Morton And Lobez - Kings of Stings

Theres nothing the public likes better than to feel theyve swindled somebody.

Dan Mannix, Memoirs of a Sword Swallower .

Australians have a soft spot for the larrikin, the man or sometimes woman, who challenges authorityfrom Ned Kelly and Squizzy Taylor to todays Alan Bond or Peter Foster. It is also true there is something of the rorter in us all. Hands up those who have never got off the tram without putting their ticket in the machine, or told the supermarket cashier when they undercharged an item. We may never have progressed further in this embryonic career in crime but, while there can never be any admiration for certain types of criminal, there may be a lurking approval for some con artists.

Interviewed by Caroline Jones on ABCs Australian Story , the Gold Coast solicitor Chris Nyst summed things up when speaking of his one-time client, the international conman Peter Foster:

There is undoubtedly a kind of perverse fondness by the people of the Gold Coast for Foster. Foster is very much a child of the Gold Coast. Its a boom town type place. Its gaudy and its flash, maybe its crass. Foster grew up in that environment, identified with it himself, and the people of the Gold Coast see him as one of their own. Hes a mug lair and hes a spiv and hes a rat, but, you know, hes our spiv and hes our rat, and hes part of what we are.

Peter Clarence Foster began his career as an international conman promoting boxing on the Gold Coast at an age when he wasnt even eligible to go to a nightclub. An early rort was over insurance for the cancelled MundineJohnson fight. Then in 1987 he was convicted in Southport magistrates court in England for managing a company while bankrupt. It was only a fine that time, but in 1989 there was a suspended sentence over false descriptions in advertisements in Los Angeles. In 1994 it was back to England, where at the Warwick Crown Court he was again fined, this time 21 000 over false trade descriptions relating to Bai Lin Tea, promoted as a Chinese diet tea but in reality ordinary black tea. In 1995, still in England, he got eighteen months and a recommendation for deportation for conspiracy to supply goods for which a false trade description applied. He absconded from his open prison. Three years later it was six months for assaulting the police and escaping from custody in Melbourne. In 2000, back in England, he received thirty-three months for using a false instrument to obtain credit.

For a time in 2002 he was the property adviser to Cherie Blair, wife of the former British prime minister, who described him as a star, saying they were on the same wavelength. That year he was promoting slimming pills in Ireland, from where he was deported in 2003. In February 2007 he received six weeks in Vanuatu as a prohibited immigranthe had arrived on a former Australian minesweeperand in December that year he received four and a half years with a non-parole period of twenty-seven months in Brisbane for laundering over $300 000. He had claimed to be developing a tourist resort on an island 80 miles from Suva in Fiji. Released on 1 May 2009, he announced he was going to write his memoirs for which he was to be paid an advance of $1.2 million.

We have all, at some time or another, probably been the victim or potential victim of the conman. Perhaps in the market? Apples 15 cents each or six for a dollar. Perhaps in the street? How many of us have given money to men and women who are professional beggars? In 1995 at a legal conference in Scotland, delegates were asked whether they had received a Nigerian letter scam. Over 90 per cent of people in the room raised their hands, including Nicholas Cowdery QC, then the Director of Public Prosecutions for New South Wales. Today it would not just be a question of whether, it would also be how many such emails they have received. And some people would reply that, if for some reason their spam filter isnt working, they get one or more every day. And even if we havent personally been stung, we still have a prurient interest in how it has happened to others on the There but for the grace of God goes John Bradshaw principle.

What makes a good conman? It is nearly eighty years since the great Czech-born conman Count Victor Lustig, who sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap twice in as many months and sold a money-making machine to Al Capone, living to tell the tale, set down the basic rules for the successful confidence trickster. Most are just as relevant today:

Be a good listener.

Never give a political opinion until the mark (potential victim) has expressed his, and then agree.

Wait for the mark to reveal his religion, and then become a member of the same church.

Hint at sex, but dont pursue it unless the mark is eager to explore the subject.

Never discuss personal ailments unless the mark has shown an interest in the subject.

Never be untidy, drunk, yet always be ready for a party.

Never appear bored.

Never pry; let the mark volunteer information.

Never brag; let the mark sense your success.

But it was Lustigs view that simply following these essential rules of conduct alone would not make a good confidence man. He has to have what is called in the profession grift sense; an ability to read the marks character, guess his weaknesses and strengths, judge his moods and know how fast to push him and how much to take him for. Whether a financial or a sexual con artist or a combination of the two, the grift sense is something that Australian conmen and conwomen have in abundance.

Apart from the elderly or otherwise disabled or housebound, who fall foul of conmen at the door pretending they are from the gas company, to a certain extent we are all willing participants in a confidence trick. Those who are the victims of building scams may not consider they have done anything to deserve their clipping, but in fact they have been on the look out for a bargain. They knew the price of resurfacing their driveway was $10 000 but they could not resist the offer of having it done for $6000.

In a May 2010 article in the Daily Telegraph (UK) after a John Keady had been convicted for conning mainly professional women whom he had met through internet dating sites, columnist Nicci Gerrard wrote: Conmen and women will often appeal to the good in us, the impulse to help or rescue that most of us havethats what makes us human.

That is only partially true. We are also making ourselves feel good by acting charitably when we give money to young men who come knocking on our door telling us how they have locked themselves out of their unit without any money in their haste to get to hospital where their daughter/sister/wife is about to undergo an emergency operation. Or they are about to be evicted. In this case the confidence man is helping us to feel better about ourselves. And sometimes when a conman descends on a small community there is almost a perverse pride in the fact that they have been selected to be fleeced, coupled with an admiration that the conman was clever enough to deceive them. But above all it is the greed, or need, in all of us that makes us succumb to the lure.

Are you likely to be a victim of the rorter? The confidence trick that makes the victim look foolish, or contains a degree of dishonesty on his own part, is likely to be one of the most under-reported crimes. Research does seem to suggest that some people are more likely than others to fall for scams. The largest proportion of people who report that they have been conned come from the middle class, are narrow-minded, eager to please or simply want to be thought of as nice. Likely victims are also the poorly educated, but even the best educated can fall victim as well. Loneliness has a great deal to do with the likelihood of falling for a trick, and might explain why people who have recently moved to a new area, are temporarily away from home, or have been divorced or widowed within the previous two years are particularly vulnerable to scammers. Those who follow horoscopes or visit fortune tellers or are highly religious are also among the categories of likely victims.