A
confidence trick or
confidence
game (also known as a
bunko,
con,
flim flam,
gaffle,
grift,
hustle,
scam,
scheme, or
swindle) is an attempt
to
defraud a person or group by gaining their
confidence. The victim is known as the
mark, and any accomplices are known as
shills.
History
The first known usage of the term "confidence man" in English was
in 1849; it was used by American press during the United States
trial of
William
Thompson. Thompson chatted with strangers until he asked if
they had the confidence to lend him their watches, whereupon he
would walk off with the watch; he was captured when a victim
recognized him on the street.
Vulnerability to confidence tricks
Confidence tricks exploit typical human qualities like
greed,
dishonesty,
vanity,
honesty,
compassion,
credulity or
naïve
expectation of good faith on the part of the con artist.
Just as there is no typical profile for swindlers,
neither is there one for their victims. Virtually anyone can fall
prey to fraudulent crimes. ... Certainly victims of high-yield
investment frauds may possess a level of greed which exceeds their
caution as well as a willingness to believe what they want to
believe. However, not all fraud victims are greedy, risk-taking,
self-deceptive individuals looking to make a quick dollar. Nor are
all fraud victims naive, uneducated, or elderly.
Confidence tricksters often rely on the greed and dishonesty of the
mark, who may attempt to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover
that he or she has been manipulated into losing from the very
beginning. This is such a general principle in confidence tricks
that there is a saying among con men that "you can't cheat an
honest man."
The confidence trickster often works with one or more accomplices
called
shills, who help manipulate the mark
into accepting the con man's plan. In a traditional confidence
trick, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to win money
or some other prize by doing some task. The accomplices may pretend
to be strangers who have benefited from successfully performing the
task.
Notable con artists
Born in the 18th century
- Gregor MacGregor (1786–1845) –
Scottish conman who tried to attract investment and settlers for a
non-existent country of Poyais
Born or active in the 19th century
Born or active in the 20th century
Living people
- Frank Abagnale Jr. (1948) —
U.S. check forger and impostor; his autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, was made into
a movie
- Christian Karl
Gerhartsreiter (1961) — Bavarian-born con artist who, for
nearly two decades, claimed to be a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family.
- Robert
Hendy-Freegard (1971) — Briton who kidnapped people by
impersonating an MI5
agent and
conned them out of money.
- James Arthur
Hogue (1959) — U.S. impostor who most famously entered Princeton
University
by posing as a self-taught orphan
- Clifford Irving (1930) — U.S.
writer, best known for a false "authorized autobiography" of
Howard Hughes.
- Samuel Israel III (1959) — Ran
the former fraudulent Bayou Hedge
Fund Group; faked suicide.
- Bon Levi (1943) — Aka Ron the Con and
Ronald Frederick. Arguably Australia's most notorious conman who
tricked Australian and U.S. citizens into investing in scam
franchise businesses. He has been jailed both in Australia and the
United States.
- Bernard Lawrence Madoff
(1938) — American former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market who admitted running a
world-record $65 billion Ponzi scheme. Headed
the hedge fund Bernard L.
Madoff
Investment Securities LLC until his arrest in 2008. In March
2009 he pled guilty to 11 federal
crimes.
- Matt the Knife (1981) —
American-born card cheat and pickpocket who bilked corporations,
casinos, and at least one Mafia crime family.
- Barry Minkow (1967) — American
entrepreneur. His company, ZZZZ Best, cost investors an estimated
$100 million before he served seven years in prison for fraud and
other offenses.
- Semion Mogilevich (1946) — is
a billionaire organized crime boss and a global con artist believed by European and United States
federal law enforcement agencies to be the "boss of bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world.
- Lou Pearlman (1954) — U.S.
businessman and manager of boy bands,
sentenced to 25 years for operating a Ponzi investment scheme
- Casey Serin (1982) — Self-confessed
mortgage fraudster who became the "poster child" of the housing
bubble.
- Kevin Trudeau (1963) — U.S. writer
and billiards promoter, convicted of fraud and larceny in 1991,
known for late-night infomercials and books about "Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know
About".
- Solomon Dwek
(c.1973) Syrian-Jewish Orthodox rabbi and real estate investor from
Deal, New
Jersey
who pleaded guilty to a $50,000,000 bank fraud
involving PNC Bank.
- Michael Sabo (1945) Best known for
his history as a check, stocks and bonds forger. He became
notorious in the 1960s and throughout the 1990s as a "Great
Impostor", and was featured on national TV, had over 100 aliases,
and earned millions.
See also
US anti-fraud law enforcement agencies
Psychopathology
Further reading
References
- Karen Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women, p 6
ISBN 0-300-02835-0
- crimes-of-persuasion.com Fraud Victim Advice /
Assistance for Consumer Scams and Investment Frauds
- A Conversation with James Swain online
- Glenny,
Misha (2008), McMafia: A Journey Through the Global
Criminal Underworld; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, pp 72-73.
External links