1/ My whisky is across the room, and I have a sleeping dog on my lap, so I'll comment on con games and swindles, as promised some days ago.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

2/ Fraud is depriving someone of something, or getting some advantage, by deception—false representation or omission.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

3/ A swindle is a species of fraud, performed within a relationship cultivated for the purpose of fraud.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

4/ E.g. If you turn in fake invoices to your employer, that's fraud; if you got the job with the intention of doing so, it's a swindle.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

5/ A confidence game is a sort of swindle, which is a sort of fraud. But not all swindles are con games. The key is confidence.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

6/ The con man puts his confidence in the mark. He trusts the mark with something, makes her feel like she's getting away with something.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

7/ The mark might feel like she's pulling one over on the con man, or might feel like they are confederates.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

8/ People who aren't greedy might be defrauded or swindled, but they can't be conned. The con relies on the mark's greed.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

9/ You can see the advantage of a con over a swindle: the mark is more invested. Less likely to winkle the con, less likely to drop a dime.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

10/ (As requested.) The difference between long and short cons is not in duration or scope. It's that the long con includes a short con.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

11/ The short con is the con that the con man reveals to the mark, as a show of his confidence in her. The short con is about reciprocity…

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

12/ …if you've read your Cialdini. Once the con man has given the mark his confidence, the mark trusts the con man and feels indebted.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

13/ That trust and indebtedness are what get the mark to open her bank account to the con man.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

14/ I recently watched "Focus," a movie about a con man. But he was really a swindler. I waited in vain for the twist—she was conning him.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015

15/ I contend that government is, for the most part, a swindle.

— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015