Scam

Several terms redirect here. For the 2016 film, see Confidence Game. For counterfeits, see Counterfeit consumer goods. For other uses, see Con Man, Con artist (disambiguation) and Scam (disambiguation).
Political cartoon by J. M. Staniforth: Herbert Kitchener attempts to raise £100,000 for a college in Sudan by calling on the name of C. G. Gordon

A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have defined confidence tricks 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')".[1]

  1. ^ Huang, Lindsey; Orbach, Barak (2018). "Con Men and Their Enablers: The Anatomy of Confidence Games". Social Research: An International Quarterly. 85 (4): 795–822. doi:10.1353/sor.2018.0050. S2CID 150021652. Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2018-09-03.