Word: conning
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Philadelphia area for a nonexistent Ghanaian trust fund. Says Castille: "It's the biggest scam in the history of Philadelphia." Adds Assistant D.A. William Wolf: "What you had were some of the most successful and intelligent men and women in Philadelphia who bought a treasure map from con men." Some sources say that Philadelphians were not the only suckers: the bogus trust may have taken in as much as $100 million from a nationwide network of investors...
...blends precise research into prison life, the gem market and rock climbing with outlandishly risky escapades, including a scene in which the hero circumvents a security system by mounting an elevator cable and skittering along a momentarily inactive high-tension wire. The basic elements are conventional: an ex-con who wants to go straight, a fallen woman redeemed by love, moral corruption that goes unnoticed by police, schemes and counterschemes for revenge, deluded invocations to chivalry and honor among thieves. The end game is enlivened by Freudian twists, but the greatest strengths are Gores' skillful crosscutting, swift pace and mastery...
...nearly as lame. The problems start with the casting. As Spicoli, the spaced-out surfer played hilariously in the film by Sean Penn, Dean Cameron projects nothing more than a 5-o'clock shadow; a baby-faced Sean Penn lookalike, Patrick Dempsey, plays Damone, the school's cool con artist. Bummer...
Sobhraj, 42, is known across two continents as a con man, escape artist and master criminal. He had been in jail since 1976 on a murder conviction. Though cleared of that charge in 1983, he was being held for possible extradition to Thailand to face a death sentence for allegedly drugging, robbing and killing several Western tourists. By week's end Indian police had uncovered no trace of the wily crook...
...weeks ago at Harvard, someone used a similar story to con a Lowell House tutor out of $75. Using the name Chris Bailey, the con artist lured Andrew M. Sullivan, resident tutor in government and drama, into lending him money for travel to New York in order to catch a flight to his home in London...