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.

Advance-fee scam

An advance-fee scam is a type of fraud and one of the most common types of confidence trick. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster requires in order to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim, or simply disappears.

There are many variations on this type of scam, including 419 scam, Fifo's fraud, Spanish Prisoner scam, the black money scam and the Detroit-Buffalo scam. The scam has been used with fax and traditional mail, and is now prevalent in online communications like emails.

Online versions of the scam originate primarily in the United States, the United Kingdom and Nigeria, with Ivory Coast, Togo, South Africa, the Netherlands, and Spain also having high incidences of such fraud. The scam messages often claim to originate in Nigeria, but usually this is not true. The number "419" refers to the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud, the charges and penalties for offenders.

Soluble cell adhesion molecules

Soluble cell adhesion molecules (sCAMs) are a class of cell adhesion molecule (CAMs - cell surface binding proteins) that may represent important biomarkers for inflammatory processes involving activation or damage to cells such as platelets and the endothelium.

They include soluble forms of the cell adhesion molecules ICAM-1, VCAM-1, E-selectin and P-selectin (distinguished as sICAM-1, sVCAM-1, sE-selectin and sP-selectin). The cellular expression of CAMs is difficult to assess clinically, but these soluble forms are present in the circulation and may serve as markers for CAMs.

Research has focused on their role in cardiovascular (particularly atherosclerosis), connective tissue and neoplastic diseases, where blood plasma levels may be a marker of the disease severity or prognosis, and they may be useful in evaluating progress of some treatments.

Many studies have postulated that increased production of cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) on the vascular endothelium (blood vessel lining) plays a role in the development of arterial plaque, with the suggestion from both in vitro and in vivo studies that the CAM production is increased by dyslipidemia (abnormal lipid levels in the blood).