confidence game

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A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, or swindle) is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence.

History

The first known usage of the term "confidence man" in English was in 1849; it was used by American press during the United States 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 typical human qualities like greed, dishonesty, vanity, 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]

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 18th 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 19th century

• Lou Blonger (1849–1924) – organized massive ring of con men in Denver in early 1900s^[5]
• Helga de la Brache (1817-1885)
• Horace de Vere Cole (1881–1936)
• Canada Bill Jones – riverboat gambler and card sharp
• Victor Lustig (1890–1947) – born in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) and known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower"^[6]
• George C. Parker (1870–1936) — US con man who sold New York monuments to tourists^[7]
• Charles Ponzi (1882–1949) – Italian immigrant into the US; "Ponzi scheme" is a "get rich fast" fraud named after him^[8]
• Death Valley Scotty (1872–1954) prospector, performer, and con man, famous for gold mining scams and the mansion in Death Valley known as Scotty's Castle.
• Soapy Smith (1860–1898) — confidence gang boss, who operated in Denver, Colorado; Creede, Colorado; and Skagway, Alaska
• William Thompson (active in 1840–1849) – US criminal whose deceptions caused the term confidence man to be coined^[9]
• Joseph Weil (1875–1976) – one of the most famous American con men of his era^[10]

Born or active in the 20th century

• Bernie Cornfeld (1927–1995) – ran the Investors Overseas Service, alleged to be a Ponzi scheme^[11]
• David Hampton (1964–2003) - Inspiration for the play and film Six Degrees of Separation
• Eduardo de Valfierno – Argentine con man who allegedly masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911

Living people

• Frank Abagnale Jr. (1948) — US check forger and impostor; his autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, was made into a movie^[12]
• Matt the Knife (1981) — American-born card cheat and pickpocket who bilked casinos, corporations and at least one Mafia crime family.
• Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (1961) — Bavarian-born con artist who, for nearly two decades, claimed to be a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family.
• Robert Hendy-Freegard (1971) — Briton who kidnapped people by impersonating an MI5 agent and conned them out of money.^[13]
• James Arthur Hogue (1959) — US impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan^[14]
• Clifford Irving (1930) — US writer, best known for a false "authorized autobiography" of Howard Hughes.
• Samuel Israel III (1959) — Ran the former fraudulent Bayou Hedge Fund Group; faked suicide.
• Bon Levi (1943) — Aka Ron the Con and Ronald Frederick. Arguably Australia's most notorious conman who tricked Australian and US citizens into investing in scam franchise businesses. He has been jailed both in Australia and the United States.
• Bernard Lawrence Madoff (1938) — American former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market who admitted running a world-record $65 billion Ponzi scheme. Headed the hedge fund Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC until his arrest in 2008. In March 2009 he pled guilty to 11 felonies.
• Lou Pearlman (1954) — US businessman and manager of boy bands, sentenced to 25 years for operating a Ponzi investment scheme
• Gert Postel (1958) — German postman who for decades pretended to be a medical doctor, worked for almost 2 years as a psychiatrist in a hospital in Saxony
• Casey Serin (1982) — Self-confessed mortgage fraudster who became the "poster child" of the housing bubble.
• Allen Stanford (1950) — Charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with a "massive Ponzi scheme",[10] and arrested by the FBI on June 18, 2009.[11] [12]
• Kevin Trudeau (1963) — US writer and billiards promoter, convicted of fraud and larceny in 1991, known for late-night infomercials and books about "Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About".

Psychopathology

• Psychopathy
• Malignant narcissism

See also

• Confidence trick (books and literature)
• Confidence trick (tv and movies)
• Counterfeit
• Criminal (film)
• FBI
• Hustle (TV series)
• IRS
• Matchstick Men (film)
• Ocean's Eleven
• Leverage (TV series)
• List of confidence tricks
• Quackery - questionable medical practices
• Romance scam - gaining romantic relationship with a victim and then using that goodwill to commit fraud.
• SEC
• 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.
• The Sting
• Sting operation - confidence tricks used for the purpose of law enforcement
• United States Postal Inspection Service -is the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service. Its jurisdiction is defined as "crimes that may adversely affect or fraudulently use the U.S. Mail, the postal system or postal employees."
• United States Secret Service
• 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

• Ball, J. Bowyer; Whaley, Barton (1982). Cheating and Deception (reprint 1991). New Brunswick (USA), London (UK): Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-88738-868-X. 
• Blundell, Nigel (1984) [1982]. The World's Greatest Crooks and Conmen and other mischievous malefactors. London: Octopus Books. ISBN 0-7064-2144-2. 
• Dillon, Eamon (2008) [2008]. The Fraudsters: Sharks and Charlatans - How Con Artists Make Their Money. Merlin Publishing. ISBN 978-1-903582-82-4. 
• Ford, Charles V. (1999) [1999]. Lies! Lies!! Lies!!!: The Psychology of Deceit. American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-880489-97-3. 
• Henderson, Les (2000). Crimes of Persuasion: Schemes, scams, frauds. Coyote Ridge Publishing. ISBN 0-9687133-0-0. 
• Kaminski, Marek M. (2004). Games Prisoners Play. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11721-7. 
• Maurer, David W. (1999) [1940]. The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man and the Confidence Game (reprinted). New York: Bobbs Merrill / Anchor Books. ISBN 0-385-49538-2. 
• Maurer, David W. (1974). The American Confidence Man. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher. ISBN 0-398-02974-1. 
• Sutherland, Edwin Hardin (1937). The Professional Thief (reprint 1989). 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'
• The Encyclopedia of Scam An encyclopaedia of confidence tricks
• The Worlds Greatest Con Artists Con Artists Profiles

v • d • e Confidence tricks and con artists Terminology Confidence trick · Error account · 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 · Thai tailor scam · Three-card Monte · White van speaker scam Pyramid and Ponzi schemes (List of 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 · 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 · Sante Kimes · Henri Lemoine · Victor Lustig · Gregor MacGregor · Bernard Madoff · George C. Parker · Charles Ponzi · Steven Jay Russell · Soapy Smith · Titanic Thompson · William Thompson · Joseph Weil · Fictional con artists