Scam

Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men') at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')".

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.

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.

"[9] Confidence tricks exploit characteristics such as greed,[9] dishonesty, vanity, opportunism, lust, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, desperation, and naïvety.

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.

[10] Researchers Huang and Orbach argue:[1] Cons succeed for inducing judgment errors—chiefly, errors arising from imperfect information and cognitive biases.

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.