Mental Floss: List Show

8 Old-Timey Scams, Grifts, and Cons (2021x20)

:

Historic con artists used their marks' "confidence" against them. They were able to swindle innocent victims out of money with phony businesses, non-existent products, and a smorgasbord of too-good-to-be-true promises of instant riches. The historical cons, scams, grifts, and tricks featured in this episode of The List Show may be mostly passé, but they teach us something about how con artists ply their trade, in the past and today.