Author : Todd Robbins
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 19,8 MB
Release : 2008-04-08
Category : Humor
ISBN : 159691453X
A whimsical resource for low-risk grifters provides a treasury of humorous tips and historical facts about the art of the con, in a volume that outlines easy-to-follow swindles that can be used to score free meals, good tickets, bar bets, and more.
Author : Dennis M. Marlock
Publisher : Paladin Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 35,59 MB
Release : 2001-09-01
Category :
ISBN : 9781581602692
A fool and his money are soon parted, so the saying goes. And if the job is done right, the fool doesn't even realize it's happened until the wily con artist has moved on to the next victim or the next town. In this entertaining and eye-opening book, Dennis M. Marlock, a retired cop and chairman of the board for the international law enforcement organization Professionals Against Confidence Crime, takes the reader into the mind and greedy heart of the con man. You'll learn the mechanics behind famous swindles such as the pigeon drop, the Jamaican switch, bank-examiner schemes, three-card monte and even fortune-telling. You'll find out why a good scam artist rarely gets caught and, if he does, how he gets away with the lightest punishment or no punishment at all. If you've ever read a news story about a sucker getting taken and wondered how he could have fallen for that, you need to read this book before an honest-faced stranger offers you a deal too good to pass up.
Author : Terry Williams
Publisher : Studies in Transgression
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 39,23 MB
Release : 2017-08
Category : Crime
ISBN : 9780231170833
A hard-edged guide to New York City swindles, street life, and culture, through direct interviews with con artists and hustlers.
Author : J.R. Weil
Publisher : Crown
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 37,43 MB
Release : 2004-07-13
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 0767917375
The story of Joseph “Yellow Kid” Weil, a man who could—and often did—pull off scams to outshine The Sting. In his long career as a confidence man, Joseph “Yellow Kid” Weil swindled the public of more than eight million dollars and established the reputation for robbery and trickery. Always beating the police at their own game, “Yellow Kid” used phony oil deals, women, fixed races, and an endless list of other tricks to best an increasingly gullible public. One day, he was Dr. Henri Reuel, a noted geologist who traveled around and told his hosts that he was a representative for a big oil company—all the while draining them of the cash they gave him to “invest in fuel.” The next day, he was director of the Elysium Development Company, promising land to innocent believers while robbing them in recording and abstract fees. Or he was a chemist par excellence who had discovered how to copy dollar bills; promising to increase your fortune, he would multiply your bills—then take the booty once the police arrived. Originally published in 1948, here is Weil’s true and amazing story, with a smart and witty Afterword by none other than Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow, who profiled “Yellow Kid” for The Reporter in 1956. It is undeniable proof that “Yellow Kid” was the con man par excellence—the virtuoso scam artist, bar none.
Author : Todd Robbins
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 38,92 MB
Release : 2008-12-08
Category : Humor
ISBN : 1596918969
Whether it's winning $50 on a bar bet, scoring seats closer to the fifty-yard line, or finagling a free meal, The Modern Con Man ensures that aspiring low-risk grifters will always come out on top. Filled with humorous facts and tables, a glossary of con terms, illustrations, the history of the con, and easy-to-follow swindles, this is the perfect gift for the hidden flim-flam artist in your life.
Author : Steven Levi
Publisher : Community Press
Page : 153 pages
File Size : 32,73 MB
Release : 2007
Category : Criminals
ISBN : 0979087864
Con artist Dave Alabama Fats Gray looks back on a career of more than 50 years as a con man, revealing that no ones money is safe.
Author : Terry Williams
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 10,39 MB
Release : 2015-11-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0231540493
This ethnography of NYC’s scammers presents “a revealing portrait of a critical but little known element of city life…timely, incisive, and poignant” (Elijah Anderson, author of Code of the Street). This vivid account of hustling in New York City explores the sociological reasons why con artists play their game and the psychological tricks they use to win it. Sociologists Terry Williams and Trevor B. Milton spent years with New York con artists to uncover their secrets. The result is an unprecedented view into how con games operate, whether in back alleys and side streets or in police precincts and Wall Street boiler rooms. Whether it's selling bootleg goods, playing the numbers, squatting rent-free, scamming tourists with bogus stories, selling knockoffs on Canal Street, or crafting Ponzi schemes, con artists use verbal persuasion, physical misdirection, and sheer charm to convince others to do what they want. Williams and Milton examine this act of performance art and find meaning in its methods. Through their sophisticated exploration of the personal experiences and influences that create a successful hustler, they build a portrait of unusual emotional and psychological depth. This engaging ethnography demonstrates how the city's unique urban and social architecture lends itself to the perfect con.
Author : G. R. Williamson
Publisher : Indian Head Publishing
Page : 101 pages
File Size : 21,42 MB
Release : 2021-01-29
Category : Games & Activities
ISBN :
The undisputed king of the confidence men of the Old West, Jefferson Randolph Smith II (Soapy Smith) ruled criminal gangs in Colorado and Alaska. No other scoundrel could match Soapy Smith’s utter audacity and unrelenting pursuit of skinning a sucker. He was a genius at running a scam, at organizing a gang of confederates, and at paying off authorities. He had the inherent ability to look a man in the eye and lie like every word was etched in stone. But, on July 8 1898, Soapy was killed in a shootout in Skagway, Alaska. At the time, newspapers attributed a man, Frank Reid, with putting the fatal bullet through Soapy’s heart. Now, 100 years later, historical research has shown that was not the case. Death of a Con Man is a concise, accurate account of the truth behind the myth. Entertaining, as well as informative, the story of the most notorious con man is told with many vintage photographs
Author : Robert Kyriakides
Publisher : Critical Vision
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 15,63 MB
Release : 2003
Category : Hoodlums
ISBN : 9781900486279
The Daily Mirror regarded him as "The mastermind behind the biggest con of 2001."
Author : Duane Swierczynski
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 15,33 MB
Release : 2002-12-03
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780028644158
-- The main target for scams are those 50 years of age or older. -- This book will expose all the latest scams, frauds, and cons -- and can be updated yearly, if necessary, to expose all the latest schemes. Fraud -- credit card fraud, telemarketing scares, Internet scares, identity theft and hundreds of other items that are geared to separate you from your money -- is a multi-billion dollar business, both in the U.S. and worldwide. From a simple three-card monte game on a street corner to sophisticated banking and Wall Street swindles, cons, frauds and scams are destined to strike one in ten Americans this year. Check kiting, ATM scares, bankruptcy fraud, real estate scams, Nigerian money offers, and even slave reparation scams -- there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of ways to get suckered by telemarketers or just plain fast-talking swindlers. Scary stuff, right? This book identifies the myriad of scams, cons, and frauds perpetrated every minute of every day in this country, and gives cutting-edge, up-to-date advice on how you can protect yourself from unscrupulous cons of every conceivable stripe. There will also be an entertaining section on con artists through history, from the infamous grifters of the Great Depression to the masterminds of the recent Enron collapse -- perhaps one of the greatest scams in America's history.
