But watching the shows there is always the criminal patois going on that, while very cool, I just didn’t understand. So I started to poke around and learn what some of it meant.
My first foray was to learn more about the basic types of confidence scams. There is A LOT of different types of confidence scams, but here are some of the basic ones:
The Ponzi Scheme:
Fake investments. The con-artist uses some of the money from new ‘investors’ to provide ‘dividends’ to the other investors to make them believe their investments are prospering. Meanwhile the con-artist steals any of the money coming into the con that he doesn’t need to keep the marks convinced.The Spanish Prisoner:
Advance fee fraud. The con-artist tricks the mark into believing that a ‘modest’ investment now will result in a big payday down the road. Unlike the Ponzi Scheme this is a take the money and run con not requiring the long-term commitment of a Ponzi scheme.The False Samaritan:
The con-artist’s version of good cop, bad cop. The “bad” artist runs an action on the mark and the “good” artist, acting as an innocent third-party, intervenes to ‘save’ the mark. At basic levels this could be a simple mugging where the good artist scares away and recovers the stolen property in hopes of a reward. More complex cons may use the False Samaritan to place the good artist into a position where the mark trusts or feels obligated to her to set up a larger con.