The art of the steal.

"Confidence Man: I seen him first, Joe.
His Pal: Let's toss for him."
Life 12 Aug. 1915. NYPL

Jean Brauscher and Barack Orbach provide a fascinating discussion of the confidence man in "Scamming: The Misunderstood Confidence Man" (Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, 27, 2015), including the shady nineteenth-century activities of Samuel Thompson, the man who gave rise to the term. (Thanks to Law & Humanities blog)