Content deleted Content added
Fiddle Game Added |
|||
Line 9:
==Well-known confidence tricks==
*'''[[Three card monte|Three Card Monte]]''', '''The Three-Card Trick''', '''Follow The Lady''' or '''Find the Lady''', which is (except for the [[prop]]s) essentially the same as the probably centuries-older [[shell game]] or ''thimblerig''. The trickster shows three playing cards to the audience, one of which is a queen (the ''lady''), then places the cards face-down, shuffles them around and invites the audience to bet on which one is the queen. At first the audience are skeptical, so the ''shill'' places a bet and the scammer allows them to win. This is sometimes enough to entice the audience to place bets, but the trickster uses [[sleight of hand]] to ensure that they always lose, unless the con man decides to let them win to lure them into betting even more. The 'mark' loses whenever the dealer chooses to make them lose.
* The '''[[Fiddle Game]]''' preys upon the greed inherent in most people. A pair of con men work together, one going in to an expensive restaurant in slightly shabby clothes, eating, and claiming to have left your wallet at home, which is nearby. As collateral, the con man leaves his only worldly posession, a violin he uses to make enough money for himself to live and eat. He leaves, and the second con man swoops in, offers an outrageously large amount (i.e. $50,000)for such a rare instrument, and then looking at his watch and running off to an appointment, leaving behind his card for the mark to call him when the owner returns. The mark's greed comes into play when the "poor man" comes back, having gotten the money to pay his meal and ensure the return of his violin. The mark, "knowing" he has an offer on the table, then buys the violin from the fiddle player (who "relucantly" sells it eventually, for say $5,000), and we are left with two con men $2,500 richer, and a maitre'd with a cheap wooden instrument.
* The '''[[Spanish Prisoner]]''' scam, which is essentially the same as the [[Advance fee fraud|Nigerian money transfer fraud]]. The basic come-on involves entreating the mark to aid in retrieving some stolen money from its hiding place. The victim sometimes goes in figuring they can cheat the con artists out of their money: anyone trying this has already fallen for the essential con, by believing that the money is there to steal.
* The early-[[20th century|20<sup>th</sup>-century]] favorite [[The Big Store (confidence trick)|The Big Store]], around which scam the plot of the film ''[[The Sting]]'' revolves. Big store scams are described in detail in David W. Maurer's ''The Big Con'' (see references), on which the film was loosely based. They often involved teams of dozens of con artists working together with elaborate sets and costumes.
| |||