Hipster Griftster

Is "Hipster Grifter" just another way of saying "Modern Con Man"? We hope so since the phrase is getting tossed around a lot these days, thanks to Kari Ferrell -- actually thanks to Gawker, which has been our definitive source on the story. Here are a couple of their links

Meet Kari.
The scammer spotted.
A visual history.
Charm in action.

Dirty Money

The Black Money Scam (aka The Wash Wash) is one of those things that sounds so old-timey, like something out of The Sting, that it kinda makes you wish you were around in the '50s to watch a grifter at work with it. Hard to believe then that the scam itself isn't even a decade old.

If you want to see how it's done, watch this video. (It takes a few minutes but totally worth it)

When we watched the video last year, we thought well this is cute, if a little ridiculous. But then we read this news story today and realized that not only is it still possible to pull the Black Money Scam, but people seem to really be falling for it hard - and they're not happy. In fact, two Long Island con men are now dead (sheesh, they just can't catch a break these days!) killed in a house "littered with pieces of black paper used in the scam"...

True

Did you know a recent study in American shopping habits showed that April Fools Day is the second biggest gift-giving day of the year? So hop on the bandwagon and buy this book today. Next year, let's go for number one.

And here's a fake history of the holiday, with a complete waste of a list.

"When Good Cons Go Bad"

That's the title of a section in our book, but with this whole Bernie Madoff thing going on, it's not a bad subject to return to. While our take on the subject is a little less wild than his, movie-blogger Jeffrey Wells has a pretty well thought-out and extensive plan on what he'd have done in Bernie's shoes when it looked like things were about to tank.

It involves a plastic surgery in the Ukraine, bodyguards in Moscow, high-security in Vietnam, and of course massive amounts of cash. And that's just the first third of the plan. Click here to read.

If you're in Northhampton, we hope you already got your tickets to Being Harry Houdini, this afternoon's celebration hosted by The Modern Con Man, Todd Robbins.

If you didn't get tix in time, you can always just read about it here.

Conned Man?

This story is almost too crazy to believe. A guy scammed $600,000 from his clients – then lost it all when he sent the money to a Nigerian who told him he'd inherited a fortune. Wow. We suggest making Nigerian friends ASAP, as it turns out this ploy is going to keep Michael Axel from spending even one night in jail.

Someone is having a good laugh.