The charming descendant of the Janissaries and the son of a Turkish citizen, Ostap Bender, claimed that he knew at least four hundred ways to fairly take money from citizens. And this was not a mere bluster.
It is enough to recall how easily he managed to capture Madame Gritsatsuev, impersonating a fire inspector, collecting money for the mythical “Union of the sword and screaming,” and also carrying out many other dubious operations.
Thus, the question of who the con is, you can answer briefly - Ostap Bender, so this literary character has incorporated the features of a classic fraudster. Nevertheless, scammers, like scams they turn, are different, and the concept itself has changed over time.
Swindler: meaning of the word
If we turn to encyclopedias and explanatory dictionaries for help, we find out that the term “swindler” comes from the French word meaning “deed”. Moreover, its original meaning was slightly different than the one that we invest in it today.
In the past, they called entrepreneurs who were ready to take risks for the sake of making big profits, and their transactions - scams. You can, of course, argue about the moral character of the businessmen, exposing the ruthless pursuit of profit, but from the point of view of the law, their activities cannot be classified as fraud.
Today a swindler is an extremely negative concept. It means fraudsters, charlatans, crooks, crooks, fraudsters, prostitutes, cheaters, etc. In short, the list of synonyms for the word "swindler" is quite impressive, but the essence is the same - we are talking about a person who profits by deception from others' gullibility.
Different, different faces
In almost any area of human activity, you can come across swindlers. If fortunetellers, thimbles, card cheaters, imaginary beggars and similar scammers are unlikely to deceive the majority of the population, then this is not so easy with other types of scams.
Recall the scandalous financial pyramid MMM and other “charitable foundations”. Thousands of citizens voluntarily gave their savings to financial swindlers in the hope of making the promised profit.
Technology today provides fraudsters with such opportunities for weaning money that Ostap Bender never dreamed of. Phone calls on behalf of the bank’s security service, electronic newsletters about winnings, devices that read data from a bank card, SMS messages on behalf of family members with a request to urgently transfer money - just do not count.
But there are scammers who have chosen a romantic path. Who is a marriage speculator? This is not necessarily a bigamist, because you can profit by not tying yourself with the bonds of Hymen. Knowing perfectly well the psychology of a single woman, scammers specializing in this field take good care of them until they disappear forever, taking with them the money or valuables of a lady of the heart.
What is the secret of their success
Surprisingly, even sober-minded people often become victims of scams. Why is this happening? Firstly, in order to succeed, a fraudster must not only be well versed in human nature, but also be able to quickly change the style of behavior depending on the psychotype of the interlocutor.
Secondly, scams emit such personal charm and magnetism, which is difficult to resist. Moreover, their external data fade into the background. Indeed, marriage fraudsters with more than mediocre looks are known for stories.
Who is a con man in terms of psychology? In short, this is an asocial personality, brisk on the language, with the ability to quickly navigate in the environment. Such scammers are unfamiliar with depression, remorse, and anxiety.
White-collar
Several years ago, White Collar was aired on American television about a former swindler helping the FBI investigate all kinds of fraud, including fake art and financial fraud.
This may seem paradoxical, but some former high-ranking officials (white-collar workers) convicted of fraud, having come out of prison, now earn money from trainings attended by lawyers, auditors, and bank employees. The meaning of such seminars is as follows: to catch a fraudster, one must think like him.
The example of Frank Abignail is indicative in this respect . Who is the scammer Abignail, you ask. He can be called a fraudster on a global scale. He turned his large financial frauds in the 60s of the twentieth century. He served only part of the term in prison, after which the FBI was released and involved in the work to identify fraudsters.
As you can see, even yesterday’s con man can become a consultant to state bodies. The definition of this term has already been given above, we can only add to it that fraudsters are often called the elite of the criminal world, even if they do not belong to the privileged caste of white-collar workers.