The Big Con

"There is a certain romance about master confidence men. The risk, the cleverness, and the nervous tension all combine to make the expert grifter the beloved subject of some of our culture's most treasured films and novels.<br/><br/>In "The Big Con", University of Louisville professor David Maurer explores the world of the confidence man in their golden age - roughly 1914-1923. Drawing details from his personal interviews with hundreds of practicing grifters, Maurer schools us in the art of the con.<br/><br/>As a linguist, Maurer is particularly interested in the argot of the underworld. But to enable us to fully appreciate grifter slang, he takes us on a tour through how the world of the con operates - from the professional operators and the victims to the technical details and the corrupt enablers in the upperworld.<br/><br/>My favorite sections were about the psychology of the marks ("A confidence man prospers only because of the fundamental dishonesty of his victim" and “You can’t cheat an honest man”) and about the mechanics of how the "fix" works. I was shocked at the extent to which con men were able to buy protection from the police and judges and how they were frequently assisted and enabled by bank managers, local politicians, and otherwise honest members of the upperworld.<br/><br/>At the end, Maurer briefly touches on how the con has become more difficult in the modern world now that information is easier to access and federal law enforcement is far more extensive. Yet he notes that "Confidence men trade upon certain weaknesses in human nature. Hence until human nature changes perceptibly there is little possibility that there will be a shortage of marks for con games."<br/><br/>And indeed, we continue to see Ponzi schemes (à la Madoff) and the Spanish Prisoner racket (à la Nigeria) in our modern world. In fact, my grandmother was recently almost taken in by a con that involved a supposed arrest of my little brother and payment of bail by untraceable iTunes gift cards. I suspect that the line between the short con and the big con has been blurred by the ease of accessing and transferring money by digital means - and this has likely enabled a whole new generation of scamming.<br/><br/>And as Maurer notes at the beginning, the methods of con men "differ more in degree than in kind from those employed by more legitimate forms of business." In my mind, the credit default swaps and massive bailouts of the 2008 financial crisis bear more than a passing resemblance to some of the practices described in the book. As Maurer shows, the grift has gotten bigger, bolder, and more sophisticated with time. We're almost 100 years beyond the fairly rudimentary cons described in this book - should we really be so confident that we're not being scammed now without even knowing it?<br/><br/>A few parting comments on this book's impact on our culture. I actually picked this up at the recommendation of Ryan Holiday, and when I looked at its GoodReads page, I saw that one of my favorite authors had already reviewed it. Now that I think about it, I'm not particularly surprised that Scott Lynch's "Gentlemen Bastards" series takes some inspiration from Maurer's book, but it was a cool find nonetheless. Also noteworthy is that the Paul Newman / Robert Redford 1973 movie "The Sting" (Oscar-winner for Best Picture) is largely based on this book, although Maurer did not receive any credit. He sued them and settled out of court in 1976, but then committed suicide 5 years later.<br/><br/>Full review and highlights at <a href="http://books.max-nova.com/big-con/">http://books.max-nova.com/big-con/</a>"