I was re-watching The Sting, and got to wondering about the various types of con games.
There is a scene in the film where the various con men are plotting strategies for taking on a big-time mark. They throw out various ideas such as stock steals, and “the wire shop”, which they end up using in the film.
What are/were some other classic cons?
Ooh, a fun topic. A lot of information can be gotten by reading the rather famous novel the Grifters, by Jim Thompson.
I don’t know too much about big cons like in The Sting, since they weren’t too common – they required a lot of investment and too many things could go wrong. It took real balls, and that’s why the kid has to track down Gondorff. Guys like him are rare, and they don’t advertise.
Another problem with discussing long cons is that they’re hard to discern from other kinds of shady business. They’re big enough that they have to at least look respectable from the outside.
Most operators worked the short con, since it was easy, quick, and there wasn’t much investment. Classics include three-card monte, the twenties, the tat, and the slap (or smack).
I assume 3-card monte is familiar enough that I don’t need to explain it – the damn con turns up on just about every TV show with street scenes, and I’ve seen it done in person.
The Twenties: go to a store and buy a trivial amount of stuff – less than $1 worth. Pay for it with a $20 bill and get the change, while muttering to yourself about having the exact change. After you get your money, you “luckily” find the change and give it to the clerk and ask for your $20 back. If this works, you double your money. If it doesn’t, hopefully you’ve put on a good enough act that it seems like an honest mistake.
The Tat: Accidentally bump into somebody at a bar, causing him to spill his drink. Act friendly and apologetic, and buy him another round or two to make up for it; hopefully the victim will offer to buy you one now. Get “distracted” and suddenly “find” a lost die on the floor. Start playing a friendly game, rolling each other for the price of the drinks. Keep doubling the bets. Of course, you’re adept at throwing dice and never let it actually roll – but you keep it looking honest. As the bets double, eventually you can strip even somebody with lots of money down to nothing – all on a friendly wager.
The Smack: Flipping coins and comparing the results, betting on the outcome. But your coin is ever-so-slightly filed down on one side, and you’ve practiced being able to tell which face is up by how it feels on your wrist.
That’s the extent of my knowledge at this late hour. I’m sure somebody else has more and better info than I do.
Most of The Sting is taken verbatim from David Maurer’s book The Big Con. If you’re interested in the field, it’s a good place to start. Be advised, though, Maurer is much more interested in sociology and linguistics than the con game itself.
A variation on the “sawbuck short con,” as I was told of it (maybe it is just a completely different short con) is immortalized in the film Paper Moon. Needed: a $20 bill, an accomplice. Accomplice purchases a large-ticket item (preferably >$19) with a $20 bill which has been specially prepared. Con-man then purchases a small-ticket item (preferably <$1) with a $1 bill, then raises a ruckus when the cashier gives him back change for a $1, complaining that he paid with a $20 and can prove it because his (child, sweetheart, whatever) wrote “Happy Birthday” on the back of it. The $20 bill is extracted, the evidence is found. If the con-man is clever, he simply refuses to make his purchase and gets his $20 bill back, thus saving him from having to doctor another one.
The two short cons involving $20 bills were pulled on my brother and I when we worked at a store my father owned. We were both in high school when we got stung. Both of us thought we were too smart to fall for any kind of shenanigans like that. But we were.
Gettting conned out of some money is a good way to find out the meaning of the word “hubris.”
Don’t let it get you too down, BobT. The beauty of the one I described is it’s bulletproof. There is absolutely no way for the cashier to prove you didn’t give him that bill. Except, of course … (and I should have mentioned this earlier) the con-man has to know ahead of time that the cashier puts bills in the drawer before counting out change. That, as far as I know is the only way to foil that con. If you set aside the bill you’ve been paid with until all the change is counted and accepted by the payee, you’ll never get taken on that con.
Also, I have a bad habit of looking at bills to make sure they aren’t doctored. 
Actually I fell for the CapnCrude described. The guy who did it pretended to be drunk I believe. I think that would have given him an out if I caught on to him.
My brother was the one fell for the doctored bill con. He told me about that so I was always on the lookout for that one.
For movies about cons, may I recommend: The Flim Flam Man (1967) with George C. Scott in the title role; My personal favorite flick: House of Games (1987) with Lindsay Crouse and Joe Mantegna. In the latter one, there are some good plot twists.
Some of the short cons you can learn from magic books. I’ve seen in magic books the shell game, the three-card monte, two different methods for short changing, versions of penny-matching cons and bar-bet cons.