confidence trick

Investigators are trying to figure out if the fraudsters research their victims or whether they are using a confidence trick.

“Before creating the show I’d read 20 books on confidence tricks,” Jordan wrote in an email.

At the same time money is a confidence trick: an i.o.u. printed on cheap material that promises the holder nothing but more paper money.

As a filial bonus, he demonstrates a confidence trick involving three coins.

Dr Williams added: "So that's something I worry about a bit more, the idea that there are people who genuinely believe climate change is a huge confidence trick."