short con

English

Noun

short con (plural short cons)

1. A scam that can be performed in minutes or seconds, typically aiming to rob the victim of the money or valuables they carry on them.

   Coordinate term: long con

   • 1990, Jim Thompson, Donald E. Westlake, The Grifters, spoken by Roy Dillon (John Cusack):

     It's up to me. I'm strictly short con. It's nothing but small time stuff. I can walk away from it anytime I want.

   • 2009, Michael Benson, Cons and Frauds, Infobase, →ISBN, page 21:

     Another common form of short con is the shell game. This scam has the advantage of giving the criminal the ability to rip off many marks all at one location.

Further reading

• Eric Partridge (2005) “short con”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 2 (J–Z), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1736.
• scam § Length on Wikipedia.Wikipedia