Introduction

• Confidence tricks: exploiting people’s trust, one of the oldest crimes in the world.

• Con artist: A manipulator who deceives or tricks people by getting them to believe false information.

  • They typically take advantage of their victims in order to gain money for themselves as well as other benefits.

  • The legal repercussions of such deception depend on the situation and the local laws.

• Conmen also go by the names "grifters," "tricksters," and "hustlers," and they mockingly refer to their victims as "suckers," "gulls," or "marks."

  • However, it is not as mysterious as it may seem how they manage to con their victims.

  • Nearly anyone can fall victim to con artists' schemes, especially if they fall for a convincing get-rich-quick scheme that seems entirely genuine. Some con artists specifically target the elderly, the lonely, or the vulnerable.

  • The consequences of the crime may be severe.

• The scandalous schemes of social climber and con artist Jeanne de la Motte, for instance, in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace case in 18th-century France, contributed to the monarchy's unpopularity, which sparked the French Revolution and the overthrow of the ancien régime.

Champion Swindlers

• In the 1960s, Frank Abagnale, a master impostor, eluded law authorities for years by taking on the identities of six different professionals, including a lawyer, a doctor, an FBI agent, and a pilot.

  • Victor Lustig was successful in selling the Eiffel Tower to a duplicitous businessman for scrap metal.

• In other instances, the apparent ease and brazenness of the deception attempt is astounding, as in the case of the champion racehorse who was passed off as a novice in the Fine Cotton scandal in Australia despite the fact that the hoax was quickly discovered.

  • The escape from Alcatraz was much more carefully planned; the prisoners hid their escape from the island prison by pretending to sleep by putting paper-mache heads in their beds to fool the guards.

• In most situations, it is a person or an organization that is tricked, but Elmyr de Hory, an art forger, sold more than a thousand fake works by Picasso, Matisse, and Modigliani to collectors and galleries all over the world, and hundreds of people fell for his stunning paintings.

• Konrad Kujau, a master forger, also succeeded in deceiving the majority of the world with the Hitler Diaries.

  • Authenticity was proclaimed by historians, newspaper excerpts were published, and publishing houses fought over the rights.

  • People who fall for such hoaxes frequently find it difficult to accept that they were deceived.

  • Long after everyone else realized they had been fooled, the publishers of the Howard Hughes biography and the excerpts from the Hitler Diaries continued to stand by their scoops.

• And many people are hesitant to contact the authorities after realizing they have been duped out of fear of ridicule.

  • In his bold sale of the Eiffel Tower, Victor Lustig staked his business on this, and it paid off because he correctly predicted his victim's embarrassment at being conned.

Underlying psychology

• Power of persuasion is a trait shared by all con artists.

• The three personality traits shared by the most effective criminals are psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, which enable them to commit crimes without feeling regret or guilt.

• However, they don't always aim to turn a profit. Psychologists contend that no matter how much money con artists make, they simply derive great pleasure from carrying out their scams.

• Con artists frequently wear disguises as part of their operation, making it challenging for law enforcement to apprehend them, especially before the advent of digital technology.

• Police may be reluctant to pursue offenders in some jurisdictions where taking property is regarded as a civil issue rather than a criminal offense.

• Additionally, police are typically more interested in apprehending violent criminals and terrorists than rustlers.

  • Grifter crimes can be challenging to prove, and prosecution of those who commit them is less likely.

Key Timeline

• 1785: Jeanne de la Motte defrauds a wealthy cardinal in France in order to steal a diamond necklace.

• 1879: Thérèse Humbert, a wealthy French socialite, takes out large loans in exchange for the promise of a false inheritance.

• 1925: Victor Lustig, a Czech citizen, poses as a French government official in order to sell the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal.

• 1946: Elmyr de Hory, a Parisian artist, starts to imitate famous painters' artwork to sell to wealthy buyers and galleries.

• 1952: Doris Payne launches a career as a jewel thief using false identities and her inherent charm.

• 1962: Three inmates in the US deceive the guards and manage to escape from Alcatraz, one of the most well-known prison breaks in history.

• 1964: Frank Abagnale, a master impostor, poses as a pilot in order to travel the world and live a luxurious lifestyle.

• 1972: Clifford Irving deceives publishing executives into giving him a sizable advance by making the untrue claim that Howard Hughes has asked him to write his biography.

• 1978: Konrad Kujau, a German forger, deceives the public into thinking that documents he wrote are actually Hitler's diaries.

• 1984: In the Australian horseracing scandal known as "Fine Cotton," a criminal organization used a champion horse in place of a novice.