Con Jobs, Top Ten Options

[Prime Mover]

After reading over vice and catching an episode of leverage I got thinking. Shadowrun teams should have at least some basic knowledge of the most common cons. Any cons or other lists to share?

Unlike most kinds of petty crime, a confidence game, or con, takes an enormous amount of skill and forethought to pull off. When done right, in many cases the grifters who perpetrate them have not actually done anything overtly illegal–they’ve simply used lies and manipulation to get their victim, or “mark,” to willingly hand over their own money. Whether blackmail, fraud, or illegal gambling, the following are ten of the most famous ways that these swindlers try to take advantage of the confidence of their unsuspecting victims. Obviously, there are a number of takes on any kind of con, but these are the most popular variations of the most well known tricks.

10. The Embarrassing Check

The embarrassing check con is a well-known means of legally getting money from victims by playing off of their innate feelings of shame. The con men open a fake business with an overtly explicit title that supposedly sells sex toys or other pornographic material, but buyers are told that any purchases they make will be routed through a separate company with a much more innocuous name. After taking orders and collecting payments, the company then sends out letters explaining that a shipping error or some other issue has made it impossible for them to deliver on their product. They enclose a legitimate check refund, only this time the highly graphic name of the company is clearly emblazoned on the check, the idea of course being that a certain percentage of the customers will be too ashamed or embarrassed to ever cash it.

9. The Fiddle Game

Many of the best cons work because of the inherent greed of the person being tricked, and the fiddle game is one of the best examples. It requires two con men to work, and is designed to take place in a restaurant. One of the con men poses as an old man eating dinner. When he gets his bill, the man approaches the owner and explains that he forgot his wallet back at his hotel. He promises to go get it, and as collateral leaves behind an old fiddle or violin, explaining that he is a traveling musician and that it is his sole source of income. After the old man leaves, a second con man who has been sitting nearby approaches the owner and asks to see the fiddle, saying that he is a dealer in rare instruments. After inspecting the fiddle, the man pronounces it a highly rare and valuable piece of work, worth thousands of dollars. He then pretends to be in a hurry and leaves, but not before giving the mark his card and telling him to call if the man is interested in selling. The old man will return shortly thereafter with the money for his meal. If the con men have sold the trick well enough, the victim, believing that he will be able to sell it to the fake instrument dealer for a huge profit, will attempt to buy the fiddle off of the old man for a few hundred dollars. Of course, the number on the card will prove to be a fake, and the victim will inevitably be left with a worthless violin.

8. The Pig in a Poke

One of the oldest cons in the book is the so-called “pig in a poke,” which dates back to the Middle Ages. At the time, quality meat was scarce, and pigs and cows were often worth large sums of money. In this particular con, the trickster would offer to sell another person a baby pig, and after receiving the money they would hand over a “poke,” or burlap sack, that clearly had a squirming live animal in it. If the victim neglected to check inside, they would be surprised when they arrived home to find that the sack contained a cat instead of a pig. The term “buying a pig in a poke” has since become a common expression meaning to make a risky purchase, and some say that the phrase “let the cat out of the bag” also dates back to this well known con.

7. The Thai Gem Scam

A wildly elaborate con, the Thai Gem Scam has become infamous in Bangkok, where it is often performed on unsuspecting tourists. It starts with a lookout, who strikes up friendly conversations with tourists about their vacations. The lookout will say that there is a service that gives tourists free rides to local temples for sightseeing tours, and will direct them to a nearby taxi. The taxi then takes the person to a tourist attraction, where yet another con man will chat with them and eventually tell them about a government program that allows jewelry to be bought duty free, which would allow for a huge profit if the mark resold it back in their home country. The taxi driver then drives the mark to another location or two, and at each stop another stranger will mention the gem scheme, but always in passing so as to give the impression that the whole set up is random and unconnected. If done right, all this insider advice will eventually convince the tourist to ask to be taken to a jewelry store, where they will be pressured to buy “rare” gems and have them shipped back to their home country. Naturally, the gems are worth significantly less than the price advertised, and when the victim gets home they will find they are unable to sell them for any kind of profit.

6. The Wire Game

Made famous by the movie The Sting, the wire game was a complex fraud that required a large group of con men to work in concert in order to pull it off. The group of grifters would open up a fake “wire store,’ which is a kind of bookie where bets could be placed on horse races. A victim, usually a man of considerable wealth, would then be brought in and given some fake insider information that a particular horse was a sure thing to win the race. If the con men sold the mark well enough, the hope was that they would place a huge bet with the fake bookie at the wire store. From here, the con can go any number of ways, but in the most popular version some sort of mistake occurs, or confusion over the outcome of the race (which, of course, never actually took place) leads to the bet being declared a loss for the hapless victim.

5. The Badger Game

The badger game dates back to the 19th century, and is arguably one of the most reproduced cons of all time. A form of blackmail, in its most famous form the trick would see a con woman seek out a lonely married man at a bar and lure him back to her hotel room. After getting the man into some kind of compromising position, the grifters would produce photo or video evidence of the man clearly cheating on his wife, which could then be used to extort money from him. Other variations included false allegations of rape or sexual harassment. One famous version of it from the early 1930s involved a woman accusing her male doctor of improper conduct during a medical exam and then blackmailing him in order to keep her from pressing charges. Often the woman would be working in tandem with a second grifter who would show up in the middle of things and pretends to be her angry husband, which would help to scare the mark into going along with the blackmail. Like the embarrassing check scheme, the idea was always that the victim would be too ashamed of his own actions not to pay off the con men.

4. Three-Card Monte

One of the classic short cons, three-card monte is a card game that uses sleight of hand and trickery to swindle victims out of small amounts of cash. It’s one of the oldest cons around, and dates back to “the shell game,” a similar scheme that was popular during the Middle Ages. The game itself is deceivingly simple. Three cards are placed faced down on a flat surface, usually two black jacks and a red queen. The dealer shows the players the red queen, and then proceeds to thoroughly shuffle the cards to make it difficult to tell where it is. Players then bet on whether they can pick the queen out of the three cards. It sounds easy enough, but the game is more or less impossible to beat, because a good dealer can use sleight of hand to switch the cards at will, and can easily decide who wins or loses. In more sophisticated set ups, the whole game is a fake, and the other supposed “players” are in on the con. One of these conspirators will approach the mark and pretend to give them inside information on how to beat the game, enticing them to make a larger bet. Since street gambling is quite clearly illegal, any time a victim begins to suspect the game might be a cheat, the con men simply pretend to see the police coming, pack up their game, and make a break for it.

3. The False Good Samaritan

There might not be any simpler or more ancient con than the so-called “false Good Samaritan”. It usually involves a team of two con men working in tandem, and the victim is usually a lone person walking a city street at night. The first con man approaches the person and mugs them, stealing their wallet or purse and taking off down the street. The second con man, posing as a passerby, will give chase to the mugger, tackle them, and get back the wallet. The mugger, of course, always manages to escape during the fray. The false Good Samaritan will then return the wallet or purse to the mark, who will have been witness to the entire performance. The hope is that the grateful victim will repay the con man for his help with some kind of cash reward, which they can then split with the mugger later on. When sold correctly and performed on the right kind of person, this con is capable of earning the grifters even more money than they would have ever gotten from just keeping the stolen wallet.

2. The Spanish Prisoner

Ever gotten one of those junk e-mails from a person claiming to be a Nigerian Princess in need of quick cash? If so, then you’re familiar with the Spanish Prisoner, which is a classic form of “advance fee fraud” that attempts to trick unsuspecting marks by promising them a big payday down the road. The scam dates all the way back to the early 1900s, when it was often used against wealthy businessmen. This is how it would go down: after gaining his mark’s trust, a con man would intimate that he was in correspondence with the family of a fabulously wealthy person of high social class who was being imprisoned in Spain for a crime they didn’t commit. Fearing scandal, the prisoner has not released his name or case to the public, and is relying on private means to generate the money to secure his release. With this in mind, the mark would be told that any money he contributed to help in the cause would be paid back with huge interest down the road. In some variations, it would even be implied that the person would get to marry the Spanish Prisoner’s beautiful daughter. Naturally, any money the victim gave would inevitably disappear, and when possible the con man would even try and get his victim to contribute more cash by telling them that a daring rescue attempt needed to be funded.

1. The Ponzi Scheme

If current events have proven anything, it’s that there is no more potentially profitable con game than the Ponzi scheme. The trick dates back hundreds of years, but it was popularized by Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant to the U.S. who swindled investors out of millions in the early 1900s before being arrested. The modern Ponzi scheme is a form of investment fraud in which a fake or corrupt stockbroker uses the money of his new investors to pay the imaginary returns of his old ones. Initial investments with the fake broker might yield enormous returns for the people being conned, but in reality their money has not been invested in anything–the con man has simply been putting it all into a bank account. Any time someone wants to withdraw money, or if he has to pay the returns of his old investors, the con man simply uses the money he’s gotten from new investors to do it. Nothing is actually being invested, won, or lost in the market. The con man is simply giving that impression so that people keep handing over more and more cash. Because it can only grow so far, any Ponzi scheme is destined to eventually collapse under its own weight, so the con man usually pulls a disappearing act after collecting enough money, leaving the investors with nothing but the fake returns they received to keep them involved in the swindle. Undoubtedly the most famous recent example involved Bernard Madoff, a New York financier who engineered a Ponzi scheme estimated to be in the neighborhood of $65 billion. Madoff was eventually caught and sentenced to 150 years in prison, but not before pulling of what is essentially the biggest con game of all time.

[Synner667]

9. The Fiddle Game

Many of the best cons work because of the inherent greed of the person being tricked, and the fiddle game is one of the best examples. It requires two con men to work, and is designed to take place in a restaurant. One of the con men poses as an old man eating dinner. When he gets his bill, the man approaches the owner and explains that he forgot his wallet back at his hotel. He promises to go get it, and as collateral leaves behind an old fiddle or violin, explaining that he is a traveling musician and that it is his sole source of income. After the old man leaves, a second con man who has been sitting nearby approaches the owner and asks to see the fiddle, saying that he is a dealer in rare instruments. After inspecting the fiddle, the man pronounces it a highly rare and valuable piece of work, worth thousands of dollars. He then pretends to be in a hurry and leaves, but not before giving the mark his card and telling him to call if the man is interested in selling. The old man will return shortly thereafter with the money for his meal. If the con men have sold the trick well enough, the victim, believing that he will be able to sell it to the fake instrument dealer for a huge profit, will attempt to buy the fiddle off of the old man for a few hundred dollars. Of course, the number on the card will prove to be a fake, and the victim will inevitably be left with a worthless violin.

I saw this one being done on an TV old episode of Minder [v2.0]...
...Involving a rubbish car being needed for a Hollywood film.

[LivingOxymoron]

Don't forget:

The Overpayment Scam

This has a lot of variations, but at its core is this: A con man seeks out a mark who is selling something, be it goods or services. The buyer will overpay using a certified check (usually stolen bankstock or outright forgeries), pretending to not be aware of the overpayment. Usually, the seller will not notice until after the transaction is complete. If the seller contacts the buyer to inform him/her of the error, the buyer will request that the difference be wired to their bank account to settle the difference. The hope is that the mark will withdraw money out BEFORE the check clears its originating bank; essentially using ghost funds. When the originating bank rejects the check, the mark's bank will deduct the entire amount, leaving the conman with the goods AND extra cash. Variations can be a purposeful overpayment of an ongoing service (such as pre-paying several months of rent), followed soon after by an invented "crisis" by the con artist requiring a partial refund.

The Laddered Compensation Scam

I've only seen this applied to "Secret Shoppers", but I could see this happening in SR in the form of a data broker or fixer, or even a "Security Consultant". Basically, a person signs up for a (unknown to them) phony secret shopper job. The first few jobs are low dollar items: i.e. "Evaluate" a McDonnalds by ordering a Happy Meal. Each time, the mark is legitimately paid for the cost of the good or service plus 20% commission. After a few times, the mark is given a job to, "Evaluate the ease of a wire transfer" and is instructed to wire a certain sum, usually between $100-$300, to a bank account. They will never hear from their "employer" ever again.

[LivingOxymoron]

5. The Badger Game

The badger game dates back to the 19th century, and is arguably one of the most reproduced cons of all time. A form of blackmail, in its most famous form the trick would see a con woman seek out a lonely married man at a bar and lure him back to her hotel room. After getting the man into some kind of compromising position, the grifters would produce photo or video evidence of the man clearly cheating on his wife, which could then be used to extort money from him. Other variations included false allegations of rape or sexual harassment. One famous version of it from the early 1930s involved a woman accusing her male doctor of improper conduct during a medical exam and then blackmailing him in order to keep her from pressing charges. Often the woman would be working in tandem with a second grifter who would show up in the middle of things and pretends to be her angry husband, which would help to scare the mark into going along with the blackmail. Like the embarrassing check scheme, the idea was always that the victim would be too ashamed of his own actions not to pay off the con men.

It might be apocryphal, but I heard an amusing story to this once. The con artist (male) seduced a married man at a gay bar while the mark was on a business trip. After going back to the hotel and "doing the deed", the con artist attempts blackmail with photos he took with a webcam. The mark then calls his wife on his cell phone, says, "Honey, there's someone here who wants to tell you something. When he's done, please call the police." When the con man is handed the phone, the wife tells him, "My husband and I are swingers. Are you the man I gave him permission to sleep with?"

[Ancient History]

Yeah, didn't have room in Vice for all the cons.

[Draco18s]

And then...

There's The Matchstick Men.

[Acidsaliva]

For those who want to know more about common con jobs, take a look at what one of the great con men has to say in The Art of the Steal.

E.g. Low Rent doesn't equal Low Return p110

Managers of well-heeled restaurants were getting a letter in which a man claimed he had recently eaten at the restaurant and a clumsy waiter had spilled food on his suit. He insisted that the restaurant pay the (low cost) dry cleaning bill. The amount was modest enough that many managers simply paid it. They didn't seem to think that it was odd that the return address where the check was to be mailed was a P.O. Box. The letters also went out to enough restaurants that the (low cost) payments added up to real money

There are also the Mustard Squirter, the Jamaican Switch and Rock in a Box - all street side cons. A good book and full of devious ideas for the con person face of the shadowrunning team.

Edit: Spelling

[The Jake]

There is a British TV series called 'Hustle' where it focuses all on a long con team. I haven't read Vice so I don't know if the distinction is drawn between a short con and a long con - but basically a long con involves setting up a mark for much larger sums of money and generally requires much more lead time and preparation.

The team focuses on people with lots of money and typically individuals who are exceptionally greedy, scummy and generally lack any redeeming qualities. They have their own code and rules they follow and always seem to play one-two steps ahead.

My missus and I have been watching it religiously lately and we love it! If you're interested in cons then this series is MANDATORY VIEWING. I consider it very Shadowrun like - they're basically just a team full of Face characters with complementary secondary skills (e.g. Ash in particular as the team's fixer who happens to be part hacker/mechanic/forger/etc).

- J.

[Makki]

There is a British TV series called 'Hustle'

that's exactly what i think first, whenever i hear/read the word con. but you probably haven't got as much time on a shadowrun evening as a tv show author (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Nows7]

Heh, There is a BBC show called "The real hustle" where three con artists go though three of four cons a show, show the con performed, the mark's actions, how the con was performed, and then show how to protect yourself. The thing is, that each of the marks on the show gets conned for real... then given their money or property back.

There is a great paper by the university of Cambrige about them here.

That paper, along with my watching the show turned my up coming face from a former Hong Kong "escort" into a former street con-artist.

[Saint Sithney]

I think there's a variation of the Thai Gem Scam out there where, instead of the tourists being sold costume jewelery, they're kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery before being killed for sport.

I think that variation is called "Anyone Who Believes in a Free Ride Was Probably Just Clouding Up the Gene Pool Anyway."

[Sengir]

There's also the ancient art of selling people sugar pills, tap water, or some faux ritual as medicine.

Even made a character once with Con 5 (alternative healing +2) and incompetent (Medicine), but never got a chance to play it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Blade]

The Car Salesman

Not exactly a scam, and more of a business practice, but it gives a good example of how to get people into doing something they wouldn't have done up front.
A car salesman tell his victim he's got a terrific deal on a car (30% off). The victim didn't plan on getting a new car, but the deal is so interesting that he decides to do it. Of course, buying a new car isn't something you'll decide too quickly, so he's going to think about it. So he comes back a few days later, now convinced that he's going to get out with a new car. That's when the car salesman tell him that for one reason or another he can't offer the same rebate anymore, but he negotiated a 5% rebate (that's actually the rebate everyone can have easily). Had he told the buyer that he could get a 5% rebate, the buyer wouldn't have accepted to buy a new car. But now that he has convinced himself that he would buy one, he'll be far less likely to refuse the offer.

A variation has the victim receive a coupon that looks very interesting (50% off, $1000 off...) for expensive goods (furniture for example). The shop has just opened recently and offers such deals to attract customers.
He goes to the shop with it, where he shows it to an employee. The employee looks distressed:
"Oh, are you sure this is a real coupon? I'm not sure we can do something like this. There must have been a mistake somewhere..." he calls the manager. The manager listen to the story, looks at the coupon, take some time to think about it and either tell the victim that it must be a mistake but he allows him to use it anyway or that it is a mistake but to compensate he'll offer a more reasonable rebate (20% off, $200 off). The buyer is so happy to take advantage of this that he'll buy a piece of furniture he wouldn't have bought without it. If, later on, the buyer looks up the price of a similar piece of furniture in another shop, he'll realize that the price he got with the rebate was actually the standard price for such a thing.

[Ancient History]

There's also the ancient art of selling people sugar pills, tap water, or some faux ritual as medicine.

Even made a character once with Con 5 (alternative healing +2) and incompetent (Medicine), but never got a chance to play it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

We mentioned that one in Vice.

[Draco18s]

The buyer is so happy to take advantage of this that he'll buy a piece of furniture he wouldn't have bought without it. If, later on, the buyer looks up the price of a similar piece of furniture in another shop, he'll realize that the price he got with the rebate was actually the standard price for such a thing.

Ever heard of The Dump? They do that basically every weekend.

[DamienKnight]

After reading over vice and catching an episode of leverage I got thinking. Shadowrun teams should have at least some basic knowledge of the most common cons. Any cons or other lists to share?

Link to the original article.

[WalksWithWiFi]

Hmmm, though i am unsure of why the original article was posted, it does have the added benefit of having
females and cleavage.

I like the concept of a character who focuses on con
I think the Ocean's movies are a good reference for a con character-

that and you can't go wrong with the Clooney/Pitt combo

[nezumi]

Indeed. I'd like to see more PCs do this. The problem is, it requires the PCs think in order to stay one step ahead, a lot of initiative, and a lot of information. Information isn't hard for a GM to provide, but the other two are oftentimes in short supply. If my PCs ever pulled a real con, I would give them so much karma for it they'd drown.

[explorator]

The TV show The Rockford files is full of cons, long and short, that can make very useful plot hooks for the PC's. My favorite is to have some NPC's run a con on the players group. Most recently they set free a known terrorist after she posed as a kidnap victim, when she was in fact the primary kidnapper. Best part is they spent a decent chunk of money helping her get re-equipped before she disappeared. Fun.

[Sengir]

We mentioned that one in Vice.

Well, the idea was to do this not only as a side business, but to actually make the other players believe that I was playing a street doc (with the GM as a co-conspirator, of course). I guess psychosomatic healing and "how to make fellow players believe diluted bullet fragments cure their character" are not detailed in Vice?

[Randian Hero]

This one appears to be common nowadays. The con is set up on a popular dating or networking site, where they find the mark: typically a lonely man in his twenties or thirties, who is looking for no-strings-attached sex. The con sets up an account as an attractive girl and plucks the mark's heart strings, engaging in several e-mails that show "her" as very interested. Once "she" has the mark's confidence, "she" recommends that they video chat, alluding to sexual acts performed on camera, and leads the mark to a pay site. If the mark is desperate or gullible enough, he'll shell out a chunk of change to access the site, but he'll find out that the girl wasn't real after all.

[KarmaInferno]

Don't forget:

The Overpayment Scam

This has a lot of variations, but at its core is this: A con man seeks out a mark who is selling something, be it goods or services. The buyer will overpay using a certified check (usually stolen bankstock or outright forgeries), pretending to not be aware of the overpayment. Usually, the seller will not notice until after the transaction is complete. If the seller contacts the buyer to inform him/her of the error, the buyer will request that the difference be wired to their bank account to settle the difference. The hope is that the mark will withdraw money out BEFORE the check clears its originating bank; essentially using ghost funds. When the originating bank rejects the check, the mark's bank will deduct the entire amount, leaving the conman with the goods AND extra cash. Variations can be a purposeful overpayment of an ongoing service (such as pre-paying several months of rent), followed soon after by an invented "crisis" by the con artist requiring a partial refund.

The Laddered Compensation Scam

I've only seen this applied to "Secret Shoppers", but I could see this happening in SR in the form of a data broker or fixer, or even a "Security Consultant". Basically, a person signs up for a (unknown to them) phony secret shopper job. The first few jobs are low dollar items: i.e. "Evaluate" a McDonnalds by ordering a Happy Meal. Each time, the mark is legitimately paid for the cost of the good or service plus 20% commission. After a few times, the mark is given a job to, "Evaluate the ease of a wire transfer" and is instructed to wire a certain sum, usually between $100-$300, to a bank account. They will never hear from their "employer" ever again.

My aunt actually got a scam latter that combines these two.

It offers a job as a 'secret shopper', and actually includes a cashiers check for a few thousand dollars. It instructs the mark to test a local money transfer service using the included check, wiring the majority of the money to a specified account. The remainder of the check is to be used to purchase minor goods from a few specified chain stores, the goods which the mark can keep. In the package are report forms to be filled out as to the quality of service of the various businesses tested, and other documentation to make the whole affair appear genuine.

Of course, the 'cashiers check' is fake. It will take a few days for the fake check to bounce, however. By that time the scammer will have collected & cashed out the wire transferred funds and disappeared. The mark, in the meanwhile, is suddenly responsible for the value of the fake check and may have the angry money transfer service come after them. The address that the report forms were to be mailed to is likewise fake.

It appeals even more than the older version of the Secret Shopper scam due to the mark apparently not having to risk any of his or her own money. Also advantageous to the scammer is removal of the need to make multiple contacts with the mark, reducing the chances of being traced or tracked.

Fortunately for my aunt, I spotted the letter before she did anything with it.



-karma

[Synner667]

How about selling fear...
..."Buy this now as it'll protect you from xyz threat" ??

Recent real world example is the chap who took a few of bits of electronics and a plastic handle and sold it for $40,000 apiece as bomb detection gear.

[Draco18s]

Recent real world example is the chap who took a few of bits of electronics and a plastic handle and sold it for $40,000 apiece as bomb detection gear.

"It does not operate by battery, instead promotional material says it is powered only by the user's static electricity."

That should have thrown red flags.

[nezumi]

That's just good advertising.

Selling an item that doesn't function is a scam, of course.

Just wanted to say, there are some fantastic resources here. Thank you for all this nice stuff to read and watch!