Confidence game definition
/What is a Confidence Game?
A confidence game is a situation in which a swindler gains the confidence of a wealthy victim and then uses his position of trust to convince the victim to hand over a large amount of cash in exchange for the promise of a “sure thing” investment.
Examples of a Confidence Game
One example of a confidence game is when, after gaining the victim’s confidence by faking a series of small investment wins, a swindler prevails upon the victim to give him a large amount of money for a supposed investment, and instead keeps the money. In another confidence game, the swindler creates a fake brokerage operation that uses fake stock quotations to convince the person to place large investments - which the swindler then walks away with.
How to Conduct a Confidence Game
The key stages in a confidence game are as follows:
Give the victim an opportunity to profit from a scheme.
Give the victim a small payout from the scheme, to trigger his greed.
Trigger a crisis that requires the victim to act at once, putting more money into the scheme.
Take the cash and disappear.