You can't con an honest man....

[Loosehead]

I've often heard the above and tend to beleive it's true, well can you con an honest man?

[gammaray]

A con only works because the mark is eager to participate in something that will get them something for nothing. Normally this involves potentially doing something illegal. However there are degrees of the con. A con involving "find the lady" is still a con but preys on a persons greed and beleive that they can beat the odds. The only illegal part, and therefore dishonest is that perpertrated by the con artists themselves. I think then you need to broaden the saying to something like You can't con an honest, financially secure, street wise man.

[Ethel]

These vile conmen/thieves that prey on vulnerable, usually elderly, people by charging extortionate fees for shoddy jobs such as roofing that doesn't need doing are certainly conning honest people.

But I have no sympathies with people who knowingly buy branded goods very cheaply from market stalls and then complain they've got hookie gear. They are greedy and willing to buy goods they believe to be stolen or fallen off the back of a lorry.

[noxlumos]

I think you tend to judge people by the way you would behave towards them, therefore if you are honest as the day is long, you don't see the potential for a con because it's not within your sphere of understanding, so no, I'd disagree strongly and say that life's innocents and honest folk are the most likely to get conned. Try conning a con artist and see how far you get........

[Aquagility]

Why do we think "fallen off the back of a lorry" as different from stolen? Just as "shoplifting" is theft.

[jake-the-peg]

Yes you can - take phishing.

Joe mug gets an Email purporting to be from his bank asking him to reset his e-banking password via the link in the mail.

Being honest but gullible he clicks the link, signs in and believes he changes his password details. Of course it's not the bank's site but one that looks like it.

Bingo! bad guy gets Joe's details logs in and empty's his account.

It's a confidence trick because the victim places his confidence in something which is not what he thinks it is.

Any confidence trick which gets people to place their trust in an established authority figure (bank, Police etc. ) who is in fact a fraud will be perfectly capable of "conning an honest man"

[Loosehead]

Yes fair enough Jake, phishing is conning the innocent who are perhaps ignorant of banking procedures.

What about the people who get conned by these bogus lotteries, they know they haven't entered a lottery but still believe they can claim a prize so I reckon they are at least guilty of believing there is a free lunch.

[Ethel]

Aquagility - I agree, falling off a back of a lorry is an expression for stolen goods and is theft.

My mother who would be well over 100 if she were still alive was convinced that goods that had fallen off the back of a lorry were cheap because the fall could have caused damage in some way.

She would not be told. Naive?

[jake-the-peg]

I think it's perfectly possible to be basically honest and still think it's possible to get something for nothing

I think much Tory party philosophy is based on that premise

:c)

[Loosehead]

come on Jake, that's the basic socialist mantra, "the world owes you a living"

[mibn2cweus]

I never ever tell the truth. <�?

[maximo]

Well...my father came home one night when I was little with some board games,like monopoly, and they REALLY had fallen off the back of the lorry ! lol There had been an accident on the road, and the truck had fallen on its side, opening the door, and causing the boxes inside to fall all over the road. The driver ( unharmed ) said people could have whatever had come out of the boxes ( quite a few had burst open), because they wouldn't be fit for selling anyway, and he was going to get some back from the insurance. So there, it does happen ! ;-)