Was Joseph Smith a con man before he became a prophet?

Answer 1

He always preached that any many should ASK of God himself and not just trust in what he said.

The Book of Mormon itself makes this very clear: Moroni 10:3-5, encourages the reader to "ask God the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if these things are true" and the "Spirit will make the truth of it manifest, through prayer".

Church leaders and members alike continue to preach this doctrine to this day and always encourage any new convert to "know for themselves" through prayer before joining the church through baptism.

Although he was accused of many things, Joseph Smith never had any legal judgments against him stand. They were always "trumped up charges" from apostate church members or angry mobs or preachers jealous of his spiritual influence.

To my knowledge he never preached for money. In fact he was known to give away the very clothes off his back to help the poor and needy.

Answer 2

Joseph Smith first faced criminal charges at the age of 20, on the misdemeanor of being a "disorderly person". As Wikipedia describes the case, Smith had a certain stone which he had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures were; that he professed to find gold mines underground, and that at Palmyra he pretended to tell by looking at this stone where coined money was buried in Pennsylvania, and while at Palmyra had frequently ascertained in that way where lost property was of various kinds. He was found guilty, although it appears from records that he was only required to pay costs.

Wikipedia goes on, to tell us that In February 1837, a writ was sworn against Smith and Sidney Rigdon for illegal banking and issuing unauthorised bank paper. On March 24, the court found sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial. In October, Smith and Rigdon were tried in absentia after having left Ohio for Upper Canada. They were each found guilty and each fined $1000.