Con Game

A ConGame is a means by which the unscrupulous take your money by deception, generally by elaborate deception. Alternatatively, a ConGame is a means by which you take money from the gullible.

HouseOfGames is a film about a psychiatrist studying con artists. In it they explain:

: "Cons work not because the victim trusts you, but because you put trust in the victim. Then they want to help you, and you let them."

An example - see NigerianScam?. That works by greed, but it has an element of the above.

A con man sold the Eiffel Tower to a couple of Japanese industrialists. He said the French were fed-up with it and they wanted to sell it to scrap.

And the Japanese bought the Eiffel Tower along with the schemer's story!

Well when they went to get the Tower the next day, their welcome was not as sweet as they had expected!

A salesperson for TLA, Inc comes up to you and says he has a terrific product that will solve all your development problems. Because it's near the end of the quarter and he's looking to make his number, he offers you a one-time deal, $3500/seat. You buy ten. You get back to the office, open the box, and inside is a CD filled with software you could have downloaded off the Internet for free, but it includes a fancy TLA-brand installer and gui administrative tool. You just paid $3500 for an install script and a web page.

Salesperson tells you that this product is really great, but could you please send $400 more for the support toolkit. And $1500/month for "maintenance". Just a few hundred dollars more and we'll give you an upgrade that solves some of the problems you're having. And so on. -- StevenNewton

CategoryOffTopic

(Exactly how is this OnTopic?) It is about people, one of the three things this wiki is about [Read or re-read PeopleProjectsAndPatterns]