con arose when artists discovered that the Japanese paid high amounts of money for watermelons. The scammer would go to a supermarket to buy a cheap watermelon, bump into a Japanese tourist and demand that they pay a high price.
The 'Hydrophobia lie' was popular in the 1920s, in which the con man pretended to have been bitten by the mark's (possibly rabid) dog.
'Insurance fraud' is a scam in which the con artist tricks the mark into damaging, for example, the con artist's car, or injuring the con artist (in a manner that the con artist can exaggerate). The con artist fraudulently collects a large sum of money from the mark's insurance policy, even though they intentionally caused the accident.
The con-man may pretend to have some injury or disadvantage to gain sympathy (and donations) e.g. a panhandler in a wheelchair, the woman with kids along the freeway off-ramp or the homeless veteran. In India in 2006, three doctors were investigated for offering to sever limbs in order to increase public sympathy toward their clients.[5]
The 'Just $5' trick is an abuse of charity scam: the conman approaches the victim and asks for "just $5" to help them achieve some goal that is almost within reach. The conman displays cash to prove they have "almost enough" and usually adds some props/window-dressing to add veracity: carrying a car part that needs repair/replacement or carrying a gas can (because the car ran out of gas and the wife/child is waiting).
'Three-card Monte', 'Find The Queen', the "Three-card Trick", or "Follow The Lady", is (except for the props) essentially the same as the probably centuries-older 'shell game' or ''thimblerig''. The trickster shows three playing cards to the audience, one of which is a queen (the "lady"), then places the cards face-down, shuffles them around and invites the audience to bet on which one is the queen. At first the audience is skeptical, so the shill places a bet and the scammer allows him to win. This is sometimes enough to entice the audience to place bets, but the trickster uses sleight of hand to ensure that they always lose, unless the con man decides to let them win to lure them into betting even more. The mark loses whenever the dealer chooses to make him lose. This con appears in the Eric Garcia novel ''Matchstick Men''.
In the 'Football Picks Scam' - The scammer sends out tip sheet stating a game will go one way to 50 potential victims and the other way to another 50. The next week, the 50 who received the correct answer are divided into two groups and fed another pick. This is repeated until a small population have (apparently) received a series of supernaturally perfect picks - then the final pick is offered for sale. Despite being well-known (it was even described completely on an episode of The Simpsons), this scam is run almost continuously in different forms by different operators.
'Lottery fraud by proxy' is a particularly vicious scam, in which the scammer buys a lottery ticket with old winning numbers. He or she then alters the date on the ticket so that it appears to be from the day before, and therefore a winning ticket. He or she then sells the ticket to the mark, claiming it is a winning ticket, but for some reason, he or she is unable to collect the prize (not eligible, etc.). The particular cruelty in this scam is that if the mark attempts to collect the prize, the fraudulently altered ticket will be discovered and the mark held criminally liable. This con was featured in the movie Matchstick Men, where Nicolas Cage teaches it to his daughter. A twist on the con was shown in Great Teacher Onizuka, where the more than gullible Onizuka was tricked into getting a "winning ticket". The ticket wasn't altered, instead the daily newspaper reporting the day's winning numbers was rewritten with a black pen.
Visitors to Las Vegas or other gambling towns often encounter the 'Barred Winner' scam, a form of advance fee fraud performed in person. The artist will approach his mark outside a casino with a stack or bag of high-value casino chips and say that he just won big, but the casino accused him of cheating and threw him out without letting him redeem the chips. The artist asks the mark to go in and cash the chips for him. The artist will often offer a percentage of the winnings to the mark for his trouble. But, when the mark agrees, the artist feigns suspicion and asks the mark to put up something of value "for insurance". The mark agrees, hands over jewelry, a credit card or their wallet, then goes in to cash the chips. When the mark arrives at the cashier, they are informed the chips are fake. The artist, by this time, is long gone with the mark's valuables.
The 'glim-dropper' requires several accomplices, one of whom must be a one-eyed man. He goes into a store and makes believe he has lost his glass eye. Everyone looks around, but the eye can’t be found. He declares that he will pay a thousand-dollar reward for the return of his eye, leaving contact information. The next day, an accomplice enters the store and pretends to find the eye. The storekeeper, thinking of the reward, offers to take it and return it to its owner. The finder insists he will return it himself, and demands the owner’s address. Thinking he will lose all chance of the reward, the storekeeper offers a hundred dollars for the eye. The finder bargains him up to $250, and departs. The one-eyed man, of course, can not be found and does not return. (Described in ''A Cool Million, or, The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin'' (1934) by Nathanael West). Variants of this con have been used in movies such as ''The Traveller (1997)'' and ''Shade (2003)''.
The 'fiddle game' uses the pigeon drop technique. A pair of con men work together, one going into an expensive restaurant in shabby clothes, eating, and claiming to have left his wallet at home, which is nearby. As collateral, the con man leaves his only worldly possession, the violin that provides his livelihood. After he leaves, the second con man swoops in, offers an outrageously large amount (for example, $50,000) for such a rare instrument, then looks at his watch and runs off to an appointment, leaving his card for the mark to call him when the fiddle-owner returns. The mark's greed comes into play when the "poor man" comes back, having gotten the money to pay for his meal and redeem his violin. The mark, thinking he has an offer on the table, then buys the violin from the fiddle player (who "reluctantly" sells it eventually for, say, $5,000). The result is the two con men are $5,000 richer (less the cost of the violin), and the mark is left with a cheap instrument. (This trick is also detailed in the Neil Gaiman novel ''American Gods'' and is the basis for The Streets' song "Can't Con an Honest John".)
★ 'The Undercover Cop Scam' is a scam where a con man pretends to be an undercover police officer, usually by stopping their vehicle and showing a fake badge, and tells the mark about a case they are investigating, and that they are a suspect. The con man asks for money to be checked, when the mark is out of the vehicle, the con man gets into his car and drives away, leaving enough time to escape as the mark has to walk back to his vehicle. This scam is usually done to tourists, variations include their whole luggage being transferred to the con man's trunk "to be checked at a police station."
★ 'The Big Store' is a technique involving a large team of con artists and elaborate sets. Often a building is rented and furnished as a legitimate and substantial business.
★ 'The Paranoia Scam' is a scam that involves the con man telling the mark various lies about the different scams and instigating false attempts so that the mark (feeling worried and with no place to hide their money from fraud) turns to the con man for help.
★ 'Change raising' is a common short con and involves an offer to change an amount of money with someone, and at the same time taking change or bills back and forth to confuse the person as to how much money they are actually changing. The most common form, "the Short Count," has been featured prominently in several movies about grifting, notably ''Nueve Reinas'', ''The Grifters'', and ''Paper Moon''. A con artist, shopping at a gas station for example, is given 80 cents in change because he lacks two dimes to complete the sale (for example, the sale cost is $19.20 and the con man has a 20 dollar bill). He goes out to his car, and returns a short time later with 20 cents. He returns them, saying that he found the rest of the change to make a dollar, and asking for a bill so he won't have to carry change. The confused store clerk agrees, exchanging a dollar for the 20 cents the con man returned. In essence, the mark makes change twice.
★ The 'pigeon drop', also featured early in the film ''The Sting'', involves the mark or pigeon assisting an elderly, weak or infirm stranger to keep their money safe for them. In the process, the stranger (actually a confidence trickster) puts his money with the mark's money (in an envelope, briefcase, or sack) which the mark is then entrusted with. The money is actually not put into the sack or envelope, but is switched for a bag full of newspaper, etc. The mark is enticed to make off with the con man's money through the greed element and various theatrics, but in actuality, the mark is fleeing from his own money, which the con man still has (or has handed off to an accomplice).
★ In 'pseudoscience' and 'snake oil' scams, popular psychology confidence tricksters make money by falsely claiming to improve reading speed and comprehension using speed reading courses by fooling the consumer with inappropriate skimming and general knowledge tests. These popular psychology tricksters often employ popular assumptions about the brain and the cerebral hemispheres that are scientifically wrong, but attractive and easy to believe. A common myth is that we use only 10% of our brain.[6][7] Similar scams involve the use of brain machines to alter brain waves, and intelligence amplification through balancing the mind and body. See neurofeedback.
★ 'Psychic surgery' is a con game in which the trickster uses sleight of hand to pretend to remove bits of malignant growths from the mark's body. A common form of medical fraud in underdeveloped countries, it imperils the victims, who may fail to seek competent medical attention. The movie ''Man on the Moon'' depicts comedian Andy Kaufman undergoing psychic surgery.
★ 'Phishing' is a modern form of scam in which the artist communicates with the mark, pretending to be from an official organization that the mark is doing business with, in order to extract personal information that can then be used, for example, to steal money. In a typical instance of phishing, the artist sends the mark an email pretending to be from a company (such as eBay). This email is formatted exactly like email from that business, and will ask the mark to "verify" some personal information at their website, to which a link is provided. The website itself is also fake but designed to look exactly like the business' website. The site will contain an HTML form asking for personal information such as credit card numbers. The mark will feel compelled to give this information because of words in the email or the site stating that they require the information again, for example to "reactivate your account". When the mark submits the form, the information is sent to the swindler.
★ 'Beijing tea scam' is a famous scam in and around Beijing. The artists (usually female and working in pairs) will approach tourists and try to make friends. After chatting, they will suggest a trip to see a tea ceremony, claiming that they have never been to one before. The tourist is never shown a menu, but assumes that this is how things are done in China. After the ceremony, the bill is presented to the tourist, charging upwards of £50 per head. The artists will then hand over their bills, and the tourists are obliged to follow suit.
★ 'Rip deal' is a common swindle in Europe in which con artists present themselves as potential investors, then attract victims with under-the-counter payments.
★ Pitiful fraud. The con artist may tell his or her mark pitiful lies about his or her family, children, etc. Hence the mark feels sorry for him or her and does not alert the police.
★ Family member. Some con artists target their own families, who feel obligated not to contact authorities due to family ties.
★ Embarrassing enterprise. If the mark loses a small sum only, he or she may be unwilling to contact the authorities if the circumstances are embarrassing, e.g. if the mark wishes to avoid revealing his or her pornography purchase to his or her spouse, notwithstanding its uselessness or worthlessness.
The above list is only a sample. Confidence games are continually evolving and subject to many variations and refinements.
★ Gregor MacGregor (1786-1845) – Scottish conman who tried to attract investment and settlers for a non-existent country of Poyais[8]
★ William Thompson (active in 1840-1849) – US criminal whose deceptions caused the term "confidence man" to be coined[9]
★ Lou Blonger (1849-1924) – organized massive ring of con men in Denver in early 1900s[10]
★ Soapy Smith (1860-1898) – confidence gang boss, who operated in Denver, Colorado, Creede, Colorado and Skagway, Alaska
★ George C. Parker (1870-1936) – US con man who sold New York monuments to tourists[11]
★ Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil (1877-1975) – one of the most famous American con men of his era[12]
★ Charles Ponzi (1882-1949) – Italian immigrant into the US; "Ponzi scheme" is a "get rich fast" fraud named after him[12]
★ Victor Lustig (1890-1947) – born in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) and known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower"[12]
★ Eduardo de Valfierno – Argentine con man who allegedly masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911
★ Bernie Cornfeld (1927-1995) – ran one of the greatest scam in history in what was later realized to be a Ponzi scheme[15]
★ Frank Abagnale (1948) – former US con artist, check forger and imposter; his autobiography, ''Catch Me If You Can'', was made into a movie[16]
★ James Arthur Hogue (1959) – US impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan[17]
★ Robert Hendy-Freegard (1971) – British con artist who kidnapped people impersonating as an MI5 agent and conned them out of money; he was convicted in 2005[18]
★ ''The Lady Eve'' (1941) – directed by Preston Sturges; the main character, Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck), is a con artist.
★ ''The Rainmaker'' (1956) – directed by Joseph Anthony; the main character, Bill Starbuck (Burt Lancaster), is a con artist.
★ ''Witness for the Prosecution'' (1957) – directed by Billy Wilder
★ ''The Music Man'' (1962) – produced and directed by Morton DaCosta; the main character, Harold Hill (Robert Preston), is a con artist.
★ ''The Flim-Flam Man'' (1967) – directed by Irvin Kershner and Yakima Canutt; the main character, Mordecai Jones (George C. Scott), is a con artist.
★ ''The Producers'' (1968) – written and directed by Mel Brooks; the main characters, Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and Leopold Bloom (Gene Wilder), are con artists.
★ ''Skin Game'' (1971) – directed by Paul Bogart; the main characters, Quincy Drew (James Garner) and Jason O'Rourke (Louis Gossett Jr.), con people.
★ ''The Sting'' (1973) – directed by George Roy Hill; two professional grifters, Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) try to con a mob boss
★ ''House of Games'' (1987) – directed by David Mamet; features con artists as main characters
★ ''The Vanishing'' (1988) – directed by George Sluizer; directed by Frank Ozthe main character is a victim of a confidence trick; a remake was released in 1993
★ ''Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'' (1988) – directed by Frank Oz; main characters, Freddy Benson (Steve Martin) and Lawrence Jamieson (Michael Caine), are con artists
★ ''The Grifters'' (1990) – directed by Stephen Frears; the story of Lilly Dillon (Anjelica Huston), a con artist
★ ''Diggstown'' (1992) – directed by Michael Ritchie; the main character, Gabriel Caine (James Woods), is a con man
★ ''Six Degrees of Separation'' (1993) – directed by Fred Schepisi; the plot was inspired by the real-life story of David Hampton, a con man
★ ''The Usual Suspects'' (1995) – directed by Bryan Singer; the main character, Roger 'Verbal' Kint (Kevin Spacey), is a con man
★ ''Traveller'' (1997) – Bokky (Bill Paxton) is a confidence man
★ ''The Spanish Prisoner'' (1997) – directed by David Mamet; named after the confidence game "Spanish Prisoner"
★ ''Nine Queens'' (''Nueve Reinas'') (2000) – directed by Fabián Bielinsky; tells the story of two con artists who meet by chance and decide to cooperate in a scam; remade as ''Criminal'' (2004)
★ ''The Prime Gig'' (2000) – directed by Gregory Mosher; Pendelton "Penny" Wise (Vince Vaughn) is a con artist
★ ''Birthday Girl'' (2001) – directed by Jez Butterworth; the main character, John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin), is a victim of a scam based on the con
★ ''Heist'' (2001), directed by David Mamet; the plot is based on a confidence game
★ ''Heartbreakers'' (2001), directed by David Mirkin; Max (mother) and Page Conners (daughter) con men
★ ''Ocean's Eleven'' (2001) (remake of the 1960 film by Lewis Milestone) and sequels ''Ocean's Twelve'' (2004) and ''Ocean's Thirteen'' (2007) – directed by Steven Soderbergh; films about con artists and the con
★ ''The Score'' (2001) – directed by Frank Oz; the main characters try to con one another
★ ''Catch Me If You Can'' (2002) – directed by Steven Spielberg; story about a real-life con artist and impostor Frank Abagnale
★ ''Confidence'' (2003) – directed by James Foley; a group of con artists attempt to rip off a corrupt bank president
★ ''Matchstick Men'' (2003) – directed by Ridley Scott; the main characters are con artists
★ ''Shade'' (2003) – directed by Damian Nieman; story about poker hustlers who try to con other players
★ ''Hustle'' (2004 - present) – a BBC series about a team of con artists
★ ''A Con'' (2005) – created by a con artist Skyler Stone, who reveals the secrets of his profession by performing confidence tricks, scams, and hoaxes
★ ''Revolver'' (2005) – directed by Guy Ritchie; one of the main characters, Jake Green (Jason Statham), is a con artist, and the premise of the film is a con
★ ''Bluffmaster'' (2005) – directed by Rohan Sippy; the main character, Roy, is a professional conman
★ ''Colour Me Kubrick'' (2006) – directed by Brian W. Cook; based on a true story of Alan Conway, who posed as director Stanley Kubrick
★ ''Lucky Number Slevin'' (2006) – directed by Paul McGuigan; main character, Slevin Kelevra (Josh Hartnett) performs an elaborate con as a revenge
★ ''The Real Hustle'' (2006 - present) – BBC series; actors playing a team of ex-grifters explain the secrets of the con to the public
★ ''The Riches'' (2007), FX series about a nomadic, drifter family
★ ''The Confidence-Man'' (1857) – novel by Herman Melville; the main character tests confidence of other people
★ ''Les Misérables'' (1862) - novel by Victor Hugo; the Thénardiers, two of the primary villains, scam money from people
★ ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884) – novel by Mark Twain; two characters, The Duke and the Dauphin are grifters
★ "The Red-Headed League" (1891) – Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle, which involves a sort of confidence trick used to enable a bank robbery
★ ''The Twelve Chairs'' (1928) and ''The Little Golden Calf'' (1931) – satirical novels by Ilf and Petrov; the main character, Ostap Bender, is a con man, and ''The Little Golden Calf'' contains a fictional secret society of con men called Children of Lieutenant Schmidt
★ ''The Space Merchants'' (1953) – sci-fi novel by Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth is replete with con games practiced by corporations
★ '' (1954) – Thomas Mann's unfinished novel about a German con man
★ ''The Stainless Steel Rat'' (1961 – present) – series of sci-fi novels by Harry Harrison; the protagonist, James Bolivar diGriz ("Slippery Jim"), is a con man and uses abundant schemes and frauds
★ ''The Golden Egg'' (1984) – psychological thriller novel by Tim Krabbé features a chemistry teacher who employs con for the purpose of kidnapping
★ ''If Tomorrow Comes'' (1985) – novel by Sidney Sheldon, which has a con artist as the main character and is mostly based on trickery and deception
★ ''Hellblazer'' (1988 – present) – ongoing horror comic book series by Alan Moore; the main character, John Constantine, uses confidence scams, trickery and magick
★ ''The Brethren'' (2000) – novel by John Grisham features a con run by three incarcerated judges
★ ''Matchstick Men'' (2002) – novel by Eric Garcia; the main characters are con artists
★ ''American Gods'' (2001) – novel by Neil Gaiman uses a two-man con as a major plot element
★ ''Going Postal'' (2004) – Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel features a convicted and condemned con artist Moist von Lipwig, who applies the principles of the con in his new job
★ ''The Lies of Locke Lamora'' (2006) – fantasy novel by Scott Lynch follows the adventures of a group of con artists known as the Gentlemen Bastards
★ Many of the crime novels by Jim Thompson involve confidence artists
★ Travis McGee, fictional character in John D. MacDonald's series of novels, frequently uses con games or has them tried against him
★ Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", in Leslie Charteris' novels and stories is often involved in scams and cons
★ Advance fee fraud (also known as 'Nigerian scam' or '419 scam')
★ Romance scam
★ Bogus escrow – straightforward confidence trick in which a scammer operates a bogus escrow service
★ Charlatan – person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money or advantage by pretense
★ Get-rich-quick schemes – plan to acquire high rates of return for a small investment
★ Pyramid scheme – non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, usually without any product or service being delivered
★ Quackery – term used to describe questionable medical practices
★ White-collar crime – crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation
★ White van speakers – scam sales technique in which a salesman makes a buyer believe he is getting a good price on audio merchandise
★ Scams in intellectual property
★ Sting operation - confidence tricks used for the purpose of law enforcement
★ Social engineering - Techniques used to manipulate people into performing actions or divulging confidential information.
★ The World's Greatest Crooks and Conmen and other mischievous malefactors, , Nigel, Blundell, Octopus Books, 1984, ISBN 0-7064-2144-2
★ The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man and the Confidence Game, , David W., Maurer, The Bobbs Merrill company, 1940, ISBN 0-385-49538-2
★ The American Confidence Man, , David W., Maurer, Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, 1974, ISBN 0-398-02974-1
★ Marek M. Kaminski (2004) ''Games Prisoners Play''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11721-7
★ Cheating and Deception, , J. Bowyer, Ball, Transaction Publishers, 1982, ISBN 0-88738-868-X
1. Karen Halttunen, ''Confidence Men and Painted Women'', p 6 ISBN 0-300-02835-0
2. crimes-of-persuasion.com ''Fraud Victim Advice / Assistance for Consumer Scams and Investment Frauds''
3. A Conversation with James Swain online
4. Dan Plazak ''A Hole in the Ground with a Liar at the Top'' (Salt Lake: Univ. of Utah Press, 2006) ISBN 978-0-87480-840-7.
5. online
6. Do We Use Only 10% of Our Brain? online
7. Snopes: The Ten-Percent Myth online
8. Document of the Month January 2005
9. Arrest of the Confidence Man
10.
11. For You, Half Price
12.
13.
14.
15. The Fund Industry's Black Eye
16. Frank W. Abagnale Jr. with Stan Redding (1980) ''Catch me if You Can'', New York, Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0-671-64091-7.
17. Princeton 'Student' Gets Jail Sentence
18. Fake spy guilty of kidnapping con
★ "Don't fall victim to a con artist: Tips for how to protect yourself"
★ "Arrest of the Confidence Man" ''New York Herald'', 1849
A 'confidence trick' or 'confidence game', also known as a 'con', 'scam', 'swindle', 'grift', 'bunko' or 'flim flam', is an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons (known as the "mark") usually with the goal of financial or other gain. (For confidence tricks dealing with information theft or computers see social engineering.)
History
The first known usage of the term "confidence man" was in 1849; it was used by the press during the trial of William Thompson. Thompson chatted with strangers until he asked if they had the confidence to lend him their watches, whereupon he would walk off with the watch; he was captured when a victim recognized him on the street.[1]
Vulnerability to confidence tricks
Persons of any level of intelligence are potentially vulnerable to deception by experienced con artists. Confidence tricks exploit human weaknesses like greed, dishonesty, vanity, but also virtues like honesty, compassion, or a naïve expectation of good faith on the part of the con artist.
''Just as there is no typical profile for swindlers, neither is there one for their victims. Virtually anyone can fall prey to fraudulent crimes. Movie actors and athletes, professional persons and successful business executives, political leaders and internationally famous economists have all fallen victim to investment fraud. Certainly victims of high-yield investment frauds may possess a level of greed which exceeds their caution as well as a willingness to believe what they want to believe. However, not all fraud victims are greedy, risk-taking, self-deceptive individuals looking to make a quick dollar. Nor are all fraud victims naive, uneducated, or elderly.[2]''
Confidence tricksters often rely on the greed and dishonesty of the mark, who may attempt to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he or she has been manipulated into losing from the very beginning. This is such a general principle in confidence tricks that there is a saying among con men that "you can't cheat an honest man."[3]
However, some tricks depend on the honesty of the victim. In a common scam, as part of an apparently legitimate transaction, the victim is sent a worthless check, which the victim then deposits. The victim is then urged to forward the apparent value of the check to the trickster as cash, possibly keeping a small portion of the money as a commission, which they may do before discovering the cheque bounces. Another fashionable scenario (as of 2006) has the victim recruited as a "financial agent" to collect "business debts". Paper checks are not always involved: funds may be transferred electronically from another victim.
Sometimes con men rely on naive individuals who put their confidence in get-rich-quick schemes, such as "too good to be true" investments. It may take years for the wider community to discover that such investment schemes are bogus, and usually it is too late, as many people have lost their life savings in something they have been convinced to invest in.
The 'confidence trickster', 'con man', 'swindler', 'grifter', 'scam artist' or 'con artist' often works with one or more accomplices called shills, who help manipulate the mark into the con man's trick or dishonest plan. In a traditional confidence trick, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to win money or some other prize by doing some task. The accomplices may pretend to be random strangers who have won and benefited from successfully performing the task.
Well-known confidence tricks
Confidence tricks are difficult to classify, because they keep changing, and often contain elements of more than one type.
Get-rich-quick Scams
'Get-rich-quick schemes' are so varied they nearly defy description. Everything from fake franchises, real estate "sure things", how-to-get-rich books and wealth-building seminars, self-help gurus, sure-fire inventions, useless products, chain letters, fortune tellers, quack doctors, miracle pharmaceuticals, charms and talismans are all used to separate the mark from his money. Variations include the 'pyramid scheme', Ponzi scheme, Matrix sale, and Multi-level Marketing.
'Salting' is the term for a scam in which gems or gold ore are planted in a mine or on the landscape, duping the greedy mark into purchasing shares in a worthless or non-existent mining company.[4] For a 19th-century example, see the Diamond hoax of 1872; for a modern example, involving imaginary gold deposits in Borneo, see Bre-X. Popularized in the HBO Series Deadwood (TV) season 1 when Al Swearingen and E.B. Farnum trick Brom Garret in to believing gold is to be found on the claim Swearingen intends to sell him.
The 'Spanish Prisoner' scam — and its modern variant, the 'advance fee fraud' or 'Nigerian scam' — take advantage of the victim's greed. The basic premise involves enlisting the mark to aid in retrieving some stolen money from its hiding place. The victim sometimes believes he can cheat the con artists out of their money, but anyone trying this has already fallen for the essential con by believing that the money is there to steal. See also Black money scam. Note that the classic Spanish Prisoner trick also contains an element of the romance scam (see below).
Many con men employ extra tricks to keep the victim from going to the police. A common ploy of investment scammers is to encourage a mark to use money concealed from tax authorities. The mark cannot go to the authorities without revealing that he or she has committed tax fraud. Many swindles involve a minor element of crime or some other misdeed. The mark is made to think that he or she will gain money by helping fraudsters get huge sums out of a country (the classic Nigerian scam). The mark cannot go to the police without revealing that he or she planned to commit a crime him- or herself.
A recent twist on the Nigerian fraud scheme, the mark is told he is helping someone overseas collect "debts" from corporate clients. Large cheques stolen from businesses are mailed to the mark. These cheques are altered to reflect the mark's name, and the mark is then asked to cash them and transfer all but a percentage of the funds (his commission) to the con artist. The cheques are often completely genuine, except that the "pay to" information has been expertly changed. This exposes the mark not only to enormous debt when the bank reclaims the money from his or her account, but also to criminal charges for money laundering. A more modern variation is to use laser-printed counterfeit checks with the proper account numbers and payer information.
Romance tricks
Romance fraud, when fraudsters seduce people only to target their money, is an old type of fraud. It received high attention in Sweden around 1950 when a man (Gustaf Raskenstam) had had relationships with more than one hundred lonely women, and been engaged with many of them, often several at the same time. He took a lot of money and went to prison for fraud. His contact ads usually had the headline "Sun and spring" ("sol och vår" in Swedish). This type of behaviour is since called "sol och vårande" in Swedish).
The traditional 'Romance scam' has now moved into internet dating sites. The con actively cultivates a romantic relationship, which often involves promises of marriage. However, after some time it becomes evident that the Internet "sweetheart" is stuck in his home country, lacking the money to leave the country and thus unable to be united with the mark. The scam then becomes an 'Advance-fee fraud' or a 'check fraud'. A wide variety of reasons can be offered for the trickster's lack of cash, but rather than just borrow the money from the victim (Advance Fee fraud), the con man normally declares that they have checks which the victim can cash on their behalf and remit the money via a non-reversible transfer service to help facilitate the trip (check fraud). Of course, the checks are forged or stolen and the con man never makes the trip: the hapless victim ends up with a large debt and an aching heart. This scam can be seen in the movie Nights of Cabiria.
Gold brick scams
Gold brick scams involve selling a tangible item for more than it is worth; named after selling the victim a supposed gold bar that turns out to be gold-coated lead.
The '1883 "No Cents" Liberty Head nickel', a scam developed by con artists that electroplated Liberty Head nickels, intending to make storeowners believe that the gold-plated nickel was a $5 coin.
The 'Coin collecting scam' is a scam that preys on inexperienced collectors, coins or otherwise. The con man convinces the mark by stating that a high-priced collection is for sale at a lower amount. The coin collector then buys the entire collection thinking it is actually valuable.
'Pig-in-a-poke' originated in the late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce, but apparently rats and cats were not. The con entails a sale of a "suckling pig", in a "poke" (bag). The bag ostensibly contains a live healthy little pig, but actually contains a cat (not particularly prized as a source of meat, and at any rate, quite unlikely to grow to be a large hog). If one "buys a pig in a poke" without looking in the bag (a common colloquial expression in the English language, meaning "to be a sucker"), the person has bought something of lesser value than was assumed, and has learned firsthand the lesson caveat emptor. It is also said to be where the phrase 'letting the cat out of the bag' comes from, although there may be other explanations.
The 'Thai gem scam' involves layers of con men and helpers who tell a tourist in Bangkok of an opportunity to earn money by buying duty-free jewelry and having it shipped back to the tourist's home country. The mark is driven around the city in a tuk-tuk operated by one of the con men, who ensures that the mark meets one helper after another, until the mark is convinced to buy the jewelry from a store also operated by the swindlers. This scam has been operating for 20 years in Bangkok and is alleged to be protected by Thai police and politicians. A similar scam usually runs in parallel for custom-made suits. Many tourists are hit by con men touting both goods.
People shopping for pirated software, illegal pornographic images, bootleg music, drugs, firearms or other forbidden or controlled goods may be unable to report swindles to the police. An example is the "big screen TV in back of the truck"; the TV is touted as "hot" (stolen), so it will be sold for a very low price. The TV is in fact defective or broken, and has bricks inside its otherwise gutted case to give it heft. When it is plugged in, of course, it doesn't work - and the buyer has no legal recourse without admitting to attempted purchase of stolen goods.
Extortion or false-injury tricks
The 'badger game' extortion is often perpetrated on married men. The mark is deliberately coerced into a compromising position, a supposed affair for example, then threatened with public exposure of his acts unless blackmail money is paid.
'The Melon Drop' is a scam in which the scammer will intentionally bump into the mark and drop a package containing broken glass that has already been broken. He will claim that the contents were broken by the clumsiness of the mark, and demand money to replace them. This con arose when artists discovered that the Japanese paid high amounts of money for watermelons. The scammer would go to a supermarket to buy a cheap watermelon, bump into a Japanese tourist and demand that they pay a high price.
The 'Hydrophobia lie' was popular in the 1920s, in which the con man pretended to have been bitten by the mark's (possibly rabid) dog.
'Insurance fraud' is a scam in which the con artist tricks the mark into damaging, for example, the con artist's car, or injuring the con artist (in a manner that the con artist can exaggerate). The con artist fraudulently collects a large sum of money from the mark's insurance policy, even though they intentionally caused the accident.
Charity tricks
The con-man may pretend to have some injury or disadvantage to gain sympathy (and donations) e.g. a panhandler in a wheelchair, the woman with kids along the freeway off-ramp or the homeless veteran. In India in 2006, three doctors were investigated for offering to sever limbs in order to increase public sympathy toward their clients.[5]
The 'Just $5' trick is an abuse of charity scam: the conman approaches the victim and asks for "just $5" to help them achieve some goal that is almost within reach. The conman displays cash to prove they have "almost enough" and usually adds some props/window-dressing to add veracity: carrying a car part that needs repair/replacement or carrying a gas can (because the car ran out of gas and the wife/child is waiting).
Gambling tricks
'Three-card Monte', 'Find The Queen', the "Three-card Trick", or "Follow The Lady", is (except for the props) essentially the same as the probably centuries-older 'shell game' or ''thimblerig''. The trickster shows three playing cards to the audience, one of which is a queen (the "lady"), then places the cards face-down, shuffles them around and invites the audience to bet on which one is the queen. At first the audience is skeptical, so the shill places a bet and the scammer allows him to win. This is sometimes enough to entice the audience to place bets, but the trickster uses sleight of hand to ensure that they always lose, unless the con man decides to let them win to lure them into betting even more. The mark loses whenever the dealer chooses to make him lose. This con appears in the Eric Garcia novel ''Matchstick Men''.
In the 'Football Picks Scam' - The scammer sends out tip sheet stating a game will go one way to 50 potential victims and the other way to another 50. The next week, the 50 who received the correct answer are divided into two groups and fed another pick. This is repeated until a small population have (apparently) received a series of supernaturally perfect picks - then the final pick is offered for sale. Despite being well-known (it was even described completely on an episode of The Simpsons), this scam is run almost continuously in different forms by different operators.
'Lottery fraud by proxy' is a particularly vicious scam, in which the scammer buys a lottery ticket with old winning numbers. He or she then alters the date on the ticket so that it appears to be from the day before, and therefore a winning ticket. He or she then sells the ticket to the mark, claiming it is a winning ticket, but for some reason, he or she is unable to collect the prize (not eligible, etc.). The particular cruelty in this scam is that if the mark attempts to collect the prize, the fraudulently altered ticket will be discovered and the mark held criminally liable. This con was featured in the movie Matchstick Men, where Nicolas Cage teaches it to his daughter. A twist on the con was shown in Great Teacher Onizuka, where the more than gullible Onizuka was tricked into getting a "winning ticket". The ticket wasn't altered, instead the daily newspaper reporting the day's winning numbers was rewritten with a black pen.
Visitors to Las Vegas or other gambling towns often encounter the 'Barred Winner' scam, a form of advance fee fraud performed in person. The artist will approach his mark outside a casino with a stack or bag of high-value casino chips and say that he just won big, but the casino accused him of cheating and threw him out without letting him redeem the chips. The artist asks the mark to go in and cash the chips for him. The artist will often offer a percentage of the winnings to the mark for his trouble. But, when the mark agrees, the artist feigns suspicion and asks the mark to put up something of value "for insurance". The mark agrees, hands over jewelry, a credit card or their wallet, then goes in to cash the chips. When the mark arrives at the cashier, they are informed the chips are fake. The artist, by this time, is long gone with the mark's valuables.
False reward tricks
The 'glim-dropper' requires several accomplices, one of whom must be a one-eyed man. He goes into a store and makes believe he has lost his glass eye. Everyone looks around, but the eye can’t be found. He declares that he will pay a thousand-dollar reward for the return of his eye, leaving contact information. The next day, an accomplice enters the store and pretends to find the eye. The storekeeper, thinking of the reward, offers to take it and return it to its owner. The finder insists he will return it himself, and demands the owner’s address. Thinking he will lose all chance of the reward, the storekeeper offers a hundred dollars for the eye. The finder bargains him up to $250, and departs. The one-eyed man, of course, can not be found and does not return. (Described in ''A Cool Million, or, The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin'' (1934) by Nathanael West). Variants of this con have been used in movies such as ''The Traveller (1997)'' and ''Shade (2003)''.
The 'fiddle game' uses the pigeon drop technique. A pair of con men work together, one going into an expensive restaurant in shabby clothes, eating, and claiming to have left his wallet at home, which is nearby. As collateral, the con man leaves his only worldly possession, the violin that provides his livelihood. After he leaves, the second con man swoops in, offers an outrageously large amount (for example, $50,000) for such a rare instrument, then looks at his watch and runs off to an appointment, leaving his card for the mark to call him when the fiddle-owner returns. The mark's greed comes into play when the "poor man" comes back, having gotten the money to pay for his meal and redeem his violin. The mark, thinking he has an offer on the table, then buys the violin from the fiddle player (who "reluctantly" sells it eventually for, say, $5,000). The result is the two con men are $5,000 richer (less the cost of the violin), and the mark is left with a cheap instrument. (This trick is also detailed in the Neil Gaiman novel ''American Gods'' and is the basis for The Streets' song "Can't Con an Honest John".)
Other confidence tricks and techniques
★ 'The Undercover Cop Scam' is a scam where a con man pretends to be an undercover police officer, usually by stopping their vehicle and showing a fake badge, and tells the mark about a case they are investigating, and that they are a suspect. The con man asks for money to be checked, when the mark is out of the vehicle, the con man gets into his car and drives away, leaving enough time to escape as the mark has to walk back to his vehicle. This scam is usually done to tourists, variations include their whole luggage being transferred to the con man's trunk "to be checked at a police station."
★ 'The Big Store' is a technique involving a large team of con artists and elaborate sets. Often a building is rented and furnished as a legitimate and substantial business.
★ 'The Paranoia Scam' is a scam that involves the con man telling the mark various lies about the different scams and instigating false attempts so that the mark (feeling worried and with no place to hide their money from fraud) turns to the con man for help.
★ 'Change raising' is a common short con and involves an offer to change an amount of money with someone, and at the same time taking change or bills back and forth to confuse the person as to how much money they are actually changing. The most common form, "the Short Count," has been featured prominently in several movies about grifting, notably ''Nueve Reinas'', ''The Grifters'', and ''Paper Moon''. A con artist, shopping at a gas station for example, is given 80 cents in change because he lacks two dimes to complete the sale (for example, the sale cost is $19.20 and the con man has a 20 dollar bill). He goes out to his car, and returns a short time later with 20 cents. He returns them, saying that he found the rest of the change to make a dollar, and asking for a bill so he won't have to carry change. The confused store clerk agrees, exchanging a dollar for the 20 cents the con man returned. In essence, the mark makes change twice.
★ The 'pigeon drop', also featured early in the film ''The Sting'', involves the mark or pigeon assisting an elderly, weak or infirm stranger to keep their money safe for them. In the process, the stranger (actually a confidence trickster) puts his money with the mark's money (in an envelope, briefcase, or sack) which the mark is then entrusted with. The money is actually not put into the sack or envelope, but is switched for a bag full of newspaper, etc. The mark is enticed to make off with the con man's money through the greed element and various theatrics, but in actuality, the mark is fleeing from his own money, which the con man still has (or has handed off to an accomplice).
★ In 'pseudoscience' and 'snake oil' scams, popular psychology confidence tricksters make money by falsely claiming to improve reading speed and comprehension using speed reading courses by fooling the consumer with inappropriate skimming and general knowledge tests. These popular psychology tricksters often employ popular assumptions about the brain and the cerebral hemispheres that are scientifically wrong, but attractive and easy to believe. A common myth is that we use only 10% of our brain.[6][7] Similar scams involve the use of brain machines to alter brain waves, and intelligence amplification through balancing the mind and body. See neurofeedback.
★ 'Psychic surgery' is a con game in which the trickster uses sleight of hand to pretend to remove bits of malignant growths from the mark's body. A common form of medical fraud in underdeveloped countries, it imperils the victims, who may fail to seek competent medical attention. The movie ''Man on the Moon'' depicts comedian Andy Kaufman undergoing psychic surgery.
★ 'Phishing' is a modern form of scam in which the artist communicates with the mark, pretending to be from an official organization that the mark is doing business with, in order to extract personal information that can then be used, for example, to steal money. In a typical instance of phishing, the artist sends the mark an email pretending to be from a company (such as eBay). This email is formatted exactly like email from that business, and will ask the mark to "verify" some personal information at their website, to which a link is provided. The website itself is also fake but designed to look exactly like the business' website. The site will contain an HTML form asking for personal information such as credit card numbers. The mark will feel compelled to give this information because of words in the email or the site stating that they require the information again, for example to "reactivate your account". When the mark submits the form, the information is sent to the swindler.
★ 'Beijing tea scam' is a famous scam in and around Beijing. The artists (usually female and working in pairs) will approach tourists and try to make friends. After chatting, they will suggest a trip to see a tea ceremony, claiming that they have never been to one before. The tourist is never shown a menu, but assumes that this is how things are done in China. After the ceremony, the bill is presented to the tourist, charging upwards of £50 per head. The artists will then hand over their bills, and the tourists are obliged to follow suit.
★ 'Rip deal' is a common swindle in Europe in which con artists present themselves as potential investors, then attract victims with under-the-counter payments.
★ Pitiful fraud. The con artist may tell his or her mark pitiful lies about his or her family, children, etc. Hence the mark feels sorry for him or her and does not alert the police.
★ Family member. Some con artists target their own families, who feel obligated not to contact authorities due to family ties.
★ Embarrassing enterprise. If the mark loses a small sum only, he or she may be unwilling to contact the authorities if the circumstances are embarrassing, e.g. if the mark wishes to avoid revealing his or her pornography purchase to his or her spouse, notwithstanding its uselessness or worthlessness.
The above list is only a sample. Confidence games are continually evolving and subject to many variations and refinements.
Notable con artists
Born in the 18th century
★ Gregor MacGregor (1786-1845) – Scottish conman who tried to attract investment and settlers for a non-existent country of Poyais[8]
Born/active in the 19th century
★ William Thompson (active in 1840-1849) – US criminal whose deceptions caused the term "confidence man" to be coined[9]
★ Lou Blonger (1849-1924) – organized massive ring of con men in Denver in early 1900s[10]
★ Soapy Smith (1860-1898) – confidence gang boss, who operated in Denver, Colorado, Creede, Colorado and Skagway, Alaska
★ George C. Parker (1870-1936) – US con man who sold New York monuments to tourists[11]
★ Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil (1877-1975) – one of the most famous American con men of his era[12]
★ Charles Ponzi (1882-1949) – Italian immigrant into the US; "Ponzi scheme" is a "get rich fast" fraud named after him[12]
★ Victor Lustig (1890-1947) – born in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) and known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower"[12]
Born/active in the 20th century
★ Eduardo de Valfierno – Argentine con man who allegedly masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911
★ Bernie Cornfeld (1927-1995) – ran one of the greatest scam in history in what was later realized to be a Ponzi scheme[15]
Living people
★ Frank Abagnale (1948) – former US con artist, check forger and imposter; his autobiography, ''Catch Me If You Can'', was made into a movie[16]
★ James Arthur Hogue (1959) – US impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan[17]
★ Robert Hendy-Freegard (1971) – British con artist who kidnapped people impersonating as an MI5 agent and conned them out of money; he was convicted in 2005[18]
Notable confidence tricks in movies and television
★ ''The Lady Eve'' (1941) – directed by Preston Sturges; the main character, Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck), is a con artist.
★ ''The Rainmaker'' (1956) – directed by Joseph Anthony; the main character, Bill Starbuck (Burt Lancaster), is a con artist.
★ ''Witness for the Prosecution'' (1957) – directed by Billy Wilder
★ ''The Music Man'' (1962) – produced and directed by Morton DaCosta; the main character, Harold Hill (Robert Preston), is a con artist.
★ ''The Flim-Flam Man'' (1967) – directed by Irvin Kershner and Yakima Canutt; the main character, Mordecai Jones (George C. Scott), is a con artist.
★ ''The Producers'' (1968) – written and directed by Mel Brooks; the main characters, Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and Leopold Bloom (Gene Wilder), are con artists.
★ ''Skin Game'' (1971) – directed by Paul Bogart; the main characters, Quincy Drew (James Garner) and Jason O'Rourke (Louis Gossett Jr.), con people.
★ ''The Sting'' (1973) – directed by George Roy Hill; two professional grifters, Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) try to con a mob boss
★ ''House of Games'' (1987) – directed by David Mamet; features con artists as main characters
★ ''The Vanishing'' (1988) – directed by George Sluizer; directed by Frank Ozthe main character is a victim of a confidence trick; a remake was released in 1993
★ ''Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'' (1988) – directed by Frank Oz; main characters, Freddy Benson (Steve Martin) and Lawrence Jamieson (Michael Caine), are con artists
★ ''The Grifters'' (1990) – directed by Stephen Frears; the story of Lilly Dillon (Anjelica Huston), a con artist
★ ''Diggstown'' (1992) – directed by Michael Ritchie; the main character, Gabriel Caine (James Woods), is a con man
★ ''Six Degrees of Separation'' (1993) – directed by Fred Schepisi; the plot was inspired by the real-life story of David Hampton, a con man
★ ''The Usual Suspects'' (1995) – directed by Bryan Singer; the main character, Roger 'Verbal' Kint (Kevin Spacey), is a con man
★ ''Traveller'' (1997) – Bokky (Bill Paxton) is a confidence man
★ ''The Spanish Prisoner'' (1997) – directed by David Mamet; named after the confidence game "Spanish Prisoner"
★ ''Nine Queens'' (''Nueve Reinas'') (2000) – directed by Fabián Bielinsky; tells the story of two con artists who meet by chance and decide to cooperate in a scam; remade as ''Criminal'' (2004)
★ ''The Prime Gig'' (2000) – directed by Gregory Mosher; Pendelton "Penny" Wise (Vince Vaughn) is a con artist
★ ''Birthday Girl'' (2001) – directed by Jez Butterworth; the main character, John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin), is a victim of a scam based on the con
★ ''Heist'' (2001), directed by David Mamet; the plot is based on a confidence game
★ ''Heartbreakers'' (2001), directed by David Mirkin; Max (mother) and Page Conners (daughter) con men
★ ''Ocean's Eleven'' (2001) (remake of the 1960 film by Lewis Milestone) and sequels ''Ocean's Twelve'' (2004) and ''Ocean's Thirteen'' (2007) – directed by Steven Soderbergh; films about con artists and the con
★ ''The Score'' (2001) – directed by Frank Oz; the main characters try to con one another
★ ''Catch Me If You Can'' (2002) – directed by Steven Spielberg; story about a real-life con artist and impostor Frank Abagnale
★ ''Confidence'' (2003) – directed by James Foley; a group of con artists attempt to rip off a corrupt bank president
★ ''Matchstick Men'' (2003) – directed by Ridley Scott; the main characters are con artists
★ ''Shade'' (2003) – directed by Damian Nieman; story about poker hustlers who try to con other players
★ ''Hustle'' (2004 - present) – a BBC series about a team of con artists
★ ''A Con'' (2005) – created by a con artist Skyler Stone, who reveals the secrets of his profession by performing confidence tricks, scams, and hoaxes
★ ''Revolver'' (2005) – directed by Guy Ritchie; one of the main characters, Jake Green (Jason Statham), is a con artist, and the premise of the film is a con
★ ''Bluffmaster'' (2005) – directed by Rohan Sippy; the main character, Roy, is a professional conman
★ ''Colour Me Kubrick'' (2006) – directed by Brian W. Cook; based on a true story of Alan Conway, who posed as director Stanley Kubrick
★ ''Lucky Number Slevin'' (2006) – directed by Paul McGuigan; main character, Slevin Kelevra (Josh Hartnett) performs an elaborate con as a revenge
★ ''The Real Hustle'' (2006 - present) – BBC series; actors playing a team of ex-grifters explain the secrets of the con to the public
★ ''The Riches'' (2007), FX series about a nomadic, drifter family
Notable confidence tricks in literature
★ ''The Confidence-Man'' (1857) – novel by Herman Melville; the main character tests confidence of other people
★ ''Les Misérables'' (1862) - novel by Victor Hugo; the Thénardiers, two of the primary villains, scam money from people
★ ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884) – novel by Mark Twain; two characters, The Duke and the Dauphin are grifters
★ "The Red-Headed League" (1891) – Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle, which involves a sort of confidence trick used to enable a bank robbery
★ ''The Twelve Chairs'' (1928) and ''The Little Golden Calf'' (1931) – satirical novels by Ilf and Petrov; the main character, Ostap Bender, is a con man, and ''The Little Golden Calf'' contains a fictional secret society of con men called Children of Lieutenant Schmidt
★ ''The Space Merchants'' (1953) – sci-fi novel by Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth is replete with con games practiced by corporations
★ '' (1954) – Thomas Mann's unfinished novel about a German con man
★ ''The Stainless Steel Rat'' (1961 – present) – series of sci-fi novels by Harry Harrison; the protagonist, James Bolivar diGriz ("Slippery Jim"), is a con man and uses abundant schemes and frauds
★ ''The Golden Egg'' (1984) – psychological thriller novel by Tim Krabbé features a chemistry teacher who employs con for the purpose of kidnapping
★ ''If Tomorrow Comes'' (1985) – novel by Sidney Sheldon, which has a con artist as the main character and is mostly based on trickery and deception
★ ''Hellblazer'' (1988 – present) – ongoing horror comic book series by Alan Moore; the main character, John Constantine, uses confidence scams, trickery and magick
★ ''The Brethren'' (2000) – novel by John Grisham features a con run by three incarcerated judges
★ ''Matchstick Men'' (2002) – novel by Eric Garcia; the main characters are con artists
★ ''American Gods'' (2001) – novel by Neil Gaiman uses a two-man con as a major plot element
★ ''Going Postal'' (2004) – Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel features a convicted and condemned con artist Moist von Lipwig, who applies the principles of the con in his new job
★ ''The Lies of Locke Lamora'' (2006) – fantasy novel by Scott Lynch follows the adventures of a group of con artists known as the Gentlemen Bastards
★ Many of the crime novels by Jim Thompson involve confidence artists
★ Travis McGee, fictional character in John D. MacDonald's series of novels, frequently uses con games or has them tried against him
★ Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", in Leslie Charteris' novels and stories is often involved in scams and cons
See also
★ Advance fee fraud (also known as 'Nigerian scam' or '419 scam')
★ Romance scam
★ Bogus escrow – straightforward confidence trick in which a scammer operates a bogus escrow service
★ Charlatan – person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money or advantage by pretense
★ Get-rich-quick schemes – plan to acquire high rates of return for a small investment
★ Pyramid scheme – non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, usually without any product or service being delivered
★ Quackery – term used to describe questionable medical practices
★ White-collar crime – crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation
★ White van speakers – scam sales technique in which a salesman makes a buyer believe he is getting a good price on audio merchandise
★ Scams in intellectual property
★ Sting operation - confidence tricks used for the purpose of law enforcement
★ Social engineering - Techniques used to manipulate people into performing actions or divulging confidential information.
Further reading
★ The World's Greatest Crooks and Conmen and other mischievous malefactors, , Nigel, Blundell, Octopus Books, 1984, ISBN 0-7064-2144-2
★ The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man and the Confidence Game, , David W., Maurer, The Bobbs Merrill company, 1940, ISBN 0-385-49538-2
★ The American Confidence Man, , David W., Maurer, Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, 1974, ISBN 0-398-02974-1
★ Marek M. Kaminski (2004) ''Games Prisoners Play''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11721-7
★ Cheating and Deception, , J. Bowyer, Ball, Transaction Publishers, 1982, ISBN 0-88738-868-X
References
1. Karen Halttunen, ''Confidence Men and Painted Women'', p 6 ISBN 0-300-02835-0
2. crimes-of-persuasion.com ''Fraud Victim Advice / Assistance for Consumer Scams and Investment Frauds''
3. A Conversation with James Swain online
4. Dan Plazak ''A Hole in the Ground with a Liar at the Top'' (Salt Lake: Univ. of Utah Press, 2006) ISBN 978-0-87480-840-7.
5. online
6. Do We Use Only 10% of Our Brain? online
7. Snopes: The Ten-Percent Myth online
8. Document of the Month January 2005
9. Arrest of the Confidence Man
10.
11. For You, Half Price
12.
13.
14.
15. The Fund Industry's Black Eye
16. Frank W. Abagnale Jr. with Stan Redding (1980) ''Catch me if You Can'', New York, Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0-671-64091-7.
17. Princeton 'Student' Gets Jail Sentence
18. Fake spy guilty of kidnapping con
External links
★ "Don't fall victim to a con artist: Tips for how to protect yourself"
★ "Arrest of the Confidence Man" ''New York Herald'', 1849
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