"Never play a man for the short con when you can play 'em for the long one."
— Frank Fontaine, BioShock
The Tale is the plot of a confidence game. It defines the ways in which The Mark will be duped. A con-man crew usually includes a team member called The Roper, whose job is to ingratiate himself with the mark and tell them "the tale" of how the Get-Rich-Quick Scheme supposedly works, thus "roping him in". The terms Long Con and Short Con are related to the complexity of the tale. The slang term for these is a "gag."
Examples:
- 419 Scam
- Delayed Wire
- Fake Charity
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme
- Good for Bad
- Kansas City Shuffle
- Landmark Sale
- Ponzi
- The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction
- Spanish Prisoner
- Staged Pedestrian Accident
- Violin Scam
