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"Scam" and "Confidence Man" redirect here. For other uses, see Scam (disambiguation) and Confidence Man (disambiguation).
This article is about the confidence trick called grifting. For the comic book character, see Grifter (comics). Grifter is a fictional Comic book character from Wildstorm Universe. For the 1990 film starring Anjelica Huston, see Grifters (film). Anjelica Huston (born July 8, 1951) is an Academy Award - and Golden Globe Award -winning American actress and former This article discusses the movie The Grifters. See Grifters for information about the rock band from Tennessee
"Flim-flam" redirects here. For the book, see Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions. Flim-Flam! Psychics ESP Unicorns and Other Delusions is a 1982 book by magician and skeptic James Randi about Paranormal, Occult, and Pseudoscience
"Big store" redirects here. For the Marx brothers film, see The Big Store. The Big Store ( 1941) is a Marx Brothers Comedy film in which Groucho, Chico and Harpo work to save the Phelps

A confidence trick or confidence game, more often known as a con, scam, swindle, grift, bunko, flim flam, stratagem, or scheme, is an attempt to swindle a person or people (known as the "mark" or sometimes "griftee") which involves gaining his or her confidence. (For confidence tricks dealing with information theft or computers see social engineering. Social engineering is the art of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information )

Contents

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. William Thompson was an American Criminal whose deceptions caused the term " confidence man " to be coined 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 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. Greed is the Selfish desire for or pursuit of Money, Wealth, power, Food, or other Possessions, especially when this denies Dishonesty is a word which in common usage may be defined as the act or to act without honesty a lack of probity to cheat lying or being deliberately deceptive lacking in Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting Truthfully related to Truth as a value Compassion is a profound human Emotion prompted by the pain of others

Just as there is no typical profile for swindlers, neither is there one for their victims. Virtually anyone can fall prey to fraudulent crimes. … 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]

Nevertheless, 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 check bounces. "Non-sufficient funds" (NSF is a term used in the Banking industry to indicate that a demand for payment (a check) cannot be honored because insufficient Another fashionable scenario (as of 2006) has the victim recruited as a "financial agent" to collect "business debts". Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. 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. A get-rich-quick scheme is a plan to acquire high rates of return for a small Investment. It may take years for the wider community to discover that such investment schemes are bogus. By the time they are discovered, many people may have lost their life savings to something in which they have been persuaded to invest.

The confidence trickster often works with one or more accomplices called shills, who help manipulate the mark into accepting the con man's plan. A shill is an associate of a person selling goods or services or a political group who pretends no association to the seller/group and assumes the air of an enthusiastic customer 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 benefited from successfully performing the task.

Notable con artists

Born in the 18th century

Born/active in the 19th century

Born/active in the 20th century

Living people

Fictional portrayals

Movies and television

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Notable confidence tricks in literature

19th century

20th century

21st century

See also

Further reading

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. ^ Document of the Month January 2005. The Scottish Executive (January 2005). Retrieved on 19 August 2007. Events 43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
  5. ^ Arrest of the Confidence Man. New York Herald (1849). Retrieved on 19 August 2007. Events 43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
  6. ^ Maurer, David W. , The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man and the Confidence Game, Bobbs Merrill, ISBN 0-7869-1850-8 
  7. ^ For You, Half Price. The New York Times (1849). Retrieved on 19 August 2007. Events 43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
  8. ^ Weil, Joseph (1948), "Yellow Kid" Weil: The Autobiography of America's Master Swindler, Ziff-Davis, ISBN 0-7812-8661-1 
  9. ^ Zuckoff, Mitchell (March 8), Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend, Random House, ISBN 1-4000-6039-7 
  10. ^ Johnson, James F. & Miller, Floyd (1961), The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower, Doubleday 
  11. ^ The Fund Industry's Black Eye. Brian Trumbore, StocksandNews. com (19 April 2002). Retrieved on 19 August 2007. Events 43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
  12. ^ Frank W. Abagnale Jr.; with Stan Redding (1980). Catch Me if You Can. Catch Me if You Can is a 2002 Black comedy film loosely based on Frank Abagnale Jr New York: Simon & Schuster. Simon & Schuster Inc, a division of CBS Corporation, is a Publisher founded in New York in 1924 by Richard L  
  13. ^ Princeton 'Student' Gets Jail Sentence. The New York Times (25 October 1992). Retrieved on 19 August 2007. Events 43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
  14. ^ Fake spy guilty of kidnapping con. BBC (23 June 2005). Retrieved on 19 August 2007. Events 43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.

External links

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