Confidence trick

A confidence trick (synonyms include confidence game, confidence scheme, 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 dishonesty, honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naïveté and greed.

Terminology

The perpetrator of a confidence trick (or "con trick") is often referred to as a confidence (or "con") man, con-artist, or a "grifter". The first known usage of the term "confidence man" in English was in 1849 by the New York City press, during the trial of William Thompson. Thompson chatted with strangers until he asked if they had the confidence to lend him their watches, whereupon he would walk off with the watch. He was captured when a victim recognized him on the street.

A confidence trick is also known as a con game, a con, a scam, a grift, a hustle, a bunko (or bunco), a swindle, a flimflam, a gaffle or a bamboozle. The intended victims are known as "marks", "suckers", or "gulls" (i.e. gullible). When accomplices are employed, they are known as shills.

Scam (disambiguation)

A scam or confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence.

Scam may also refer to:

See also

Scam (album)

Scam is the fifth studio album by the Australian band The Screaming Jets. It was their first record to be released under a different label. Singles taken from the album were "Individuality", "Higher With You" and "I Need Your Love".

Track listing

All songs written by Grant Walmsley, except where noted.

Band members

Larry Flynt Publications

Larry Flynt Publications, or LFP, Inc., runs the adult entertainment empire founded by Larry Flynt. Founded in 1976, two years after Flynt began publishing Hustler magazine, LFP was originally to serve as the parent company of this magazine.

Hustler Magazine

Rip (dog)

Rip (died 1946), a mixed-breed terrier, was a Second World War search and rescue dog who was awarded the Dickin Medal for bravery in 1945. He was found in Poplar, London, in 1940 by an Air Raid warden, and became the service's first search and rescue dog. He is credited with saving the lives of over 100 people. He was the first of twelve Dickin Medal winners to be buried in the PDSA's cemetery in Ilford, Essex.

Rescue career

Rip was found as a stray following a heavy bombing raid of Poplar, London in 1940 by Air Raid Warden Mr E. King. He was thrown scraps by Mr King, who expected the dog to leave, but the two struck up a friendship. Mr King worked at post B132 in Poplar, London where Rip was adopted as mascot of the Southill Street Air Raid Patrol. He began acting as an unofficial rescue dog, being used to sniff out casualties trapped beneath buildings, and became the service's first search and rescue dog.

Rip was not trained for search and rescue work, but took to it instinctively. In twelve months between 1940 and 1941, he found over a hundred victims of the air raids in London. His success has been held partially responsible for prompting the authorities to train search and rescue dogs towards the end of World War II.

RIP

RIP or R.I.P. is an abbreviation of requiescat in pace or (in English) Rest in peace, often used in epitaphs.

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