How To Become A Professional Con Artist

by Dennis M. Marlock

A fool and his money are soon parted, so the saying goes. And if the job is done right, the fool doesn't even realize it's happened until the wily con artist has moved on to the next victim or the next town. In this entertaining and eye-opening book, Dennis M. Marlock, a retired cop and chairman of the board for the international law enforcement organization Professionals Against Confidence Crime, takes the reader into the mind and greedy heart of the con man. You'll learn the mechanics behind famous swindles such as the pigeon drop, the Jamaican switch, bank-examiner schemes, three-card monte and even fortune-telling. You'll find out why a good scam artist rarely gets caught and, if he does, how he gets away with the lightest punishment or no punishment at all. If you've ever read a news story about a sucker getting taken and wondered how he could have fallen for that, you need to read this book before an honest-faced stranger offers you a deal too good to pass up.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

152 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

Reviews

[Jim Rossi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this short book several times in the course of my own adventure, which is coming out in July 2019: "Cleantech Con Artists: A True Vegas Caper." Marlock's book is terrific because it doesn't just describe cons; it describes how to spot and prevent them. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. It's roughly a million times better than Konnikova's "The Confidence Game."

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're interested in learning about Confidence Tricks, widely available resources such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confide... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... have more info than this book.

Still, the detailed discussion about motives was interesting, as was the appeal to social conservatism---the value of societal trust.

[Gavin Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book about how cunning swindlers scam their gullible sucker victims!

[Kylos · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little bit historical... a little bit instructional... and just a tad self help.
learn to rip people off!
or at least adapt the techniques to everyday life.
if youre smart and you read it, you can be smart and dangerous.
at the very least you'll identify that dude who's trying to scam you by changing a 20.

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very inconsistently written, bouncing from attempts at tongue-in-cheek humor to stern lectures on society's ills. From the description, I was expecting more information on actual cons. For a short book, it felt padded with uninteresting and/or tangential points (such as an in-depth look at the different types of lies, from 'etiquette lies' to white lies and on up).

[Ross Cavins · Rating 3 out of 5]

For character research ... short read. Some useful information.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting material and humorously told. I enjoyed this read.

[Adriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read. Most of these cons/scams are predictable. Still informative and entertaining.

[Arthur Mertens · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pigeon drop and the bank-examiner scheme were two of my favorite cons in this book. Dennis Marlock takes the reader carefully through dozens of confidence cons. An interesting read.