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"Confidence Man" redirects here. For other uses, see Confidence Man (disambiguation).
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, boo-boo, 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]

Character

The grade of one's "intelligence" is totally unrelated to one's grade of vulnerability to getting deceived by experienced con men. Confidence tricks exploit human weaknesses like greed, dishonesty, vanity, but also virtues like honesty, compassion, or the "naïveté" of believing in the existence of something called "good faith".

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]

In the case of greed it often happens that the overconfident mark tries 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, which they may do before discovering the check 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,

Characteristics of confidence tricks

Many confidence tricks share some of the same traits, including [1]:

  • "Too good to be true"
  • Preying on human frailties such as greed, desperation, or vanity
  • Immediate demanding of money
  • Over-exertion of sales demands
  • Vaguely answering questions and intentionally obscuring the details
  • Persistent pitching of sales
  • Secret offers
  • Behavior in a non-professional manner
  • Unsolicited communication
  • False references
  • Limited time offers
  • Use of wire transfer services
  • Distraction

Well-known confidence tricks

  • Religious systems & organizations - Several systems and organisations based upon belief in the supernatural are being used as vehicles for performing confidence tricks,[4] or are alleged to be confidence scams in itself, example Glam-Televangelism.
  • 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 badger game is an extortion scheme, 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 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.
  • Affinity fraud is a scam that is perpetrated to people in certain groups (i.e. religion, race, sex, etc). The con man gains the mark's trust through a deceptive use and when the timing is just right, the con man takes advantage of the mark's trust.
  • 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 illegal investment scam is no different from millions of investment scams out there but, the con man tells the mark that this investment money is made via illegal means, thus the mark cannot go to the police.
  • 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.
  • Online casino scam is a newer type of scam, dealing with online gambling. Many websites post advertising about some math student that has discovered a method or program to beat online casinos; the method is nothing but a variation of the martingale that is proven not to work. To improve the scam, the advertiser cites anonymous people that are supposed to have won using the method, or put fake amounts behind their claims. The method can reportedly be purchased for a low price, considering the sum that could be won back.
  • The deceptive contest relies on a real contest whose true objective is to sell the victim a low-value item at a high price. The mark sees an advertisement asking poets to submit their poems to a poetry competition. A few weeks later, a return letter announces that the mark's poem has been selected by the judges to advance to the "semi-finals". (The mark may be asked to travel to a distant city at his own expense in order to "participate" in the semi-finals.) As per the contest rules, the poem is published in a hard-cover anthology once the contest has concluded. The mark is encouraged to order the book, at a high price, perhaps with extra costs for personalization. The scam is that many — perhaps all of the — contestants reach the "semi-finals" and it appeals to their vanity to buy a low-quality book for a high price.
  • In a drug dealer scam, the con man pretends he or she is selling illegal drugs and sometimes uses intimidation as part of the scam. Usually the victim hands over the money and is told to wait until the dealer comes back with the product. They never do. Some fake drug pushers will give out bags full of things such as acetaminophen, herbs, etc.
  • Fake injuries, homeless or other "down on your luck" scam. The con-man pretends 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]
  • 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 pharmecuticals, charms and talismans are all used to separate the mark from his money.
  • 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 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). A variant of this con is used in the movie The Traveller (1997) using an expensive heirloom, instead of the less common glass eye.
  • Hydrophobia lie was a scam 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.
  • Bad literary agent is a scam in which the con artist sets himself up to appear as a legitimate literary agent and then charges aspiring authors reading, editing, evaluation and marketing fees. The scammer may also include writer's "contests", listing services, publicity and pay to publish contracts. This should not be confused with vanity publication.
  • 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 today's winning numbers was rewritten with a black pen.
  • 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 'the cat's out of the bag' comes from, although there may be other explanations.
  • 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).
  • The fiddle game is a variation on the pigeon drop. 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 protection scheme takes advantage of the fact that there are con artists out there. The con man tells the mark that there is a web site you can register your credit card number on to keep it safe from stolen identity. The mark then willingly gives the con man their credit card number. The con man is then never seen again.
  • Romance scam which involves fraudsters targeting lonely and vulnerable men and women, is a traditional scam which 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.
    • Romance fraud, when fraudsters make people get in love with them, only target their money is an old type of fraud. It got 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 got prison for fraud, with high attention in the press. 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).
  • 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. For a 19th-century example, see the Diamond hoax of 1872; for a modern example, involving imaginary gold deposits in Borneo, see Bre-X.
  • The Spanish Prisoner scam — and its modern variant, the Nigerian money transfer fraud — 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.
  • 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.
  • Three-card Monte, 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 trust scheme, a con artist teams with another con artist or shill to lead the mark to trusting them. The con artist will convince the mark to scam people with him, but after the crime spree is over, the con artist takes the mark's share of the money and disappears.
  • 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.
  • Free pet scam is a type of scam where the con man places a classified ad promising a very cheap or free animal (that is usually hard to get or is expensive). The con artists often say they've moved away, and all they ask is that the victim pay for just the shipping cost (usually rather high) to send the animal to the victim. The victim is told to transfer funds via Western Union to the swindler. The victim does so but never actually receives the pet.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Extra finesse

Many con men employ extra tricks to keep the victim from going to the police:

  • Illegal money. 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.
  • Illegal enterprise. 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. Similar tricks can be played on people shopping for pirated software, illegal pornographic images, bootleg music, drugs, firearms or other forbidden or controlled goods. Another 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 ridiculously low price, such as US$1200 "when it's worth US$4000!". The TV is in fact defective/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, again, the buyer has no legal recourse without admitting to attempted purchase of stolen goods.
  • 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.
  • Stolen Cheques. 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.

Trick for investment scams

Con artists will often employ certain tricks to fool the mark into thinking that are an experienced financial adviser.

  • They use 'big' words.
  • Have the mark sign lots of papers requesting information.
  • Often get calls on their cell phones (fake or real) and will try to sound as sophisticated as possible in doing so.
  • They use high-tech computer programs to show the mark how the investment will increase. e.g. Microsoft Excel, FrontPage, etc.

It is to be noted also that the above list is only a sampling. Confidence games are continually evolving and subject to many variations and refinements, as in the following:

Con games never remain stationary. The principle may be old, but the external forms are always changing, for con men know they must adapt their schemes to the times. This is especially true of the Big Con. A good grifter is never satisfied with the form his swindle takes; he studies it constantly to improve it; as he learns more about people, he finds a way to use what he has learned.
— From The Big Con, by David Maurer (Chapter 3)

Famous convicted and alleged con artists

Note: Some inclusions in this list may be disputed.

Confidence tricks in the movies and television

Confidence tricks in literature

See also

Quotations

  • In response to the question "Who's going to believe a con artist?" Ben Matlock of Matlock responded, "Everyone, if she's good."

Further reading

  • Blundell, Nigel (1984) [1982]. The World's Greatest Crooks and Conmen and other mischievous malefactors. London: Octopus Books. ISBN 0-7064-2144-2.
  • Maurer, David W. (1940). The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man and the Confidence Game. New York: The Bobbs Merrill company. ISBN 0-385-49538-2.
  • Maurer, David W. (1974). The American Confidence Man. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher. ISBN 0-398-02974-1.
  • Ball, J. Bowyer (1982). Cheating and Deception. New Brunswick (USA), London (UK): Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-88738-868-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

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. ^ 419 Scam & Religion
  5. ^ online
  6. ^ Do We Use Only 10% of Our Brain? online
  7. ^ Snopes: The Ten-Percent Myth online
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