grifting synonym

Grifting: The Art of the Con

Grifting. It’s a word that conjures images of smooth-talking con artists, three card monte games, and victims losing their life savings to scams. But what does it actually mean? At its core, grifting refers to obtaining money or property by deception. It’s the fine art of the con.

Common Synonyms for Grifting

There are many colorful synonyms for grifting and conning that capture the essence of this deceitful activity:

• Swindling – Cheating someone out of money through fraudulent schemes or trickery.
• Flimflamming – Carrying out petty swindles on a regular basis.
• Hoodwinking – Tricking or deceiving someone.
• Bamboozling – Confusing or misleading someone to cheat them.
• Fleecing – Extorting money from someone through threats or deception.
• Defrauding – Cheating someone by gaining their trust and persuading them to hand over money or assets.

The list goes on and on. But they all come back to using lies, emotional manipulation, or clever tricks to unlawfully obtain money or valuables from unsuspecting marks.

Techniques of the Grifter

Grifting requires quite a skillset. The most successful grifters or con artists have many techniques up their custom-tailored sleeves:

• Gaining trust – Grifters are excellent at coming across as charming, likable, and trustworthy. This gets the victim to lower their guard.
• Telling believable lies – Spinning a good yarn that sounds plausible allows the scammer to pull off outrageous cons.
• Exuding confidence – Unwavering self-assurance makes their schemes more convincing.
• Roleplaying – Pretending to be someone they’re not – like a banker, investor, lawyer, or royalty.
• Flattery – Pumping up the victim’s ego makes them more compliant.
• Shameless audacity – Having the sheer gall to come up with and attempt outrageous scams most would balk at.

Of course, it also requires being without conscience, morals, ethics, or concern for who gets hurt. But those things tend to hamper becoming a successful grifter, so they get tossed aside.

Famous Scams and Grifters

Some of the most brilliant scams ever pulled off required imagination, preparation, and impeccable execution by talented grifters. A few that have become the stuff of legend include:

• Victor Lustig – The man who sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice. – This smooth-talking con man actually sold scrap metal rights to the iconic French tower to duped investors not once, but twice in 1925 and 1926.
• Frank Abagnale – Catch Me If You Can con artist – Immortalized in film, this teenage forger and imposter conned millions as a fake pilot, doctor, and lawyer before finally getting caught.
• Charles Ponzi – The original “Ponzi scheme” – This early 20th century criminal swindled investors out of millions by promising impossibly high returns on postage coupons.
• Bernie Madoff – The man behind the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, defrauding thousands out of around $65 billion over decades by pretending to invest their money.

Their ingenuity and lack of scruples allowed them to build notorious reputations as con artists par excellence.

The Damage Done by Grifting

While depictions in movies and books tend to romanticize the cleverness of the con, real-life grifting ruins innocent lives. The victims can suffer devastating financial, emotional, and psychological devastation at the hands of these predators. They often lose their life savings, homes, and ability to trust others again.
Some troubling stats about the human impact include:

• Around 9 million Americans fall victim to identity fraud yearly.
• Imposter scams bilked people out of $667 million just in 2020.
• Sweetheart swindlers con lonely senior citizens out of around $50 billion per year.
• Nearly 15% of scam victims are driven into depression or anxiety disorders.

The evidence is clear – grifting can derail lives.

How to Spot Grifters and Avoid Being Scammed

While grifters can be cunning adversaries, their game gets much harder if you know what red flags to watch out for. Protect yourself by learning common psychological manipulation techniques, being wary of anything too good to be true, and going with your gut instincts.
Specific tips include:

• Watch for name dropping – Dishonest people will often mention impressive contacts, family members, or job titles.
• Verify investment opportunities – If it sounds too good to be true, it always is. Do your due diligence.
• Don’t fall for phishing emails – Cybercriminals can look surprisingly legit. Double check email addresses and hover over links before clicking anything.
• Confirm charities are real before donating.
• Never pay upfront for loans, prizes, grants, or rentals that you haven’t seen.
• Consult professionals when making major financial decisions.

Trusting your gut and erring on the side of skepticism will help you sidestep the grasp of grifters.

Is Grifting Illegal?

While grifting itself isn’t a specific crime, many of the techniques used certainly are. Fraud, larceny, forgery, embezzlement, and racketeering are just a few examples of charges con artists face when caught.
The level of illegality rises even higher when:

• There are multiple victims.
• The combined losses exceed state thresholds.
• The scam was carried out across state lines.
• The fraud involved misuse of public funds, programs, or disaster relief.
• The victim(s) are considered vulnerable, like the elderly, veterans, or those with disabilities.

In legal terms, grifting can potentially amount to grand larceny, money laundering, or major organized fraud. Penalties can range from fines and probation to decades in federal prison for large-scale swindlers.
But grifters tend not to worry much about getting caught. In their arrogance, they think they’re too slick. And by the time one scheme collapses, they’ve usually already moved on to the next con.

Fascination with Grifting in Pop Culture

The fact that there are so many slang terms and glorified depictions of grifting hints at humanity’s endless fascination with con artists. People are drawn to their cunning capers, audacious scams, and ability to outwit the system and get away with the perfect crime.
We see this infatuation play out through:

• Books – Like The Sting, Paper Moon, The Grifters, Catch Me If You Can, and The Big Con.
• Movies – Such as The Sting, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Catch Me If You Can, American Hustle, The Grifters, and many more.
• TV Shows – For example, White Collar, Hustle, Leverage, The Fix, and Imposters.

But while these offer great entertainment, it’s important to remember grifting has real victims and consequences in the non-fiction world. As alluring as swaggering anti-hero scammers can seem, the harm they inflict is no laughing matter – or victimless crime.

The Future of Grifting

As long as greed and dishonesty plague humanity, it seems certain the tricks and spirit of the grifter will live on. As communication gets more technology-based, expect to see more identity theft, phishing scams, email cons, and online auction fraud.
Blockchain and cryptocurrency also offer new frontiers to explore and exploit. And artificial intelligence could take scamming to unprecedented levels. Picture custom-crafted spear phishing texts and emails generated just for you based on your social media activity – scary!
But the law, consumer awareness, and fraud prevention systems continue evolving as well. For now, the timeless battle of con artists vs. marks wages on… with innocents trying to avoid getting stuck in the crossfire.