Tricky Facts About Con Artists
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!”
There have been many notorious hucksters, charlatans, and tricksters throughout the ages who never failed to come up with innovative ways to pull the wool over the eyes of their poor, unsuspecting victims.
Here are 42 tricky facts about some of the most memorable con artists of all time, and the crazy schemes that made them famous.
42. The Meaning Behind It
We use the term all the time, but might not ever have thought about what it means.
'Con' is actually short for confidence, because it refers to a type of trick where the perpetrator builds a false sense of confidence or trust with their victim, all for the purpose of eventually using it to take advantage of them.
41. Trend Setter
The original fellow to earn the title of 'Confidence Man' was William Thompson, a 19th century New Yorker who would approach people on the street, pretend to know them, and chat them up until he could ask to borrow their watch to demonstrate their trust in him.
Needless to say, these people never saw their watches again—at least not until Thompson was taken into custody in 1849. The popularity of his trial helped bring the newly coined term of ‘confidence man’ into common parlance.
40. The Ponz
The famous “Ponzi scheme” is named after Charles Ponzi, an infamous Italian con artist who pulled the scheme on unsuspecting investors in the U.S. and Canada in the early 20th century. While not the first to pull off the scheme, he was definitely the one that made it a world-famous phenomenon that people now know to watch out for.
39. Stamped and Sealed
Ponzi schemes often require some kind of front or fake product that buyers believe they are investing in, or just an immense sense of trust in the person handling the money.
In Ponzi's own case, the front enterprise being offered was international postal reply coupons (IRC), which were different prices in each country but could be used universally.
IRCs could be bought in bulk in a country where they cost very little, like Italy, and be exchanged in a country where they cost significantly more, like the US, for a large profit.
