My stock story was basically the same for more than twenty years. However, each victim was different, and the situations varied. Strange-enough, the victims themselves made suggestions that helped me to improve the scheme. – Joseph Weil, The Autobiography of Yellow Kid Weil, Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., 1948.
This is the game all those pigeons have been playing with our vehicles. Let’s join their warped game and help them get points so they can catch a portal to move on to the next scene. A simple two taps with very good aim can get you the points they need. And watch out for some cool surprises along the way! The Con: A simple trick, where the scammer intentionally bumps into someone on the street, dropping a pre-damaged item, and then insists they pay compensation. Con men often rely upon the inherent greed of their victims, which is why the pigeon drop is such an effective scam. In this elaborate scheme, the con artist approaches the mark (or pigeon) in a. Currency exchanges. Which of the following is a type of con game in which individuals recruit others into the scheme and ask them for money? Posted by 1 year ago. Drop some numbers to play 8 ball pool cup pong mini golf or anything. Like many scams, the con game known as the 'pigeon drop' relies on the victim being blinded by greed - by the idea of getting something for nothing. In the pigeon drop, the victim believes that he will share in some unexpected windfall if he just puts up some of his own money. A look at how this scam works will help you understand how to spot it.
Moresherry, dear? asked Aunt Sarah, waving toward the decanter. “Justhelp yourself.”
Pigeon Drop Examples
I have never liked sherry, especially the sweet, cream sherry favored by Aunt Sarah, but I have been drinking a glass of it every Thursday afternoon in this room since I was 13 years old. I had been coming the few blocks to see her about once a week from the time I was allowed to make the trip by myself. The week I was 13 she served me my first glass of sherry. I didn’t like it then, either, but I was not about to admit it. Although she never said a word about it, I knew my parents would have conniptions if they knew she allowed me to drink a grownup’s drink, so I never told them. For reasons that I could never fathom, they were not really pleased anyway, with my friendship for Aunt Sarah. She was really my mother’s aunt, and though my mother seemed very fond of her, she did not encourage my weekly visits. In the beginning my fascination with Aunt Sarah was that, even before I was 13 and eligible for sherry, she talked to me as if I were an adult, and that is a rare experience for a boy, or a young man, for that matter, and we, to this day, shared a passion for reading and for talking about books. I missed the years that I was away at school, but once I was back, I had picked up the old habit again. In all those 14 years nothing seemed to have changed about Aunt Sarah or the room. I had always thought her to be very old – I guess now she was at least 75. She was not very fond of discussing her age so I was not really sure. I guess she must not have always been this thin and frail looking, and perhaps her wrinkles had become more numerous and more pronounced, but her hair had been snow-white ever since I could remember, and her sparkling black eyes held the same humor and intelligence that they had always done.
Weheard the sound of her front door opening and closing and footstepsin the hall. “It’s Robert,” she said. “He’s on days thisweek. It always amazes me that such a big man can walk so quietly.”
“Robert,”she called. “Come in here.”
“Well,greetings, George. How’s the future DA getting along?”
“Stilllost in the back in that crazy office. How’s the flat-footbusiness?”
The Con: A simple trick, where the scammer intentionally bumps into someone on the street, dropping a pre-damaged item, and then insists they pay compensation. The aim is to convince the victim that they are at fault.
“Oh,booming,” he said. “One thing cops never lack is business.”
Iwatched, grinning to myself, as Aunt Sarahhanded him a glass of sherry. I knew he didn’t like sherry either,but one would never guess that from the way he accepted the glass.Bob and I had met at school in a criminology class and in spite ofrather different temperaments – he was a talented football player,and I was a bookworm – had become good friends and had roomedtogether our senior year. I had gone on to law school, but Bob hadcome home to his job in the police department; exactly what he hadalways wanted and his reason for majoring in criminology. Knowingthat Aunt Sarah had a small apartment to rent in her old house, I hadsuggested that it might be suitable for him. It had worked out betterthan I had hoped. One could see now at a glance the affection andesteem they held for each other.
Bob lowered his bulk into a chair that seemed a little small for him. In spite of his size he moved gracefully and easily. One doesn’t become a college football star on size alone. As he sipped his sherry, I became aware that he was uneasy. His normally cheerful expression had been replaced by the slight frown that I knew meant concern and indecision. He seemed to be searching for a way to say something as his brown eyes flicked uncertainly toward and then away from me. “I’m glad you are here, George,” he said. “There is something that I have to discuss with Aunt Sarah, and I am glad that you are present. It’s kind of serious, and you are her real family, after all.”
I looked at Aunt Sarah, but she was smiling at Bob without any visible concern. “My, you are serious. What in the world is it, Robert?” she asked.
“Well,”said Bob, “I haven’t seen you for some time, George, and youprobably don’t know that I’ve been assigned to the buncombesquad. They say the department believes that trying to outwit con menis an education for new detectives. And they may be right. I’velearned more in a few weeks about people than I would have dreamedpossible. And some of it I’m sorry I even learned. Did you knowAunt Sara is a fountain of information and an all-around expert onall kinds of bunco schemes?”
“No,I sure didn’t. How in the world would you know anything aboutconfidence games?” I asked her.
“Oh,George, you know I’ve read a million whodunits. I may have readevery whodunit printed since 1890. There’s no aspect of con gamesthat has not been thoroughly written up in these time wasters.”
“George,do you know what the pigeon drop confidence game is?” asked Bob.
“No,I know the name, but I don’t know the details,” I answered.
“Well,it works more or less this way. A man, or more often a woman, isaccosted on the street, often at a bus stop, by a woman holding anenvelope. The woman says, ‘Look what I just found. An envelope fullof money. Just look. There’s $5,000 here.’ And she opens theenvelope to show a stack of bills. ‘What do you think we should dowith it?’ the woman asks. The victim or mark, surprised at beingincluded in the decision, usually does not know what to say, and thecon woman then says, ‘I know, my boss is a lawyer, he’ll knowwhat to do. Come to this phone booth while I call him. He’ll tellus what to do.’ She makes the call and then says, ‘My boss saysthat we should hold the money for thirty days, and if no one hasadvertised for it or claimed it by then, that it is ours. He sayssince you know about it, we should split the money.’
“Nowcomes the tricky part. The woman explains to the victim that she willtrust the victim to hold the victim’s half of the money, but thevictim must prove that he or she will not spend the money before thethirty days are up. The way the victim can prove that is bywithdrawing a like amount of money from his or her savings accountand showing it to the confidence operator. This the victim oftendoes. The operator then puts the money that the mark has withdrawninto the envelope that contains half the found money and then givethe victim the sealed envelope with the money to hold for thirtydays. The victim opens the envelope as soon as she is home or out ofsight of the operator and, of course, finds the envelope is now fullof sheets cut from a newspaper. Not only has the found moneydisappeared, but the savings she withdrew is gone as well.”
“Thatsounds insane to me,” I said. “I don’t see how anyone couldfall for such a stupid game.”
“Well,” said Bob, “they’ve been falling for it for something over a century. It has been well publicized and is perhaps the best known swindle in the world, and it is pulled a dozen times a year in every city of any size in the country. And I promise you it will be a popular con game long after we are gone. I know it sounds like it would never work, but it sure does.”
“Actually,”said Aunt Sarah, “I know from my detective novels that the mostsuccessful con games don’t seem to make a lot of sense. Somehow thevery implausibility of them seems to make them more believable. Thevictim is allowed to fill in details to suit himself. It’s thesimple appeal to greed and larceny in the mark that works – notcomplicated and subtle schemes.”
“Oneof our recent victims, even after the confidence game was exposedkept saying of the operator, ‘But she was such a nice, friendlyperson – the nicest person I’ve met in a long time.’”
“Lookslike people would know about this one,” I said.
“Youdidn’t,” Bob said.
“Well,I didn’t recall the details, but if anyone had tried it on me, Iwould have remembered it. I had read about it before, of course.”
“Theywouldn’t try it on you,” Bob said. “Do you remember, AuntSarah, that I told you that you would be taken as a prime candidateby a con man. You look like you probably have some money in the bank,and you are the right age so that you might have a little confusionif faced with their scheme.
“George,when I was assigned to the bunco squad, I was given a briefing onfour couples who are known to operate the pigeon drop in this town.Like you, I could hardly believe anybody would fall for it, but Iread case after case where it had been successful. I mentioned it toAunt Sarah, and she seemed interested in all the details of theracket. And she was very helpful to me. She told me some things towatch for – some tip offs that the game was in progress, and as aresult I was able to apprehend one of the operators with what I thinkwill be enough evidence to get her convicted. My sergeant, Sgt.McCluskey, said that it was beginner’s luck. It wasn’t; it wasknowledge gained from talking to Aunt Sarah.
“Twoweeks after we arrested that woman, one of the other known couplesdisappeared. Sgt. McCluskey picked up some strange rumors that theyhad been victimized by one of their marks and had left town hurriedlyin anger and embarrassment.”
Aunt Sarah laughed. “I’ve read,” she said, “that nothing is so humiliating to a confidence game operator as having a supposed mark outwit him. Confidence swindlers always think they are the only people who have any brains at all. I guess they have some reason to think so, considering what they are able to make people believe.”
“That’snot all,” said Bob. “I was assigned to try to catch one of theother operators. The man was not identified, but the woman, known asWaxy Malone, is famous for her skill in the game. Aunt Sarah helpedme with a plan to catch her. We had spotted her several times at abus stop on Fourteenth Street across the street from District Saving& Loan. Also, there is a phone booth on that corner. It’s anideal location to operate the pigeon drop. A patrol officer, MaggieLewis, was recruited to help us, and she dressed up as a little, oldlady, looking exactly like Aunt Sarah said a mark should look. Shevisited the savings and loan office every day and then waited at thebus stop, timing it so she would be there about a half-hour before abus came. One of the tellers, the one that worked next to the window,was given a description of Waxy and asked to keep an eye out for her.We went through this routine every afternoon for about two weeks, andthen suddenly we got the bit. The operator, Waxy, approached andopened an envelope and gave her speech. Now, of course, we intendedto arrest her only when Maggie Lewis had passed some money to her soI was waiting, where I could see the bus stop, in the DistrictSavings & Loan. To mysurprise, Maggie suddenly whipped out her handcuffs and arrested Waxyright at the bus stop. I immediately went across the street to seewhat had happened. Maggie told me that Waxy had finally looked in theenvelope that she was holding and had started raving and cursing andstarted to turn away, so Maggie had decided she’d better make thearrest. I looked in the envelope and saw that it was filled with cutsheets of newspaper. They always have at least a couple hundreddollars of real money along with stage money to make the mark thinkthey have thousands, but there was not a single dollar in thisenvelope. Waxy was still raving, but she finally calmed down to asullen silence. She also had on her another envelope filled withnewspaper for her next victim. We might have got her to talk if Sgt.McCluskey hadn’t laughed so much when he saw the envelopes. Thatset her off to cursing and raving again. We had to let her go, ofcourse, since we had no evidence whatsoever against her.”
“Whatdo you think could have happened?” I asked.
“Oh, I know,” he said, “a supposed mark got to her and so skillfully that she didn’t have any idea she’d been had. She thought she had the money that she’d swindled out of her supposed victim in that envelope. This time she was going to show the new mark a batch of real money since it was handy.”
“Iguess I don’t understand,” I said.
“Well,”Bob said, “I talked to the teller that we had briefed on the plan,and he gave me a vague description of a woman who had been in theoffice about an hour earlier that afternoon with Waxy. He had notrecognized Waxy from our description but had seen her at the bus stopduring her arrest, and he was sure she was one of the women who hadbeen in the office earlier.”
“That’spretty funny,” I said.
“Yes,it is. But there’s one little difficulty. Defrauding a confidenceoperator is a crime, too. As an august representative of the districtattorney, won’t you verify that, George?” As he spoke to me, hewas looking at Aunt Sarah. She was smiling at him as if she was proudof some accomplishment of his that I couldn’t see.
“Well, sure,” I said. “I’d hate to have to prosecute such a case though. It might be hard to persuade the jury.”
“Allthe same, it is a crime. Let me try to make my position clear. I’massigned cases – it is not my duty to investigate on the basis ofmy suspicion. We are far too busy for that. But if I knew for a factthat someone had committed a crime, I could not just ignore it. Noteven if it were you, George, or even you, Aunt Sarah.”
“Ifyou saw me running a red light, I would fully expect you to see thatI went to prison for life,” I said. “But I don’t see what youare getting at.”
“Well,I’ve finished. If I could just have some assurance that this wouldnot happen again, I’d forget the whole thing,” Bob said.
“Robert,”said Aunt Sarah, “I think you can depend on it. It sounds like aonce-in-a-lifetime affair to me. As you know, I am quite interestedin your work, and I hope you will continue to discuss it with me.You’ll have no cause to regret it; I’m sure you won’t.”
“Good,”said Bob. He put his sherry glass down and left the room, hitting melightly on the shoulder as he passed my chair.
“Listen,”I said. “I don’t think I like what he seemed to be implying. Thatis, if I understand it. Has he gone crazy?”
“Oh,George,” she said. “As shocking as it may seem to you, I was notalways Aunt Sarah.” There was a touch of acid in her tone that Ihad never heard from her. “I used to be just Sarah. And Sarah at 17married Sam. He was dead before you were born. But it was a greatscandal in the family when I married Sam Huntley. It was a greatscandal because Sam had been in prison – he was a confidence man,and I knew it when I married him. He could charm the birds from thetrees, and he later charmed my family so that they accepted him, butthey never quite forgave me for marrying him even after they acceptedhim. It’s a long, long story, but Sam and I worked some of the mostsuccessful, most imaginative games that had ever been done. If heever had a peer at the business, it had to have been Yellow Kid Weil.His schemes were not as elaborate as some of Weil’s, but they hadthe sure and certain touch of a master.”
Ididn’t know what to say. I couldn’t even believe what I washearing. “I don’t think it’s possible that you were aconfidence operator,” I said.
“That’sthe best qualification that a confidence man can have,” she said.“That is exactly the way everybody felt about Sam. Even afterwards,his marks could not believe that Sam was involved. They usuallythought he must have been duped as well.”
I said nothing; I could think of nothing to say. After all these years I understood something of the background of my mother’s attitude toward Aunt Sarah. How many other secrets were hidden from me in my family? I suddenly felt like an outsider. Why had they never told me? Did they still think me a child?
Forno reason I suddenly remembered that when I was 12 years old, I haddiscovered the Tom Swift books and for a year had read and rereadevery one that I could get my hands on. Every time I saw Aunt Sarahwe talked about those books. Not once in that year did she ever showany sign that the Tom Swift stories were not the greatest ofliterature. She discussed them with seeming enthusiasm and pleasure.Was that a con game? No, encouraging a boy’s love of books is not acon game, that’s just love. Isn’t it? Love is not a con game, isit? Is it?
AuntSarah also lapsed into silence. Her face was turned toward me, butshe had a distant look in her eyes as if she were reviewing somethingremote in time and place from this present and from this living room.Somehow, maybe by a trick of the lighting, she looked older than shehad an hour ago. We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I finallysaid that I should be going. She got up from her chair and got anenvelope from her desk and handed it to me.
“Youhave a lot of young men and women in your office. Some of them mightlike to go to the Policemen’s Ball next month. I happen to have afew tickets which I certainly don’t need. Would you be so good asto give them away for me?”
“HasBob been pushing tickets off on you? Listen, no matter what he says,I know you didn’t do what he suggested. I just know you couldn’t.”
“Thanks,dear,” she said, holding my hand for a minute. “And he didn’tmention the ball; I bought the tickets from a patrolman who knockedon my door.”
As I went down the front steps to the sidewalk, I put the envelope into the breast pocket of my jacket, but almost immediately succumbed to an urge and retrieved it and broke the seal of the envelope and took out a string of tickets. Ten, twenty, twenty-four tickets, I counted. Twenty-four tickets at $20 each. Two swindlers swindled. I regressed to a childhood oath. “Holy mackerel!” I said.
Colophon
Handsetin Deepdene; display type is Piranesi Italic and the initial is agift from Jim Walczak. Cover is Gold Skytone, 65lb. and text stock is60-lb. Hammermill offset. Edited and published by Jake Warner whoprinted 450 copies on a 10×15 C&P at the Boxwood Press,Greenbelt, Maryland 20770.
Pigeon drop (also known as Spanish Handkerchief) is a confidence trick in which a mark or 'pigeon' is persuaded to give up a sum of money in order to secure the rights to a larger sum of money, or more valuable object.[1][2][3][page needed]
To perform a pigeon drop, two con artists pose as strangers to each other and manipulate a mark into seemingly finding a large amount of 'lost' money. The two con artists convince the mark that they can all legitimately claim equal shares of the found money if they each put up some amount of their own money to prove good faith; the mark, unaware that the two others are confederates, believes that they have independently judged this to be a wise course of action. The con artists take possession of the mark's money and hand over what the mark believes to be his share of the found money, or even the entirety of the find if he believes he has been made its trustee. In actuality, the con artists use sleight of hand to give the mark a worthless decoy, such as an envelope full of newspaper scraps. The con artists can then easily leave in the guise of fulfilling some part of the agreed-upon process, such as depositing the funds or filling out legal paperwork, and will be long gone by the time the mark detects the deception.[4][5]
In popular culture[edit]
In the opening scene of the 1973 film The Sting, Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) pull a pigeon drop on a numbers runner for Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw), resulting in the murder of Coleman. This provides the motive for Hooker to seek out Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) to run the titular sting on Lonnegan.
In The Golden Girls, season 5 episode 'Cheaters,' Blanche and Sophia are victims of a pigeon drop at the local mall.
In The Rockford Files, season 2, episode 2 'The Farnsworth Strategem,' Audrey Wyatt (played by Linda Evans) states she had only met Simon Lloyd 'last year. He was working a bad variation of the pigeon drop scam and I cleaned it up.'
In John D. MacDonald's book, Pale Gray for Guilt, Travis McGee, with the help of his sidekick Meyer, takes $60,000 from a mark using the pigeon drop scheme.
Con Game Pigeon Drop 2020
References[edit]
Con Game Pigeon Drop Game
- ^Swierczynski, Duane (2003). The complete idiot's guide to frauds, scams, and cons. Alpha Books. p. 28. ISBN978-0-02-864415-8.
- ^Paul J. Zak (November 13, 2008). 'How to Run a Con'. Psychology Today. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
- ^Arrington, Rick (2006). Crime prevention: the law enforcement officer's practical guide. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.[ISBN missing]
- ^'Wisconsin woman loses $2,000 after being 'completely fooled' by wallet scam'. Fox News. September 5, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^Bird, Allyson (June 4, 2012). 'Police warn of 'found money' scam'. Post and Courier. Retrieved April 11, 2020.