Watching The Sting is like having The Big Con set to music. I couldn’t believe how much of that movie they lifted almost verbatim from Maurer.
The pigeon drop is in the category of the “short con” in that you are taking usually taking the mark for all the money he has ready access to (as opposed to the “long con” where you send him home for more in round 2). A carefully chosen mark can net the grifter quite a handsome payoff in this scam.
It bears noting at this point, after so many references to David Mamet films, that Mamet’s current wife’s name is Rebecca Pidgeon.
One of the things a scam artist is hoping for is that knowledge you possess that he is hoping you think he doesn’t.
In other words he wants you to greedily know that: 1.) He can’t get at money you have put in a bank. 2.) You are not going to the bank agreed upon. or 3.) The place you are heading for is Neiman Marcus, and it is not a bank at all.
This way you are thinking about taking advantage of the grifter and not thinking about being taken advantage of. The con man works on the assumption that you will be at least partially blinded by greed.
There used to be a saying that con men liked to quote, “You can’t cheat an honest man.” Many stings like the pigeon drop used to work best if the mark was not honest, because he was mentally taking the money and running when he should have been most aware. After all, an honest man would take the “found” money to a police station or newspaper or insist the “foreign” gentleman find a safe place to deposit it.
It’s like the crimpped edge on the ace in a Three-Card Monte game. The shill lets you think only you and he know it’s there and the dealer doesn’t know this fact. You bet small a couple of times and win by watching the crimpped edge on the ace and then when you get greedy and bet big, all of a sudden some other card has the crimpped edge (small mark on the back or whatever). And because your anticipated success was dependent upon taking advantage of some ignorance on your opponent’s part, you are less likely to protest.