con & scam：骗子、骗局与骗术

    这两个词都有“欺骗、诈骗、诓骗”的意思，用来指通过各种手段，引诱他人上当受骗，以获取钱财的行为。

    街头时常上演的碗盖石头或扑克牌的游戏其实就是这类骗局中典型的一种。这类把戏在英文里称为：confidence game，简称con game.

    这里的confidence（原词义为“信心、自信”）可不是指受骗者有信心赢得赌注，而是指行骗者稳操胜算，设下一个赢你没商量的圈套。从这个词组衍生出的con一词，可以用做动词和名词使用， 例如：

    a con man 骗子

    They conned me out of all my money. 他们骗走了我所有的钱。

    另外一个指骗人、骗局的词是scam.我们先看看下面的例子（from Newsweek May 17 issue 2004）：

    Scams generally fall into two categories： those that appeal to our desire to make money —— usually fast —— and those that appeal to our vanity.

    The Internet is chock full of the first type. All those complaints we're hearing about ``junk mail'' on the Internet， especially on popular service providers like America Online， are largely directed against fast-buck operators attempting to lure us into a get-rich-quick scheme.

    Many of these scams are built on a pyramid structure where the early birds make money， but the suckers at the tail end come up empty.

    Other scams give the illusion of something-for-nothing that in the end winds up costing quite a bit.

    上述引文中提到的“快速致富”的骗局，在我们日常生活中时有耳闻。看来骗子的把戏也有国际性。

    不仅如此，骗子还会紧跟时势的最新动向，利用一切机会盯住可以诓骗钱财的机会。例如，在下面的报道中，有人利用美国人对恐怖行为的担心，大玩各种各样的骗钱的把戏（ABC news / April 17 2004）：

    Even as the war in Iraq winds down， many consumers are reporting a barrage of swindles using the war and preying on people's sense of patriotism and craving for security. The scams include everything from telemarketers soliciting money to help victims of the war， Web sites that peddle "government-approved" homeland security kits， and even an Iraqi version of the classic Nigerian letter scams that have been circulating for the past 15 years.

    骗子的骗术千变万化，难怪又被称为scam artist.