<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> A confidence trick (synonyms include confidence game, confidence scheme, ripoff, scam and stratagem) is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their confidence, used in the classical sense of trust . Confidence tricks exploit characteristics of the human psyche, such as credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, and greed . </P> <P> The perpetrator of a confidence trick (or "con trick") is often referred to as a confidence (or "con") man, con - artist, or a "grifter". Samuel Thompson (1821--1856) was the original "confidence man ." Thompson was a clumsy swindler who asked his victims to express confidence in him by giving him money or their watch rather than gaining their confidence in a more nuanced way . A few people trusted Thompson with their money and watches . Thompson was arrested in July 1849 . Reporting about this arrest, Dr. James Houston, a reporter of the New York Herald, publicized Thompson by naming him the "Confidence Man". Although Thompson was an unsuccessful scammer, he gained reputation as a genius operator mostly because Houston's satirical writing wasn't understood as such . The National Police Gazette coined the term "confidence game" a few weeks after Houston first used the name, the "confidence man". </P> <P> A confidence trick is also known as a con game, a con, a scam, a grift, a hustle, a bunko (or bunco), a swindle, a flimflam, a gaffle or a bamboozle . The intended victims are known as "marks", "suckers", or "gulls" (i.e., gullible). When accomplices are employed, they are known as shills . </P>

Where did the term con man come from
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