Scam
Attempt to defraud a person or group / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Several terms redirect here. For the film of year 2016, see Confidence Game. For counterfeits, see Counterfeit consumer goods. For other uses, see Con Man, Con artist (disambiguation) and Scam (disambiguation).
A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. 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')".[1]