Desperately seeking scams
May 2, 2011 5:31 PM Subscribe
Where can I find accounts of scams? Confidence games, accounting frauds, fingers in the till -- really any schemes that steal by deception rather than violence. Sure, I could scan the crime blotters of newspapers, but I want more efficient access to this knowledge. (No, I'm not a scammer, I'm a writer.)
Probably the most famous book on this subject is The Big Con - Amazon's related links should give plenty more leads.
Snopes also has a nice fraud section.
posted by Paragon at 5:43 PM on May 2, 2011 [2 favorites]
Snopes also has a nice fraud section.
posted by Paragon at 5:43 PM on May 2, 2011 [2 favorites]
The National Association of Bunco Investigators has a website listing several dozen cons and scams.
posted by hhc5 at 5:49 PM on May 2, 2011
posted by hhc5 at 5:49 PM on May 2, 2011
Appeal court opinions usually open with a factual summary. Go nuts. Plan B: make friends with a cop. I have never met a police officer who didn't love talking about their work.
posted by anigbrowl at 5:50 PM on May 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by anigbrowl at 5:50 PM on May 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
Seconding the Big Con. It's like 50% of David Mamet's whole career.
posted by Diablevert at 6:20 PM on May 2, 2011
posted by Diablevert at 6:20 PM on May 2, 2011
A couple of Ricky Jay's books feature con arts. Journal of Anomalies. Curious Characters. They aren't entirely devoted to con artists. Many of the subjects are entertainers and many of the con artists are basically entertainers themselves, too.
posted by stuart_s at 7:50 PM on May 2, 2011
posted by stuart_s at 7:50 PM on May 2, 2011
How To Cheat At Everything is a great book that goes into detail about all kinds of scams, cons and frauds. It covers everything from old-school card and bar tricks all the way up to modern mail and web scams As a bonus, it's a lively read, well written, witty and fun.
It's also worth tracking down anything by or about Eric Hebborn, who was one of the most successful art forgers of the 20th Century. He wrote an autobiography, "Drawn To Trouble" (which was later re-printed with additional material and re-named "Confessions of A Master Forger"). He also wrote "The Art Forgers Handbook" which goes into great detail about the technical details of forging artwork, along with confidence and social engineering parts of the scam. Sadly, his books are becoming expensive and out of print, but in my opinion if you dig reading about the world of scams, they are well worth the money.
I'll also second any of Ricky Jay's books or articles, as well as any interviews with him you can track down.
posted by EvilPRGuy at 9:22 PM on May 2, 2011 [3 favorites]
It's also worth tracking down anything by or about Eric Hebborn, who was one of the most successful art forgers of the 20th Century. He wrote an autobiography, "Drawn To Trouble" (which was later re-printed with additional material and re-named "Confessions of A Master Forger"). He also wrote "The Art Forgers Handbook" which goes into great detail about the technical details of forging artwork, along with confidence and social engineering parts of the scam. Sadly, his books are becoming expensive and out of print, but in my opinion if you dig reading about the world of scams, they are well worth the money.
I'll also second any of Ricky Jay's books or articles, as well as any interviews with him you can track down.
posted by EvilPRGuy at 9:22 PM on May 2, 2011 [3 favorites]
There are a lot of great past threads on this with good stories:
how were you personally scammed or conned?
give me your personal anecdotes about being scammed or conned
what are some well-known scams?
a few mefi posts of interest:
the art of the con (descriptions of several classic con games)
psychological study of how to run a con
door to door magazine sales scam + labor abuse
two tales of fraud from the New Yorker - one involving fine wine, one extra virgin olive oil
Mefi posts tagged "heist" - pretty much all good stories
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:45 PM on May 2, 2011 [4 favorites]
how were you personally scammed or conned?
give me your personal anecdotes about being scammed or conned
what are some well-known scams?
a few mefi posts of interest:
the art of the con (descriptions of several classic con games)
psychological study of how to run a con
door to door magazine sales scam + labor abuse
two tales of fraud from the New Yorker - one involving fine wine, one extra virgin olive oil
Mefi posts tagged "heist" - pretty much all good stories
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:45 PM on May 2, 2011 [4 favorites]
One more fun one: Ferdinand Demera, the great impostor.
Another useful search term is "social engineering", roughly exploiting social norms to get people to give you information - used in the computer security industry.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:02 PM on May 2, 2011
Another useful search term is "social engineering", roughly exploiting social norms to get people to give you information - used in the computer security industry.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:02 PM on May 2, 2011
The Miracle Mongers, by Houdini, is great fun, if a bit dated.
(It's also where I learned that carnival fire eaters actually claimed to survive by eating fire.)
posted by eotvos at 12:18 AM on May 3, 2011
(It's also where I learned that carnival fire eaters actually claimed to survive by eating fire.)
posted by eotvos at 12:18 AM on May 3, 2011
Wikipedia has a ton of these. I've actually worked my way through a lot of those articles, and they are really good. In fact, some years ago I was walking through a carpark at a shopping centre when a white van pulled up beside me. The males inside asked me if I wanted to buy some cheap audio speakers. I said no, and kept walking. Then I found this article a few years later, which matches the scam right down the white van and the use of a speaker.
posted by ollyollyoxenfree at 10:02 PM on May 3, 2011
posted by ollyollyoxenfree at 10:02 PM on May 3, 2011
For laziness, you could grab the DVDs of Hustle...
There's also The Real Hustle, which has quite a few segments on YouTube.
Another good show is Masterminds which is theoretically on TruTv but I've never seen it there. It covers unusual non-violent true crime stories. Available on YouTube as well.
posted by smackfu at 10:57 AM on May 4, 2011
There's also The Real Hustle, which has quite a few segments on YouTube.
Another good show is Masterminds which is theoretically on TruTv but I've never seen it there. It covers unusual non-violent true crime stories. Available on YouTube as well.
posted by smackfu at 10:57 AM on May 4, 2011
Past episodes of American Greed (a CNBC TV show) are available on Amazon On Demand. Scams galore. The American Greed site also has a lot of case files from the scams.
posted by Jagz-Mario at 9:35 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by Jagz-Mario at 9:35 AM on May 6, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
The Art of Intrusion
posted by AltReality at 5:34 PM on May 2, 2011 [1 favorite]