Basic Information
People shopping for pirated software, illegal pornographic images, bootleg music, drugs, firearms or other forbidden or controlled goods may be legally hindered from reporting swindles to the police. A classic example is the "big screen TV in back of the truck" scam, a form of goldbricking.
In this confidence game, the TV is touted as "hot" (stolen), so it will be sold for a very low price. The TV is in fact defective or broken, and may even have bricks inside its otherwise gutted case to give it weight. When it is plugged in, of course, it does not work. The buyer has no legal recourse without admitting to the police that he or she attempted purchase of stolen goods.
Sources
Most of the above text came from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_confidence_tricks
Game and Story Use
- While TVs and Vans are fairly modern, this idea can be applied to other settings easily enough.
- Jewelry, or bolts of expensive-looking cloth might "fall off the wagon" in medieval times.
- Magic items that prove cursed or illusory might be hawked in alleyways, with the understanding that they were "stolen from the Prince's treasury".
- Illegal or restricted death-rays might be sold out of the back of an orbital shuttle. Upon use in a combat situation, the PCs discover the "death ray" is more of "annoying pain ray" or possibly just a very fancy (and oversized) laser pointer.
