THE CONS
SEE THE SCAMS
2 The Big Con
There are those in any group who have an impassioned intention to achieve a certain objective, an intention pertaining to goals from gambling to being a high government official. Nothing distracts them, nothing deters them. Examples of its potential value are plentiful, such as the determined commitment to solve a scientific problem over many years, or the persistent work to build a business in spite of setbacks.
Of course, determination carries risk, even apart from success or failure, but also risk due to others recognizing the vulnerability to manipulation conferred by their single-minded activities. At the outset, however, the success or failure of their pursuits is uncertain. What is foremost in the experience of others interacting with the person is his or her tenacious, sometimes nearly fanatical attitude -- pursuing an obsessive objective.
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Such a person will not easily be disuaded from his purposes.
It is no secret that gamblers have this impassioned intention and are characterixed by their obsessive objective. Con artists are aware of gamblers as an enticing target for scams, sometimes using large-scale, complicated methods to take advantage of the gambler's single-mindedness and pocket large sums of his money. In the first half of the 20th century this was a murky world known to exist, but not well understood.
An examination of the methods used by these scammers in their large-scale operations was needed, particulary by law enforcement and judicial branches of the government if they were to have the capacity to protect citizens. Yet, this was a confusing pursuit, because most observers would say that the victims, the gamblers, knew the risks of the lures presented to them by con artists and were not victims at all.
Fortunately, a professor of linguistics, David Maurer, interviewed and studied con men in detail, publishing a book in 1940 that described their methods and their language. It has affected all subsequent research and writing, so brief excerpts are useful to give a taste of what “the big con” represented at that time:
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The grift has a gentle touch. It takes its toll from the verdant sucker by means of the skilled hand or the sharp wit. In this, it differs from all other forms of crime, and especially from the heavy-rackets. It never employs violence to separate the mark from his money. Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat.
Although the confidence man is sometimes classed with professional thieves, pickpockets, and gamblers, he is really not a thief at all because he does no actual stealing. The trusting victim literally thrusts a fat bank roll into his hands, It is a point of pride with him that he does not have to steal.
Confidence men are not “crooks” in the ordinary sense of the word. They are suave, slick, and capable. Their depredations are very much on the genteel side. Because of their high intelligence, their solid organization, the widespread connivance of the law, and the fact that the victim must virtually admit criminal intentions himself if he wishes to prosecute, society has been neither willing nor able to avenge itself effectively. Relatively few good con men are ever brought to trial; of those who are tried, few are convicted; of those who are convicted, even fewer ever serve out their full sentences. Many successful operators have never a day in prison to pay for their merry and lucrative lives spent in fleecing willing marks on the big-con games.
David W. Maurer (1940). The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man. New York: Anchor Books, pp.1-2.
Grift. 1. n. A racket or criminal profession. Often used where grifter would not be used in a strict sense. “I’ve been on the grift all my life.” 2. n. A group of criminal professions which employ skill rather than violence. “All those boys were on the grift.” 3. v. To work any profession included in the grift. See grifter.
Grifter. In the strict sense, one who lives by his wits as contrasted to the heavy-men who use violence.
David W. Maurer (1940). The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man. New York: Anchor Books, p. 295.
Maurer provided a famous description of the steps of the big con, and the language associated with it. This became well known and used as the basis for many discussions about what the con man was and how he operated.
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A Word About Confidence Men
All confidence games, big and little, have certain similar underlying principles; all of them progress through certain fundamental stages to an inevitable conclusion; while these stages or steps may vary widely in detail from type to type of game, the principles upon which they are based remain the same and are immediately recognizable. In the big-con games the steps are these:
- Locating and investigating a well-to-do victim. (Putting the mark up.)
- Gaining the victim’s confidence. (Playing the con for him.)
- Steering him to meet the insideman. (Roping the mark.)
- Permitting the insideman to show him how he can make a large amount of money dishonestly. (Telling him the tale.)
- Allowing the victim to make a substantial profit. (Giving him the convincer.)
- Determining exactly how much he will invest. (Giving him the breakdown.)
- Sending him home for this amount of money. (Putting him on the send.)
- Playing him against a big store and fleecing him. (Taking off the touch.)
- Getting him out of the way as quietly as possible. (Blowing him off.)
- Forestalling action by the law. (Putting in the fix.)
The big –con games did not spring full-fledged into existence. The principles on which they operate are as old as civilization. But their immediate evolution is closely knit with the invention and development of the big store, a fake gambling club or broker’s office, in which the victim is swindled. And within the twentieth century they have, from the criminal’s point of view, reached a very high state of perfection.
David W. Maurer (1940). The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man. New York: Anchor Books, pp.3-4.
Maurer went on to give the status of the big con at that time, indicating how the world of cons was changing.
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Modern con men use at present [1940] only three big-con games, and only two of these are now used extensively. In addition, there are scores of short-con games which seem to enjoy periodic bursts of activity, followed by alternate periods of obsolescence. Some of these short-con games, when played by big-time professionals who apply the principles of the big con to them, attain very respectable status as devices to separate the mark from his money.
The three big-con games, the wire, the rag, and the pay-off, have in some forty years of their existence taken a staggering toll from a gullible public. No one knows just how much the total is because many touches, especially large ones, never come to light; both con men and police officials agree that roughly ninety per cent of the victims never complain to the police. Some professionals estimate that these three games alone have produced more illicit profit for the operators and for the law than all other forms of professional crime (excepting violations of the prohibition law) over the same period of time. However that may be, it is very certain that they have been immensely profitable.
All confidence games, big and little, have certain similar underlying principles; all of them progress through certain fundamental stages to an inevitable conclusion; while these stages or steps may vary widely in detail from type to type of game, the principles upon which they are based remain the same and are immediately recognizable.
Maurer, David W. (1940/1999). The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man. New York: Anchor Books, pp. 3-4.
The excitement and drama of the Big Con are portrayed vividly in The Sting, in its film presentation of a Big Con as it occurs.
SPOILER ALERT – in order to avoid seeing the outcome, stop watching the film clip when the crime boss making the big bet and another man leave the building.
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