How to madoff a sucker
On a Los Angeles street corner in 2000, I was the “inside man” in a classic con game called the pigeon drop. A magician named Dan Harlan orchestrated it for a television series I co-hosted called Exploring the Unknown (type “Shermer, con games” into Google). Our pigeon was a man from whom I asked directions to the local hospital while Dan (the “outside man”) moved in and appeared to find a wallet full of cash on the ground. After it was established that the wallet belonged to neither of us and appeared to have about $3,000 in it, Dan announced that we should split the money three ways.
The Art of the Con by Michael Shermer in Scientific American.
“Con” is short for “confidence game”—success depends on whether the con artist has gained his mark’s confidence. The pigeon game figures in David Mamet’s excellent The House Of Games. Con artists exploit the greed of the mark; in the movie they rely on the mark’s sense of intellectual superiority. The psychiatrist (Lindsay Crouse) thinks she can read the charming con man (Joe Mantegna), but the con man reads her better. Ricky Jay the magician is a co-star and consultant, along with an actual con who is not identified.
Watching the movie again I got to thinking, Could I do that for a living? I sort of live by my wits, freelance writers have to, and there’s an element of the con in that. Naah, I’d probably burst out laughing during a crucial moment. Which of my friends could be a con? Ernie would turn the game into a musical and become so engrossed he’d forget that it’s all a con. Big Bird would view the mark as a tragic figure (he’s about to lose his money) and fall in love with him. Bert would focus on his breathing, which would lead to breathing problems. Kermit most likely, since he would explain everything to the mark in a rational manner that would allay any suspicion. Then he’d return the money and explain just what happened so there goes the con.
Another Mamet movie, The Spanish Prisoner, is based on the classic con game that goes by that name.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
March 8th, 2009 at 13:12
i think you’d find this interesting
http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/03/06/will-atlas-shrug-an-compilation-of-blogosphere-commentary-about-going-galt/
March 8th, 2009 at 15:05
Have you seen the British show “Hustle?” It has some of the best cons shown on screen.
March 9th, 2009 at 00:20
What comes to my mind when the word “con” or “conmen” are the local variety syndicates, i.e., the budol-budol gang, estribo gang and other low-life Pinoy criminal groups. When I was younger I was victimized by the notorious “zesto”gang on an aircon bus in Cubao. See, they play it very well. You board a bus, take your seat, and soon a man wearing a bus conductor’s uniform comes to you and asks you,”ilan ho?”. You, the unsuspecting victim assumes that it is the bus conductor. You answer “isa lang”. Then the crook hands you a zesto juice forcibly, then he walks to other passengers to do the same. Soon the man returns to you and tells you,”sampu lang ho,” meaning the darn zesto that you never want will cost you ten pesos and you have no choice but to pay. Don’t even think about not paying because if you don’t, ten other gang members in the bus will start harassing you or worse. While all of these are going on, the real bus conductor and the driver just pretend that nothing is happening. That was scary and infuriating for a college student like me. I actually started taking the LRT after that incident. My dad, a lawyer and all, wasn’t spared by the budol-budol gang. They were so good they were able to make him withdraw a considerable amount of money in the bank and hand it to them, in exchange for a so called big “business opportunity.” In the end, all one could say is, “na onse ako!” (I was duped!)