Move to Nigeria.
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Don’t get caught
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If you do get caught, only say: “I want to talk to my lawyer.”
And then, since you probably don’t actually have a lawyer, flee to Nigeria and live a life of scammer luxury.
No, everyone knows about Nigeria. Move to Côte d’Ivoire. It sounds much more exotic.
And my conman movie recommendation is Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
I’m not sure it’s a must, but it’s certainly important - you need people to like you. If nothing else, you should really learn how to dress. I don’t just mean that you should learn how to wear a suit - though of course, you should. I mean you should try to develop a fairly sophisticated idea of what “looks good” and what doesn’t, of what style of dress is appropriate for meeting different marks, and so on.
Further, in the category of getting people to like you: Don’t be a jerk unless and until your profession as a conman requires it. Be the guy that other people want to be around, because you’re level-headed, helpful, even generous. You’re fun, but not a raging partier. Sufficiently deferential to authority that you can defuse close calls (suspicious cop, annoyed bouncer, whater), but not so much so that you seem spineless.
In short, you need real people skills. I’m not sure how you learn them - I don’t really have them myself - but you need them.
I’d suggest inventing a ‘green’ technology or possibly a group to invest in green technology. Very few people understand anything about it but everyone wants to be green. Makes it easy to lie when no one understands you but wants to believe you any way.
Me and my buddies have discussed starting a charity to give cash scholarships to women working their way through school. Every one loves education and very few check on how the money is really spent. We were thinking of lap dances and making sure the girls really were in college but I’m sure you can make some money there as well.
If you use either idea I expect either a cut or a VP position.
Study mathematics and physics, then join a wall street firm.