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56-490: The Spanish Prisoner is a confidence trick originating by at least the early 19th century, as Eugène François Vidocq described in his memoirs. In its original form, the confidence trickster tells his victim (the mark ) that he is (or is in correspondence with) a wealthy person of high estate who has been imprisoned in Spain under a false identity. Some versions had the imprisoned person being an unknown or remote relative of

112-479: A " corroboration " step, particularly those involving a fake, but purportedly "rare item" of "great value". This usually includes the use of an accomplice who plays the part of an uninvolved (initially skeptical) third party, who later confirms the claims made by the con man. Confidence tricks exploit characteristics such as greed , dishonesty , vanity , opportunism , lust , compassion , credulity , irresponsibility , desperation , and naïvety . As such, there

168-439: A God, and be his serf forever. To wear fine cloaks, golden chains, rings, to wipe his mouth, to be deemed and taken for a worthy, pious man .... Usury is a great huge monster, like a werewolf, who lays waste all, more than any Cacus , Gerion or Antus. And yet decks himself out, and would be thought pious, so that people may not see where the oxen have gone, that he drags backward into his den. Michel de Montaigne thought that 'it

224-471: A beautiful woman stated to be the prisoner's daughter. After the mark has turned over the funds, he is informed further difficulties have arisen, and more money is needed. With such explanations, the trickster continues to press for more money until the victim is cleaned out, declines to put up more funds, or dies. Key features of the Spanish Prisoner trick are the emphasis on secrecy and the trust

280-471: A case where the lord of a state of ten thousand chariots is murdered, it must be by a family with a thousand chariots. In a case where the lord of a state of a thousand chariots is murdered, it must be by a family with a hundred chariots. One thousand out of ten thousand, or one hundred out of a thousand, cannot be considered to not be a lot. But if righteousness is put behind and profit is put ahead, one will not be satisfied without grasping [from others]." In

336-400: A folly so common to old men, and the most ridiculous of all human follies. Baruch Spinoza thought that the masses were concerned with money-making more than any other activity, since, he believed, it seemed to them like spending money was prerequisite for enjoying any goods and services. Yet he did not consider this preoccupation to be necessarily a form of greed, and felt that the ethics of

392-409: A major threat in a communal society ). Greed is also personified by the fox in early allegoric literature of many lands. Greed (as a cultural quality) was often imputed as a racial pejorative by the ancient Greeks and Romans; as such it was used against Egyptians, Punics, or other Oriental peoples; and generally to any enemies or people whose customs were considered strange. By the late Middle Ages

448-400: A moment's relaxation; and what is yet stranger, the less natural and pressing his wants, the more headstrong are his passions, and, still worse, the more he has it in his power to gratify them; so that after a long course of prosperity, after having swallowed up treasures and ruined multitudes, the hero ends up by cutting every throat till he finds himself, at last, sole master of the world. Such

504-572: A more nuanced way. A few people trusted Thompson with their money and watches. Thompson was arrested in July 1849. Reporting about this arrest, James Houston, a reporter for the New York Herald , publicized Thompson by naming him the "Confidence Man". Although Thompson was an unsuccessful scammer, he gained the reputation as a genius operator mostly because Houston's satirical tone was not understood as such. The National Police Gazette coined

560-516: A starving man, comes to Plutus, Faust in disguise, to recite a cautionary tale about avariciously living beyond your means: Starveling. Away from me, ye odious crew!     Welcome, I know, I never am to you.     When hearth and home were women's zone,     As Avaritia I was known.     Then did our household thrive throughout,     For much came in and naught went out!     Zealous

616-521: A team of swindlers, and even props, sets, extras, costumes, and scripted lines. It aims to rob the victim of a huge amount of money or other valuables, often by getting them to empty out banking accounts and borrow from family members. The shell game dates back at least to Ancient Greece . William Thompson (1821–1856) was the original "confidence man". Thompson was a clumsy swindler who asked his victims to express confidence in him by giving him money or their watch rather than gaining their confidence in

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672-419: Is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs. The degree of inordinance is related to the inability to control the reformulation of "wants" once desired "needs" are eliminated. It is characterized by an insatiable desire for more, but also a dissatisfaction with what one currently has. Erich Fromm described greed as "a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy

728-555: Is discussed in the works of Plato and Aristotle . Pan-Hellenic disapprobation of greed is seen by the mythic punishment meted to Tantalus , from whom ever-present food and water is eternally withheld. Late-Republican and Imperial politicians and historical writers fixed blame for the demise of the Roman Republic on greed for wealth and power, from Sallust and Plutarch to the Gracchi and Cicero . The Persian Empires had

784-426: Is in miniature the moral picture, if not of human life, at least of the secret pretensions of the heart of civilised man. Political economist Adam Smith thought the greed for food to be limited, but the greed for other goods to be limitless: The rich man consumes no more food than his poor neighbour. In quality it may be very different, and to select and prepare it may require more labour and art; but in quantity it

840-473: Is money; not to be acquisitive, is revenue." —Cicero, Paradox., vi. 3.] I neither am in any great apprehension of wanting, nor in desire of any more: "Divinarum fructus est in copia; copiam declarat satietas." ["The fruit of riches is in abundance; satiety declares abundance." —Idem, ibid., vi. 2.] And I am very well pleased that this reformation in me has fallen out in an age naturally inclined to avarice, and that I see myself cleared of

896-566: Is no consistent profile of a confidence trick victim; the common factor is simply that the victim relies on the good faith of the con artist. Victims of investment scams tend to show an incautious level of greed and gullibility, and many con artists target the elderly and other people thought to be vulnerable, using various forms of confidence tricks. Researchers Huang and Orbach argue: Cons succeed for inducing judgment errors—chiefly, errors arising from imperfect information and cognitive biases . In popular culture and among professional con men,

952-455: Is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." In his account of the Sack of Rome , historian Edward Gibbon remarks that: avarice is an insatiate and universal passion; since the enjoyment of almost every object that can afford pleasure to the different tastes and tempers of mankind may be procured by

1008-570: Is not want, but rather abundance, that creates avarice', that 'All moneyed men I conclude to be covetous', and that: 'tis the greatest folly imaginable to expect that fortune should ever sufficiently arm us against herself; 'tis with our own arms that we are to fight her; accidental ones will betray us in the pinch of the business. If I lay up, 'tis for some near and contemplated purpose; not to purchase lands, of which I have no need, but to purchase pleasure: "Non esse cupidum, pecunia est; non esse emacem, vertigal est." ["Not to be covetous,

1064-529: Is there, on this earth, no greater enemy of man (after the devil) than a gripe-money, and usurer, for he wants to be God over all men. Turks, soldiers, and tyrants are also bad men, yet must they let the people live, and confess that they are bad, and enemies, and do, nay, must, now and then show pity to some. But a usurer and money-glutton, such a one would have the whole world perish of hunger and thirst, misery and want, so far as in him lies, so that he may have all to himself, and everyone may receive from him as from

1120-456: Is turned over     To grace her body or her lover;     Better she feasts and drinks still more     With all her wretched lover-corps.     Gold charms me all the more for this:     Male's now my gender, I am Avarice!    Leader of the Women.     With dragons be

1176-530: Is very nearly the same. But compare the spacious palace and great wardrobe of the one, with the hovel and the few rags of the other, and you will be sensible that the difference between their clothing, lodging, and household furniture, is almost as great in quantity as it is in quality. The desire of food is limited in every man by the narrow capacity of the human stomach; but the desire of the conveniencies and ornaments of building, dress, equipage, and household furniture, seems to have no limit or certain boundary. "It

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1232-467: The Baháʼí Faith among others. The Quran advises do not spend wastefully, indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils... , but it also says do not make your hand [as though] chained to your neck..." The Christian Gospels quote Jesus as saying, ""Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" , and "For everything in

1288-466: The Laurence Sterne novel Tristram Shandy , the titular character describes his uncle's greed for knowledge about fortifications , saying that the 'desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it', that 'The more my uncle Toby pored over his map, the more he took a liking to it', and that 'The more my uncle Toby drank of this sweet fountain of science,

1344-576: The advance-fee scam , in particular the Nigerian money transfer (or 419) scam. Confidence trick Other terms for "scam" include confidence trick, con, con game, confidence game, confidence scheme, ripoff, stratagem, finesse, grift, hustle, bunko, bunco, swindle, flimflam, gaffle, and bamboozle. The perpetrator is often referred to as a scammer, confidence man, con man, con artist, grifter , hustler, or swindler. The intended victims are known as marks, suckers, stooges, mugs, rubes, or gulls (from

1400-703: The Internet. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) of the FBI received 847,376 reports in 2021 with a reported loss of money of $ 6.9 billion in the US alone. The Global Anti Scam Alliance annual Global State of Scam Report, stated that globally $ 47.8 billion was lost and the number of reported scams increased from 139 million in 2019 to 266 million in 2020. Government organizations have set up online fraud reporting websites to build awareness about online scams and help victims make reporting of online fraud easier. Examples are in

1456-684: The United States ( FBI IC3 , Federal Trade Commission ), Australia (ScamWatch ACCC ), Singapore (ScamAlert ), United Kingdom ( ActionFraud ), Netherlands (FraudeHelpdesk ). In addition, several private, non-profit initiatives have been set up to combat online fraud like AA419 (2004), APWG (2004) and ScamAdviser (2012). Greed (emotion) Greed (or avarice ) is an insatiable desire for material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions) or social value, such as status , or power . The initial motivation for (or purpose of) greed and actions associated with it may be

1512-487: The attribution of human motivations to other species. The dog-in-the-manger , or piggish behaviors are typical examples. Characterizations of the wolverine (whose scientific name (Gulo gulo) means "glutton") remark both on its outsized appetite, and its penchant for spoiling food remaining after it has gorged. Ancient views of greed abound in nearly every culture. In Classical Greek thought; pleonexy (an unjust desire for tangible/intangible worth attaining to others)

1568-455: The bounds of law,       And, oft allies and ministers of crime,       To push through nights and days with hugest toil       To rise untrammelled to the peaks of power—       These wounds of life in no mean part are kept       Festering and open by this fright of death. The Roman Stoic Epictetus also saw

1624-404: The dangerous moral consequences of greed, and so advised the greedy to instead take pride in letting go of the desire for wealth, rather than be like the man with a fever who cannot drink his fill: Nay, what a price the rich themselves, and those who hold office, and who live with beautiful wives, would give to despise wealth and office and the very women whom they love and win! Do you not know what

1680-521: The end. From being a means to happiness, it has come to be itself a principal ingredient of the individual's conception of happiness. The same may be said of the majority of the great objects of human life—power, for example, or fame; except that to each of these there is a certain amount of immediate pleasure annexed, which has at least the semblance of being naturally inherent in them; a thing which cannot be said of money. In Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's tragic play Faust , Mephistopheles , disguised as

1736-606: The fifth century, St. Augustine wrote: Greed is not a defect in the gold that is desired but in the man who loves it perversely by falling from justice which he ought to esteem as incomparably superior to gold [...] St. Thomas Aquinas states greed "is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things." He also wrote that greed can be "a sin directly against one's neighbor, since one man cannot over-abound (superabundare) in external riches, without another man lacking them, for temporal goods cannot be possessed by many at

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1792-419: The greater ardour to possess sixteen; if that wish is achieved, he will want forty or will complain that he knows not how to make both ends meet. The Roman poet Lucretius thought that the fear of dying and poverty were major drivers of greed, with dangerous consequences for morality and order: And greed, again, and the blind lust of honours       Which force poor wretches past

1848-405: The greater was the heat and impatience of his thirst'. The Swiss philosophe Jean-Jacques Rousseau compared man in the state of nature , who has no need of greed since he can find food anywhere, with man in the state of society : for whom first necessaries have to be provided, and then superfluities; delicacies follow next, then immense wealth, then subjects, and then slaves. He enjoys not

1904-516: The ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. Dante's near-contemporary, Geoffrey Chaucer , wrote of greed in his Prologue to The Pardoner's Tale these words: "Radix malorum est Cupiditas" (or "the root of all evil is greed"); however the Pardoner himself serves us as a caricature of churchly greed. Martin Luther especially condemned the greed of the usurer : Therefore,

1960-641: The human vulnerabilities that cons exploit are depicted as "dishonesty", "greed", and "gullibility" of the marks. Dishonesty, often represented by the expression "you can't cheat an honest man", refers to the willingness of marks to participate in unlawful acts, such as rigged gambling and embezzlement. Greed, the desire to "get something for nothing", is a shorthand expression of marks' beliefs that too-good-to-be-true gains are realistic. Gullibility reflects beliefs that marks are "suckers" and "fools" for entering into costly voluntary exchanges. Judicial opinions occasionally echo these sentiments. Fraud has rapidly adapted to

2016-524: The insult was widely directed towards Jews. In the Books of Moses , the commandments of the sole deity are written in the book of Exodus (20:2-17), and again in Deuteronomy (5:6-21); two of these particularly deal directly with greed, prohibiting theft and covetousness . These commandments are moral foundations of not only Judaism , but also of Christianity , Islam , Unitarian Universalism , and

2072-535: The line between the two. By the mid-19th century – affected by the phenomenological ideas of Hegel – economic and political thinkers began to define greed inherent to the structure of society as a negative and inhibitor to the development of societies. Keynes wrote, "The world is not so governed from above that private and social interest always coincide. It is not so managed here below that in practice they coincide." Both views continue to pose fundamental questions in today's economic thinking. Weber posited that

2128-412: The love of money is not only one of the strongest moving forces of human life, but money is, in many cases, desired in and for itself; the desire to possess it is often stronger than the desire to use it, and goes on increasing when all the desires which point to ends beyond it, to be compassed by it, are falling off. It may be then said truly, that money is desired not for the sake of an end, but as part of

2184-403: The mark. Supposedly the prisoner cannot reveal his identity without serious repercussions, and is relying on a friend (the trickster) to raise money to secure his release. In this classic pigeon drop game archetype, the trickster offers to let the mark put up some of the funds, with a promise of a greater monetary reward upon release of the prisoner, and sometimes the additional reward of marrying

2240-421: The need without ever reaching satisfaction". An individual's tendency to be greedy can be seen as a personality trait that can be measured. With measures like these, greed has been found to be related to financial behavior (both positive in earning and negative in borrowing/saving less), to unethical behavior, and to negatively relate to well-being. Animal examples of greed in literary observations are frequently

2296-417: The possession of wealth. In the pillage of Rome, a just preference was given to gold and jewels, which contain the greatest value in the smallest compass and weight: but, after these portable riches had been removed by the more diligent robbers, the palaces of Rome were rudely stripped of their splendid and costly furniture. In his essay Utilitarianism , John Stuart Mill writes about greed for money that:

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2352-545: The promotion of personal or family survival. It may at the same time be an intent to deny or obstruct competitors from potential means (for basic survival and comfort) or future opportunities; therefore being insidious or tyrannical and having a negative connotation. Alternately, the purpose could be defense or counteractive response to such obstructions being threatened by others. Modern economic thought frequently distinguishes greed from self-interest , even in its earliest works, and spends considerable effort distinguishing

2408-467: The rich." His belief is that our concern for one another is the force which creates society and holds it together; and that avarice destroys this bond. " Laozi , the semi-legendary founder of Taoism , was critical of the desire for profit over social good. In the Tao Te Ching , Laozi observes that "the more implements to add to their profit that the people have, the greater disorder is there in

2464-599: The same time." Dante's 14th century epic poem Inferno assigns those committed to the deadly sin of greed to punishment in the fourth of the nine circles of Hell. The inhabitants are misers , hoarders , and spendthrifts ; they must constantly battle one another. The guiding spirit, Virgil , tells the poet these souls have lost their personality in their disorder, and are no longer recognizable: "That ignoble life, Which made them vile before, now makes them dark, And to all knowledge indiscernible." In Dante's Purgatory , avaricious penitents were bound and laid face down on

2520-426: The situation were nuanced: This result is the fault only of those, who seek money, not from poverty or to supply their necessary wants, but because they have learned the arts of gain, wherewith they bring themselves to great splendour. Certainly, they nourish their bodies, according to custom, but scantily, believing that they lose as much of their wealth as they spend on the preservation of their body. But they who know

2576-401: The spirit of capitalism integrated a philosophy of avarice coloured with utilitarianism. Weber also says that, according to Protestant ethic , "Wealth is thus bad ethically only in so far as it is a temptation to idleness and sinful enjoyment of life, and its acquisition is bad only when it is with the purpose of later living merrily and without care." As a secular psychological concept, greed

2632-506: The state and clan." Xunzi believed that selfishness and greed were fundamental aspects of human nature and that society must endeavor to suppress these negative tendencies through strict laws. This belief was the basis of legalism , a philosophy that would become the prevailing ideology of the Qin dynasty and continues to be influential in China today. Conversely, the philosopher Yang Zhu

2688-404: The term "confidence game" a few weeks after Houston first used the name "confidence man". In Confessions of a Confidence Man , Edward H. Smith lists the "six definite steps or stages of growth" of a confidence game. He notes that some steps may be omitted. It is also possible some can be done in a different order than the one shown or carried out simultaneously. In addition, some games require

2744-719: The thirst of a man in a fever is like, how different from the thirst of a man in health? The healthy man drinks and his thirst is gone: the other is delighted for a moment and then grows giddy, the water turns to gall, and he vomits and has colic, and is more exceeding thirsty. Such is the condition of the man who is haunted by desire in wealth or in office, and in wedlock with a lovely woman: jealousy clings to him, fear of loss, shameful words, shameful thoughts, unseemly deeds. In his exegesis on Naboth ( De Nabute , 389) Ambrose of Milan writes "omnium est terra, non diuitam,sed pauciores qui non utuntur suo quam qui utuntur", translated by Pope Paul VI as " The earth belongs to everyone, not only to

2800-695: The three-headed Zoroastrian demon Aži Dahāka (representing unslaked desire) as a fixed part of their folklore. In the Sanskrit Dharmashastras the "root of all immorality is lobha (greed).", as stated in the Laws of Manu (7:49) . In early China, both the Shai jan jing and the Zuo zhuan texts count the greedy Taotie among the malevolent Four Perils besetting gods and men. North American Indian tales often cast bears as proponents of greed (considered

2856-414: The trickster apparently places in the mark not to reveal the prisoner's identity or situation. The trickster will typically claim to have chosen the mark carefully, based on his reputation for honesty and straight dealing, and may appear to structure the deal so that the trickster's ultimate share of the reward will be distributed voluntarily by the mark. Modern variants of the Spanish Prisoner fraud include

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2912-417: The true use of money, and who fix the measure of wealth solely with regard to their actual needs, live content with little. John Locke claims that unused property is wasteful and an offence against nature, because "as anyone can make use of to any advantage of life before it spoils; so much he may by his labour fix a property in. Whatever is beyond this, is more than his share, and belongs to others." In

2968-500: The word gullible ). When accomplices are employed, they are known as shills . A short con or small con is a fast swindle which takes just minutes, possibly seconds. It typically aims to rob the victim of his money or other valuables which they carry on their person or are guarding. A long con or big con (also, chiefly in British English, long game ) is a scam that unfolds over several days or weeks; it may involve

3024-515: The world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world." . In the Aristophanes satire Plutus , an Athenian and his slave say to Plutus , the god of wealth, that while men may become weary of greed for love, music, figs, and other pleasures, they will never tire of greed for wealth: If a man has thirteen talents, he has all

3080-521: Was I for chest and bin;     'Twas even said my zeal was sin.     But since in years most recent and depraving     Woman is wont no longer to be saving     And, like each tardy payer, collars     Far more desires than she has dollars,     The husband now has much to bore him;     Wherever he looks, debts loom before him.     Her spinning-money

3136-444: Was known for his embrace of total self-interest. However, the school of Yangism did not specifically endorse greed; rather, it emphasized a form of hedonism where individual well-being takes precedence over all else. Mencius was convinced of the innate goodness of human nature, but nevertheless warned against the excessive drive towards greed. Like Laozi, he was worried about the destabilizing and destructive effects of greed: "In

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