short con , also: small con

A short con is a fast swindle which takes just minutes.

He supports himself by using short con tricks.

Escaping to London, he became a master "dip", then moved up to the short con and mastered that as well.

In addition to one long con, each episode features a number of short cons played by the major characters on members of the public.

When Mickey was in jail Ash ran short cons.

They struggled to survive through the Great Depression, working short cons and traveling the country to seek work.

On his return to Denver, Smith opened new businesses that were nothing more than fronts for his many short cons.

The short cons included the shell game, three-card monte, and any game in which they could cheat.

Bunk then assists McNulty in picking up a woman in the bar through the use of a short con.

The pair runs a short con to steal copper pipes, which they sell to a contractor at "30 cents a foot" to make their next drug purchase.

Actually they weren't concerned with prostitution or its feeder vices, unlicensed clubs, bottle peddlers, petty larceny, short con and steering.

Spanish Lotto is derived from two classic scams, the pigeon drop and the handkerchief switch, which are known as short cons because they can be done quickly.

The short cons demonstrate the seemingly endless array of tricks professional con men possess and the ease with which short cons can be played.

Their principal method of separating victims from their cash was the use of "short cons", swindles that were quick and needed little setup and few helpers.

If white citizens wished to come to Harlem for their kicks, they had to take the venereal risks and the risks of short con or having their money stolen.

Johnny persuades Bubbles to run a short con (the false good-Samaritan scam) with him to make money instead of reporting to Detective Kima Greggs.

Itinerant short con and carny hyp men have burned down the croakers of Texas.... And no one in his right mind would hit a Louisiana croaker.

It focuses on the subject of short cons (Three-Card Monte, Shell game, Fast and Loose), with students from the fields of magic, law enforcement, gambling, and history.

Under the tutelage of Chicago confidence man Doc Meriwether, Weil started performing short cons in the 1890s at public sales of Meriwether's Elixir, the chief ingredient of which was rainwater.

Billy enters the crew in much the same way that Danny did - as a rookie, with a natural hustling instinct and a master of the short con, but with little knowledge or experience of the long con.

His life before joining the Hustle crew he worked the short con on the streets and claims that Danny Blue was the only con artist able to teach him anything, hence his ambition to join the crew.

They have also created a major web resource for their School for Scoundrels students and others interested in the history and methods of short cons, including a store, forum, video and photo gallery, and Scoundrels Wiki site.

In its full form, Three-card Monte is an example of a classic "short con" in which a shill pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the dealer, while in fact conspiring with the dealer to cheat the mark.

Old Bart was there and an unemployed cab driver named Kelly, who hung around 42nd Street and sometimes picked up a few dollars peddling condoms and with a routine of hitting commuters for fifty cents, which is one variety of the "short con."