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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AtulaSiriwardane" data-source="post: 4069495" data-attributes="member: 120286">Gambling tricks <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-card_Monte" target="_blank">Three-card Monte</a>, 'Find The Queen', the "Three-card Trick", or "Follow The Lady", is (except for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrical_property" target="_blank">props</a>) essentially the same as the probably centuries-older <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_game" target="_blank">shell game</a> or thimblerig. The trickster shows three <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_card" target="_blank">playing cards</a> to the audience, one of which is a queen (the "lady"), then places the cards face-down, shuffles them around and invites the audience to bet on which one is the queen. At first the audience is skeptical, so the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill" target="_blank">shill</a> places a bet and the scammer allows him to win. In one variation of the game, the shill will (apparently surreptitiously) peek at the lady, ensuring that the mark also sees the card. This is sometimes enough to entice the audience to place bets, but the trickster uses <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleight_of_hand" target="_blank">sleight of hand</a> to ensure that they always lose, unless the conman decides to let them win, hoping to lure them into betting much more. The mark loses whenever the dealer chooses to make him lose. This con appears in the Eric Garcia novel <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matchstick_Men_%28novel%29" target="_blank">Matchstick Men</a> and is featured in the movie <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_%28film%29" target="_blank">Edmond</a>. A variation on this scam exists in Barcelona, Spain, but with the addition of a pickpocket. The dealer and shill behave in an overtly obvious manner, attracting a larger audience. When the pickpocket succeeds in stealing from a member of the audience, he signals the dealer. The dealer then shouts the word "aqua", and the three split up. The audience is left believing that "aqua" is a code word indicating the police are coming, and that the performance was a failed scam. In the Football Picks Scam the scammer sends out tip sheet stating a game will go one way to 100 potential victims and the other way to another 100. The next week, the 100 or so who received the correct answer are divided into two groups and fed another pick. This is repeated until a small population have (apparently) received a series of supernaturally perfect picks, then the final pick is offered for sale. Despite being well-known (it was even described completely on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Money_Caper" target="_blank">an episode</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Simpsons" target="_blank">The Simpsons</a> and used by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown" target="_blank">Derren Brown</a> in "The System"), this scam is run almost continuously in different forms by different operators. The sports picks can also be replaced with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities" target="_blank">securities</a>, or any other random process, in an alternative form. This scam has also been called the inverted pyramid scheme, because of the steadily decreasing population of victims at each stage. Lottery fraud by proxy is a particularly vicious scam, in which the scammer buys a lottery ticket with old winning numbers. He or she then alters the date on the ticket so that it appears to be from the day before, and therefore a winning ticket. He or she then sells the ticket to the mark, claiming it is a winning ticket, but for some reason, he or she is unable to collect the prize (not eligible, etc.). The particular cruelty in this scam is that if the mark attempts to collect the prize, the fraudulently altered ticket will be discovered and the mark held criminally liable. This con was featured in the movie <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matchstick_Men_%28film%29" target="_blank">Matchstick Men</a>, where <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Cage" target="_blank">Nicolas Cage</a> teaches it to his daughter. A twist on the con was shown in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Teacher_Onizuka" target="_blank">Great Teacher Onizuka</a>, where the more than gullible Onizuka was tricked into getting a "winning ticket". The ticket wasn't altered, instead the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper" target="_blank">daily newspaper</a> reporting the day's winning numbers was rewritten with a black pen. Visitors to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas,_Nevada" target="_blank">Las Vegas</a> or other gambling towns often encounter the Barred Winner scam, a form of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud" target="_blank">advance fee fraud</a> performed in person. The artist will approach his mark outside a casino with a stack or bag of high-value casino chips and say that he just won big, but the casino accused him of cheating and threw him out without letting him redeem the chips. The artist asks the mark to go in and cash the chips for him. The artist will often offer a percentage of the winnings to the mark for his trouble. But, when the mark agrees, the artist feigns suspicion and asks the mark to put up something of value "for insurance". The mark agrees, hands over jewelry, a credit card or their wallet, then goes in to cash the chips. When the mark arrives at the cashier, they are informed the chips are fake. The artist, by this time, is long gone with the mark's valuables.   False reward tricks The glim-dropper requires several accomplices, one of whom must be a one-eyed man. One grifter goes into a store and pretends he has lost his glass eye. Everyone looks around, but the eye cannot be found. He declares that he will pay a thousand-dollar reward for the return of his eye, leaving contact information. The next day, an accomplice enters the store and pretends to find the eye. The storekeeper (the intended griftee), thinking of the reward, offers to take it and return it to its owner. The finder insists he will return it himself, and demands the owner’s address. Thinking he will lose all chance of the reward, the storekeeper offers a hundred dollars for the eye. The finder bargains him up to $250, and departs. The one-eyed man, of course, can not be found and does not return. (Described in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Cool_Million" target="_blank">A Cool Million, or, The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin</a> (1934) by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathanael_West" target="_blank">Nathanael West</a>). Variants of this con have been used in movies such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveller_%28film%29" target="_blank">The Traveller (1997)</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade_%28film%29" target="_blank">Shade (2003)</a>. The fiddle game uses the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_drop" target="_blank">pigeon drop</a> technique. A pair of con men work together, one going into an expensive restaurant in shabby clothes, eating, and claiming to have left his wallet at home, which is nearby. As collateral, the con man leaves his only worldly possession, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin" target="_blank">violin</a> that provides his livelihood. After he leaves, the second con man swoops in, offers an outrageously large amount (for example $50,000) for such a rare instrument, then looks at his watch and runs off to an appointment, leaving his card for the mark to call him when the fiddle-owner returns. The mark's greed comes into play when the "poor man" comes back, having gotten the money to pay for his meal and redeem his violin. The mark, thinking he has an offer on the table, then buys the violin from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin" target="_blank">fiddle player</a> (who "reluctantly" sells it eventually for, say, $5,000). The result is the two conmen are $5,000 richer (less the cost of the violin), and the mark is left with a cheap instrument. (This trick is also detailed in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman" target="_blank">Neil Gaiman</a> novel <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gods" target="_blank">American Gods</a> and is the basis for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Streets" target="_blank">The Streets</a>' song "Can't Con an Honest John".)</blockquote>

Verification: Nawa warak dahaya keeyada? (Namaya wadi kireema dahaya)

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