Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is a trickster who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as greed, both dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naïveté, and the thought of trying to get something of value for nothing or for something far less valuable. Con artists have victimized individuals from all walks of life.
Terminology
A confidence trick is also known as a confidence game, con, scam, grift, hustle, bunko, swindle, flim flam, gaffle or bamboozle. The victim is known as the mark. The trickster is also called a confidence man or woman, con man, con artist or grifter. Any accomplices are known as plants.
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 such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility and naïveté. The common factor is that the victim (mark) relies on the good faith of the con artist.
A greedy or dishonest mark may attempt to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he or she has been manipulated into losing from the very beginning.
Shills, also known as accomplices, 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 performing the task in the past.
Real-life con artists
Fictional con artists
Popular culture
See also
References
Further reading
External links
- "Arrest of the Confidence Man" New York Herald, 1849
- Dateline NBC investigation 'To Catch a Con Man'
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick
