confidence game

Idioms: confidence game

Also, confidence trick; con game. A swindle in which the victim is defrauded after his or her trust has been won.

For example, The police warned of a confidence game in which people were asked to turn over valuables for a so-called appraisal, or The typical confidence trick is easy to spot if you know what to look for, or I almost let myself be taken in by her con game--she seemed so sincere.

These terms, which use confidence in the sense of "trust," date from the mid-1800s. They also gave rise to confidence man (or con man) for the swindler.


A confidence trick or confidence game, also known as a con, scam, swindle, grift, bunko or flim flam, is an attempt to swindle a person or persons (known as the "mark") which involves gaining his or her confidence. (For confidence tricks dealing with information theft or computers see social engineering.)
Wikipedia article "Confidence trick".