In another thread, I saw this
it’s a common enough phrase, but what is the oldest documented scam?
I don’t have an answer (yet, at least) but when I was googling around one of the top results was this thread. Google’s little bots are really on the ball!
The shell game is probably pretty old.
Another practice dating from around the same time as the shell game is good old fashioned insurance fraud. Ships would be ‘insured’ then reported as being sunk when they were actually just moved to another port. Not sure if this counts as an insurance scam or just fraud but it’s old.
On a side note whilst the shell game is certainly a scam I think the majority of the money was made not by the guy taking bets on the game but by the pick pockets that worked their way through the watching crowds.
She promises to have sex with you in exchange for gifts, but when you show up with the gifts, she and her bulky friend beat you up or kill you, and take your things.
This scam predates ships. It probably predates using shells as tools. It certainly predates “documentation.”
In ancient times, mixing base metals with gold. It dates back as far as Archimedes.
The bulky “friend” was more likely to be her father and brothers and the gifts were called a dowry. Along the same lines, many people would consider religion a scam.
“Give me a piece of your meat now, I will give you some of my next kill later.”
Your birthright for that bowl of stew. Oldest one in the Book.
Nice. But is it the oldest one? Abraham did the “she’s my sister” thing. And I’m sure that snake wasn’t totally on the level.
Good ones - I’m not sure about the snake, but they did try to pull the old “get him drunk and fuck with him” trick on Noah. And hell, Cain killed Abel and tried to present his brother’s offerings as his own. That counts.
Religion.
Well, this is in the Code of Hammurabi:
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM (number 227)
That’s one hell of a scam…
:dubious:
ETA: The old slave-a-roo; shenanigus barberus.
But seriously it is in the book.
And don’t forget it’s converse:
He promises to protect and shelter her and her young’uns forever if she will give him sex. He impregnates her and leaves joking with his friends about his prowess and what a dawg she was. 
That’s exactly what I was wondering. It has to written down to win the thread.
Actually, that was Lot, not Noah.
[Moderator Note]
Let’s avoid religious jabs in GQ. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
This scam (more or less) is in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which predates both the Bible and the Code of Hammurabi, so I’d say it is indeed the oldest scam in the book.
Stupid Gilgamesh.
:mad:
Don’t have my copy of Gilgamesh in hand, but I’ll bet there’s a case of the old “meet me and we’ll talk about it, I won’t bring a weapon, really” scam in there somewhere.
Let me see if I can find my copy of “History Begins at Sumer” and see what’s in there. I remember “apple polishing” but I’m not sure about scams.