Portal:Confidence tricks

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Introduction

Political cartoon by JM Staniforth: Herbert Kitchener attempts to raise £100,000 for a college in Sudan by calling on the name of Charles George Gordon

A confidence trick (synonyms include con, confidence game, confidence scheme, ripoff, scam and stratagem) is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their confidence, used in the classical sense of trust. Confidence tricks exploit characteristics of the human psyche, such as credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers Lindsey Huang and Barak Orbach defined the scheme as “a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct, . . . intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial,” as they “benefit con operators (‘con men’) at the expense of their victims (the ‘marks’).”

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