List of confidence tricks

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Confidence tricks are difficult to classify, because they keep changing, and often contain elements of more than one type. This list should not be considered complete but covers the most well-known confidence tricks

Contents

[edit] Get-rich-quick schemes

Get-rich-quick schemes are so varied they nearly defy description. Everything from fake franchises, real estate "sure things", how-to-get-rich books and wealth-building seminars, self-help gurus, sure-fire inventions, useless products, chain letters, fortune tellers, quack doctors, miracle pharmaceuticals, Nigerian money scams, charms and talismans are all used to separate the mark from his money. Variations include the pyramid scheme, Ponzi scheme, and Matrix sale.

Count Victor Lustig sold the "money-printing machine" which had the capability of copying a $100 bill. 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 two more $100 bills. 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.

Televised infomercial scam Certain infomercials with slick or questionable video production value feature enthusiastic hosts and highlights of satisfied customers' testimony extolling the benefits of get-rich-quick methods such as internet auctioneering, real estate investment & marketing, for-profit toll phone business, classified advertisement and unique products of questionable value that require active marketing by the paying customers. Infomercials which fall under the aforementioned description have the high degree of probability that the product offered on the infomercial is a scam devised and engineered to "bamboozle" the unsuspecting viewers for the express purpose of enriching the scheme inventors who produced the infomercials (often of subpar production value) that grossly exaggerate the claims in conjunction with the clips of satisfied customers' 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, Bad Business Bureau and Quackwatch and alternative newspaper publications such as Phoenix New Times as one of the premier confidence artists whose characteristic traits of overly positive attitude and enthusiastically cheerful & charismatic personality depend on the gullibility of the infomercial viewers to purchase the essentially useless products to gain substantial sums of profit by deception.

The Can recycling weight scam Many people take cans to recycling facilities to have them weighed to determine the value of the amount. Con Artists will take advantage of this and put something in the cans to weight them down, such as glue, and make it seem that the amount of cans is worth more that it really is.

The wire game, as depicted in the movie The Sting, 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 used miscommunication about the race results to simulate a big mistake, and the bet is lost.[1]

Salting or to salt the mine is the term for a scam in which gems 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.[2] During the Gold Rush, scammers would load shotguns with gold dust and shoot it into the sides of the mine to give the appearance of a rich ore, thus "salting the mine". For a 19th-century example, see the Diamond hoax of 1872; for a modern example, involving imaginary gold deposits in Borneo, see Bre-X. Popularized in the HBO Series Deadwood, when Al Swearingen and E.B. Farnum trick Brom Garret in to believing gold is to be found on the claim Swearingen intends to sell him.

The Spanish Prisoner 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 he 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 con men 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 he or she has committed tax fraud. Many swindles involve a minor element of crime or some other misdeed. The mark is made to think that he or she will gain money by helping fraudsters get huge sums out of a country (the classic Nigerian scam). The mark cannot go to the police without revealing that he or she planned to commit a crime themself.

A recent twist on the Nigerian fraud scheme, the mark is told he is helping someone overseas collect "debts" from corporate clients. Large cheques 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 his or her account, but also to criminal charges for money laundering. A more modern variation is to use laser-printed counterfeit checks with the proper account numbers and payer information.

[edit] Romance tricks

Romance fraud, when fraudsters seduce people only to target their money, is an old type of fraud. It received high attention in Sweden around 1950 when a man (Gustaf Raskenstam) had had relationships with more than one hundred lonely women, and been engaged to many of them, often several at the same time. He was eventually imprisoned for fraud. His contact ads usually had the headline "Sun and spring" ("sol och vår" in Swedish). This type of behaviour is since called "sol och vårande" in Swedish.

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 the 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.

[edit] Gold brick scams

Gold brick scams involve selling a tangible item for more than it is worth; named after selling the victim a supposed gold bar that turns out to be gold-coated lead.

The 1883 "No Cents" Liberty Head nickel, a scam developed by con artists that electroplated Liberty Head nickels, intending to make storeowners believe that the gold-plated nickel was a $5 coin.

The Coin collecting scam is a scam that preys on inexperienced collectors, coins or otherwise. The con man convinces the mark by stating that a high-priced collection is for sale at a lower amount. The coin collector then buys the entire collection thinking it is actually valuable.

Pig-in-a-poke originated in the late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce, but apparently rats and cats were not. 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, and at any rate, quite unlikely to grow to be a large hog). If one "buys a pig in a poke" without looking in the bag (a common colloquial expression in the English language, meaning "to be a sucker"), the person has bought something of less value than was assumed, and has learned firsthand the lesson caveat emptor. Dutch, German, Scandinavian and Polish speakers employ the expression "buying a cat-in-the-bag" when someone buys something without examining it beforehand. In Finland the "cat" in the phrase is replaced by "pig" referring to the bag's supposed content, but the saying is otherwise identical. It is also said to be where the phrase 'letting the cat out of the bag' comes from, although there may be other explanations.

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. 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 con men touting both goods.

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 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, and has bricks inside its otherwise gutted case to give it heft. When it is plugged in, of course, it doesn't work. The buyer has no legal recourse without admitting to attempted purchase of stolen goods.

[edit] Extortion or false-injury tricks

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.

The Melon Drop is a scam in which the scammer will intentionally bump into the mark and drop a package containing glass that has already been broken. He will claim that the contents were broken by the clumsiness of the mark, and demand money to replace them. This con arose when artists discovered that the Japanese paid high amounts of money for watermelons. The scammer would go to a supermarket to buy a cheap watermelon, bump into a Japanese tourist and demand that they pay a high price.

The Hydrophobia lie was popular in the 1920s, in which the con man pretended to have been bitten by the mark's (possibly rabid) dog.

Insurance fraud is a scam in which 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 exaggerate). The con artist fraudulently collects a large sum of money from the mark's insurance policy, even though the con artist intentionally caused the accident. In countries where the insurance fee is usually tied to a Bonus-Malus rating, the con artist usually offers to avoid any insurance claim, settling for a cash compensation. Thus, the con artist is able to avoid any kind of professional damage assessment and get an untraceable payment in exchange for sparing the mark the increased expenses of a lowered merit class.

Bug in Food Trick In this one, a patron goes into an expensive restaurant, orders the most expensive thing there, eats it, then to avoid paying for it, he/she places cockroaches, or other bugs in the meal, bellows out loudly that he/she will not pay for food that has bugs in it, and threatens to sue the restaurant. To prevent the restaurant's reputation from being destroyed, the owners give him/her the meal for free, and/or other compensations, since a "bug infestation" would cause the place to be shut down, and its reputation will be destroyed because, it "allowed itself to be infested with bugs, other vermin". The mark here is a Five Star restaurant, other expensive restaurants in a city. This was featured in Victor/Victoria but is seldom seen in real life.

[edit] Gambling tricks

Three-card Monte, 'Find The Queen', the "Three-card Trick", or "Follow The Lady", is (except for the props) essentially the same as the probably centuries-older shell game or thimblerig. The trickster shows three playing cards to the audience, one of which is a queen (the "lady"), then places the cards face-down, shuffles them around and invites the audience to bet on which one is the queen. At first the audience is skeptical, so the shill places a bet and the scammer allows him to win. This is sometimes enough to entice the audience to place bets, but the trickster uses sleight of hand to ensure that they always lose, unless the con man decides to let them win to lure them into betting even more. The mark loses whenever the dealer chooses to make him lose. This con appears in the Eric Garcia novel Matchstick Men.

In the Football Picks Scam - The scammer sends out tip sheet stating a game will go one way to 100 potential victims and the other way to another 100. The next week, the 100 or so who received the correct answer 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 episode of The Simpsons), this scam is run almost continuously in different forms by different operators. The sports picks can also be replaced with securities, or any other random process, in an alternative form. This scam has also been called the inverted pyramid scheme because of the steadily decreasing population of victims at each stage.

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 Men, 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.

Visitors to Las Vegas 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.

[edit] False reward tricks

The glim-dropper 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 can’t 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, can not be found and does not return. (Described in A Cool Million, or, The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin (1934) by Nathanael West). Variants of this con have been used in movies such as The Traveller (1997) and Shade (2003).

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" sells it eventually for, say, $5,000). The result is the two con men are $5,000 richer (less the cost of the violin), and the mark is left with a cheap instrument. (This trick is also detailed in the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods and is the basis for The Streets' song "Can't Con an Honest John".)

[edit] Other confidence tricks and techniques

  • The Undercover Cop Scam is a scam where a con man pretends to be an undercover police officer, usually by stopping their vehicle and showing a fake badge, and tells the mark about a case they are investigating, and that they are a suspect. The con man asks for money to be checked, when the mark is out of the vehicle, the con man gets into his car and drives away, leaving enough time to escape as the mark has to walk back to his vehicle. This scam is usually done to tourists, variations include their whole luggage being transferred to the con man'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.
  • The Real Estate Scam may vary according to the type of real estate, 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. The catch is that there is nothing illegal about this. 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.
  • The Big Store is a technique involving a large team of con artists and elaborate sets. Often a building is rented and furnished as a legitimate and substantial business.[3]
  • The Paranoia Scam is a scam that involves the con man telling the mark various lies about the different scams and instigating false attempts so that the mark (feeling worried and with no place to hide their money from fraud) turns to the con man for help.
  • Change raising is a common short con and involves an offer to change an amount of money with someone, and at the same time taking change or bills back and forth to confuse the person as to how much money they are actually changing. The most common form, "the Short Count," has been featured prominently in several movies about grifting, notably Nueve Reinas, The Grifters, and Paper Moon. A con artist, shopping at a gas station for example, is given 80 cents in change because he lacks two dimes to complete the sale (for example, the sale cost is $19.20 and the con man has a 20 dollar bill). He goes out to his car, and returns a short time later with 20 cents. He returns them, saying that he found the rest of the change to make a dollar, and asking for a bill so he won't have to carry change. The confused store clerk agrees, exchanging a dollar for the 20 cents the con man returned. In essence, the mark makes change twice. 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 he is holding to a lesser bill. The clerk might then make change for the larger bill, without noticing it has been swapped. This was shown in The Grifters. The technique works better when bills are the same colour and shape at a glance.
  • The pigeon drop, 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 his 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 man's money through the greed element and various theatrics, but in actuality, the mark is fleeing from his own money, which the con man still has (or has handed off to an accomplice).
  • In pseudoscience 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 that are scientifically wrong, but attractive and easy to believe. A common myth is that we use only 10% of our brain.[4][5] Similar scams involve the use of brain machines to alter brain waves, and intelligence amplification through balancing the mind and body. See neurofeedback.
  • Psychic surgery is a con game in which the trickster uses sleight of hand to pretend to remove bits of malignant growths from the mark's body. A common form of medical fraud in underdeveloped countries, it imperils the victims, who may fail to seek competent medical attention. The movie Man on the Moon depicts comedian Andy Kaufman undergoing psychic surgery. It can also be seen in an episode of Jonathan Creek.
  • Phishing is a modern form of scam in which the artist communicates with the mark, pretending to be from an official organization that the mark is doing business with, in order to extract personal information that can then be used, for example, to steal money. In a typical instance of phishing, the artist sends the mark an email pretending to be from a company (such as eBay). This email 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. The website itself is also fake but designed to look exactly like the business' website. The site will contain an HTML form asking for personal information such as credit card numbers. The mark will feel compelled to give this information because of words in the email or the site stating that they require the information again, for example to "reactivate your account". When the mark submits the form (not checking the URL), the information is sent to the swindler.
  • Beijing tea scam is a famous scam in and around Beijing. 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.
  • Rip deal is a common swindle in Europe in which con artists present themselves as potential investors, then attract victims with under-the-counter payments.
  • 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.) He tells the mark that it is a very expensive fix, but that he is a mechanic and will fix it. Really the con artist is creating an illusion, perhaps by sitting on the bumper. He "fixes" the problem in minutes. He may ask for only a ride at first, but then pretends to call his boss and pretends that he is late for work. His boss is angry and he tells the mark he has lost a customer. The mark is made to feel guilty and grateful and believes that he or she has been helped by a kind mechanic who charges him less than his hourly rate - plus a hefty tip - to replace the customer he lost. This scam has been found in the streets of downtown Baltimore.
  • Rainmaker scam - The con artist (a "rain maker") convinces the mark to pay him to make something happen. If it happens, then the mark is convinced it is because he paid the rainmaker; if not, then the rain maker says he needs more money to do it.
  • The Ogged A new con trick born in the age of blogs. For this scam, the con artist creates a pseudonymous internet persona and befriends a group of people online who will become his marks. Then the scammer feigns some terrible disease, such as stomach cancer. Finally, the scammer subtly pushes the idea that his online "friends" could pitch in for something to make him feel better, such as a $700 gift certificate to the French Laundry. After the boon is received, the scam artist claims a miraculous recovery or doctor error.
  • Online IQ Test - Websites claim to test a person's IQ. After answering many questions, the victim will be presented with his or her score. The score is always very good, regardless of what answers were given on the test. This boosts the victim's confidence and ego. Then they are offered a detailed analysis and sometimes a certificate for a nominal fee.

[edit] Avoiding prosecution

  • Pitiful fraud. The con artist may tell his or her mark pitiful lies about his or her family, children, etc. Hence the mark feels sorry for him or her and does not alert the police.
  • Family member. Some con artists target their own families, who feel obligated not to contact authorities due to family ties.
  • Embarrassing enterprise. If the mark loses a small sum only, he or she may be unwilling to contact the authorities if the circumstances are embarrassing, e.g. if the mark wishes to avoid revealing his or her pornography purchase to his or her spouse, notwithstanding its uselessness or worthlessness.

The above list is only a sample. Confidence games are continually evolving and subject to many variations and refinements.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Sting. Motion picture. Written by David S. Ward. 1973. Script: http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Sting,-The.html
  2. ^ Dan Plazak A Hole in the Ground with a Liar at the Top (Salt Lake: Univ. of Utah Press, 2006) ISBN 978-0-87480-840-7.
  3. ^ Maurer, David W., The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man and the Confidence Game, Bobbs Merrill, ISBN 0-7869-1850-8 
  4. ^ Do We Use Only 10% of Our Brain? online
  5. ^ Snopes: The Ten-Percent Myth online