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. [edit] History The first known usage of the term "confidence man" in English was in 1849; it was used by American press during the United States trial of William Thompson. Thompson chatted with strangers until he asked if they had the confidence to lend him their watches, whereupon he would walk off with the watch; he was captured when a victim recognized him on the street.[1] [edit] 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.[2] Confidence tricksters often rely on the greed and dishonesty of the mark, who may attempt to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he or she has been manipulated into losing from the very beginning. This is such a general principle in confidence tricks that there is a saying among con men that "you can't cheat an honest man."[3] The confidence trickster often works with one or more accomplices called shills, who help manipulate the mark into accepting the con man's plan. In a traditional confidence trick, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to win money or some other prize by doing some task. The accomplices may pretend to be strangers who have benefited from successfully performing the task. [edit] Notable con artists [edit] Born in the 18th century - Gregor MacGregor (1786–1845) – Scottish conman who tried to attract investment and settlers for a non-existent country of Poyais[4]
[edit] Born or active in the 19th century [edit] Born or active in the 20th century [edit] Living people - Frank Abagnale Jr. (1948) — U.S. check forger and impostor; his autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, was made into a movie[12]
- Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (1961) — Bavarian-born con artist who, for nearly two decades, claimed to be a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family.
- Robert Hendy-Freegard (1971) — Briton who kidnapped people by impersonating an MI5 agent and conned them out of money.[13]
- James Arthur Hogue (1959) — U.S. impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan[14]
- 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 felonies.
- 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.
- 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.
[edit] Psychopathology [edit] See also [edit] Further reading - Ball, J. Bowyer; Whaley, Barton (1982). Cheating and Deception (reprint 1991). New Brunswick (USA), London (UK): Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-88738-868-X.
- Blundell, Nigel (1984) [1982]. The World's Greatest Crooks and Conmen and other mischievous malefactors. London: Octopus Books. ISBN 0-7064-2144-2.
- Dillon, Eamon (2008) [2008]. The Fraudsters: Sharks and Charlatans - How Con Artists Make Their Money. Merlin Publishing. ISBN 978-1-903582-82-4.
- Ford, Charles V. (1999) [1999]. Lies! Lies!! Lies!!!: The Psychology of Deceit. American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-880489-97-3.
- Henderson, Les (2000). Crimes of Persuasion: Schemes, scams, frauds. Coyote Ridge Publishing. ISBN 0-9687133-0-0.
- Kaminski, Marek M. (2004). Games Prisoners Play. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11721-7.
- Maurer, David W. (1999) [1940]. The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man and the Confidence Game (reprinted). New York: Bobbs Merrill / Anchor Books. ISBN 0-385-49538-2.
- Maurer, David W. (1974). The American Confidence Man. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher. ISBN 0-398-02974-1.
- Sutherland, Edwin Hardin (1937). The Professional Thief (reprint 1989). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-78051-1.
[edit] 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
- ^ "Document of the Month January 2005". The Scottish Executive. January 2005. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/News-Extras/docJan2005. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
- ^ Maurer, David W. (1940), The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man and the Confidence Game, Bobbs Merrill, ISBN 0-7869-1850-8
- ^ Johnson, James F.; Miller, Floyd (1961), The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower, Doubleday
- ^ "For You, Half Price". The New York Times. 1849. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/nyregion/thecity/27brid.html?ex=1290747600&en=d5b19f580f176c64&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
- ^ Zuckoff, Mitchell (March 8, 2005), Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend, Random House, ISBN 1-4000-6039-7
- ^ "Arrest of the Confidence Man". New York Herald. 1849. http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/lm/328/. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
- ^ Weil, Joseph (1948), "Yellow Kid" Weil: The Autobiography of America's Master Swindler, Ziff-Davis, ISBN 0-7812-8661-1
- ^ "The Fund Industry's Black Eye". Brian Trumbore, StocksandNews.com. 2002-04-19. http://www.stocksandnews.com/wall-street-history.php?aid=MTA0N19XUw==. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
- ^ Frank W. Abagnale Jr.; with Stan Redding (1980). Catch Me if You Can. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-64091-7.
- ^ "Fake spy guilty of kidnapping con". BBC. 2005-06-23. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/4114640.stm. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
- ^ "Princeton 'Student' Gets Jail Sentence". The New York Times. 1992-10-25. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE0DD153FF936A15753C1A964958260. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
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