Confidence scams
I have a problem with something I've been writing. It's the second draft. First let me say that I'm well versed in a vast array of confidence games, but my problem is that I'm trying to think of a good one to pull on a restaurant. I've written it with the fiddle game in mind.
A fiddle game works like this:
Two con men work together, one going into an expensive restaurant looking down on his luck, eating, and claiming that he left his wallet in his car. As collateral, he leaves his only posession, a violin which he uses to panhandle. Then, the second con man shows up and offers a large sum of money for such a rare instrument. He tells him that he can be back in an hour with his partner who does apraisals. When the "fiddler" comes back, with the money to pay for his meal. The mark, thinking he has an offer on the table, buys the violin from the "fiddler" player who "reluctantly" sells it for around, $600.
My problem is that the fiddle game seems a little dated in my eyes, but I need a scam that requires two people. I obviously don't want to rip off "Choke" which is what my friends kept telling me to do when I originally wrote the scene.
Maybe it's a longshot, but you all seem really helpful so I hope someone has an idea that can help.
If the "fiddle" scam seems dated, you could just switch the violin for some other object that might be worth something. Though I guess the hard part would be coming up with why someone was carrying it around.
The Flim-Flam Man with George C Scott is a good movie to get some ideas from.
I saw the fiddle scam played with a so-called high pedigree dog once in a brit tv series with Robert Vaugh.
Thanks, that was all pretty helpful. I have Steal This Book, but haven't read it since high school. I'll definitely check that out again and The Flim-flam Man is one I never even heard of which is embarrassing because I'm a big George C Scott fan.
Seriously, thanks.
A simple one my wife and I do but it has to be a place where you pay a cashier rather than your server.
My wife will go in, sit down and eat a large meal and recieve the bill, after the bill is printed up she decides to have dessert (either on the way to the cashier or simply walks up to the bar/counter) and get's dessert on a separate ticket. Then on the way out simply pocket the larger ticket and just pay the lesser one. Or she will eat a large meal and when she is almost done I come in and order something small like a slice of pie. When both bills are sitting on the counter, she takes mine (on accedent) pays and leaves, then when I'm finishing, I act in amazement at the mistaken bill in front of me and simply pay for my pie and leave.
There are more in Abby Hoffman's "Steal This Book"