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 only to find that his "pig" had mysteriously become a cat. 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

Three-card monte, or "Follow The Lady", is 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 may be skeptical, so the shill, or accomplice, 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.

• Change Raising

"Change raising" is a short con generally performed at the register of a store. The con artist performs several money exchanges ("wait, i do have a ten; could you give me two fives instead?"), with the end result that he walks out of the store with more money than he had coming in, leaving a vaguely confused clerk wondering if everything made as much sense as it seemed to.

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, and con artists are continually seeking to improve their swindles. Some con artists prey upon the lonely, seeking out marks through internet dating sites, convincing men and women to "loan" them money so they can come visit. Ironically enough, some con artists find people who have already been conned, telling them that, for a fee, they can recover most of the money that the victim lost. The internet, partly because of its accessability and anonymity, is a popular place for scam artists.

How Con Artists Avoid the Police

Many victims of confidence games are embarassed to admit they fell victim to a scam, feeling foolish and stupid for being taken in by the con artist's game. Sometimes, the con artist is so convincing with the pitiful tales he tells the mark about his family, children, etc. that, even though the mark knows he's been swindled, he still feels bad for the con man and doesn't report him. Other times, the con artist will manipulate the situation so that the mark cannot go to the police without admitting that he has committed a crime. Because of this surefire way to escape punishment, many confidence games include a minor element of crime. For example, the victim may be encouraged to use money concealed from the tax authorities to invest in the con artist's scheme; if they go to the authorities, they must reveal that they have committed tax fraud. Similarly, the mark who buys a stolen tv off the back of a truck, only to find he has bought an empty case filled with bricks, cannot report the seller without admitted to attempted purchase of stolen goods. Illegal pornographic images, pirated software, and bootleg music, drugs, and firearms are all good candidates for fraud.

Famous Con Artists

• Frank Abagnale was one of the world's most famous con men, as well as one of the youngest. Between the ages of 16 and 21, he cashed $2.5 million in forged checks, scammed free flights by posing as an airline pilot, and successfully passed himself off as an attorney, a college professor, and a pediatrician. At 21, he was apprehended by the French police, and served a total of five years in the French, Swedish, and U.S. prison systems. He was released on the condition that he use his skills to assist the federal government with fraud prevention, and currently lectures extensively at the FBI Academy. His best selling book, "Catch Me if You Can" was later made into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. He has recieved accolades for his contributions to fraud prevention, and was made national spokesperson for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) in 2004. On his website, Abagnale says, "I consider my past immoral, unethical and illegal. It is something I am not proud of. I am proud that I have been able to turn my life around and in the past 25 years, helped my government, my clients, thousands of corporations and consumers deal with the problems of white collar crime and fraud."

• Joseph Weil, also known as "The Yellow Kid", was born in 1877 to a German grocer, lived for 101 years, and theoretically made millions of dollars by cheating his fellow man. His exploits partially inspired the film "The Sting", starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.

• Victor Lustig was born in Czechoslovakia in 1890. Lustig had 45 known aliases, nearly fifty arrests in the United States along, and was fluent in five languages. In 1922, he posed as "Count" Lustig from Austria, and conned a bank out of $32,000 by switching envelopes. Upon capture, he used the long train ride to convince his captors that, not only should they let him go, but that they should also give him $1,000 for the inconvenience of being arrested. Lustig's most famous con, however, was the sale of the Eiffle Tower. In 1925, Lustig invited five scrap iron dealers to meet with him in a hotel, and auctioned off the famous landmark to Andre Poisson, who used a bribe to seal the deal. Lustig travelled to Austria and kept a close eye on the Parisian newspapers. When no mention was made of the scam, Lustig determined that Poisson had been too ashamed to admit he fell for such a scheme and had never reported it. Lustig promptly headed back to Paris and sold the Eiffle Tower a second time, after which the victims did go to the police, forcing Lustig to leave Europe and head to the States. In 1934, Lustig was arrested for counterfeiting, and served time in Alcatraz. He died of pnemonia in 1947, at the age of 57.

• Gregor MacGregor was a Scottish conman who, in 1822, tried to attract investors and settlers for a non-existent country of Poyais. Poyais, he claimed, was a fertile Garden of Eden on the Caribbean coast of Central America, with an efficient, European-style government. Successfully duping not only land investors and adventurers, but also bankers and aristocrats, MacGregor's scam ended with 250 settlers left stranded on the "beautiful" islands of Poyais. Instead of cotton growing wild and European-style cities, they found forest, swampland, malaria, and yellow fever. Before they managed to find passage back to England, approximately 180 were dead from tropical diseases.

• Phillip Arnold and John Slack, were perpetrators of the 1872 "Great Diamond Hoax" in San Francisco. Through a series of deceptions, the pair sold over a half-million dollars in Colorado land and stock shares to wealthy businessmen. In addition to the use of bags of "found" diamonds, they also "salted" the potential "diamond mine", scattering diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds where they would be likely to be discovered by potential investors. The hoax was discovered by Clarence King, a geologist that was leading a government survey team. When he heard about the diamonds found in Colorado, he feared that missing such a large diamond deposit would result in the loss of his funding, and immediately took a team to Colorado to investigate. When King found that the only gems that turned up were only several inches below the surface, and only underneath previously disturbed ground, he promptly notified the investors. The investors pleaded with him to stay silent long enough for them to sell their stock to others, but King refused. Arnold and Slack were indicted, but never prosecuted.

• Jefferson "Soapy" Smith got his nickname from his infamous soap swindle, where he would sell bars of soap from a suitcase on the sidewalk. He would make a show of wrapping an occasional bar of soap with a bill, ranging in size from $1 to $100. He would then mix the wrapped bars together, and sell them for between $1 and $5. Naturally, the "winners" of the currency-wrapped soap were always associates of Soapy. From 1887 to 1895, Soapy was king of Denver's underworld, making money through a variety scams, and becoming more of a gangster than a confidence man. Despite his reputation as a badman, Soapy was also generous to charitable causes, and was often sought out by men like Parson Uzzell of the People's church for assistance. Smith was killed in 1898 during a gunfight.

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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