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| - A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual operating alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naivety and greed.
- A confidence trick, confidence game, also known as a con, scam, grift, bunko or flim flam, is an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons (known as the "mark") usually with the goal of financial or other gain. Most confidence tricks exploit the greed and dishonesty of their victims. Often, the mark tries to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he/she has been manipulated into this from the start. 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."
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| abstract
| - A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual operating alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naivety and greed.
- A confidence trick, confidence game, also known as a con, scam, grift, bunko or flim flam, is an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons (known as the "mark") usually with the goal of financial or other gain. The confidence trickster, con man, swindler, grifter, scam artist or con artist often works with one or more accomplices called shills, who try to encourage the mark by pretending to believe the trickster. In a traditional con, the mark is encouraged to believe that they will obtain money dishonestly by cheating a third party, and is stunned to find that due to what appears to be an error in pulling off the scam they are the one who loses money; in more general use, the term con is used for any fraud in which the victim is tricked into losing money by false promises of gain. Most confidence tricks exploit the greed and dishonesty of their victims. Often, the mark tries to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he/she has been manipulated into this from the start. 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." However, some tricks depend on the honesty of the victim. In a common scam, as part of an apparently legitimate transaction, the victim is sent a worthless check, which the victim then deposits. The victim is then urged to forward the value of the check to the trickster as cash, which they may do before discovering the check bounces. Another fashionable scenario (as of 2006) has the victim recruited as a "financial agent" to collect "business debts". Paper checks are not always involved: funds may be transferred electronically from another victim. Sometimes con men rely on naive individuals who put their confidence in get-rich-quick schemes, such as "too good to be true" investments. It may take years for the wider community to discover that such "investment" schemes are bogus, and usually it is too late, as many people have lost their life savings in something they have been confident of investing in.
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