List of confidence tricks
Encyclopedia
This list of confidence tricks and scams should not be considered complete, but covers the most common examples. Confidence tricks and scams are difficult to classify, because they change often and often contain elements of more than one type. Throughout this list, the perpetrator of the confidence trick is called the “con artist” or simply “artist”, and the intended victim is the “mark”.
s, real estate
“sure things”, get-rich-quick books, wealth-building seminars, self-help
gurus, sure-fire inventions, useless products, chain letter
s, fortune tellers
, quack
doctors, miracle pharmaceuticals, Nigerian money scams, charms and talismans
. Variations include the pyramid scheme
, the Ponzi scheme
, and the Matrix sale
.
Count Victor Lustig
sold the “money-printing machine” which he claimed could copy $100 bills. The client, sensing huge profits, would buy the machines for a high price (usually over $30,000). Over the next twelve hours, the machine would produce just two more $100 bills, but after that it produced only blank paper, as its supply of hidden $100 bills would have become exhausted. This type of scheme is also called the “money box” scheme.
or “salting the mine” are terms for a scam in which gemstone
s 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. During gold rush
es, scammers would load shotgun
s with gold dust and shoot into the sides of the mine to give the appearance of a rich ore, thus “salting the mine”. Examples include the diamond hoax of 1872
and the Bre-X
gold fraud of the mid-1990s. This trick was popularized in the HBO series Deadwood
, when Al Swearingen and E. B. Farnum
trick Brom Garret into believing gold is to be found on the claim Swearingen intends to sell him.
scam—and its modern variant, the advance-fee fraud or “Nigerian scam”—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 believes they 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
). Note that the classic Spanish Prisoner trick also contains an element of the romance scam (see below).
Many conmen employ extra tricks to keep the victim from going to the police
. A common ploy of investment scammers is to encourage a mark to use money concealed from tax authorities. The mark cannot go to the authorities without revealing that they have committed tax fraud
. Many swindles involve a minor element of crime or some other misdeed. The mark is made to think that they will gain money by helping fraudsters get huge sums out of a country (the classic advance-fee fraud/Nigerian scam); hence marks cannot go to the police without revealing that they planned to commit a crime
themselves.
In a recent twist on the Nigerian fraud scheme, the mark is told they are helping someone overseas collect debts from corporate clients. Large cheque
s stolen from businesses are mailed to the mark. These cheques are altered to reflect the mark's name, and the mark is then asked to cash them and transfer all but a percentage of the funds (his commission
) to the con artist. The cheques are often completely genuine, except that the "pay to" information has been expertly changed. This exposes the mark not only to enormous debt when the bank reclaims the money from their account, but also to criminal charges for money laundering
. A more modern variation is to use laser-printed
counterfeit cheques with the proper bank account numbers and payer information.
Televised infomercial
Certain infomercials feature enthusiastic hosts and highlights of satisfied customers’ testimony extolling the benefits of get-rich-quick methods such as Internet auctioneering, real estate investment and marketing, for-profit toll phone business, classified advertising
and unique products of questionable value requiring active marketing by the paying customers. Infomercials which fall under the aforementioned descriptions are highly likely to be scams devised and engineered to “bamboozle” the unsuspecting viewers for the express purpose of enriching the scheme inventors who produced the infomercials which often grossly exaggerate their claims, in conjunction with the clips of satisfied customers' over-excited testimonies with the superimposed captions of the alleged profits made.
Don Lapre
, creator of "Money Making Secrets", "The Ultimate Road to Success", "The Greatest Vitamin in the World" and other schemes, was reported by Internet customer watchdog organizations Ripoff Report
, Better Business Bureau
and Quackwatch
, plus alternative newspaper publications such as Phoenix New Times
as one of the premier confidence artists whose characteristic traits of overly positive attitude and over-enthusiastically cheerful and charisma
tic personality depend on the gullibility of the infomercial viewers to purchase the essentially useless products to gain substantial sums of profit by deception.
as well as the King of the Hill
episode The Substitute Spanish Prisoner, trades on the promise of insider knowledge to beat a gamble
, stock
trade or other monetary action. In the wire game, a "mob
" composed of dozens of grifters
simulates a "wire store", i.e., a place where results from horse races
are received by telegram and posted on a large board, while also being read aloud by an announcer. The griftee is given secret foreknowledge of the race results minutes before the race is broadcast, and is therefore able to place a sure bet at the wire store. In reality, of course, the con artists who set up the wire store are the providers of the inside information, and the mark eventually is led to place a large bet, thinking it to be a sure win. At this point, some mistake is made, which actually makes the bet a loss. The grifters in The Sting use miscommunication about the race results to simulate a big mistake, and the bet is lost.
who are part of a cult that converts an entire community to quasi-religious beliefs. This usually involves an authority figure like Jim Jones
who then uses his authority to abuse followers or to use them for gain. Usually these communities are rural, isolated, and have no money, instead they are used for manual labor, in particular on plantation
s and manufacturing. This is referred to as a "conspiracy
" because of the difficulty to prove and the scale of the scam. These faux missionaries tend to be the representative of these communities to and from the outside world which includes the handling of money. In addition, community members either revere the missionaries as people of their new deity or refuse to admit they had fallen victim to the scam. This scam is particularly attributed to cults with strong authority figures and has taken place in Asia, Africa, Central and South America.
Romance scam
The traditional romance scam has now moved into internet dating
sites. The con actively cultivates a romantic relationship
which often involves promises of marriage. However, after some time it becomes evident that this Internet "sweetheart" is stuck in his home country, lacking the money to leave the country and thus unable to be united with the mark. The scam then becomes an advance-fee fraud or a check fraud. A wide variety of reasons can be offered for the trickster's lack of cash, but rather than just borrow the money from the victim (advance fee fraud), 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 (check fraud
). Of course, the checks are forged or stolen and the con man never makes the trip: the hapless victim ends up with a large debt and an aching heart. This scam can be seen in the movie Nights of Cabiria
.
Fortune telling fraud
One traditional swindle involves fortune telling. In this scam, a fortune teller uses his or her cold reading
skill to detect that a client is genuinely troubled rather than merely seeking entertainment; or is a gambler complaining of bad luck
. The fortune teller informs the mark that they are the victim of a curse
, and that for a fee a spell can be cast to remove the curse. In Romany, this trick is called bujo ("bag") after one traditional format: the mark is told that the curse is in their money; they bring money in a bag to have the spell cast over it, and leave with a bag of worthless paper. Fear of this scam has been one justification for legislation that makes fortune telling a crime.
This scam got a new lease on life in the electronic age with the virus hoax
. Fake antivirus software falsely claims that your computer is infected with viruses, and renders the machine inoperable with bogus warnings unless blackmail is paid. In the Datalink Computer Services incident
, a mark was fleeced of several million dollars by a firm that claimed that his computer was infected with viruses, and that the infection indicated an elaborate conspiracy against him on the Internet. The alleged scam lasted from August 2004 through October 2010 and is estimated to have cost the victim $6–20 million.
Gold brick scams
Gold brick scams involve selling a tangible item for more than it is worth; named after selling the victim an allegedly golden ingot which turns out to be gold-coated lead.
then buys the entire collection, believing it is valuable.
. 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). If one buys the bag without looking inside it, the person has bought something of less value than was assumed, and has learned first-hand the lesson caveat emptor
. "Buying a pig in a poke" has become a colloquial expression
in many European languages, including English, for when someone buys something without examining it beforehand. In Poland, Denmark, France, Belgium, Latvia, the Netherlands, Israel and Germany, the "pig" in the phrase is replaced by "cat", referring to the bag's actual content, but the saying is otherwise identical. This is also said to be where the phrase "letting the cat out of the bag" comes from, although there may be other explanations.
Thai gem
The Thai gem scam involves layers of con men 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 persuaded to buy the jewelry from a store also operated by the swindlers. The gems are real but significantly overpriced. This scam has been operating for 20 years in Bangkok, and is said to be protected by Thai police and politicians. A similar scam usually runs in parallel for custom-made suits. Many tourists are hit by conmen touting both goods.
s are sold—stereotypically from a white van—as expensive units that have been greatly discounted. The salesmen explain the ultra-low price in a number of ways; for instance, that their employer is unaware of having ordered too many speakers, so they are sneakily selling the excess behind the boss's back. The "speakermen" are ready to be haggled down to a seemingly minuscule price, because the speakers they are selling, while usually functional, actually cost only a tiny fraction of their "list price" to manufacture. The scam may extend to the creation of Web sites for the bogus brand, which usually sounds similar to that of a respected loudspeaker company. They will often place an ad for the speakers in the "For sale" Classifieds of the local newspaper, at the exorbitant price, and then show you a copy of this ad to "verify" their worth.
People shopping for pirated software
, illegal pornographic images, bootleg music, drugs, firearms or other forbidden or controlled goods may be legally hindered from reporting swindles to the police. An example is the "big screen TV in the back of the truck": the TV is touted as "hot" (stolen), so it will be sold for a very low price. The TV is in fact defective or broken; it may, in fact, not even be a television at all, since some scammers have discovered that a suitably decorated oven door will suffice. The buyer has no legal recourse
without admitting to the attempted purchase of stolen goods. This con is also known as "The Murphy Game".
Badger game
The badger game extortion is often perpetrated on married men. The mark is deliberately coerced into a compromising position, a supposed affair for example, then threatened with public exposure of his acts unless blackmail money is paid.
Clip joint
A clip joint or fleshpot is an establishment, usually a strip club
or entertainment bar
, typically one claiming to offer adult entertainment
or bottle service
, in which customers are tricked into paying money and receive poor, or no, goods or services in return. Typically, clip joints suggest the possibility of sex, charge excessively high prices for watered-down drinks, then eject customers when they become unwilling or unable to spend more money. The product or service may be illicit, offering the victim no recourse through official or legal channels.
Coin-matching game
Also called a coin smack or smack game, two operators trick a victim during a game where coins are matched. One operator begins the game with the victim, then the second joins in. When the second operator leaves briefly, the first colludes with the victim to cheat the second operator. After rejoining the game, the second operator, angry at "losing," threatens to call the police. The first operator convinces the victim to pitch in hush money
, which the two operators later split.
dog, hydrophobia being a well-known symptom of rabies
.
Insurance fraud
Insurance fraud includes a wide variety of schemes which attempt insureds to defraud their own insurance carriers, but when the victim is a private individual, 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 later exaggerate. One relatively common scheme involves two cars, one for the con artist, and the other for the shill. The con artist will pull in front of the victim, and the shill will pull in front of the con artist before slowing down. The con artist will then slam on his brakes to "avoid" the shill, causing the victim to rear-end the con artist. The shill will accelerate away, leaving the scene. The con artist will then claim various exaggerated injuries in an attempt to collect from the victim's insurance carrier despite having intentionally caused the accident. Insurance carriers, who must spend money to fight even those claims they believe are fraudulent, frequently pay out thousands of dollars—a tiny amount to the carrier despite being a significant amount to an individual—to settle these claims instead of going to court.
A variation of this scam occurs in countries where insurance premiums are generally tied to a Bonus-Malus
rating: the con artist will offer to avoid an insurance claim, settling instead for a cash compensation. Thus, the con artist is able to evade a professional damage assessment, and get an untraceable payment in exchange for sparing the mark the expenses of a lowered merit class.
or other gambling towns often encounter the barred winner scam, a form of advance fee fraud
performed in person. The artist will approach his mark outside a casino with a stack or bag of high-value casino chips and say that he just won big, but the casino accused him of cheating and threw him out without letting him redeem the chips. The artist asks the mark to go in and cash the chips for him. The artist will often offer a percentage of the winnings to the mark for his trouble. But, when the mark agrees, the artist feigns suspicion and asks the mark to put up something of value "for insurance". The mark agrees, hands over jewelry, a credit card or their wallet, then goes in to cash the chips. When the mark arrives at the cashier, they are informed the chips are fake. The artist, by this time, is long gone with the mark's valuables.
Fiddle game
The fiddle game uses the pigeon drop
technique. 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" agrees to sell it for a certain amount that still allows the mark to make a "profit" from the valuable violin. The result is the two conmen are richer (less the cost of the violin), and the mark is left with a cheap instrument.
This trick is used in an episode of Steptoe and Son
in which Harold has a commode
which he has purchased on his rounds, from a housewife. A passing antiques dealer sees the item and offers a large amount of money, but will return the next day. In the meantime the housewife's husband arrives and demands that Harold sell it back to him; instead Harold offers him a large amount of money for it, believing that he can sell it on to the dealer later that day. In the 1981 Only Fools And Horses
episode "Cash and Curry
", the main character, Delboy, is tricked into paying £2000 for a statue worth £17, believing it to be worth £4000. In an episode of Hustle
the fiddle game is acted out, using a dog instead of a fiddle. It was also detailed in the Neil Gaiman
novel American Gods
and is the basis for The Streets
' song "Can't Con an Honest John". It's also the basis of the episode of Leverage
"The Studio Job" where a fiddle game was run with a musician used as the fiddle.
of The Simpsons
and used by Derren Brown
in "The System" — this scam is run almost continuously in different forms by different operators. In Rex Stout
's Novel And Be a Villain (1948)
this horse race prediction scheme is described by Nero Wolfe
as a sure way to make money if one was so inclined to commit a crime. The sports picks can be replaced with stock-market securities or any other "chance" event as an alternative. This scam has also been called the inverted pyramid scheme, because of the steadily decreasing population of victims at each stage.
(1934) by Nathanael West
). Variants of this con have been used in movies such as The Flim-Flam Man
, The Traveller (1997)
, Shade (2003)
, and Zombieland (2009)
, and also in books such as American Gods
. Another con similar to this one is the Fiddle Game.
, where Nicolas Cage
teaches it to his daughter. A twist on the con was shown in Great Teacher Onizuka
, where the more-than-gullible Onizuka was tricked into getting a "winning ticket". The ticket wasn't altered, instead the daily newspaper
reporting the day's winning numbers was rewritten with a black pen.
Three-card Monte
Three-card Monte, "find the queen", the "three-card trick", or "follow the lady", is essentially the same as the centuries-older shell game
or thimblerig (except for the prop
s). The trickster shows three playing card
s 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. In one variation of the game, the shill will (apparently surreptitiously) peek at the lady, ensuring that the mark also sees the card. 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 conman decides to let them win, hoping to lure them into betting much more. The mark loses whenever the dealer chooses to make him lose. This con appears in the Eric Garcia novel Matchstick Men and is featured in the movie Edmond
. The scam is also central to the Pulitzer prize-winning play "Topdog/Underdog
." It also appears in episodes of White Collar
, Newsradio
, Everybody Hates Chris
, The Simpsons
, and Hustle
.
A variation on this scam exists in Barcelona, Spain, but with the addition of a pickpocket. The dealer and shill behave in an overtly obvious manner, attracting a larger audience. When the pickpocket succeeds in stealing from a member of the audience, he signals the dealer. The dealer then shouts the word "aguas"—colloquial for "Watch Out!"—and the three split up. The audience is left believing that the police are coming, and that the performance was a failed scam.
A variant of this scam exists in Mumbai, India. The shill says loudly to the dealer that his cards are fake and that he wants to see them. He takes the card and folds a corner and says in a hushed voice to the audience that he has marked the card. He places a bet and wins. Then he asks the others to place bets as well. When one of the audience bets a large sum of money the cards are switched.
Herbert L. Becker
is a magician and an exposer of magic tricks. He has revealed how this trick is done and is also considered the greatest master of this trick.
, by following the messages which appear on their screen. The software then pretends to find multiple viruses on the victim's computer, "removes" a few, and asks for payment in order to take care of the rest. They are then linked to con artists' websites, professionally designed to make their bogus software appear legitimate, where they must pay a fee to download the "full version" of their "antivirus software".
Phishing
A modern scam in which the artist communicates with the mark, masquerading as a representative of an official organization with which the mark is doing business, in order to extract personal information which can then be used, for example, to steal money. In a typical instance, the artist sends the mark an email pretending to be from a company, such as eBay
. It is formatted exactly like email from that business, and will ask the mark to "verify" some personal information at their website, to which a link is provided, in order to "reactivate" their blocked account. The website is fake but designed to look exactly like the business' website. The site contains a form
asking for personal information such as credit card numbers, which the mark feels compelled to give or lose all access to the service. When the mark submits the form (without double-checking the website address
), the information is sent to the swindler.
Other online scams include advance-fee fraud, bidding fee scheme
s, click fraud
, domain slamming, various spoofing attack
s, web-cramming, and online versions of employment scams
and romance scam
s.
Art student
The art student scam is common in major Chinese cities. A small group of 'students' will start a conversation, claiming that they want to practice their English. After a short time they will change the topic to education and will claim that they are art students and they want to take you to a free exhibition. The exhibition will usually be in a small, well hidden rented office and the students will show you some pieces which they claim to be their own work and will try to sell them at a high price, despite the pieces usually being nothing more than an internet printout worth a fraction of their asking price. They will often try 'guilt tricks' on people who try to bargain the price.
. The artists (usually female and working in pairs) will approach tourists and try to make friends. After chatting, they will suggest a trip to see a tea ceremony, claiming that they have never been to one before. The tourist is never shown a menu, but assumes that this is how things are done in China. After the ceremony, the bill is presented to the tourist, charging upwards of $100 per head. The artists will then hand over their bills, and the tourists are obliged to follow suit. Similar scams involving restaurants, coffee shops and bars also take place.
, The Grifters
, Criminal
, and Paper Moon
. A con artist shopping at say, a gas station
, pays for a cheap item (under a dollar) and gives the clerk a ten dollar bill. The con gets back nine ones and the change then tells the clerk he has a one and will exchange ten ones for a ten. Here's the con: get the clerk to hand over the $10 BEFORE handing over the ones. Then the con hands over nine ones and the $10. The clerk will assume a mistake and offer to swap the ten for a one. Then the con will probably just say, "Here's another one, give me a $20 and we're even". Notice that the con just swapped $10 for $20. The $10 was the store's money, not the con's. To avoid this con, keep each transaction separate and never ever permit the customer to handle the original ten before handing over the ten ones. Another variation is to flash a $20 bill to the clerk, then ask for something behind the counter. When the clerk turns away, the con artist can swap the bill they are holding to a lesser bill. The clerk might then make change for the larger bill, without noticing it has been swapped. The technique works better when bills are the same colour at a glance like, for instance, U.S. dollar bills
.
A similar technique exists when a con comes to a gas station with a young clerk, buying something cheap, showing then an uncommonly huge bill while not giving it and telling the clerk to prepare the change. While he's busy counting the change, the con would ask many questions in order to disturb the young clerk. When change is counted and ready the con is acting as if he had given the huge bill. If the clerk does not remember having received the bill, the con will say he gave him the money. If the clerk is weak or disturbed enough, he could let the con go away with the change.
Just as with the alleged wife and/or children, the purportedly out-of-gas car might or might not be present; if questioned, the con artist might vaguely gesture in the direction of a parked car or cars.
A variation of this scam has the con artist claiming that his car was towed, and he needs money to retrieve it from the towing company.
.
scam is a scam involving the conman telling the mark various lies about different scams and instigating false attempts so that the mark, by now feeling worried and with no place to hide their money from fraud, turns to the conman (of all people) for help. A notable example of this scam is shown in "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night", an episode of the television series Monk
, where Adrian Monk
has his wallet pickpocketed through this method.
, also featured early in the film The Sting
, involves the mark or pigeon assisting an elderly, weak or infirm stranger to keep their money safe for them. In the process, the stranger (actually a confidence trickster) puts their money with the mark's money (in an envelope, briefcase or sack) which the mark is then entrusted with. The money is actually not put into the sack or envelope, but is switched for a bag full of newspaper (etc). The mark is enticed to make off with the con artist's money through the greed element and various theatrics, but in actuality, the mark is fleeing from their own money, which the con artist still has (or has handed off to an accomplice). In Lost
this was Sawyer's preferred way of conning people out of money.
and snake oil
scams, 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 which are scientifically wrong, but attractive and sound plausible to the ignorant mark. A common myth is that we use only 10% of our brain.
Psychic surgery
Psychic surgery is a con game in which the trickster uses sleight of hand
to apparently remove malignant growths from the mark's body. A common form of medical fraud in underdeveloped countries
, it imperils victims who may fail to seek competent medical attention. The movie Man on the Moon depicts comedian Andy Kaufman
undergoing psychic surgery, and it can also be seen in an episode of Jonathan Creek
as well as an episode of Lost
in which the character Rose travels to Australia in a last ditch effort to cure her cancer.
, but the common goal is that the con artist tricks the seller into thinking that they are going to buy or rent the property and make monthly payments. In reality, the con artist has no intention of paying anything. This will usually continue until they are caught or evicted, but the catch here is this is hard to prove in a criminal court; the only legal recourse
the seller has is to file a lawsuit
against the person responsible. However, the con artist will usually scam the seller for an amount below the cost of its recovery through litigation.
and is essentially a pigeon drop
confidence trick. In a typical variation scammers will target, say, a jeweler, and offer to buy some substantial amount of his wares at a large markup provided he perform some type of under-the-table cash deal, originally exchanging Swiss francs for euros. This exchange goes through flawlessly, at considerable profit for the mark. Some time later the scammers approach the mark with a similar proposition, but for a larger amount of money (and thus a larger return for the mark). His confidence and greed inspired by the previous deal, the merchant agrees—only to have his money and goods taken, by sleight-of-hand or violence, at the point of exchange. This scam was depicted in the movie Matchstick Men
.
The same term is used to describe a crime where a vendor (especially a drug dealer) is killed to avoid paying for goods.
The con usually gains access to the friend's email account, cell phone, or social network account (e.g., Facebook). The con uses information about the target by reading old email messages or information on the social network. The tell
is that the message usually contains spelling errors or uses language that the target's friend would not write.
All foreign countries host embassies or consulates that will help travelers who are stranded abroad. Credit card issuers can be called collect to obtain an emergency replacement or assistance settling a hotel bill.
, usually by stopping the mark's vehicle and showing a fake badge, and tells the mark about a case they are investigating, and that the mark is a suspect. The conman asks for money to be checked, and when the mark is out of the vehicle, the con artist gets into the mark's car and drives away, having made sure there was more time to escape than it would take for the mark to get back to their vehicle. This scam is usually done to tourists, variations include their whole luggage being transferred to the conman's trunk "to be checked at a police station
", or a fake immigration agent, asking for papers and then for money to clear up the problem.
Get-rich-quick schemes
Get-rich-quick schemes are extremely varied; these include fake franchiseFranchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
s, real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
“sure things”, get-rich-quick books, wealth-building seminars, self-help
Self-help
Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
gurus, sure-fire inventions, useless products, chain letter
Chain letter
A typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to as many recipients as possible...
s, fortune tellers
Fortune-telling
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...
, quack
Quack
A quack is a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or qualifications he or she does not possess.Quack may also refer to:* Quack , an independent-comics series published by Star Reach in the 1970s...
doctors, miracle pharmaceuticals, Nigerian money scams, charms and talismans
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
. Variations include the pyramid scheme
Pyramid scheme
A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public...
, the Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
, and the Matrix sale
Matrix sale
A matrix scheme is a business model involving the exchange of money for a certain product with a side bonus of being added to a waiting list for a product of greater value than the amount given...
.
Count Victor Lustig
Victor Lustig
Victor Lustig was a con artist who undertook scams in various countries and became best known as "The man who sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice."-Early life:...
sold the “money-printing machine” which he claimed could copy $100 bills. The client, sensing huge profits, would buy the machines for a high price (usually over $30,000). Over the next twelve hours, the machine would produce just two more $100 bills, but after that it produced only blank paper, as its supply of hidden $100 bills would have become exhausted. This type of scheme is also called the “money box” scheme.
Salting
SaltingSalting (confidence trick)
In mineral exploration, salting is the process of adding gold or silver to an ore sample to change the value of the ore with intent to deceive, cheat or defraud any person. In the US state of Arizona it is a class 6 felony...
or “salting the mine” are terms for a scam in which gemstone
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
s or gold ore
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
are planted in a mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
or on the landscape, duping the greedy mark into purchasing shares in a worthless or non-existent mining company. During gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
es, scammers would load shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
s with gold dust and shoot into the sides of the mine to give the appearance of a rich ore, thus “salting the mine”. Examples include the diamond hoax of 1872
Diamond hoax of 1872
The diamond hoax of 1872 was a swindle in which a pair of prospectors sold a false American diamond deposit to prominent businessmen in San Francisco and New York...
and the Bre-X
Bre-X
Bre-X was a group of companies in Canada. A major part of the group, Bre-X Minerals Ltd. based in Calgary, was involved in a major gold mining scandal when it was reported to be sitting on an enormous gold deposit at Busang, Indonesia...
gold fraud of the mid-1990s. This trick was popularized in the HBO series Deadwood
Deadwood (TV series)
Deadwood is an American Western drama television series created, produced and largely written by David Milch. The series aired on the premium cable network HBO from March 21, 2004, to August 27, 2006, spanning three 12-episode seasons. The show is set in the 1870s in Deadwood, South Dakota, before...
, when Al Swearingen and E. B. Farnum
E. B. Farnum
Ethan Bennett Farnum was one of the first residents of Deadwood, South Dakota, who was not a miner or prospector; he was the owner of a general store. Farnum was married to Mary Farnum with three children, Sylvia, age 16, Edward, age 12, and Lyde, age 2 when he arrived in Deadwood...
trick Brom Garret into believing gold is to be found on the claim Swearingen intends to sell him.
Spanish Prisoner
The Spanish PrisonerSpanish Prisoner
The Spanish Prisoner is a confidence trick originating in the late 19th century. In its original form, the con-man tells his victim that he is in correspondence with a wealthy person of high estate who has been imprisoned in Spain under a false identity...
scam—and its modern variant, the advance-fee fraud or “Nigerian scam”—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 believes they 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
Black money scam
The black money scam, sometimes also known as the "wash wash scam", is a scam where con artists attempt to fraudulently obtain money from a victim by persuading him or her that piles of banknote-sized paper in a trunk or a safe is really money which has been dyed black...
). Note that the classic Spanish Prisoner trick also contains an element of the romance scam (see below).
Many conmen employ extra tricks to keep the victim from going to the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
. A common ploy of investment scammers is to encourage a mark to use money concealed from tax authorities. The mark cannot go to the authorities without revealing that they have committed tax fraud
Tax avoidance and tax evasion
Tax noncompliance describes a range of activities that are unfavorable to a state's tax system. These include tax avoidance, which refers to reducing taxes by legal means, and tax evasion which refers to the criminal non-payment of tax liabilities....
. Many swindles involve a minor element of crime or some other misdeed. The mark is made to think that they will gain money by helping fraudsters get huge sums out of a country (the classic advance-fee fraud/Nigerian scam); hence marks cannot go to the police without revealing that they planned to commit a crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
themselves.
In a recent twist on the Nigerian fraud scheme, the mark is told they are helping someone overseas collect debts from corporate clients. Large cheque
Cheque
A cheque is a document/instrument See the negotiable cow—itself a fictional story—for discussions of cheques written on unusual surfaces. that orders a payment of money from a bank account...
s stolen from businesses are mailed to the mark. These cheques are altered to reflect the mark's name, and the mark is then asked to cash them and transfer all but a percentage of the funds (his commission
Commission (remuneration)
The payment of commission as remuneration for services rendered or products sold is a common way to reward sales people. Payments often will be calculated on the basis of a percentage of the goods sold...
) to the con artist. The cheques are often completely genuine, except that the "pay to" information has been expertly changed. This exposes the mark not only to enormous debt when the bank reclaims the money from their account, but also to criminal charges for money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
. A more modern variation is to use laser-printed
Laser printer
A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers , laser printers employ a xerographic printing process, but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced...
counterfeit cheques with the proper bank account numbers and payer information.
Televised infomercialInfomercialInfomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
Certain infomercials feature enthusiastic hosts and highlights of satisfied customers’ testimony extolling the benefits of get-rich-quick methods such as Internet auctioneering, real estate investment and marketing, for-profit toll phone business, classified advertisingClassified advertising
Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge...
and unique products of questionable value requiring active marketing by the paying customers. Infomercials which fall under the aforementioned descriptions are highly likely to be scams devised and engineered to “bamboozle” the unsuspecting viewers for the express purpose of enriching the scheme inventors who produced the infomercials which often grossly exaggerate their claims, in conjunction with the clips of satisfied customers' over-excited testimonies with the superimposed captions of the alleged profits made.
Don Lapre
Don Lapre
Donald D. "Don" Lapre was an American TV pitchman. He became a multi-level marketing and infomercial salesman. His work involved product packages such as "The Greatest Vitamin in the World" and "Making Money Secrets"....
, creator of "Money Making Secrets", "The Ultimate Road to Success", "The Greatest Vitamin in the World" and other schemes, was reported by Internet customer watchdog organizations Ripoff Report
Ripoff Report
Ripoff Report is a privately owned and operated for-profit website founded by Ed Magedson. The Ripoff Report has been online since December 1998 and is operated by Xcentric Ventures, LLC which is based in Arizona...
, Better Business Bureau
Better Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau , founded in 1912, is a corporation consisting of several private business franchises of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work through their parent corporation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus .The Better Business Bureau, through...
and Quackwatch
Quackwatch
Quackwatch is an American non-profit organization founded by Stephen Barrett with the stated aim being to "combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct" and with a primary focus on providing "quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere."...
, plus alternative newspaper publications such as Phoenix New Times
Phoenix New Times
The Phoenix New Times is a free, weekly Phoenix, Arizona newspaper, put out every Thursday. It is the founding publication of the New Times Media , but The Village Voice is now the flagship publication of that company....
as one of the premier confidence artists whose characteristic traits of overly positive attitude and over-enthusiastically cheerful and charisma
Charisma
The term charisma has two senses: 1) compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others, 2) a divinely conferred power or talent. For some theological usages the term is rendered charism, with a meaning the same as sense 2...
tic personality depend on the gullibility of the infomercial viewers to purchase the essentially useless products to gain substantial sums of profit by deception.
Wire game
The wire or delayed-wire game, as depicted in the movie The StingThe Sting
The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936 that involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters to con a mob boss . The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who previously directed Newman and Redford in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.Created by...
as well as the King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
episode The Substitute Spanish Prisoner, trades on the promise of insider knowledge to beat a gamble
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
, stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
trade or other monetary action. In the wire game, a "mob
Crowd
A crowd is a large and definable group of people, while "the crowd" is referred to as the so-called lower orders of people in general...
" composed of dozens of grifters
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
simulates a "wire store", i.e., a place where results from horse races
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
are received by telegram and posted on a large board, while also being read aloud by an announcer. The griftee is given secret foreknowledge of the race results minutes before the race is broadcast, and is therefore able to place a sure bet at the wire store. In reality, of course, the con artists who set up the wire store are the providers of the inside information, and the mark eventually is led to place a large bet, thinking it to be a sure win. At this point, some mistake is made, which actually makes the bet a loss. The grifters in The Sting use miscommunication about the race results to simulate a big mistake, and the bet is lost.
Persuasion tricks
Persuasion fraud, when fraudsters persuade people only to target their money, is an old-fashioned type of fraud.Missionary conspiracy
A missionary conspiracy is a scam that involves illegitimate missionariesMissionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
who are part of a cult that converts an entire community to quasi-religious beliefs. This usually involves an authority figure like Jim Jones
Jim Jones
James Warren "Jim" Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip.Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in...
who then uses his authority to abuse followers or to use them for gain. Usually these communities are rural, isolated, and have no money, instead they are used for manual labor, in particular on plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
s and manufacturing. This is referred to as a "conspiracy
Conspiracy (civil)
A civil conspiracy or collusion is an agreement between two or more parties to deprive a third party of legal rights or deceive a third party to obtain an illegal objective....
" because of the difficulty to prove and the scale of the scam. These faux missionaries tend to be the representative of these communities to and from the outside world which includes the handling of money. In addition, community members either revere the missionaries as people of their new deity or refuse to admit they had fallen victim to the scam. This scam is particularly attributed to cults with strong authority figures and has taken place in Asia, Africa, Central and South America.
Romance scamRomance scamA romance scam is a confidence trick involving feigned romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining their affection, and then using that goodwill to commit fraud...
The traditional romance scam has now moved into internet datingOnline dating service
Online dating or Internet dating is a dating system which allows individuals, couples and groups to make contact and communicate with each other over the Internet, usually with the objective of developing a personal, romantic, or sexual relationship...
sites. The con actively cultivates a romantic relationship
Romantic love
Romance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....
which often involves promises of marriage. However, after some time it becomes evident that this Internet "sweetheart" is stuck in his home country, lacking the money to leave the country and thus unable to be united with the mark. The scam then becomes an advance-fee fraud or a check fraud. A wide variety of reasons can be offered for the trickster's lack of cash, but rather than just borrow the money from the victim (advance fee fraud), 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 (check fraud
Check kiting
Cheque fraud/check fraud refers to a category of criminal acts that involve making the unlawful use of cheques in order to illegally acquire or borrow funds that do not exist within the account balance or account-holder's legal ownership...
). Of course, the checks are forged or stolen and the con man never makes the trip: the hapless victim ends up with a large debt and an aching heart. This scam can be seen in the movie Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria is a 1957 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, plays Cabiria Ceccarelli, a feisty but naive prostitute in Ostia, then a seedy section of Rome...
.
Fortune telling fraudFortune telling fraudFortune telling fraud, also called the bujo or egg curse scam, is a type of confidence trick, based on a claim of secret or occult information. The basic feature of the scam involves diagnosing the victim with some sort of secret problem that only the grifter can detect or diagnose, and then...
One traditional swindle involves fortune telling. In this scam, a fortune teller uses his or her cold readingCold reading
Cold reading is a series of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, illusionists, and con artists to determine or express details about another person, often in order to convince them that the reader knows much more about a subject than they actually do...
skill to detect that a client is genuinely troubled rather than merely seeking entertainment; or is a gambler complaining of bad luck
Luck
Luck or fortuity is good fortune which occurs beyond one's control, without regard to one's will, intention, or desired result. There are at least two senses people usually mean when they use the term, the prescriptive sense and the descriptive sense...
. The fortune teller informs the mark that they are the victim of a curse
Curse
A curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object...
, and that for a fee a spell can be cast to remove the curse. In Romany, this trick is called bujo ("bag") after one traditional format: the mark is told that the curse is in their money; they bring money in a bag to have the spell cast over it, and leave with a bag of worthless paper. Fear of this scam has been one justification for legislation that makes fortune telling a crime.
This scam got a new lease on life in the electronic age with the virus hoax
Virus hoax
A computer virus hoax is a message warning the recipient of a non-existent computer virus threat. The message is usually a chain e-mail that tells the recipient to forward it to everyone they know.-Identification:...
. Fake antivirus software falsely claims that your computer is infected with viruses, and renders the machine inoperable with bogus warnings unless blackmail is paid. In the Datalink Computer Services incident
Datalink Computer Services incident
The Datalink Computer Products incident refers to an alleged scam by Vickram Bedi and Helga Ingvarsdóttir to defraud Roger C. Davidson through their business, Datalink Computer Products in Mount Kisco, New York...
, a mark was fleeced of several million dollars by a firm that claimed that his computer was infected with viruses, and that the infection indicated an elaborate conspiracy against him on the Internet. The alleged scam lasted from August 2004 through October 2010 and is estimated to have cost the victim $6–20 million.
Gold brick scamsGoldbrickingGoldbricking, in today's terms, generally refers to staff who use their work internet access for personal reasons while maintaining the appearance of working, which can lead to inefficiency...
Gold brick scams involve selling a tangible item for more than it is worth; named after selling the victim an allegedly golden ingot which turns out to be gold-coated lead.Coin collecting
The coin collecting scam is a scam preying on inexperienced collectors. The conman convinces the mark by stating that a high-priced collection is for sale at a lower amount. The coin collectorCoin collecting
Coin collecting is the collecting or trading of coins or other forms of minted legal tender.Coins of interest to collectors often include those that circulated for only a brief time, coins with mint errors and especially beautiful or historically significant pieces. Coin collecting can be...
then buys the entire collection, believing it is valuable.
Pig-in-a-poke
Pig-in-a-poke originated in the late Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. The con entails a sale of a (suckling) "pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
" in a "poke" (bag). The bag ostensibly contains a live healthy little pig, but actually contains a cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
(not particularly prized as a source of meat). If one buys the bag without looking inside it, the person has bought something of less value than was assumed, and has learned first-hand the lesson caveat emptor
Caveat emptor
Caveat emptor is Latin for "Let the buyer beware". Generally, caveat emptor is the property law doctrine that controls the sale of real property after the date of closing.- Explanation :...
. "Buying a pig in a poke" has become a colloquial expression
Colloquialism
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
in many European languages, including English, for when someone buys something without examining it beforehand. In Poland, Denmark, France, Belgium, Latvia, the Netherlands, Israel and Germany, the "pig" in the phrase is replaced by "cat", referring to the bag's actual content, but the saying is otherwise identical. This is also said to be where the phrase "letting the cat out of the bag" comes from, although there may be other explanations.
Thai gemThai Gem ScamThe Thai Gem Scam is a confidence trick performed in Bangkok, Thailand as well as other cities in the country. It is one of the most pervasive scams in Thailand. Most of the shops are gold or jewelry shops. It has been alleged that this scam has been operating for the past 20 years, sometimes...
The Thai gem scam involves layers of con men and helpers who tell a tourist in BangkokBangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
of an opportunity to earn money by buying duty-free
Duty (economics)
In economics, a duty is a kind of tax, often associated with customs, a payment due to the revenue of a state, levied by force of law. It is a tax on certain items purchased abroad...
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 persuaded to buy the jewelry from a store also operated by the swindlers. The gems are real but significantly overpriced. This scam has been operating for 20 years in Bangkok, and is said to be protected by Thai police and politicians. A similar scam usually runs in parallel for custom-made suits. Many tourists are hit by conmen touting both goods.
White van speaker
In the white van speaker scam, low-quality loudspeakerLoudspeaker
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...
s are sold—stereotypically from a white van—as expensive units that have been greatly discounted. The salesmen explain the ultra-low price in a number of ways; for instance, that their employer is unaware of having ordered too many speakers, so they are sneakily selling the excess behind the boss's back. The "speakermen" are ready to be haggled down to a seemingly minuscule price, because the speakers they are selling, while usually functional, actually cost only a tiny fraction of their "list price" to manufacture. The scam may extend to the creation of Web sites for the bogus brand, which usually sounds similar to that of a respected loudspeaker company. They will often place an ad for the speakers in the "For sale" Classifieds of the local newspaper, at the exorbitant price, and then show you a copy of this ad to "verify" their worth.
People shopping for pirated software
Copyright infringement of software
Copyright infringement of software=The copyright infringement of software refers to several practices which involve the unauthorized copying of computer software. Copyright infringement of this kind varies globally...
, illegal pornographic images, bootleg music, drugs, firearms or other forbidden or controlled goods may be legally hindered from reporting swindles to the police. An example is the "big screen TV in the back of the truck": the TV is touted as "hot" (stolen), so it will be sold for a very low price. The TV is in fact defective or broken; it may, in fact, not even be a television at all, since some scammers have discovered that a suitably decorated oven door will suffice. The buyer has no legal recourse
Legal recourse
A legal recourse is an action that can be taken by an individual or a corporation to attempt to remedy a legal difficulty.* A lawsuit if the issue is a matter of civil law* Many contracts require mediation or arbitration before a dispute can go to court...
without admitting to the attempted purchase of stolen goods. This con is also known as "The Murphy Game".
Badger gameBadger gameThe badger game is an extortion scheme, often perpetrated on married men, in which the victim or "mark" is tricked into a compromising position to make him vulnerable to blackmail....
The badger game extortion is often perpetrated on married men. The mark is deliberately coerced into a compromising position, a supposed affair for example, then threatened with public exposure of his acts unless blackmail money is paid.Clip jointClip jointA clip joint or fleshpot is an establishment, usually a strip club or entertainment bar, typically one claiming to offer adult entertainment or bottle service, in which customers are tricked into paying money and receive poor goods or services, or none, in return...
A clip joint or fleshpot is an establishment, usually a strip clubStrip club
A strip club is an adult entertainment venue in which striptease or other erotic or exotic dance is regularly performed. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, but can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style....
or entertainment bar
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
, typically one claiming to offer adult entertainment
Striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...
or bottle service
Bottle service
Bottle service is the sale of liquor by the bottle in bars and nightclubs.The purchase of bottle service typically includes a reserved table for the patron's party and mixers of the patron's choice. Bottle service can include the service of a VIP host, who will ensure that patrons have sufficient...
, in which customers are tricked into paying money and receive poor, or no, goods or services in return. Typically, clip joints suggest the possibility of sex, charge excessively high prices for watered-down drinks, then eject customers when they become unwilling or unable to spend more money. The product or service may be illicit, offering the victim no recourse through official or legal channels.
Coin-matching gameCoin-matching gameA coin-matching game is a confidence trick in which two con artists set up one victim.The first con artist strikes up a conversation with the victim, usually while waiting somewhere. The con artist suggests matching pennies to pass the time. The second con artist arrives and joins in, but soon...
Also called a coin smack or smack game, two operators trick a victim during a game where coins are matched. One operator begins the game with the victim, then the second joins in. When the second operator leaves briefly, the first colludes with the victim to cheat the second operator. After rejoining the game, the second operator, angry at "losing," threatens to call the police. The first operator convinces the victim to pitch in hush moneyHush money
Hush money is an informal term for financial incentives or rewards offered in exchange for not divulging information.Hush Money may also refer to:* Hush Money , a 1921 silent film directed by Charles Maigne...
, which the two operators later split.
Foreign object in food
This scam involves a patron ordering food in a restaurant, and then placing a bug or foreign object in the food. The patron complains loudly to the restaurant managers and threatens to sue. Sometimes the patron receives a free meal or additional compensation, or tries to blackmail the restaurant. A notable attempt to perform this scam which failed was when a woman placed a severed finger in a bowl of chili and attempted to extort money from Wendy's, a fast food burger chain.Hydrophobia lie
The hydrophobia lie was popular in the 1920s, in which the con man pretended to have been bitten by the mark's allegedly rabidRabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal. For a human, rabies is almost invariably fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms...
dog, hydrophobia being a well-known symptom of rabies
Rabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal. For a human, rabies is almost invariably fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms...
.
Insurance fraudInsurance fraudInsurance fraud is any act committed with the intent to fraudulently obtain payment from an insurer.Insurance fraud has existed ever since the beginning of insurance as a commercial enterprise. Fraudulent claims account for a significant portion of all claims received by insurers, and cost billions...
Insurance fraud includes a wide variety of schemes which attempt insureds to defraud their own insurance carriers, but when the victim is a private individual, 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 later exaggerate. One relatively common scheme involves two cars, one for the con artist, and the other for the shill. The con artist will pull in front of the victim, and the shill will pull in front of the con artist before slowing down. The con artist will then slam on his brakes to "avoid" the shill, causing the victim to rear-end the con artist. The shill will accelerate away, leaving the scene. The con artist will then claim various exaggerated injuries in an attempt to collect from the victim's insurance carrier despite having intentionally caused the accident. Insurance carriers, who must spend money to fight even those claims they believe are fraudulent, frequently pay out thousands of dollars—a tiny amount to the carrier despite being a significant amount to an individual—to settle these claims instead of going to court.A variation of this scam occurs in countries where insurance premiums are generally tied to a Bonus-Malus
Bonus-Malus
The term bonus-malus is used for a number of business arrangements which alternately reward or penalize .It is used, for example, in the call center and insurance industries.- Call centers :...
rating: the con artist will offer to avoid an insurance claim, settling instead for a cash compensation. Thus, the con artist is able to evade a professional damage assessment, and get an untraceable payment in exchange for sparing the mark the expenses of a lowered merit class.
Melon drop
The melon drop is a scam in which the scammer will intentionally bump into the mark and drop a package containing (already broken) glass. He will blame the damage on the clumsiness of the mark, and demand money in compensation. This con arose when artists discovered that the Japanese paid large sums of money for watermelons. The scammer would go to a supermarket to buy a cheap watermelon, then bump into a Japanese tourist and set a high price.Barred winner
Visitors to Las VegasLas Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
or other gambling towns often encounter the barred winner scam, a form of advance fee fraud
Advance fee fraud
An advance-fee fraud is a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance sums of money in the hope of realizing a significantly larger gain...
performed in person. The artist will approach his mark outside a casino with a stack or bag of high-value casino chips and say that he just won big, but the casino accused him of cheating and threw him out without letting him redeem the chips. The artist asks the mark to go in and cash the chips for him. The artist will often offer a percentage of the winnings to the mark for his trouble. But, when the mark agrees, the artist feigns suspicion and asks the mark to put up something of value "for insurance". The mark agrees, hands over jewelry, a credit card or their wallet, then goes in to cash the chips. When the mark arrives at the cashier, they are informed the chips are fake. The artist, by this time, is long gone with the mark's valuables.
Fake reward
The fake reward scam involves getting the mark to believe he has won some prizes after being randomly chosen. He is then required to get to a specific location to 'collect his prizes'. Once there, he is told that he only has to sign some papers to receive the rewards. These papers can range from agreeing to financial fraud or signing up for memberships.Fiddle gameFiddle GameThe fiddle game is a confidence trick, involving two men. The first enters a restaurant, dressed poorly and carrying a violin, and asks to be seated. He eats his meal, then contrives a reason to leave...
The fiddle game uses the pigeon dropPigeon drop
Pigeon drop is a confidence trick in which a mark or "pigeon" is persuaded to give up a sum of money in order to secure the rights to a larger sum of money, or more valuable object...
technique. 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
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
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
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
who "reluctantly" agrees to sell it for a certain amount that still allows the mark to make a "profit" from the valuable violin. The result is the two conmen are richer (less the cost of the violin), and the mark is left with a cheap instrument.
This trick is used in an episode of Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old...
in which Harold has a commode
Commode
A commode, commode with legs, or commode on legs is any of several pieces of furniture. The word commode comes from the French word for "convenient" or "suitable", which in turn comes from the Latin adjective commodus, with similar meanings.Originally, in French furniture, a commode introduced...
which he has purchased on his rounds, from a housewife. A passing antiques dealer sees the item and offers a large amount of money, but will return the next day. In the meantime the housewife's husband arrives and demands that Harold sell it back to him; instead Harold offers him a large amount of money for it, believing that he can sell it on to the dealer later that day. In the 1981 Only Fools And Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...
episode "Cash and Curry
Cash and Curry
"Cash and Curry" is the third episode of series 1 of the BBC sit-com, Only Fools and Horses. It was first screened on 22 September 1981.-Synopsis:...
", the main character, Delboy, is tricked into paying £2000 for a statue worth £17, believing it to be worth £4000. In an episode of Hustle
Hustle (TV series)
Hustle is a British television drama series made by Kudos Film and Television for BBC One in the United Kingdom. Created by Tony Jordan and first broadcast in 2004, the series follows a group of con artists who specialise in "long cons" – extended deceptions which require greater commitment, but...
the fiddle game is acted out, using a dog instead of a fiddle. It was also detailed in the Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
novel American Gods
American Gods
American Gods is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on a mysterious and taciturn protagonist, Shadow. It is Gaiman's fourth prose novel, being preceded by Good Omens ,...
and is the basis for The Streets
The Streets
The Streets were a British rap/garage project from Birmingham, United Kingdom, led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner and has included a myriad of other contributors most notably drummer Johnny Drum Machine, vocalist Kevin Mark Trail and the Italian-American beatmaker Leroy.The...
' song "Can't Con an Honest John". It's also the basis of the episode of Leverage
Leverage (TV series)
Leverage is an American television drama series on TNT that premiered in December 2008. The series is produced by director/executive producer Dean Devlin's production company Electric Television...
"The Studio Job" where a fiddle game was run with a musician used as the fiddle.
Football picks
In the football picks scam the scammer sends out a tip sheet stating that a game will go one way to 100 potential victims, and the other way to another 100. The next week, the 100 who received the correct prediction are divided into two groups and fed another pick. This is repeated until a small population have (apparently) received a series of supernaturally perfect picks, then the final pick is offered for sale. Despite being well-known — it was even described completely on an episodeBonfire of the Manatees
"Bonfire of the Manatees" is the first episode of The Simpsons seventeenth season. It originally aired on September 11, 2005, making it the first Simpsons season premiere to air in September — since the eleventh season opened with "Beyond Blunderdome" on September 26, 1999...
of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
and used by Derren Brown
Derren Brown
Derren Victor Brown is a British illusionist, mentalist, painter, writer and sceptic. He is known for his appearances in television specials, stage productions and British television series such as Trick of the Mind and Trick or Treat...
in "The System" — this scam is run almost continuously in different forms by different operators. In Rex Stout
Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the...
's Novel And Be a Villain (1948)
And Be a Villain
And Be a Villain is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1948...
this horse race prediction scheme is described by Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's...
as a sure way to make money if one was so inclined to commit a crime. The sports picks can be replaced with stock-market securities or any other "chance" event as an alternative. This scam has also been called the inverted pyramid scheme, because of the steadily decreasing population of victims at each stage.
Glim-dropper
The glim-dropper scam requires several accomplices, one of whom must be a one-eyed man. One grifter goes into a store and pretends he has lost his glass eye. Everyone looks around, but the eye cannot be found. He declares that he will pay a thousand-dollar reward for the return of his eye, leaving contact information. The next day, an accomplice enters the store and pretends to find the eye. The storekeeper (the intended griftee), thinking of the reward, offers to take it and return it to its owner. The finder insists he will return it himself, and demands the owner’s address. Thinking he will lose all chance of the reward, the storekeeper offers a hundred dollars for the eye. The finder bargains him up to $250, and departs. The one-eyed man, of course, cannot be found and does not return. (Described in A Cool Million, or, The Dismantling of Lemuel PitkinA Cool Million
A Cool Million: The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin is Nathanael West's third novel, published in 1934. It is a brutal satire of Horatio Alger's novels and their eternal optimism.-Plot summary:...
(1934) by Nathanael West
Nathanael West
Nathanael West was a US author, screenwriter and satirist.- Early life :...
). Variants of this con have been used in movies such as The Flim-Flam Man
The Flim-Flam Man
The Flim-Flam Man is a 1967 American film directed by Irvin Kershner, starring George C. Scott, Michael Sarrazin and Sue Lyon, based on the novel The Ballad of the Flim-Flam Man by Guy Owen. The film boasts a cast of well-known character actors in supporting roles, including Jack Albertson, Slim...
, The Traveller (1997)
Traveller (film)
Traveller is an American film released in 1997, starring Bill Paxton, Mark Wahlberg, and Julianna Margulies. The plot centers on a man joining a group of nomadic con artists in rural North Carolina.-See also:...
, Shade (2003)
Shade (film)
Shade is a 2003 neo-noir crime drama starring Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne, Thandie Newton, Jamie Foxx, Roger Guenveur Smith, Melanie Griffith and Sylvester Stallone...
, and Zombieland (2009)
Zombieland
Zombieland is a 2009 American zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse...
, and also in books such as American Gods
American Gods
American Gods is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on a mysterious and taciturn protagonist, Shadow. It is Gaiman's fourth prose novel, being preceded by Good Omens ,...
. Another con similar to this one is the Fiddle Game.
Lottery fraud by proxy
Lottery fraud by proxy is a particularly vicious scam, in which the scammer buys a lottery 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. This con was featured in the movie Matchstick MenMatchstick Men (film)
Matchstick Men is a 2003 American drama film directed by Ridley Scott. Based on Eric Garcia's novel Matchstick Men: A Novel about Grifters with Issues , the motion picture stars Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman.-Plot:...
, where Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
teaches it to his daughter. A twist on the con was shown in Great Teacher Onizuka
Great Teacher Onizuka
, officially abbreviated as GTO, is a Japanese shōnen manga written and illustrated by Tohru Fujisawa. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from May 1997 to April 2002. The story focuses on 22-year-old ex-bōsōzoku member Eikichi Onizuka, who becomes a teacher at a private high...
, where the more-than-gullible Onizuka was tricked into getting a "winning ticket". The ticket wasn't altered, instead the daily newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
reporting the day's winning numbers was rewritten with a black pen.
Three-card MonteThree-card MonteThree-card Monte, also known as the Three-card marney, Three-card trick, Three-Way, Three-card shuffle, Menage-a-card, Triplets, Follow the lady, Les Trois Perdants , le Bonneteau, Find the lady, or Follow the Bee is a confidence game in which the victim, or mark, is tricked into betting a...
Three-card Monte, "find the queen", the "three-card trick", or "follow the lady", is essentially the same as the centuries-older shell gameShell game
The shell game is portrayed as a gambling game, but in reality, when a wager for money is made, it is a confidence trick used to perpetrate fraud...
or thimblerig (except for the prop
Theatrical property
A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is an object used on stage by actors to further the plot or story line of a theatrical production. Smaller props are referred to as "hand props". Larger props may also be set decoration, such as a chair or table. The difference between a set...
s). The trickster shows three playing card
Playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games...
s 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
Shill
A shill, plant or stooge is a person who helps a person or organization without disclosing that he or she has a close relationship with that person or organization...
places a bet and the scammer allows him to win. In one variation of the game, the shill will (apparently surreptitiously) peek at the lady, ensuring that the mark also sees the card. This is sometimes enough to entice the audience to place bets, but the trickster uses sleight of hand
Sleight of hand
Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation or legerdemain, is the set of techniques used by a magician to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly....
to ensure that they always lose, unless the conman decides to let them win, hoping to lure them into betting much more. The mark loses whenever the dealer chooses to make him lose. This con appears in the Eric Garcia novel Matchstick Men and is featured in the movie Edmond
Edmond (film)
Edmond is a 2005 drama-thriller film starring William H. Macy, based on the play of the same name. It was written by David Mamet and directed by Stuart Gordon....
. The scam is also central to the Pulitzer prize-winning play "Topdog/Underdog
Topdog/Underdog
Topdog/Underdog is a play by Suzan-Lori Parks. Parks received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002 for the work.The play chronicles the adult lives of two African American brothers, Lincoln and Booth, as they cope with women, work, poverty, gambling, racism, and their troubled upbringings...
." It also appears in episodes of White Collar
White Collar (TV series)
White Collar is a USA Network television series created by Jeff Eastin, starring Matt Bomer as con-man Neal Caffrey and Tim DeKay as Special Agent Peter Burke. It premiered on October 23, 2009. In December 2009, White Collar was renewed for a second season that began on July 13, 2010...
, Newsradio
NewsRadio
NewsRadio is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from 1995 to 1999. The series was created by executive producer Paul Simms, and was filmed in front of a studio audience at CBS Studio Center and Sunset Gower Studios...
, Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...
, The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, and Hustle
Hustle
Hustle commonly refers to:* A confidence trick, deceptions performed by hustlers or grifters* The tradecraft of a hustler who deceives others by hustling, usually in sports* A slang word in America, meaning to get money, with no concern as to the legallity...
.
A variation on this scam exists in Barcelona, Spain, but with the addition of a pickpocket. The dealer and shill behave in an overtly obvious manner, attracting a larger audience. When the pickpocket succeeds in stealing from a member of the audience, he signals the dealer. The dealer then shouts the word "aguas"—colloquial for "Watch Out!"—and the three split up. The audience is left believing that the police are coming, and that the performance was a failed scam.
A variant of this scam exists in Mumbai, India. The shill says loudly to the dealer that his cards are fake and that he wants to see them. He takes the card and folds a corner and says in a hushed voice to the audience that he has marked the card. He places a bet and wins. Then he asks the others to place bets as well. When one of the audience bets a large sum of money the cards are switched.
Herbert L. Becker
Herbert L. Becker
Herbert Lawrence Becker is a magician and the inventor and patent/copyright holder for BOIP...
is a magician and an exposer of magic tricks. He has revealed how this trick is done and is also considered the greatest master of this trick.
Fake antivirus
Computer users unwittingly download and install malware disguised as antivirus softwareAntivirus software
Antivirus or anti-virus software is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including but not limited to computer viruses, computer worm, trojan horses, spyware and adware...
, by following the messages which appear on their screen. The software then pretends to find multiple viruses on the victim's computer, "removes" a few, and asks for payment in order to take care of the rest. They are then linked to con artists' websites, professionally designed to make their bogus software appear legitimate, where they must pay a fee to download the "full version" of their "antivirus software".
PhishingPhishingPhishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...
A modern scam in which the artist communicates with the mark, masquerading as a representative of an official organization with which the mark is doing business, in order to extract personal information which can then be used, for example, to steal money. In a typical instance, the artist sends the mark an email pretending to be from a company, such as eBayEBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
. It is formatted exactly like email from that business, and will ask the mark to "verify" some personal information at their website, to which a link is provided, in order to "reactivate" their blocked account. The website is fake but designed to look exactly like the business' website. The site contains a form
Form (web)
A webform on a web page allows a user to enter data that is sent to a server for processing. Webforms resemble paper or database forms because internet users fill out the forms using checkboxes, radio buttons, or text fields...
asking for personal information such as credit card numbers, which the mark feels compelled to give or lose all access to the service. When the mark submits the form (without double-checking the website address
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
), the information is sent to the swindler.
Other online scams include advance-fee fraud, bidding fee scheme
Bidding fee scheme
A bidding fee auction, also called a penny auction, is a type of all-pay auction in which participants must pay a non-refundable fee to place a small incremental bid. When time expires, the last participant to have placed a bid wins the item and also pays the final bid price, which is purportedly...
s, click fraud
Click fraud
Click fraud is a type of Internet crime that occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target...
, domain slamming, various spoofing attack
Spoofing attack
In the context of network security, a spoofing attack is a situation in which one person or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data and thereby gaining an illegitimate advantage.- Spoofing and TCP/IP :...
s, web-cramming, and online versions of employment scams
Employment scams
Employment scams, also known as job scams, are a form of advance fee fraud scamming where certain unscrupulous persons posing as recruiters or employers offer attractive employment opportunities which require the job seeker to pay them money in advance, usually under the guise of work visas, travel...
and romance scam
Romance scam
A romance scam is a confidence trick involving feigned romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining their affection, and then using that goodwill to commit fraud...
s.
Art studentArt student scamThe art student scam is a confidence trick in which cheap, mass-produced paintings or prints are misrepresented as original works of art, often by young people pretending to be art students trying to raise money for art supplies or tuition fees...
The art student scam is common in major Chinese cities. A small group of 'students' will start a conversation, claiming that they want to practice their English. After a short time they will change the topic to education and will claim that they are art students and they want to take you to a free exhibition. The exhibition will usually be in a small, well hidden rented office and the students will show you some pieces which they claim to be their own work and will try to sell them at a high price, despite the pieces usually being nothing more than an internet printout worth a fraction of their asking price. They will often try 'guilt tricks' on people who try to bargain the price.Beijing tea
The Beijing tea scam is a famous scam in and around BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. The artists (usually female and working in pairs) will approach tourists and try to make friends. After chatting, they will suggest a trip to see a tea ceremony, claiming that they have never been to one before. The tourist is never shown a menu, but assumes that this is how things are done in China. After the ceremony, the bill is presented to the tourist, charging upwards of $100 per head. The artists will then hand over their bills, and the tourists are obliged to follow suit. Similar scams involving restaurants, coffee shops and bars also take place.
Big store
The Big Store is a technique for selling the legitimacy of a scam and typically involves a large team of con artists and elaborate sets. Often a building is rented and furnished as a legitimate and substantial business.Cell phone grab
Usually occurs outside airports or train stations at the pick-up curb, requires two cons and a getaway car. The con will approach the mark and claim that their ride isn't here due to their plane or train being late or early, and that they don't have the change to use a pay phone, or their own cell phone battery is dead. They ask the mark if they can use their cell phone to call, usually reassuring the mark by saying that the call is local and it will not cost them much. If the mark refuses, the con will try to guilt trip them. The moment the mark hands over their cell phone, the con makes a break for it, often hopping into a waiting car to make a quick getaway.Change raising
Change raising is a common short con and involves an offer to change an amount of money with someone, while at the same time taking change or bills back and forth to confuse the person as to how much money is actually being changed. The most common form, "the Short Count", has been featured prominently in several movies about grifting, notably Nueve ReinasNueve reinas
Nine Queens is an Argentine crime drama film written and directed by Fabián Bielinsky. The picture features Gastón Pauls, Ricardo Darín, Leticia Brédice, and Tomás Fonzi, among others.The film was nominated for 28 awards and won 21 of them....
, The Grifters
The Grifters (film)
The Grifters is a 1990 neo-noir film directed by Stephen Frears and produced by Martin Scorsese. It stars John Cusack, Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening and is based upon The Grifters, a pulp novel by Jim Thompson.-Plot:...
, Criminal
Criminal (film)
Criminal is a 2004 American film based upon the Argentine film Nine Queens. Directed by Gregory Jacobs, it stars John C. Reilly, Diego Luna, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Maeve Quinlan and is a production of Section Eight, the production company of Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney.-Plot:John C. Reilly...
, and Paper Moon
Paper Moon (film)
Paper Moon is a 1973 American comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was adapted from the novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, and the film was shot in black-and-white. The film is set during the Great Depression in the U.S. states of Kansas and...
. A con artist shopping at say, a gas station
Filling station
A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...
, pays for a cheap item (under a dollar) and gives the clerk a ten dollar bill. The con gets back nine ones and the change then tells the clerk he has a one and will exchange ten ones for a ten. Here's the con: get the clerk to hand over the $10 BEFORE handing over the ones. Then the con hands over nine ones and the $10. The clerk will assume a mistake and offer to swap the ten for a one. Then the con will probably just say, "Here's another one, give me a $20 and we're even". Notice that the con just swapped $10 for $20. The $10 was the store's money, not the con's. To avoid this con, keep each transaction separate and never ever permit the customer to handle the original ten before handing over the ten ones. Another variation is to flash a $20 bill to the clerk, then ask for something behind the counter. When the clerk turns away, the con artist can swap the bill they are holding to a lesser bill. The clerk might then make change for the larger bill, without noticing it has been swapped. The technique works better when bills are the same colour at a glance like, for instance, U.S. dollar bills
Federal Reserve Note
A Federal Reserve Note is a type of banknote used in the United States of America. Federal Reserve Notes are printed by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing on paper made by Crane & Co. of Dalton, Massachusetts. They are the only type of U.S...
.
A similar technique exists when a con comes to a gas station with a young clerk, buying something cheap, showing then an uncommonly huge bill while not giving it and telling the clerk to prepare the change. While he's busy counting the change, the con would ask many questions in order to disturb the young clerk. When change is counted and ready the con is acting as if he had given the huge bill. If the clerk does not remember having received the bill, the con will say he gave him the money. If the clerk is weak or disturbed enough, he could let the con go away with the change.
Counterfeit cashier's check
In this scam the victim is sent a cashier's check or money order for payment on an item for sale on the internet. When this document is taken to the bank it may not be detected as counterfeit for 10 business days or more, but the bank will deposit the money into the victim's account and tell you that it has been "verified" or is "clear" in about 24 hours. This gives the victim a false feeling of security that the document is real, so they proceed with the transaction. When the bank does find that the check is counterfeit, they will come back to the customer for the entire amount of the check.Empty car lot
The scammers find a vacant lot that is essentially used as free car parking and then start to charge people at the entrance, saying that the building is under new management and now chargeable.Fake raffle
The con artist sells tickets for a non-existent raffle, often either door-to-door or at a stall in a densely populated commercial space (i.e. a large shopping mall), to dozens of individual marks, making a sizeable profit in the process. Because the marks never expected to win the raffle, they generally never realise they've been stung; and may not even think about it at all after the fact, because they only parted with a small amount of money (several dollars, for example).False charity
A con artist will go door-to-door saying that the mark's donation will help build better playgrounds, help starving children, etc.; thus the mark will pay the con artist. Sometimes the con artist will even print out fake papers explaining the good that they will be doing.Gas can
The gas can scam happens on the street or in a parking lot, usually near a big-box store or mall. Traditionally, the con artist is well-dressed, and carrying a gas can – though these confidence-enhancing elements are by no means necessary to the con. A false "sob story" is told to the potential mark, usually involving a wife and/or teenage (or infant) children waiting in the stranded car, or occasionally, teenage offspring home alone (the variations are numerous). Occasionally, the false story involves the need to make a trip to a doctor's office or hospital. The story inevitably leads to a request for ten to twenty dollars for gas. Often, the con artist will ask for your address to "return" your money.Just as with the alleged wife and/or children, the purportedly out-of-gas car might or might not be present; if questioned, the con artist might vaguely gesture in the direction of a parked car or cars.
A variation of this scam has the con artist claiming that his car was towed, and he needs money to retrieve it from the towing company.
Jaywalking Scam
This is a USA based scam which takes place in areas with a high volume of foreign tourists such as the Embarcadero in San Francisco. The con artist will wait for a mark to cross the road then approach them, usually flashing a fake police badge or similar and explain that they have illegally crossed the road and are liable for an on the spot fine. This scam plays on the fact that few people outside of the US are familiar with the concept of jaywalkingJaywalking
Jaywalking is an informal term commonly used in North America to refer to illegal or reckless pedestrian crossing of a roadway. Examples include a pedestrian crossing between intersections without yielding to drivers and starting to cross a crosswalk at a signalized intersection without waiting...
.
Landlord
The landlord scam advertises an apartment for rent at an attractive price. The con artist, usually someone who is house-sitting or has a short-term sublet at the unit, takes a deposit and first/last month's rent from every person who views the suite. When move-in day arrives, the con artist is of course gone, and the apartment belongs to none of the angry people carrying boxes.Money exchange
This scam occurs when exchanging foreign currency. If a large amount of cash is exchanged the victim will be told to hide the money away quickly before counting it ("You can't trust the locals"). A substantial amount will be missing.Neighbor's false friend
In the neighbor's false friend scam, the con artist rings the mark's door bell claiming to be a friend of a neighbor or someone who lives nearby and asks to borrow money for gas since they've left their wallet with all their money at their friend's house and now there's nobody home. The con artist is gambling that the mark knows the name of the "friend" and perhaps is an acquaintance so that it would be embarrassing to refuse assistance, but that the mark doesn't know very much else about the "friend", making verification difficult. Of course the con artist has just read the "friend's" name on a mailbox or a door bell.Paranoia
The paranoiaParanoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
scam is a scam involving the conman telling the mark various lies about different scams and instigating false attempts so that the mark, by now feeling worried and with no place to hide their money from fraud, turns to the conman (of all people) for help. A notable example of this scam is shown in "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night", an episode of the television series Monk
Monk (TV series)
Monk is an American comedy-drama detective mystery television series created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the titular character, Adrian Monk. It originally ran from 2002 to 2009 and is primarily a mystery series, although it has dark and comic touches.The series debuted on July...
, where Adrian Monk
Adrian Monk
Adrian Monk is a fictional character portrayed by Tony Shalhoub and the protagonist of the USA Network television series Monk. He is a renowned former homicide detective for the San Francisco Police Department...
has his wallet pickpocketed through this method.
Pigeon drop
The pigeon dropPigeon drop
Pigeon drop is a confidence trick in which a mark or "pigeon" is persuaded to give up a sum of money in order to secure the rights to a larger sum of money, or more valuable object...
, also featured early in the film The Sting
The Sting
The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936 that involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters to con a mob boss . The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who previously directed Newman and Redford in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.Created by...
, involves the mark or pigeon assisting an elderly, weak or infirm stranger to keep their money safe for them. In the process, the stranger (actually a confidence trickster) puts their money with the mark's money (in an envelope, briefcase or sack) which the mark is then entrusted with. The money is actually not put into the sack or envelope, but is switched for a bag full of newspaper (etc). The mark is enticed to make off with the con artist's money through the greed element and various theatrics, but in actuality, the mark is fleeing from their own money, which the con artist still has (or has handed off to an accomplice). In Lost
Lost
-In cinema or television:*Lost , an ABC drama about people who become stranded on a mysterious island*Lost , a short-lived reality television program*Lost , an American thriller starring Dean Cain...
this was Sawyer's preferred way of conning people out of money.
Pseudoscience and snake oil
In pseudosciencePseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
and snake oil
Snake oil
Snake oil is a topical preparation made from the Chinese Water Snake , which is used to treat joint pain. However, the most common usage of the phrase is as a derogatory term for quack medicine...
scams, popular psychology
Popular psychology
The term popular psychology refers to concepts and theories about human mental life and behavior that are purportedly based on psychology and that attain popularity among the general population...
confidence tricksters make money by falsely claiming to improve reading speed and comprehension using speed reading
Speed reading
Speed reading is a collection of reading methods which attempt to increase rates of reading without greatly reducing comprehension or retention. Methods include chunking and eliminating subvocalization...
courses by fooling the consumer with inappropriate skimming and general knowledge
Trivia
The trivia are the three lower Artes Liberales, i.e. grammar, rhetoric and logic. These were the topics of basic education, foundational to the quadrivia of higher education, and hence the material of basic education, of interest only to undergraduates...
tests. These popular psychology tricksters often employ popular assumptions about the brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
and the cerebral hemispheres which are scientifically wrong, but attractive and sound plausible to the ignorant mark. A common myth is that we use only 10% of our brain.
Psychic surgeryPsychic surgeryPsychic surgery is a procedure typically involving the supposed creation of an incision using only the bare hands, the supposed removal of pathological matter, and the seemingly spontaneous healing of the incision....
Psychic surgery is a con game in which the trickster uses sleight of handSleight of hand
Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation or legerdemain, is the set of techniques used by a magician to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly....
to apparently remove malignant growths from the mark's body. A common form of medical fraud in underdeveloped countries
Developing country
A developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...
, it imperils victims who may fail to seek competent medical attention. The movie Man on the Moon depicts comedian Andy Kaufman
Andy Kaufman
Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman was an American entertainer, actor and performance artist. While often referred to as a comedian, Kaufman did not consider himself one...
undergoing psychic surgery, and it can also be seen in an episode of Jonathan Creek
Jonathan Creek
Jonathan Creek is a British mystery series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. Primarily a crime drama, the show is also peppered with broadly comic touches...
as well as an episode of Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
in which the character Rose travels to Australia in a last ditch effort to cure her cancer.
Rainmaker
The con artist (a "rainmaker") convinces the mark to pay them to make something happen. If it happens, then the mark is convinced it is because they paid the rainmaker; if not, the rainmaker can say they need more money to do it. There is an example of this in the Quantum Leap episode "A Single Drop of Rain" from Season 4.Real estate
The real estate scam may vary according to the type of real estateReal estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
, but the common goal is that the con artist tricks the seller into thinking that they are going to buy or rent the property and make monthly payments. In reality, the con artist has no intention of paying anything. This will usually continue until they are caught or evicted, but the catch here is this is hard to prove in a criminal court; the only legal recourse
Legal recourse
A legal recourse is an action that can be taken by an individual or a corporation to attempt to remedy a legal difficulty.* A lawsuit if the issue is a matter of civil law* Many contracts require mediation or arbitration before a dispute can go to court...
the seller has is to file a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against the person responsible. However, the con artist will usually scam the seller for an amount below the cost of its recovery through litigation.
Recovery room
A recovery room scam is a form of advance-fee fraud where the scammer (sometimes posing as a law enforcement officer or attorney) calls investors who have been sold worthless shares (for example in a boiler-room scam), and offers to buy them, to allow the investors to recover their investments. The scam involves requiring an advance fee before the payment can take place, for example a "court fee".Rip deal
The Rip Deal is a swindle very popular in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and is essentially a pigeon drop
Pigeon drop
Pigeon drop is a confidence trick in which a mark or "pigeon" is persuaded to give up a sum of money in order to secure the rights to a larger sum of money, or more valuable object...
confidence trick. In a typical variation scammers will target, say, a jeweler, and offer to buy some substantial amount of his wares at a large markup provided he perform some type of under-the-table cash deal, originally exchanging Swiss francs for euros. This exchange goes through flawlessly, at considerable profit for the mark. Some time later the scammers approach the mark with a similar proposition, but for a larger amount of money (and thus a larger return for the mark). His confidence and greed inspired by the previous deal, the merchant agrees—only to have his money and goods taken, by sleight-of-hand or violence, at the point of exchange. This scam was depicted in the movie Matchstick Men
Matchstick Men (film)
Matchstick Men is a 2003 American drama film directed by Ridley Scott. Based on Eric Garcia's novel Matchstick Men: A Novel about Grifters with Issues , the motion picture stars Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman.-Plot:...
.
The same term is used to describe a crime where a vendor (especially a drug dealer) is killed to avoid paying for goods.
Robbed traveler
The robbed traveler scam usually takes place at airports and train stations. A person smartly dressed in suit and tie appears in distress and looks around bewildered, making sure the mark has noticed them. Then they approach and tell the story that their wallet or jacket has been stolen with all their money. They then appeal for help and ask if they can borrow a small amount of money for a taxi to their friend's house or a hotel where they're booked in, promising to pay it back as soon as they get access to their money. Experts at this game may even trick their mark into giving them the money (as opposed to merely lending it) in the belief that they are helping an upstanding member of society in genuine distress.Stranded traveler scam
This type of scam usually appears as an email message coming from the target's friend or acquaintance. In the appeal the victim claims to be out of the country and has lost their passport, credit card, plane tickets, or had them stolen. The con claims he/she cannot get home because they have no identification, or cannot pay their hotel bill or replace airline tickets.The con usually gains access to the friend's email account, cell phone, or social network account (e.g., Facebook). The con uses information about the target by reading old email messages or information on the social network. The tell
Tell (poker)
A tell in poker is a change in a player's behavior or demeanor that is claimed by some to give clues to that player's assessment of their hand. A player gains an advantage if they observe and understand the meaning of another player's tell, particularly if the tell is unconscious and reliable...
is that the message usually contains spelling errors or uses language that the target's friend would not write.
All foreign countries host embassies or consulates that will help travelers who are stranded abroad. Credit card issuers can be called collect to obtain an emergency replacement or assistance settling a hotel bill.
Street mechanic
The con artist approaches the mark's car and says something is wrong with it - usually something the mark cannot immediately see - the bumper is turning into the wheel, for example. The con artist tells the mark that it is a very expensive fix, but that they are a mechanic and will fix it. Really, the con artist is creating an illusion, perhaps by sitting on the bumper. They "fix" the problem in minutes. They may ask for only a ride at first, but then pretend to call their boss and pretend that they are late for work and their boss is angry, and tell the mark they have lost a customer. The mark is made to feel guilty and grateful, and believe that they have been helped by a kind mechanic who has charged less than the normal hourly rate (albeit plus a hefty tip) to replace the customer they lost. This scam has been found in the streets of downtown Baltimore.Subway attendant
An individual dressed to resemble a subway attendant stands near a subway ticket machine at a downtown stop. The individual approaches people who appear to be out-of-towners headed back to the airport, and asks if they need directions, how their stay was, etc. They offer to sell a ticket to the airport directly from a handful they are carrying; however, these are merely used-up tickets collected from the trash. This has been seen on MARTA in Atlanta. The scammer is imitating legitimate attendants at the airport who show travelers how to use the vending machines but don't accept cash or give you tickets themselves.Ticket inspector
Con dressed as a ticket inspector asks a foreigner for a ticket, then claims that the ticket is "invalid" for some reason (validated too long ago, not usable for this type of transport etc.). The fake inspector then collects the fine. Alternatively, con waits for the victim to pull out the wallet and steals it.Tow-truck scam
Similar to the gas can scam, the scammer will explain that his or her car broke down and that he needs money for the tow truck. The scammer might flash a wad of cash and ask the mark for "just a few dollars more" to have his car towed.Undercover cop
The undercover cop scam is a scam where a con artist masquerades as an undercover police officerPolice officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
, usually by stopping the mark's vehicle and showing a fake badge, and tells the mark about a case they are investigating, and that the mark is a suspect. The conman asks for money to be checked, and when the mark is out of the vehicle, the con artist gets into the mark's car and drives away, having made sure there was more time to escape than it would take for the mark to get back to their vehicle. This scam is usually done to tourists, variations include their whole luggage being transferred to the conman's trunk "to be checked at a police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
", or a fake immigration agent, asking for papers and then for money to clear up the problem.
Newspaper swindle
The con artist pretends to be a newspaper vendor in an area where many out-of-towners are likely to pass and also likely to want newspapers, such as a train station or airport. The papers the con artist is selling, however, are local newspapers that can be picked up for free. As the out-of-towners might not be aware of what papers are free in a particular city, they may end up paying for a paper unnecessarily. This trick has been observed in downtown Chicago using a local free paper, The Reader.Wedding planner scam
Wedding planner scams prey on the vulnerability of young couples, during a time when they are most distracted and trusting, to embezzle funds for the planner's personal use. In the first type of fraud, the wedding planner company may offer a free wedding in a tie-up with a media station for a couple in need of charity, and collect the donations from the public that were meant for the wedding. In a second type of fraud, the planner asks couples to write checks to vendors (tents, food, cakes) but leave the name field empty, which the planner promises to fill in. As most vendors were never hired nor paid, the scam would then be exposed on the day of the wedding. A real life example is a Kansas TV station story of a wedding planner, Caitlin Hershberger Theis, who scammed three couples through her wedding planner consultancy, Live, Love and be Married using these two schemes.Fake casting agent scam
In this scam the confidence artist poses as an casting agent for some adult movie company. He invited the mark usually a girl to his office to make a photo shooting and interview. He tells the mark that if she wants to work in the adult industry, he will have to make a casting video with her, usually involving sexual acts. after that she will be handed a contract and will receive payment in the weeks afterward. but contract is never issued, mark will give time reasons as an excuse etc...See also
- Great Reality TV SwindleGreat Reality TV SwindleThe Great Reality TV Swindle was a con perpetrated in 2002 by Nik Russian, a British man who, at the time, was working at an entry-level position in a branch of the UK book chain Waterstone's...
- Kansas City ShuffleKansas City Shuffle"Kansas City Shuffle" is a song by jazz pianist Bennie Moten. It was recorded in 1926 in Chicago, Illinois and released on the Victor record label....
- Psychological manipulationPsychological manipulationPsychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
- Spanish PrisonerSpanish PrisonerThe Spanish Prisoner is a confidence trick originating in the late 19th century. In its original form, the con-man tells his victim that he is in correspondence with a wealthy person of high estate who has been imprisoned in Spain under a false identity...