History Main / TheCon

* ''Franchise/LupinIII'' is both a gentleman thief and a conman. Think of him as a eastern version of Bugs Bunny.

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* The ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'' story "Take Me To Your Leader" revolves around an alien visitation -- complete with flying saucer, heat rays, MissingTime incidents, and all the trimmings -- witnessed by a disparate group of people under circumstances that make it unlikely any trickery could have fooled all of them. It turns out that it's an elaborate con aimed at one man, a respected scientist with the ear of the British government, and everybody else present for the incident is in on it. After uncovering the truth, Modesty remarks that it's possibly the one explanation even less likely than it actually being aliens.
* In ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' Calvin tries to sell ''Earth'' to some aliens.
* In Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/ThargsFutureShocks'' strip "Grawks Bearing Gifts" in ''Comicbook/TwoThousandAD'', the Grawks are alien (and stereotypically Australian) tourists, who have people lining up to play this con on them, until [[spoiler: they reveal that under Galactic Law ''all these sales are valid'', and they now own the planet]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''Anime/TheMysteryOfMamo'' does this in the Streamline dub when Jigen expresses his incredulity at what Lupin's studying after the Philosopher's Stone job.
-->'''Jigen:''' If you buy that, I've got some Siberian beachfront property on sale.

* Two episodes of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' featured criminals pulling scams ''on the cops'' (with variable success).
** In "The Finger," a man murders his mistress, then sets up a fake kidnapping to make it look like someone else did it.
** In "Suckers," a casino security chief arranges a fake murder...which is a cover for the theft of a priceless antique... which is a cover for a heist from the casino's vault... [[spoiler: which is the cover for a massive insurance scam]]. While the mastermind doesn't get arrested, Grissom does [[spoiler:give all his evidence (circumstantial at best) to the insurance company. Presumably, they require less proof to deny a claim]].
** ''Series/CSIMiami'' has a murder take place in a neighborhood that turns out to be a plot to lower property values.

** In another (earlier) episode, a con man attempts to sell Hong Kong to Jeb. Jethro believes that it is a giant ape (most likely he's thinking of ''Film/KingKong''), but the con man explains that Hong Kong is on the coast of China. Jeb turns him down, explaining that he has no need for a Chinese ape. He does convince him to buy Canada however

** Victor Lustig AKA "The Man Who Sold The Eiffel Tower Twice". Lustig's scheme was somewhat more nuanced than most landmark sales: in 1925, the Eiffel Tower was falling into disrepair due to rising maintenance costs leading to speculation that it would simply be demolished. Lustig set up a meeting with scrap metal dealers claiming to be a French government official in charge of finding an "honest businessman" who would help them demolish the tower for scrap, though it had to be done in secret to avoid public outcry. Lustig then selected who he perceived as the most gullible of the bunch, André Poisson, later met with him privately, and not so subtly asked him for a bribe to secure the deal for him. Poisson paid the bribe and the funds for the tower and Lustig immediately fled the country. Months later, Lustig could still find no mention of the fraud in the press, leading him to believe neither Poisson nor the other businessmen informed the authorities out of embarrassment. So Lustig went back to Paris and pulled off the scheme ''again'' only for his new marks to call the police, forcing him to go on the run once more.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Lustig Victor Lustig]]

* ''The'' classic movie example is ''Film/TheSting''. In fact, the title is [[GetTheeToANunnery old slang]] for..."The Con!" And its spiritual remake ''Confidence''.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': The backstory. It begins when two [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob complete dunderheads of Manns]] fall for multiple scams to purchase worthless acres of desert, causing their father to spite them on his deathbed by granting them the land to 'share', knowing they would fight each other for the rest of their lives over their moronic obsession with gravel. This seemingly pointless and overly-violent brotherly feud is then used by the true mastermind to con ''the entire world'' by tricking the United States into slowly granting her full authority over the 'useless' desert, by using the warring feud as an excuse to treat the southern border as a godforsaken war-torn wasteland that only she cares about... while it's being used to store the most precious material in the known universe. By the time she tells the truth to the senate, they're completely dumbfounded and practically kneel before her.

* ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow]]'' has this gem from Yoko.

** [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] once buys the actual deed for the Castle Sforzesco in Milan from a thief who happened to pick it up. The purchase isn't remotely legitimate, of course, but because the story needs to lead to a faux-medieval battle over the castle, the offended officials of the city basically recognise his claim because he shoots at them with a cannon when they try to disagree.

* ''Film/ThirtySixHours1965'': Just before D-Day in 1944 the Germans try to get an American intelligence officer to reveal the time and location of the landings by setting up an entire fake American military hospital and convincing him that it is 1950 and that he has had amnesia and forgotten the last six years.

** Small-time hustler Larry hooks up with crew Tiffany, Charlie and Vernon. The plan is to have Larry win big on Vernon's crooked deals so no one will suspect Larry of cheating. Larry gets impatient and on his own crooked deal gets $100,000 in the pot, including money that belongs to Larry's mobster boss, and loses. [[spoiler:The whole thing turns out to be a scam by the entire game to take Larry's boss's money]].

* In ''Literature/TheMugAndSpoon'', an entire town is involved in a con that had been going on for at least fifteen years. [[spoiler:A local girl is groomed to pose as a princess]]. The townspeople spread a rumour about a princess who was put under a sleeping spell and found by the town’s innkeepers. A would-be rescuer arrives to try TrueLovesKiss. [[spoiler:As he dines at the inn, the innkeepers ask him about his financial situation and the girl eavesdrops from the next room. After he finishes dinner, she lies down in a gilded coffin and pretends to be asleep. If she thinks him good enough, she "wakes up" after his kiss, and if not, she waits for a richer guy. When she "wakes up", marries and leaves, another girl steps in to take her place]]. Repeat on infinite.

* Played with on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Lily's breasts are getting large due to pregnancy, and Barney keeps asking to see/touch them. They end up going to dinner at a hibachi grill place (one that Barney hates and always complains about going to, saying that the cooks are not impressive, etc). Eventually he ends up betting Marshal & Lily that he can do the entire cook's routine including the "pocket shrimp" (flipping a shrimp into your shirt pocket) - if he wins he gets to touch Lily's breasts, if he loses he wears the Ducky tie for a year. They agree, thinking there's no way he can do it. But then he starts acting super confidant (flipping a shrimp into his mouth). Marshal also realizes that Barney has been conditioning Marshal to always want to eat there whenever Barney sneezes. They begin to get worried, thinking they've been conned, so they change to agreement to let him see Lily's breasts if they call the bet off. But just before Lily shows them, Marshal stops her saying that no, ''this'' is the con and that Barney was just psyching them out so they would let him see Lily's breasts. Cue triumphant gloating as they declare the bet back on. Cut to Barney back in the restaurant cooking up a storm and them about to lose the bet. But then further subverted when, [[spoiler: just as Barney's about to catch the shrimp in his pocket, Lily flashes him so he misses the catch, meaning he has to wear the ducky tie for a year.]]
* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'s'' missions of the week usually alternate between this, TheCaper, and full on action, and a major part of the spy game involves the team assuming identities that get them close to the target. And of course, Sarah's father is a legitimate ConMan, and has used his skills to both help and hinder them, as well as teaching Sarah much of what he knows. [[spoiler: Ironically, that still doesn't save Chuck and Sarah from being victimized by ''another'' con artist who makes off with their wedding money]]. FemmeFatale DEA agent [[MsFanservice Carina]] also makes heavy use of The Con, and particularly specializes in seducing her targets.

* A particularly notorious ''Series/JudgeJudy'' case involving an ebay scammer had the scammer advertise that she was selling two mobile phones, and what the marks actually received were two pictures of the phones, with the scammer being very careful to say on the advert that the buyers are bidding on "what [they] see in the photo" [[LoopholeAbuse allowing her to claim she hadn't actually deceived the marks]]. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for the scammer, between appearing on the show (where Judy can do pretty much whatever she wants and isn't as vulnerable to LoopholeAbuse as another court might be,) slamming down hard on Judy's known {{Berserk Button}}s (not having a job, making working people lose the money they've earned, and treating Judy herself as if she's an idiot,) and being less careful with the product description (she gave the weight of the product as 4.90 oz, and since the two photos the marks got sent obviously weighed far less than that, the LoopholeAbuse itself had a gaping loophole,) [[LaserGuidedKarma the scammer simply got one of the most vicious humiliations in the show's history in front of 10 million viewers while the marks got compensated the maximum $5000 Judy's allowed to rule]].]]

** The story of King Minos: When asked to save Crete from a disaster, Poseidon agreed and sent a pure white bull to Minos and asked him to publicly sacrifice it after the disaster as a sign of respect. Instead, Minos swapped it out with a decently good but not divinely-granted bull, and as revenge Poseidon made his love Pasiphae fall in love with the white bull, thus begetting the Minotaur. (Note: Please do not confuse this white bull, sometimes called the Cretan Bull, with the pure white bull whose form Zeus took to rape/seduce Europa to produce…er…King Minos of Crete. Yes, the same guy.)

* God in [[Literature/BookOfMalachi Malachi 1:14]] from ''Literature/TheBible'' says "cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male, and vows, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished." Basically saying that God does not like people conning Him out of good sacrificial animals by offering a bad one in its place.

* "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig's eponymous "Perfect Hoax" back in 1996. For weeks, he stole Wrestling/TripleH's valets and caused him to lose numerous matches because of the subsequent distractions. Finally getting fed up with it, Triple H challenged the retired Hennig to a match; Hennig accepted. However, on the night of the match during an episode of RAW, Triple H ambushed Hennig backstage before the match and seemingly injured his knee, preventing him from continuing. Then-Intercontinental Champion "Wild Man" Marc Mero decided to fight Triple H in Hennig's place, putting his title on the line. In the match's climax, Triple H attempted to cheat using a steel chair, but Hennig ran in for the save and took the chair from Triple H... only to wallop Mero with the chair, allowing Triple H to pin him for the title. Afterwards, the duo revealed that the entire debacle was a plan to put the title on Triple H (and return him to a prominent stature within the company), while embarrassing Mero for stealing Sable from Triple H.

* This happened ''[[GoodIsDumb a lot]]'' to Wrestling/{{Sting}} in his Wrestling/{{WCW}} run, often at the hands of Wrestling/RicFlair and Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen or Wrestling/LexLuger. Perhaps the most famous example occurred in an angle involving our hero and Flair in 1995. Flair lost a match to Wrestling/ArnAnderson at Fall Brawl due to interference from Wrestling/BrianPillman, and spent the next month trying to convince an extremely wary Sting to be his partner against the duo for Halloween Havoc. After weeks of vehement refusal, Flair finally got Sting to relent, but not before the latter threatened to mess up the former real good if he got screwed. Before the match, Anderson and Pillman ambushed and seemingly injured Flair, forcing Sting to face the heels by himself. However, in the middle of the match, as Sting was getting his ass kicked, Flair appeared to the roar of the crowd and took his place at Sting's corner. Sting played RickyMorton for a long time, getting closer and closer to making the tag to Flair each time. When he finally made the tag, the arena went nuts, and Flair looked prepared to ''kill'' Arn and Pillman...and then [[FaceHeelTurn proceeded to immediately lay out Sting]], revealing that the entire incident was a set up to re-form The Four Horsemen and humiliate Sting.

* A driver of the plot of ''VideoGame/Yakuza0''. [[spoiler:Tachibana Real Estate are slowly but surely driving out or buying out all of the tenants around a part of Kamurocho in order to bulldoze it for a lucrative new development, the Millennium Tower. The [[{{Yakuza}} Tojo Clan]] are attempting to do the same thing to the same end, only less effectually; Tachibana plays dirty, hiring homeless people to intimidate existing tenants and reduce property values and in one case ''literally'' throwing money at them to bribe them to leave. The entirety of the plot is driven by both sides' attempt to locate and either buy out or silence the absent owner of a small pocket of derelict land slap bang in the middle of the proposed development. The Tojo Clan eventually win out, and Tachibana Real Estate is presumed to have died with its owner. The brighter point in that is that Tachibana's goal was to reunite with his sister, not to gain profits from the property, while Shintaro Kazama arranges it so that the development project stays out of Sohei Dojima's hands, undermining his power in the Tojo Clan.]]

** There's also the rare drop item [Deed to Thandol Span]. Thandol Span is a massive bridge, making the item basically a [=WoW=] equivalent of a deed to the Golden Gate Bridge. The deed itself is classified as junk and as such has absolutely no use, but it fetches a high price from the vendors, and occasionally even from players who will buy it for its novelty value.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', a surgeon specializing in cybernetic prosthetic limbs is coerced into providing some punks with weaponized cybernetic enhancements because they've kidnapped his girlfriend. Of course, the girlfriend was working with the gang all along, and the whole thing was probably her idea. [[spoiler:The doctor eventually finds out, but the gang's leader doesn't realize he knows, and comes to the doctor for repairs one last time...]]

* Played in a very strange way in the Finnish animation ''WesternAnimation/{{Pasila}}'', during the second season. The head of the police force, Repomies, has been, in his own words, tricked in a pyramid scheme and now claims to own a pyramid in Giza, Egypt. However, he had practically "sold" the landmark to himself. He had only been visiting a perfectly legitimate museum's Egypt exhibition, that advertised itself "See the pyramids!". Obviously, they just had scale models of the pyramids. Later, during his vacation to Egypt, Repomies wasn't allowed to enter his "very own pyramid" and became furious. Now, technically he didn't really lose any money since nobody was scamming him in the first place. However, all this leads him to order Pöysti to arrest Ramses II who inhabits "his pyramid". Before that, he actually tries to sell "his pyramid" to his colleagues. It should be noted that Repomies is a prime example of {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and a very senile one at that.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', near the Castle Garden immigration center in New York, a salesman is literally selling the Brooklyn Bridge.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida Swampland in Florida.]] They have been a nuisance to Florida for many years. Starting in the 1920s, unsuspecting investors would be told of prime but useless swampland that was dirt cheap. The investors, so quick to make an easy buck out of it, would purchase said land before ever placing eyes on it, blindly unaware that it is nearly impossible to develop. The Florida land boom of the 1920s was riff with such scams as it was the first real estate bubble in the state. One notable example is developers literally busing in customers and selling them shares in "towns" that were only vast plots of uninhabitable swampland with signs stating where the nonexistent buildings would be. Unfortunately, it is still running rampant due to the ability of buyers and sellers to purchase and sell land over the Internet.

* This is a real problem with vacation rentals such as [=AirBnB=] and VRBO. Landlords know they can make much more money with a vacation rental over the long run than they can by simply renting their property out to a long-term tenant. So they take out multiple leases or buy up property in a building or in a city to use as vacation rentals. This, of course, takes that real estate out of the market, which in turn drives up the cost of rent in the surrounding area, leaving longtime residents with no choice but to leave. Some have even been known to evict current tenants, just so they can use the vacant apartments/cottages/etc. as vacation rentals.

** The story of King Minos: When asked to save Crete from a disaster, Poseidon agreed and sent a pure white bull to Minos and asked him to publicly sacrifice it after the disaster as a sign of respect. Instead, Minos swapped it out with a decently good but not divinely-granted bull, and as revenge Poseidon made his love Pasiphae fall in love with the white bull, thus begetting the Minotaur.

* ''WebAnimation/GossipCity'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc3NJYyhulU Kaori]], Hiroshi's girlfriend appears to be a good woman but she is in fact a wedding scammer and she [[FakePregnancy faked her pregnancy]]. When Hiroshi introduced her to his mom, he tells her to break up with her and he followed her to the pub where she is drinking beer despite the revealing her fake pregnancy.

** [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] once buys the actual deed for the Castle Sforzesco in Milan from a thief who happened to pick it up. The purchase isn't remotely legitimate, of course, but because the story needs an IdiotPlot to lead to a faux-medieval battle over the castle, the offended officials of the city basically recognise his claim because he shoots at them with a cannon when they try to disagree.

* The Corrupt Corporate Executive BigBad in ''Film/YouDontMessWithTheZohan'' tries to make the New York Israeli and Palestinian communities fight each other so he can buy off the neighbourhood and build a mall on top of it. When creating a conflict doesn't work out, they hire a group of neo-nazis to vandalize the neighbourhood.
* In ''Film/PoliceAcademy6CityUnderSiege'', the BigBad orchestrates a crimewave alongside an old bus route, which would soon be the route of a train line. The crimewave would then drive down property prices allowing him to buy them and then resell them when the train line is complete and the price skyrocketed. It's even lampshaded at the end:
-->'''Commisioner Hurst''': So you're saying all of this was nothing more than a real estate scam!?\\
''' Sgt. Hightower''': A billion-dollar real estate scam, sir.
* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', the conspiracy to buy Toon Town and turn it into a paved highway.
* ''Film/BlazingSaddles'': The railroad line currently being built has to be re-routed through the town of Rock Ridge. BigBad Hedley Lamaar comes up with a scheme to drive out the town's residents and acquire the land cheaply, then sell it for millions to the railroad company.
-->'''Hedley Lamarr:''' Unfortunately, there is one thing standing between me and that property: the rightful owners.
* ''Film/{{Superman}}'' -- Lex Luthor's plot to buy up all the cheap land in the desert bordering California before blowing up the fault line and turning that desert into beach front real estate.
* In ''Film/SupermanReturns'', Lex wants to create a new continent in the Atlantic Ocean, destroying half of the US in the process, and then sell it at a premium.
* Subplot out of ''Film/EvanAlmighty'' -- The main character Evan, who is a congressman, cosponsors the destruction of a natural forest for urban development.
* One of the main characters of ''Film/AnEducation'' partakes in "blockbusting": a scam often performed prior to the 1970s in which a ShadyRealEstateAgent would convince white homeowners into selling their homes at a loss to them by implying that black people or other racial minorities would move into the neighborhood and cause property prices to plummet.
* In ''Film/RurouniKenshin'', Kanryu starts up the fake Battousai murders to scare the locals into selling out and moving so he can turn the village into a port he controls so he can ship guns and drugs without the risk of being caught by the police.
* In ''Film/RomeoMustDie'', two gangs are trying to buy up every property in a part of the city, because the NFL wants to build a new football stadium nearby, and providing a properly sized plot of land with only one or two owners to deal with instead of dozens would save the NFL a great deal of effort and make the gangs millions.
* ''Film/SharkAttack'': It turns out that the mayor is responsible for the surge in shark attacks (who were spiked with hormones that made them more aggressive), as he intends to drive down real estate prices so he could buy out the whole town.
* The Deputy Prime Minister in ''Film/AliGIndahouse'' plans to raze Staines so that Heathrow Airport can be expanded.

* ConMan

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_real_estate Extraterrestrial real estate scams.]] This refers to so-called claims of ownership on any outer space object by hucksters and conmen. They are bogus as the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 views space as an "international common" for mankind's benefit and forbids anyone from claiming jurisdiction. Nevertheless, the scam persists with crooks "selling" parts of outer space through "titles" of ownership termed "lunar deeds," etc. People who tried making such claims via the courts have been laughed out left and right.

* ''Film/DirtyRottenScoundrels'': two men trying to scam a girl by way of pretending they are competing with each other to see who gets all the money... [[spoiler:and then it turns out that the girl is ''an even better'' scammer, using them both as pawns to get money herself.]]

* ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'' is about a young con man who manages to impersonate a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, and an attorney.
* ''The'' classic movie example is ''Film/TheSting''. In fact, the title is [[GetTheeToANunnery old slang]] for..."The Con!" And its spiritual remake ''Confidence''.
** Interestingly enough, ''Film/TheSting'' was inspired by real events; while Johnny Hooker was not a real person, Gondorff (actually, the Gondorff ''brothers'', Fred and Charley) were very real; while the fictional Gondorff (and Hooker) got away with it, the real Gondorff brothers' victim went to the equally-real police, and the brothers were quickly arrested.
* A variation in ''Film/DeathWish4TheCrackdown'' as vigilante Kersey is brought to a mansion owned by millionaire Nathan White. White, who lost his daughter to crime, wants to finance Kersey and gives him information on wiping out some local gangs. After escaping a trap, Kersey returns to the mansion only to find a complete stranger claiming ''he's'' Nathan White, back from three months in Europe. Kersey realizes the man he's been dealing with is another drug lost using Kersey to take out his rivals.
* ''Film/DirtyRottenScoundrels''
* ''Film/TheDistinguishedGentleman'' opens with a con man who operates by getting his mark into a sex scandal, then showing up and arresting the "blackmailers", who are part of the con. The mark is so anxious to avoid publicity that he bribes the "FBI agent" to keep it quiet.
* Many works by Creator/DavidMamet.
* ''Film/NineQueens'' and its American remake ''Criminal''. In this case what we are actually following is not the overall con but a con within the con itself and then at the end the real con is a TwistEnding.

* The remade ''Film/OceansEleven'' and its successors are mostly [[TheCaper Capers]], but also rely on the kind of psychological manipulation more closely associated with a Con.
* ''Film/{{Inception}}'' in a weird sort of way.

* ''Film/TheGrifters''
* ''Film/TheSwindlers'': Many, in a movie about a group of con artists who band together to take down a fugitive Ponzi schemer. The first con is shown when Choon-ja flashes her cleavage to distract a jeweler which allows her to switch out a real necklace with a fake. That turns out to not have worked, as it was actually a sting and two cops pop up immediately to arrest her. But that was the actual con, as the two cops weren't actually cops, but Choon-ja's partners in crime, Seok-dong and Kang-suk.
* ''Film/TheSpanishPrisoner''

* ''Film/MatchstickMen'', where [[spoiler:the "big hit" on Chuck, Angela's arrival, and Roy's visits with Dr. Klein are all part of a massive con by Frank against Roy.]]
* ''Film/TheConIsOn'': Despite the title, TheCaper Harry and Peter plan is not a classic con game. Instead it is part con/part heist, with a lot of improvisation thrown in.
* ''Film/{{Circus}}'' contains multiple nested cons, to the point where it becomes hard to work out just who is conning who. As a tip, whoever thinks they are winning at a particular point, probably isn't.
* Jean's part in ''Film/TheLadyEve'' is to lure rich men into playing high stakes card games with her CardSharp father.
* ''Film/LadyKiller'': Myra's role in the gang is to lure susceptible dudes into her apartment and into Duke's rigged poker games.
* In ''Film/{{Vabank}}'' Kramer [[MeetCute accidentally meets]] a young, pretty socialite who invites him over. So he spends the evening wooing Natalie, just as Kwinto and company rob his bank. [[spoiler: This serves three functions: one, Kramer is kept busy and out of the way, two - this is the brilliant part - a completely innocuous act of helping Natalie unclasp her necklace [[FrameUp gets Kramer's fingerprints on the crucial part of evidence that the boys plant at the scene]], and three, when he needs an alibi and goes to Natalie for it, she's not there, there's no sign of her and he's made to look foolish.]]
* ''Film/HouseOfGames'': The protagonist participate in a large-scale scam. The intention is for the cons and a mark to "discover" a [[BriefcaseFullOfMoney briefcase full of drug money]]. They can't simply divide the cash and leave without properly laundering the money. The banker mark can launder the money, but the cons say they don't trust him to send them their share when he's done, so they persuade him to buy out their share with his own money and keep the whole briefcase. Once he's given them his money, they'll swap the briefcase with an empty one just before leaving. The mark can't complain to the cops about being ripped off while trying to launder money.
* In ''Film/BlondeCrazy'', Bert thinks he's going to get big bucks with his counterfeit bill swindle with Dapper Dan, but what Dan is really doing is stealing the actual cash.

* In ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan,'' [[ConMan Frank Abagnale]] thinks he found an attractive woman willing to take a romp with him only for her to reveal herself as a high-class prostitute. Frank turns the tables on her, by overpaying her with a phony cashier's check and receives his change in cash, effectively tricking a gorgeous hooker into paying him $400 for a night of testing the hotel's bedsprings. According to Frank Abagnale's book (which was the basis for the movie), this incident ultimately cost him big-time as the hooker gave the FBI a description of him, something they didn't have before then.
* ''Film/RoadToZanzibar'': Julia Quimby convinces the VagabondBuddies to buy the lovely Donna Latour from a local slave trader. The two girls split the proceeds afterwards.
* The basic plot of ''Film/BurnAfterReading'' is that a few morons discover a manuscript for the written memoir of a former intelligence agency employee and, falsely believing it to contain [[CompromisingMemoirs classified information]]. After trying and failing to ransom it back to the author, they try to sell it to the Russian government. The Russians can't be fooled though and reject what turns out to be useless drivel.

* ''Film/BigFatLiar'': The climax is Jason and Kaley getting every single person that Marty Wolf has pissed off during the film (and that is ''a lot'' of people) together to pull a HumiliationConga scam on Wolf that will end with him giving an EngineeredPublicConfession.
* ''Film/DirtyRottenScoundrels'': two men trying to scam a girl by way of pretending they are competing with each other to see who gets all the money... [[spoiler:and then it turns out that the girl is ''an even better'' scammer, using them both as pawns to get money herself.]]
* ''Film/ThirtySixHours1965'': Just before D-Day in 1944 the Germans try to get an American intelligence officer to reveal the time and location of the landings by setting up an entire fake American military hospital and convincing him that it is 1950 and that he has had amnesia and forgotten the last six years.
* The TV movie, ''Film/TheCoverGirlMurders''. On a remote island, Rex (Lee Majors) a ruthless and greedy magazine owner fighting a hostile takeover, gets his models together for a big issue. One by one, they're killed off as suspicions grow huge. Attacked by one model accusing him of being the killer, Rex shoots her in self-defense and his long-time aide says he'll keep it quiet in exchange for Rex signing over half the company to him. Rex does so...[[spoiler: at which point, all the "murdered victims" walk in with smiles, revealing they're the new board of directors for the company and this whole thing has been one massive scam to get back at Rex for his behavior and also save the magazine from his mismanagement. They leave the island with Rex just sitting stunned at how this could happen.]]

* ''Film/{{Derailed}}'' has Charles (Creator/CliveOwen), a married man, meeting up with Lucinda (Creator/JenniferAniston) and soon intrigued by her and her tales of her late daughter. They share a hotel room only for a man to burst in, beat Charles down and rape Lucinda in front of him. The man then calls Charles and demands a huge payoff or he'll reveal the affair to his family (the same reason why Charles can't report Lucinda's rape to the police). Charles gets his friend Winston to try and scare the blackmailer off only for Winston to be shot dead and holds Lucinda hostage to get Charles to pay up. Charles does and tries to move on with his life, going to see Lucinda one last time at her office...[[spoiler: and meets a completely different woman who identifies "Lucinda" as her temp, Jane. Charles realizes this whole thing was a massive scam and finds Jane already pulling another mark into a romance where the "attacker" (her real husband) is ready, pushing Charles to pull his own scam in retaliation.]]
* At the end of ''Film/TheDamBusters'', a high-ranking official shakes the hand of the scientist that pitched the plan for StuffBlowingUp: "I didn't believe you, but now you could sell me the Brooklyn Bridge!"
* ''Film/GoingPostal'', from the book by the same name, upon recounting Von Lipwig's cons, shows a newspaper frontpage with the headline reading: "Conman sells city bridge -- Three times!"

* Italian actor Totò sold nothing less than the Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) to a gullible american tourist in "Totòtruffa '62" ("Totòscam '62").

* ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan''

* A driver of the plot of ''VideoGame/Yakuza0''. [[spoiler:Tachibana Real Estate are slowly but surely driving out or buying out all of the tenants around a part of Kamurocho in order to bulldoze it for a lucrative new development, the Millennium Tower. The [[{{Yakuza}} Tojo Clan]] are attempting to do the same thing to the same end, only less effectually; Tachibana plays dirty, hiring homeless people to intimidate existing tenants and reduce property values and in one case ''literally'' throwing money at them to bribe them to leave. The entirety of the plot is driven by both sides' attempt to locate and either buy out or silence the absent owner of a small pocket of derelict land slap bang in the middle of the proposed development. The Tojo Clan eventually win out, and Tachibana Real Estate is presumed to have died with its owner. The brighter point in that is that Tachibana's goal was to reunite with his sister, not to gain profits from the property, while Shintaro Kazama
arranges it so that the development project stays out of Sohei Dojima's hands, undermining his power in the Tojo Clan.]]

* ''Loki'' is not far behind, if there is someone in the Marvel universe they didn't con, and they already conned [[BeyondTheImpossible themself]], that must be probably part of a con yet to come. This is more evident in series featuring his kid (''ComicBook/JourneyIntoMystery'') and teen (''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'') versions who don't have the raw magical power. They're the kind of guy who would con [[{{Satan}} Mephisto]] to get an inside man for a caper that turns out to be a diversion for a spy mission.

* ''Series/{{Hustle}}'':

* In the Fourth Doctor story "The Ribos Operation", the scripted backstory for the conman Garron was that he had fled Earth after successfully selling an alien warlord the Sydney Opera House. The accent that the Doctor remarks on--changed to Somerset in the filmed version--was originally supposed to be Australian. When Iain Cuthbertson was cast the Australian backstory went, but the titular operation still involves selling not just a landmark but an entire planet to an ambitious but obtuse noble.

(( An episode involved Bart and Homer working as con artists. Grandpa Simpson pretended to help them, but secretly lured them into a trap where they were arrested by a government agent who robbed them and turned out to be a con artist. Bart and Homer made up a story to explain the robbery, which inadvertently led to Willie being arrested, put on trial, found guilty, and given a long prison sentence. Out of desperation, Willie steals a bailiff's gun and starts shooting. When Skinner is apparently killed[[note]] Actually a ruse with blanks, squibs, and a blood pack[[/note]]), Homer finally confesses, only for everyone else to admit their deception, down to the judge revealing himself to be Grandpa in a mask and wig. It turns out the whole town was working together to teach them a lesson.

* ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme'': "Mercy Dash" is about a man who stops an old lady with a story about his money and wallet being locked in his car and his keys being missing, leaving him with no way to visit his daughter in hospital unless someone lends him train fare. [[spoiler: To his bewilderment, he finds himself at the mercy of an eccentric but ''extremely helpful'' woman who is quite prepared to ''drive him there herself'' after checking the train times, all while subtly probing at his story because she's already figured out it's probably fake.]]