Taken from Cory's BoingBoing post.
Wikipedia's list of confidence tricks is a globe-spanning journey through con-jobs ancient and modern. Required and fascinating reading:
A clip joint or fleshpot is an establishment, usually a strip club or entertainment bar, typically one claiming to offer adult entertainment or bottle service, in which customers are tricked into paying money and receive poor, or no, goods or services in return. Typically, clip joints suggest the possibility of sex, charge excessively high prices for watered-down drinks, then eject customers when they become unwilling or unable to spend more money. The product or service may be illicit, offering the victim no recourse through official or legal channels.
The Melon Drop is a scam in which the scammer will intentionally bump into the mark and drop a package containing (already broken) glass. He will blame the damage on the clumsiness of the mark, and demand money in compensation. This con arose when artists discovered that the Japanese paid large sums of money for watermelons. The scammer would go to a supermarket to buy a cheap watermelon, then bump into a Japanese tourist and set a high price.
As most of you already know I'm a big fan of the public being totally aware of these type of tricks or scams. Its self protection from the elements who will take anything from you if let them.
It would be good to actually link some of these with the Real Hustle episodes which are mainly online now. We also need something like this for the electronic world. I don't just mean how to identify scam email but also more advanced stuff like checking certs, setting up vpns and checking for leaking for information. And of course we need a ton around simply language multiplation (social engineering). Too many people fall for these scams/tricks.
