main index Narrative
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The Con Man and his crew represent that they can give access to advance information available to no one else, for a price. The off-track betting tale from The Sting was a Delayed Wire gag.
Advance stock-price movement, "hacked" access to currency fluctuations, a "tip" on zoning regulations that will boost the price of real estate are all updates of the kinds of information for sale. A key element of the tale (called the "hook") lies in convincing The Mark that he has a short window of opportunity to cash in, in a situation where he has all the control. Often the mark is steered toward "discovering" the illicit operation in such a way that he feels he can threaten to call in the police.
A variant is the Reverse Pyramid Scheme, where a large pool of potential marks are given predictions about events, and only those marks who have received correct predictions are retained. The pool dwindles to a small pool of marks who have received a stunningly accurate series of correct calls and are then offered one last prediction at an obscene price.
Examples:Film
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