Do you like to feel you have an edge on so-called normal people? Have you noticed that you’ve a penchant for thievery, swindling, and fooling others? Do you see people as “marks” who want to be duped? Does “pulling one over” on people give you an adrenaline rush? Then, hello, Con Artist!

Con Artists are super-creative, intelligent, and social predators with a compulsion to scam. They come from a wide array of different socio-economic backgrounds, races, and family situations. Some grow up in wealth, others in poverty, some in loving homes, others in dysfunction. Their impulsive, amoral tendencies may be due to a genetic defect (or not) scientists would love to know. Like sociopaths, they simply lack a conscience.

It’s a shame, really, because the Con Artist is exceptionally talented, the talent being a natural ability to manipulate people without a shred of remorse. Where the social conscience should be, the Con Artist has a warped processing system. Instead of guilt, the Con Artist often feels a surge of power when the exchange has been particularly beneficial to the Con Artist.

Con Artist Superpowers

  • Above-average intelligence
  • Social and charming
  • Uses cunning to rob and devastate
  • Doesn’t feel guilt
  • Exceptional memory used to keep track of lies and elaborate traps

A Happy Con Artist
“Con” is short for “confidence.” That is to say, “trust.” Trust is what Con Artist gains in the hustle, and he or she exchanges that trust for money, affection, and any number of other commodities the Con Artist is interested in. It’s not those commodities that make the Con Artist happy. It’s the unnatural thrill the Con Artist gets from earning the trust that they do not deserve.

Famous Con Artists
Frank Abagnale (the film Catch Me If You Can was based on his life), Charles Ponzi (creator of the Ponzi Scheme) Bernie Madoff

Con Artist Entourage
The Con Artists especially targets: the Lover, Believer, Prince, Princess, Gangsta, Diva, Dreamer, Trendsetter, Athlete, Explorer, and Angel

Con Artist in Love
The Con Artist is among the most dangerous of loves. This is a person adept at the language and manner of seduction. Con Artists have a way of making their partner feel special and understood, of hooking into the deepest feelings and filling emotional voids without feeling any sense of mutuality or compassion. The Con Artist will drain bank accounts and hearts with equal vigor and without any sorrow whatsoever.

Con Artist Challenge
The Con Artist is only challenged by the idea of his or her next con and will dream up ever-more elaborate ways to swindle and deceive. Oddly enough it doesn’t even have to involve a big sum of money to be thrilling for the Con Artist because it is the thrill of the scam that feeds this grifter’s sick soul.

How to Play It
If you know someone who fits this description, you’re doing the whole world a favor (including the Con Artist) by turning this person in to the authorities. If you recognize a Con Artist-type tendency in yourself, know that you will eventually get caught. Some Con Artists reform after having a realization that they actually do feel remorseful about the pain they cause people and they turn their lives around by using their exceptional mind and skills in a way that is useful to society. 

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