Confidence game

A confidence game, also known as a con, scam, grift or flim flam, is an attempt to win the trust and confidence of a victim, known as the "mark", in order to defraud them. The term "confidence man" (usually shortened to "con man"), first came into use in 1849, when the New York Herald published a story about the arrest of William Thompson, entitled "Arrest of the Confidence Man". Thomspon would approach strangers on the street, talk a while with them, and then ask if they had "confidence in [him] to trust [him] with [their] watch until to-morrow”. The victims would then give Tompson their expensive watches, believing him to be an acquaintance they didn't remember.

How Confidence Games Work

The Con Man

The term "con man" may bring to mind images of shady, underworld characters, but reality is quite different. A good con artist needs to appear trustworthy and likeable in order to win the trust of the mark. Con artists are charismatic, intelligent, have good memories, and know how to manipulate people's hopes and fears. They attempt to blend in, to look and sound familiar, and often work dilligently at appearing to be smooth, professional, and successful. A con man may wear an expensive suit and appear to work in of a fancy office. Or, conversely, a con artist may put him/herself in a weaker position to play on a victim's sympathies: they may take on the role of illegal immigrant, a likeable man down on his luck, or a woman with a small child who needs to use the bathroom. From city official to roofer, the con artist can appear to be just about anyone.

The Mark

The "mark", or victim, also be just about anyone who wants something. Con artists prey on human desires for money, health, happiness, and even the desire to help others. Some may argue that con artists are a sort of Robin Hood, noblely cheating the greedy and dishonest out of their money; hence the old adage, "you can't cheat an honest man." In many cases, this holds true, as many cons exploit the greed and willingness to go "around the law" in their victims. Many cons dangle the prospect of "something for nothing (or very little)" in front of their marks. However, there are just as many cons that don't depend on greedy or dishonest marks; many scams involving the elderly and "charity" scams often exploit the fear or good intentions of their marks. Some believe that an intelligent, educated person is much more difficult to con, as he would easily recognize an offer that sounded too good to be true. In actuality, this belief of invulnerability makes one a good target. Good con artists have a great deal of charm and intelligence, and a good con man can make just about anything sound reasonable.

The Game

Types of confidence tricks are limited only by the imagination of the con artists, who are constantly inventing new ways of tricking people out of their money. There are two main catagories of confidence games: the short con and the long con. Sometimes called a "street con", the short con takes little set up and little time to execute. The long con, on the other hand, involves much more time to set up, more planning, more money, and often more accomplices. Unlike the short con, though, the long con usually scams the victim out of a sizeable amount of cash. The long con is sometimes referred to as a "big store scam", where "big store" Many confidence games are simply variations on "classic" cons. The following are some of the more well known classic short cons:

The Pigeon drop

In this con, the con artist and the mark, or "pigeon", find a wad of cash in the street. The con artist determines, after speaking with a "lawyer friend", that if no one claims it within thirty days, the money is theirs. The mark is convinced that it is best if each of them put up some extra money, often as "good faith money" until they can split the found cash. Naturally, the mark never sees their money or the "found" money again.

The Spanish Prisoner

This con first appeared in 1588, where a man with an attractive young girl approached British nobility, claiming that the girl's father, a British nobleman, was imprisoned in Spain. The nobleman's identity had to be kept a secret, lest the Spanish discover who their prisoner was. If the mark helped pay the ransom, the freed nobleman would surely reward him, and perhaps even give him the hand of the lovely daughter in marriage. Over the years, this scam has evolved into the popular "Nigerian Email Scam", where marks are asked to help "liberate" funds of wealthy Nigerians.

The Glasses Drop and the Flop

In the "glasses drop", the con man drops a pair of broken glasses where the mark will step on them. The con man then demands that the mark pay for the glasses he "broke". "The flop" is a similar type of scam where con artists use a preexsisting injury in the same fashion. An accident is staged, the injury is claimed to be new, and insurance companies are scammed out of their money.

Pig in a Poke

One of the oldest cons, this scam dates from the late Middle Ages. The con man would sell a suckling pig in a bag (or "poke") to an unsuspecting customer. When the victim got home, he would open the bag to find a cat, not a pig, in the bag. This confidence game may have given rise to the phrases "let the cat out of the bag" and "you got left holding the bag".

The Fiddle Game

In this con, a shabbily dressed "musician" leaves his fiddle as collateral in a restaurant, having left his money at home. While he is getting his money, another accomplice comes by and offers to purchase such a "rare" instrument for a large amount of money. When the musician returns, the restaurant owner offers to buy the fiddle for a lesser amount of money, thinking that he will be able to sell it to the accomplice and make a tidy profit. In need of money, the musician reluctantly sells his "beloved instrument". Naturally, the accomplice never returns, and the restaurant owner is left having paid a tidy sum for a nearly worthless fiddle.

Three Card Monte

A variation of the centuries old shell game, three card monty is a popular street con. The mark puts down money to see if he can accurately follow the queen, or "money card" as it is shuffled around with two other cards. If he picks the right card, he wins money, but what he doesn't know is that the con man uses slight of hand to make sure that the right card is never picked. The only way to win at three card monty is if the con man lets you win, usually to convince bystanders that winning is possible. Often, to minimize losses, the person that "wins" is actually an accomplice.

• 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 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. 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.

• Coin collecting scam is a scam that preys on inexperienced collectors, coins or otherwise. The con man convinces the mark by stating that a low-priced collection is worth a greater amount. The coin collector then buys the entire collection thinking it is actually valuable. This scam is most commonly found on the internet auction site, eBay.

• 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 "wonderful" method or program to beat online casinos; the method is nothing but a martingale that is proven not to work. To improve the scam, the advertiser cites anonymous people that are supposed to have won using his/her 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. Of course, when a mark tries to buy the method, they find out that no pamphlet is coming in the mail.

• Another relatively recent type of scam is a romance scam which involves fraudsters targeting lonely and vulnerable men and women on Internet dating sites and then actively cultivating 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. A wide variety of reasons can be offered for the fraudster's lack of cash, but rather than just "borrow" the money from the victim, 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. Of course, the checks are forged or stolen and the fraudster never makes the trip. Instead, all that the hapless victim ends up with is a large debt and an aching heart.

• Many religious cults have been described by their critics as confidence tricks. It is alleged that their aim is to obtain money from their followers by deception. It can often be unclear, however, if a cult leader is actually trying to con the group's members, or honestly believes his own claims.

• 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 one in every four — contestants reaches 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 cripple, homeless or other "down on your luck" scam. Some people suspect that the panhandler in a wheelchair, the woman with kids along the freeway off-ramp or the homeless vet might just be scamming. In India in 2006, three doctors were investigated for offering to sever limbs in order to increase public sympathy toward their clients.[1]

• 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.)

• 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 glasses drop is a scam in which the scammer will intentionally bump into the mark and drop a pair of glasses that have already been broken. He will claim that the glasses were broken by the clumsiness of the mark, and demand money to replace them.

• Hydrophoby Lay 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 - 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.

• Lottery Fraud by Proxy In this particularly vicious scam, the scammer buys a lotto 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.

• 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 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.

• Pseudoscience and snake oil. Some 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. 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.)

• The pyramid scheme. See also Ponzi scheme, Matrix sale.

• 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 an 18th 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 goes in figuring 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 conmen 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 scammers. This scam has been operating for 20 years in Bangkok and is alleged to be protected by Thai police and politicians.[2] A similar scam usually runs in parallel for custom-made suits. Many tourists are hit by scammers 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.

• 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.

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 the victim to use money that has been concealed from the tax authorities. The victim cannot go to the authorities without revealing that they have committed tax fraud.
• Illegal enterprise. Many swindles involve a minor element of crime or some other misdeed. The victim is made to think that they will gain money by helping fraudsters get huge sums out of a country (the classic Nigerian scam). The victim cannot go to the police without revealing that they planned to commit a crime themselves. 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 their mark pitiful lies about their family, children, etc therefore the mark feels sorry for them and does not alert the police.
• Family member. Many con artists con on family members because the family would not want to hurt the con man by alerting the police.
• Embarrassing enterprise. If the victim loses a small sum only, they may be unwilling to contact the authorities if the circumstances are embarrassing, e.g. if they would look like an idiot or if their spouse would find out that they paid lots of money to access a website of (worthless or nonexisting) pornographic material.
• 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 victim. These cheques are altered to reflect the victim's name, and the mark is then asked to cash them and transfer all but a percentage of the funds (his commission) to the fraudster. The cheques are often completely genuine, except that the "pay to" information has been expertly changed. This exposes the victim not only to enormous debt when the bank reclaims the money from their account, but also to criminal charges for transacting the forged cheques.

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.

• Frank Abagnale, masqueraded as a pilot, doctor and professor
• Tino De Angelis, who sold rights to $175 million in soybean oil stored in tanks, which was actually a thin layer of oil floating on water.
• Arnold and Slack, Phillip Arnold and John Slack, perpetrators of the 1871 "Great Diamond Hoax" in San Francisco. William Ralston paid Slack and Arnold three hundred thousand dollars for worthless land but eventually repaid investors in his North American Diamond Mines.
• Howard Berg, with the same con as Kevin Trudeau (see below)
• Lou Blonger, organized massive ring of con men in Denver in early 1900's
• Tony & Sharon Bonicci, also known as Christie & McLean, Australian confidence artists, who rip off innocent elderly people for all their savings and possessions
• Gregory Caplinger, impersonated a doctor and scammed his patients into using his "miracle drug" ImmuStim which he claimed was a cure for cancer, AIDS, allergies, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and several other conditions.
• Bernie Cornfeld ran what is to date the greatest scam in history, taking in just under $2.5 billion in what was later realized to be a Ponzi scheme.
• Louis Enricht, U.S. chemist who claimed to have made a substitute for gasoline
• Billie Sol Estes, who was paid to produce millions in quotas of cotton, which never existed. LBJ was implicated by Estes in taking payoffs to ignore the scam, which took place in Texas.
• Arthur Ferguson Scottish con artist
• Robert Hendy-Freegard, British confidence artist who kidnapped people by telling them he was an MI5 agent and they were being hunted by terrorists, then took them on the run, conned them out of money and emotionally manipulated them; convicted in 2005[3]
• Nate Heller American con artist
• Susanna Mildred Hill, U.S. woman who fooled potential suitors
• L.Ron Hubbard, science fiction author and founder of the Church of Scientology,claiming that "the fastest way to make a million dollars is to start a religion"
• Kaz DeMille Jacobsen, Kiwi fraudulent 9/11 "motivational speaker"
• Mikailo Jefferson, Singaporean con artist
• Henri Lemoine, French diamond faker
• Peter Llewellyn who almost tricked the Russians to get a lift on the space station Mir
• Victor Lustig, sold the Eiffel Tower
• Gregor MacGregor, Scottish conman who tried to attract investment and settlers for a non-existent country of Poyais
• George Parker, who sold New York monuments
• Charles Ponzi, who ran a pyramid scheme (though he did not invent them) and became so closely identified with them that they are also known as Ponzi schemes.
• Raymond Price, British confidence artist who cons people out of money by telling them his car has broken down and he needs a train fare home; mentioned in the book Join Me-the book
• Lobsang Rampa, who claimed to be occupied by the spirit of a lama.
• Christophe Rocancourt
• Christopher Skase
• Soapy Smith, infamous 19th century confidence gang boss. Denver, Colorado, Skagway, Alaska
• Lolit Solis, who was responsible for the 1994 Manila Filmfest scam. Later confessed and apologized.
• William Thompson, American criminal whose deceptions caused the term "confidence man" to be coined.
• Kevin Trudeau, who claimed to be able to cure brain damage, increase reading speed in customers up to and beyond the rate of 10000 words per minute, and develop photographic memory.
• Joseph Weil, also known as The Yellow Kid, one of the inspirations for the Academy-award winning film The Sting.
• Stephen L. Smith, who defrauded 170 investors out of $130 million in the small town of Winter Haven, Florida through his bogus SH Oil and Gas Exploration company in the 1980s.[4]
• Manny "Whistling" Jesus, know for using the "French Drop" during the testing of pills in the turn of the 21st century harm reduction movement, whereby real pharmaceuticals were switched out for placbos

Confidence tricks in the movies and television

• The Rainmaker. 1956. Produced by Paul Nathan. Paramount.
• Elmer Gantry. 1960. Directed by Richard Brooks. Distributed by United Artists. Starring Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons.
• The Hustler. 1962. Directed by Robert Rossen.
• The Music Man. 1962. Produced and Directed by Morton da Costa. Warner.
• The Fortune Cookie. 1966. Directed by Billy Wilder. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon star.
• The Flim-Flam Man. 1967. Produced by Lawrence Turman; Directed by Irvin Kershner and Yakima Canutt. Twentieth Century Fox.
• The Producers. 1968. Written and directed by Mel Brooks.
• The Italian Job. 1969. Directed by Peter Collinson. A remake was released in 2003
• Skin Game. 1971. James Garner and Louis Gossett. Directed by Paul Bogart.
• Paper Moon. 1973. Directed and produced by Peter Bogdanovich. Paramount.
• The Sting. 1973. Directed by George Roy Hill. Universal.
• The Ribos Operation. 1978. Episode of Doctor Who, produced by Graham Williams, written by Robert Holmes and starring Tom Baker.
• Vabank. 1981. Directed by Juliusz Machulski.
• Cheers. 1982-1993. NBC. Featured a recurring "Flimflam man" character, Harry 'The Hat' Gittes (played by Harry Anderson)
• The Sting II. 1983. Sequel to The Sting (1973)
• Vabank II. 1985. Sequel to Vabank (1981)
• House of Games. 1987. Produced by Michael Hausman, directed by David Mamet. Orion.
• The Vanishing. 1988. Directed by George Sluizer. A remake by Sluizer was released in 1993.
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. 1988. Directed by Frank Oz.
• The Grifters. 1990. Produced by Martin Scorsese; Directed by Stephen Frears. Miramax Films.
• Leap of Faith. 1992.
• Scam, 1993. Directed by John Flynn
• The Usual Suspects. 1995. Directed by Bryan Singer
• Primal Fear, 1996.
• The Pest. 1997. Directed by Paul Miller.
• The Spanish Prisoner. 1997. Directed by David Mamet.
• Traveller, 1997, Bill Paxton plays an Irish gypsy confidence man.
• Blue Streak. 1999. Directed by Les Mayfield.
• Man on the Moon. 1999. Produced by Danny DeVito, directed by Miloš Forman.
• Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens). 2000. Directed by Fabián Bielinsky.
• Boiler Room. 2000. Directed by Ben Younger.
• The Prime Gig. 2000. Directed by Gregory Mosher.
• Bandits. 2001. Directed by Barry Levinson.
• Heist. 2001. Directed by David Mamet.
• Heartbreakers. 2001. Directed by David Mirkin.
• Hustle. 2004. A BBC series about a team of grifters.
• Ocean's Eleven. 2001. Directed by Steven Soderbergh as a remake of the 1960 film.
• The Score. 2001. Directed by Frank Oz
• "The Great Money Caper," 2002, a Simpsons episode based around grifting.
• Catch Me If You Can. 2002. Directed by Steven Spielberg.
• Confidence. 2003. Directed by James Foley.
• Matchstick Men. 2003. Directed by Ridley Scott.
• Shade. 2003. Directed by Damian Nieman.
• Out of Time. 2003. Produced by Neal H. Moritz, directed by Carl Franklin.
• Criminal. 2004. Directed by Gregory Jacobs as a remake of Nueva Reinas (2000).
• Ocean's Twelve. 2004. Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
• Stories of Lost Souls. 2005. A presentation of six short stories. "Euston Road" stars Paul Bettany as a swindler. Directed by Toa Stappar.
• Derailed. 2005. Directed by Mikael Håfström.
• A Con, 2005, created by Skyler Stone.
• Lost, 2005, Sawyer was formerly a con artist.
• Kurosagi, 2006, Kurosaki, the protagonist of Kurosagi, is a swindler who preys on other con artists.
• The O.C., Jeri Ryan played a character during the third season who was a con artist.
• North Shore, Amanda Rhigetti played a character who was a con artist.
• Firefly, Saffron

Confidence tricks in literature

This section is incomplete. Please expand it if you can.

• Herman Melville's The Confidence-Man.
• The Red-Headed League, a Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, involves a sort of confidence trick used to enable a bank robbery.
• Thomas Mann's Confessions of Felix Krull Confidence Man, The Early Years, an unfinished novel about a German con man.
• Many of the crime novels of Jim Thompson involve confidence artists.
• Joyce Carol Oates's My Heart Laid Bare features a family of confidence artists.
• Eric Garcia's Matchstick Men.
• Neil Gaiman's American Gods uses a two-man con as a major plot element.
• O. Henry's collection The Gentle Grafter describes a variety of confidence tricks.
• Slippery Jim - the protagonist of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat trilogy - uses abundant schemes and frauds.
• The Big Con
• Judith Ivory's Untie My Heart
• Jenny Crusie's Faking It — Features a family of confidence artists
• Children of Lieutenant Schmidt Society, a society of pretenders to be sons of Pyotr Schmidt
• Ostap Bender, the central character of Ilf and Petrov's The Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf
• The Professor in Spider Robinson's Callahan Series
• John Constantine of DC Comics/Vertigo ongoing series, Hellblazer, created by Alan Moore uses confidence scams, trickery, and magick to outwit his opponents.
• Stephen J. Cannell's King Con features a confidence man who successfully performs many of the known tricks, as well as some very creative and impressive ones.
• Tim Krabbé's The Golden Egg (1984) features a chemistry teacher who employs confidence tricks for the purpose of kidnapping.
• Travis McGee in John D. MacDonald's series of novels frequently uses con games or has them tried against him.
• Delos D. Harriman of Robert H. Heinlein's novel The Man Who Sold the Moon could possibly be considered a con artist.
• The novella The Space Merchants by Frederic Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth is replete with con games practiced by corporations.
• The novel The Brethren by John Grisham features a con run within a federal prison in which closeted gay men are targeted for extortion by three incarcerated judges.
• Terry Pratchett's Going Postal features a convicted and condemned swindler spared execution in exchange for taking on a hazardous government job, to which he applies the principles of the con.

Quotations

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

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Blundell, Nigel [1982] (1984). 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 0-3854-9538-2. 
• Maurer, David W. (1974). The American Confidence Man. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher. ISBN 0-3980-2974-1. 

• Marek M. Kaminski (2004) Games Prisoners Play. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691117217 http://webfiles.uci.edu/mkaminsk/www/book.html

• Ball, J. Bowyer and Whaley, Barton (1982). Cheating and Deception. New Brunswick (USA), London (UK): Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-88738-868-X. 

External links

• FraudAid Site giving anti-scam information.
• "Arrest of the Confidence Man," New York Herald, 1849
• "Friends of Con man Soapy Smith"
• "The Blonger Gang" details the exploits and arrest of Denver's "Million Dollar Bunko Ring"
• Common frauds revealed when searching for information about terminal illness online.

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