Cons, Scams, and Grifts

Cons, Scams, and Grifts

Author: Joe Gores

Publisher: Mysterious Press

Published: 2009-06-27

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0446562327

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The likable pack of operatives for Daniel Kearny Associates of San Francisco return for a fun romp, working fast repos on a list of classic cars missing after a raid on a shady auto dealer. Told vignette-style, with a huge cast of characters and many subplots, this novel is anchored by the adventures of the beautiful Gypsy witch Yana.


The Confidence Game

The Confidence Game

Author: Maria Konnikova

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-01-10

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0143109871

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"It’s a startling and disconcerting read that should make you think twice every time a friend of a friend offers you the opportunity of a lifetime.” —Erik Larson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dead Wake and bestselling author of Devil in the White City Think you can’t get conned? Think again. The New York Times bestselling author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes explains how to spot the con before they spot you. “[An] excellent study of Con Artists, stories & the human need to believe” –Neil Gaiman, via Twitter A compelling investigation into the minds, motives, and methods of con artists—and the people who fall for their cons over and over again. While cheats and swindlers may be a dime a dozen, true conmen—the Bernie Madoffs, the Jim Bakkers, the Lance Armstrongs—are elegant, outsized personalities, artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. How do they do it? Why are they successful? And what keeps us falling for it, over and over again? These are the questions that journalist and psychologist Maria Konnikova tackles in her mesmerizing new book. From multimillion-dollar Ponzi schemes to small-time frauds, Konnikova pulls together a selection of fascinating stories to demonstrate what all cons share in common, drawing on scientific, dramatic, and psychological perspectives. Insightful and gripping, the book brings readers into the world of the con, examining the relationship between artist and victim. The Confidence Game asks not only why we believe con artists, but also examines the very act of believing and how our sense of truth can be manipulated by those around us.


The Big Con

The Big Con

Author: Nate Hendley

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2016-09-06

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13:

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This book examines a broad range of infamous scams, cons, swindles, and hoaxes throughout American history—and considers why human gullibility continues in an age of easy access to information. Covering American cons and hoaxes past and present, including the Great Moon Hoax of 1835, the controversy over "subliminal messaging" (do bands, filmmakers, and advertisers really put secret messages in their works?), the panic about "satanic" daycare operators in the 1980s, and recent Internet scams, this book provides a fascinating, fact-based look at infamous frauds across the centuries. Offering an engaging mix of history, sociology, and psychology, author Nate Hendley gives readers an appreciation of how prominent scams, cons, "confidence men," and hoaxes have impacted American society, past and present. Each entry details the scheme or hoax and the pertinent con artist/schemer involved, examining the sociological, cultural, political, and/or economic effect of the scams. Each topic is accompanied by a short bibliography of further reading selections. As the old saying goes, "There is a sucker born every minute"—and there has always been a keen-eyed swindler to take advantage of the situation. The Big Con: Great Hoaxes, Frauds, Grifts, and Swindles in American History explores this sordid underbelly of American civilization and invites readers to revel in the felonious experience.


The Complete Idiot's Guide to Frauds, Scams, and Cons

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Frauds, Scams, and Cons

Author: Duane Swierczynski

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2002-12-03

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780028644158

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-- The main target for scams are those 50 years of age or older. -- This book will expose all the latest scams, frauds, and cons -- and can be updated yearly, if necessary, to expose all the latest schemes. Fraud -- credit card fraud, telemarketing scares, Internet scares, identity theft and hundreds of other items that are geared to separate you from your money -- is a multi-billion dollar business, both in the U.S. and worldwide. From a simple three-card monte game on a street corner to sophisticated banking and Wall Street swindles, cons, frauds and scams are destined to strike one in ten Americans this year. Check kiting, ATM scares, bankruptcy fraud, real estate scams, Nigerian money offers, and even slave reparation scams -- there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of ways to get suckered by telemarketers or just plain fast-talking swindlers. Scary stuff, right? This book identifies the myriad of scams, cons, and frauds perpetrated every minute of every day in this country, and gives cutting-edge, up-to-date advice on how you can protect yourself from unscrupulous cons of every conceivable stripe. There will also be an entertaining section on con artists through history, from the infamous grifters of the Great Depression to the masterminds of the recent Enron collapse -- perhaps one of the greatest scams in America's history.


32 Cadillacs

32 Cadillacs

Author: Joe Gores

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2015-02-14

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 1471917533

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A respectable citizen trips on a store escalator. On cue, Cadillacs start disappearing from lots all over San Francisco, as a team of scam artists use pure criminal genius to do one California bank out of $1.3 million of Detroit's finest. The bank hires Daniel Kearny Associates to get the cars back, and soon Kearny's team discover what they're up against: Gypsies. Dangerous charmers, they are one nation united in street crime. The escalator fall has mortally wounded their beloved King, and they're planning to attend his funeral Cadillac-style. And the action won't let up until both repo-men and Gypsies reach the dying Gypsy King - and the biggest scam of all.


Spanish Fly

Spanish Fly

Author: Will Ferguson

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1846551250

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The Big Con

The Big Con

Author: David Maurer

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2010-10-27

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 030775572X

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The classic 1940 study of con men and con games that Luc Sante in Salon called “a bonanza of wild but credible stories, told concisely with deadpan humor, as sly and rich in atmosphere as anything this side of Mark Twain.” “Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat,” wrote David Maurer, a proposition he definitely proved in The Big Con, one of the most colorful, well-researched, and entertaining works of criminology ever written. A professor of linguistics who specialized in underworld argot, Maurer won the trust of hundreds of swindlers, who let him in on not simply their language but their folkways and the astonishingly complex and elaborate schemes whereby unsuspecting marks, hooked by their own greed and dishonesty, were “taken off” – i.e. cheated—of thousands upon thousands of dollars. The Big Con is a treasure trove of American lingo (the write, the rag, the payoff, ropers, shills, the cold poke, the convincer, to put on the send) and indelible characters (Yellow Kid Weil, Barney the Patch, the Seldom Seen Kid, Limehouse Chappie, Larry the Lug). It served as the source for the Oscar-winning film The Sting.


Crypto Wars

Crypto Wars

Author: Erica Stanford

Publisher: Kogan Page

Published: 2021-07-27

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9781398600690

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Uncover the scandals and scams that have rocked the cryptocurrency world and learn how it also could bring positive change for banking and the global economy.


In a Dark Place

In a Dark Place

Author: Ed Warren

Publisher: Graymalkin Media

Published: 2014-10-04

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 163168020X

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The story of the most terrifying case of demonic possession in the United States. It became the basis for the hit film “The Haunting in Connecticut” starring Virginia Madsen. Shortly after moving into their new home, the Snedeker family is assaulted by a sinister presence that preys one-by-one on their family. Exhausting all other resources, they call up the world-renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren—who have never encountered a case as frightening as this... No one had warned the Snedekers their new house used to be an old funeral home. Their battle with an inexplicable and savage phenomena had only just begun. What started as a simple “poltergeist” escalated into a full-scale war, an average American family battling the deepest, darkest forces of evil—a war this family could not afford to lose.


Everybody Loves Evie

Everybody Loves Evie

Author: Beth Ciotta

Publisher: Harlequin

Published: 2012-09-17

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1460301765

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Former casino lounge singer/variety act Evie Parish has moved up in the world, joining Chameleon, an organization that exposes fraud using reformed crooks to catch current ones. Her last assignment landed her in the arms of the delicious bad boy Arch Duvall, who taught her how to spot a grift and how to get over a lousy ex by having a superheated fling. Now it’s time to take to heart what she’s learned. When Evie’s mom falls for a sweetheart scam, Evie rushes to the rescue (undercover, of course), accompanied by Milo Beckett, her sexy new boss at Chameleon. Closely pursuing is Arch, who’s decided Evie may not be a passing fancy after all. It’s hard to concentrate on the case with these two macho males squaring off, but Evie’s up to the challenge.