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Confidence trick

A confidence trick, confidence game, or con for short, (also known as a scam) 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, scam artist or con artist often works with an accomplice called the shill, who tries to encourage the mark by pretending to believe the trickster. In a traditional con, the mark is encouraged to believe that he 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 he is 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.

Confidence tricks in general exploit the inherent greed and dishonesty of their victims; it has been said by confidence tricksters that it was impossible to con a completely honest man. Often, the mark tries to out-cheat the conmen, only to discover that they have been manipulated into this.

Table of contents
1 Well-known Confidence Tricks
2 Famous Con Artists
3 Confidence tricks in the movies
4 Confidence tricks in literature
5 References

Well-known Confidence Tricks

Famous Con Artists

Confidence tricks in the movies

(incomplete)

Confidence tricks in literature

(very incomplete)

References

See also: carny