Download or read book Hustlers and Con Men written by Jay Robert Nash and published by M Evans & Company. This book was released on 1976-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anecdotal accounts of the most successful, most outrageous, and most expert scammers, flim-flammers, swindlers, and sharpers of the past two hundred years provide grist for Barnum's mill

Download or read book The Con Men written by Terry Williams and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-10 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ethnography of NYC’s scammers presents “a revealing portrait of a critical but little known element of city life…timely, incisive, and poignant” (Elijah Anderson, author of Code of the Street). This vivid account of hustling in New York City explores the sociological reasons why con artists play their game and the psychological tricks they use to win it. Sociologists Terry Williams and Trevor B. Milton spent years with New York con artists to uncover their secrets. The result is an unprecedented view into how con games operate, whether in back alleys and side streets or in police precincts and Wall Street boiler rooms. Whether it's selling bootleg goods, playing the numbers, squatting rent-free, scamming tourists with bogus stories, selling knockoffs on Canal Street, or crafting Ponzi schemes, con artists use verbal persuasion, physical misdirection, and sheer charm to convince others to do what they want. Williams and Milton examine this act of performance art and find meaning in its methods. Through their sophisticated exploration of the personal experiences and influences that create a successful hustler, they build a portrait of unusual emotional and psychological depth. This engaging ethnography demonstrates how the city's unique urban and social architecture lends itself to the perfect con.

Download or read book The Lies of Locke Lamora written by Scott Lynch and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2024-08-27 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fantasy meets crime caper in the first book of a landmark, enduringly popular epic series about a roguish group of conmen, which George R. R. Martin has called “fresh, original, and engrossing . . . gorgeously realized.” An orphan’s life is harsh—and often short—in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But young Locke Lamora dodges relentless danger, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentlemen Bastards, Locke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game—or die trying.

Download or read book Financial Serial Killers written by Tom Ajamie and published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2010-07-28 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By using true tales of thieves, swindlers, and fraudsters at work, Financial Serial Killers illustrates how these perpetrators get their hooks into investors' wallets, savings accounts, and portfolios—and never let go. The worst financial crisis since the great depression revealed that thousands of mom and pop investors had lost millions to so-called Mini-Madoffs. They are the thieves and conmen who had used phony financial acumen to steal investors' money, wipe out savings, and damage lives. Financial Serial Killers reveals the cons—from the grand to picayune—advisers cultivate with their victims—relationships that are essential to the fraud. Take the story of Lillian, the little old lady who invested with Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world. After her husband died, she thought her family's treasure of $24 million in stock controlled by Buffett was safe. It was—until a family relative introduced the eighty-nine-year-old grandmother to a pair of unscrupulous insurance agents who convinced her to reinvest her savings in life insurance—decimating her nest egg while padding the agents' pockets. Lillian's story, as well as other accounts of deceit and fraud are the core of Financial Serial Killers. Readers will learn how to better protect their family's wealth and savings after reading this book.

Download or read book The Con Men written by Terry Williams and published by Studies in Transgression. This book was released on 2017-08 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hard-edged guide to New York City swindles, street life, and culture, through direct interviews with con artists and hustlers.

Download or read book Players written by Geno Zanetti and published by Running Press Adult. This book was released on 2002-12-31 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once I hear the clatter of chips I almost go into convulsions," said Dostoyevsky, while Anatole France wrote, "The gambler is driven by the fascination of danger at the bottom of all great passions." The characters the reader meets in Players—chess grand masters, poolroom hustlers, or street-hardened practitioners of the short con—are all alike propelled by the ecstasy of risk. "The stake is money," France wrote, "in other words, immediate, infinite possibilities." In fact, as the reader hooks up with David Mamet in the poker room and meets Damon Runyon's Bookie Bob, Saul Bellow's immortal Yellow Kid, and learns from Herbert Asbury about the antics of Izzy and Moe, and from David Maurer about the discreet charm of the confidence man, Walter Tevis on Fast Eddie Felson and Minnesota Fats on the seductions of nineteenth-century gambling dens, high lives and low will merge and the world of gambler and con-artist will blur. Selected writings by Jorge Luis Borges, Hunter S. Thompson, Nick Tosches, and many others are featured.

Download or read book The Confidence Game written by Maria Konnikova and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-01-10 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It’s a startling and disconcerting read that should make you think twice every time a friend of a friend offers you the opportunity of a lifetime.” —Erik Larson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dead Wake and bestselling author of Devil in the White City Think you can’t get conned? Think again. The New York Times bestselling author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes explains how to spot the con before they spot you. “[An] excellent study of Con Artists, stories & the human need to believe” –Neil Gaiman, via Twitter A compelling investigation into the minds, motives, and methods of con artists—and the people who fall for their cons over and over again. While cheats and swindlers may be a dime a dozen, true conmen—the Bernie Madoffs, the Jim Bakkers, the Lance Armstrongs—are elegant, outsized personalities, artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. How do they do it? Why are they successful? And what keeps us falling for it, over and over again? These are the questions that journalist and psychologist Maria Konnikova tackles in her mesmerizing new book. From multimillion-dollar Ponzi schemes to small-time frauds, Konnikova pulls together a selection of fascinating stories to demonstrate what all cons share in common, drawing on scientific, dramatic, and psychological perspectives. Insightful and gripping, the book brings readers into the world of the con, examining the relationship between artist and victim. The Confidence Game asks not only why we believe con artists, but also examines the very act of believing and how our sense of truth can be manipulated by those around us.

Download or read book Pay Any Price written by James Risen and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2014 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War corrupts. Endless war corrupts absolutely. Ever since 9/11 America has fought an endless war on terror, seeking enemies everywhere and never promising peace. In Pay Any Price, James Risen reveals an extraordinary litany of the hidden costs of that war: from squandered and stolen dollars, to outrageous abuses of power, to wars on normalcy, decency, and truth. In the name of fighting terrorism, our government has done things every bit as shameful as its historic wartime abuses -- and until this book, it has worked very hard to cover them up. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus. FDR authorized the internment of thousands of Japanese Americans. Presidents Bush and Obama now must face their own reckoning. Power corrupts, but it is endless war that corrupts absolutely.

Download or read book Big Fat Food Fraud written by Jeff Scot Philips and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Big Fat Food Fraud gives the public an unprecedented and eye-opening inside look at the corrupt practices of the food and weight-loss industries, which have combined to raid Americans' wallets and to decimate their health. Equal parts The Wolf of Wall Street and Fast Food Nation, Big Fat Food Fraud takes the reader on Philips's colourful, personal journey through the dark underbelly of America's food industry.

Download or read book For God Country and Coca Cola written by Mark Pendergrast and published by . This book was released on 2000-03-17 with total page 666 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated history of the Coca-Cola soft drink company.

Download or read book The Art of the Con written by R. Paul Wilson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sucker is still born every minute. In this modern and interconnected world, con-men are lurking everywhere – it’s never been easier for them to dupe us, take from us, and infiltrate our lives. One of the world’s leading and celebrated experts on con-games takes the reader through the history of cons, how they’ve been updated to the modern age, how they work, how to spot them, and how to protect yourself from being the victim of one. R. Paul Wilson is a con-man who works for the other side – our side. He has spent a lifetime learning, performing, studying, and teaching about the ins and outs of the con world in order to open up our eyes to the dangers lurking about us – and to show us how not to get taken. Paul has never made a living as a con-man, profiting off of marks – he has used his expertise throughout his life to help people avoid cons. In this fascinating book, Paul takes the reader through the history and developments of the con game, what elements from the past are based on basic human psychology and have stood the test of time, what has been updated for the modern era and how it’s getting used in the computer age, the structure of how these cons work, and – most importantly - how to recognize one, protect yourself and your loved ones, and avoid becoming just another sucker.

Download or read book The Card written by Michael J. O'Keeffe and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2007-05-22 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two award-winning sports journalists tell the astonishing story of one of the country's most prized icons--the legendary Honus Wagner baseball card--and bring to light the myths, lore, rumors, and facts that have shaped this card's legend.

Download or read book How to Scam written by Hustler and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-02-07 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a necessary read both for persons who see a living through scamming and for persons who want to avoid scammers. Failure to read this book is failure to get rich quick or avoid scammers. This is a book for educational purpose. Get rich by reading it now or don't read it and get scammed. The choice is yours.

Download or read book Hustler Days written by R. A. Dyer and published by Lyons Press. This book was released on 2005-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rollicking portrait of the kings of the cues

Download or read book The Confidence Man in American Literature written by Gary H. Lindberg and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1982 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Hustlers Beats and Others written by Ned Polsky and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ranging from pool hustling to pornography, this book analyzes deviant branches of American life, dispels misconceptions about them, and throws new light on sociological theory and method. Each chapter radically dissents from one or more mainstream opinions about deviance. The first chapter examines the alleged causes for the decline of American poolrooms and finds them wanting, traces the rise and fall of poolrooms to historical changes in America's social structure, and cogently dissects the recent poolroom revival. The second chapter, reports a field study of a deviant occupation, pool hustling, describing the hustler's work situation and career from recruitment to retirement. In revealing how pool hustlers, although dedicated wholly to a vocation that merely breaks unenforced gambling laws, frequently supplement their income by means of outright felonies, the author develops a new theory of "crime as moonlighting." The third chapter sharply criticizes our criminology textbooks for avoiding the study of uncaught adult criminals in their natural environments. It demonstrates such research to be both necessary and practical with career felons as well as moonlighters. The author describes field techniques he has used with career felons, offers new findings gleaned by means of these techniques, and answers moral objections to such research. The forth chapter presents the first genuinely empirical study of the beat delinquent sub-culture, in which the author corrects some journalistic views such as that most beats are exhibitionists and some sociological ones such as that "retreatist" drug-users can meet neither legitimate nor criminal success norms. The final chapter, on the sociology of pornography, holds that the courts are wrong to claim that naturalistic erotic art is non-pornographic, and wronger still to claim that hard-core pornography is, in Mr. Justice Brennan's words, "utterly without redeeming social importance." The author's unusual blend of

Download or read book Forty Years of Hustling written by Edward E. Palmer and published by . This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.