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A confidence trick or confidence game, also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, manipulation, ploy, power play, scam, scheme, stratagem or swindle 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.)

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 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. … 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. Another fashionable scenario (as of 2006)^{citation needed} 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. 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. 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 eighteenth century

• Gregor MacGregor (1786–1845) – Scottish conman who tried to attract investment and settlers for a non-existent country of Poyais^[4]

Born or active in the nineteenth century

• William Thompson (active in 1840–1849) – US criminal whose deceptions caused the term confidence man to be coined^[5]
• Lou Blonger (1849–1924) – organized massive ring of con men in Denver in early 1900s^[6]
• 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^[7]
• Scotty (1872–1954) a prospector, performer, and con man, who was made famous by his many scams involving gold mining and the iconic mansion in Death Valley, popularly known as Scotty's Castle
• Joseph Weil (1875–1976) – one of the most famous American con men of his era^[8]
• Horace de Vere Cole (1881–1936)
• Charles Ponzi (1882–1949) – Italian immigrant into the US; "Ponzi scheme" is a "get rich fast" fraud named after him^[9]
• Victor Lustig (1890–1947) – born in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) and known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower"^[10]
• Canada Bill Jones – riverboat gambler and card shark

Born or active in the twentieth 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 scams in history which was later realized to be a Ponzi scheme^[11]

Living people

• Clifford Irving (1930) – US writer, best known for an "authorized autobiography" of Howard Hughes that turned out to be a hoax
• Frank Abagnale (1948) – former US con artist, check forger and impostor; his autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, was made into a movie^[12]
• James Arthur Hogue (1959) – US impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan^[13]
• Robert Hendy-Freegard (1971) — British con artist who kidnapped people by impersonating an MI5 agent and conned them out of money; he was convicted in 2005^[14]
• Gert Postel (1958) – German medical con, a simple postman who for decades pretended to be a medical doctor, worked from 1995 for almost 2 years as a psychiatrist in a small province hospital in Saxony

Fictional portrayals

Movies and television

• The Lady Eve (1941) – directed by Preston Sturges; the main character, Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck), is a con artist.

1950s

• Racket Squad (1951–1953) – TV series in the style of Dragnet with all episodes focused on confidence crimes.
• 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

1960s

• The Music Man (1962) — produced and directed by Morton DaCosta; the main character, Harold Hill (Robert Preston), is a con artist.
• Mission: Impossible (1966–73 TV series) – the IMF team's adventures usually take the form of an elaborate con game in which the villain is the mark. Series writer William Read Woodfield was a self-professed confidence enthusiast and had read David Maurer's books on the subject.
• The Flim-Flam Man (1967) — directed by Irvin Kershner; 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.

1970s

• Midnight Cowboy — directed by John Schlesinger; the main character, Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) is a small-time con artist.
• 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

1980s

• The A-Team (1983–1986, TV) — created by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell; con tricks are performed mostly by team member Tempelton Peck (played by Dirk Benedict)
• House of Games (1987) – directed by David Mamet; features con artists as main characters
• The Vanishing (1988) – directed by George Sluizer; directed by Frank Oz the 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

1990s

• 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"
• The Pest (1997 film) — Pestario 'Pest' Vargas (John Leguizamo) is a Latino con man
• Ed, Edd, n Eddy (1999) - three main characters spend their time scamming other kids to get money in order to buy jawbreakers

2000s

• Boiler Room (2000) – directed by Ben Younger. Giovanni Ribisi plays entry-level investment broker working in a boiler room operation as part of a microcap stock fraud, with Ben Affleck and Vin Diesel.
• 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 women
• 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
• Criminal (2004) — directed by Gregory Jacobs; about a team of con artists
• Lost (2004), TV series, two characters, James "Sawyer" Ford and Anthony Cooper, are both con-artists.
• Going Postal (2004), a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, features the semi-ex confidence artist Moist Von Lipwig as the protagonist, as does its 2007 sequel, Making Money.
• 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
• Kurosagi (2006) — Japanese drama that reflects on the art of different cons and swindling methods.Starring Yamashita Tomohisa
• Viva Pinata (2007) Features a character "The Bonboon" who is constantly pulling tricks on pinatas to get candy.
• Believe (2007) — directed by Loki Mulholland; a mockumentary about multi-level marketing
• The Riches (2007) — FX series about a nomadic, drifter family
• Liar Game (2007) — Japanese drama which is about a honest college student, receives 100 million yen (about $1,000,000) one day, along with a card saying that she has been chosen to participate in the "Liar Game". In order to win the game, she must trick other players.
• Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007) — film based on the TV series of the same name; the villains of the film are Internet scammers
• Burn Notice (2007 – present) — USA Network series; an ex covert operative works as a freelance spy, with his jobs often taking the form of a con

Notable confidence tricks in literature

Nineteenth century

• 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

Twentieth century

• Simon Templar (1928—1963), also known as "The Saint," a main character in Leslie Charteris' novels and stories who is often involved in scams and cons
• 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, who has carried out most of the tricks listed below, 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
• Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man: The Early Years (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
• Travis McGee (1964–1984), fictional character in John D. MacDonald's series of detective novels, frequently uses con games or has them tried against him
• The Golden Egg (1984) — psychological thriller novel by Tim Krabbé features a chemistry teacher who employs con for the purpose of kidnapping
• Repairman Jack (1984–present), fictional character in F. Paul Wilson's series of novels, often runs scams on other con artists.
• 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; the main character, John Constantine, uses confidence scams, trickery and magick

Twenty-first century

• 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
• The Egyptologist (2004) — In this Arthur Phillips novel, Ralph Trilipush is a brilliant con who eventually cons himself.
• 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 as Postmaster General
• 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

See also

• List of confidence tricks

• Advance fee fraud (also known as 'Nigerian scam' or '419 scam')
• Bogus escrow — straightforward confidence trick in which a scammer operates a bogus escrow service
• 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. Compare to multi-level marketing which uses a similar structure to market products or services.
• Quackery — questionable medical practices
• Romance scam
• Scam baiting — deliberately seeking out scammers to expose them or waste their time
• Scams in intellectual property
• Social engineering — Techniques used to manipulate people into performing actions or divulging confidential information.
• Spam - Most, if not all spam is nothing more than a scam, such as the "You WON the $1,000,000 Grand Prize", then to "claim" the (non-existent) prize, the scammer needs your personal information which is in turn used to effect all manner of crime against you, including ID Theft.
• Sting operation — confidence tricks used for the purpose of law enforcement
• 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

Further reading

• Blundell, Nigel [1982] (1984). The World's Greatest Crooks and Conmen and other mischievous malefactors. London: Octopus Books. ISBN 0-7064-2144-2. 
• Ford, Charles V. [1999] (1999). Lies! Lies!! Lies!!!: The Psychology of Deceit. American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.. 
• 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. 

• Marek M. Kaminski (2004) Games Prisoners Play. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11721-7

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

• Sutherland, Edwin Hardin (1937). The Professional Thief. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-78051-1. 

References

External links

• "Arrest of the Confidence Man" New York Herald, 1849
• House of Deception bibliography and art gallery of confidence crime
• Dateline NBC investigation 'To Catch a Con Man'
• Looks too good to be true.com Types of fraud, etc.
• The Encyclopedia of Scam An encyclopaedia of confidence tricks
• Famous pranks (Sniggle.net)
• The Worlds Greatest Con Artists Con Artists Profiles

v • d • e Confidence tricks and con artists Terminology Confidence trick · Mark · Shill · Sucker list Notable confidence tricks Advance fee fraud · Badger game · Black money scam · Bogus escrow · Clip joint · Drop Swindle · Embarrassing cheque · Employment scams · Hustling · Mock auction · Penny-and-dime scam · Pig in a poke · Pigeon drop · Reloading scam · Shell game · Slavery reparations scam · Spanish Prisoner · Thai gem scam · Three-card Monte · White van speakers Pyramid and Ponzi schemes Dona Branca · Caritas · Bernard Cornfeld · Foundation for New Era Philanthropy · High-yield investment program · Investors Overseas Service · MMM · Make Money Fast · Reed Slatkin Notable con artists Frank Abagnale · Storme Aerison · Charles Ponzi · Tino De Angelis · Philip Arnold · Nicky Arnstein · Scotty · Lou Blonger · Ed "Big Ed" Burns · David "Race" Bannon · Matthew Cox · Louis Enricht · Billie Sol Estes · Arthur Furguson · Peter Foster · Oscar Hartzell · Kenny Kimes · Sante Kimes · Henri Lemoine · Victor Lustig · Gregor MacGregor · George C. Parker · Steven Jay Russell · Soapy Smith · Titanic Thompson · William Thompson · Joseph Weil · Fictional con artists