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A con artist is a person who cheats people out of something (usually money or other valuables) through some kind of deceitful scheme. More generally, the term is used to refer to someone who’s good at deceiving people for their own gain.

In con artist, the word con is short for confidence, a reference to how they gain their victims’ trust in order to cheat them. The same term is used in con man (a male con artist). The word artist in this context simply refers to a person who is skillful (in this case, at trickery and deception).

Example: I can’t believe how many people are falling for this guy’s tricks—he’s clearly a con artist who’s going to cheat and pocket all the money.

The first record of confidence being used in a phrase referring to a swindler comes from the late 1840s. At the time, it was used in a newspaper report about a guy with a stupidly simple scam. The confidence man, as the paper called him, would ask his marks (the targets of his scheme) whether they had the confidence in him to hold their watch until the next day. (You can guess what happened next. If you can’t, can I hold your watch?)

The term was further popularized by Herman Melville’s 1857 novel The Confidence-Man, and con man and con artist were in use by the late 1880s, along with confidence game and confidence trick.

A con artist isn’t just a thief—they always have some kind of trick or scheme to gain a victim’s trust and walk off with their money (or whatever they’re after). There are plenty of real-life con artists, but such characters are also an established part of pop culture, appearing in movies like The Sting and Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels. In those films and other media, con artists are frequently portrayed as folk heroes stealing from the bad guys.

In reality, though, when you call someone a con artist, it’s always negative. You either mean that they’re literally involved in some kind of criminal trickery or that their actions—their constant lying and cheating—remind you of such a person. This more figurative usage is often applied to people known for bending the truth, especially politicians and salespeople.

(Note: The word con is sometimes used as another word for a criminal, but in that case it is short for convict, as in someone who has been convicted of a crime.)

What are some synonyms for con artist?

• confidence man
• grifter
• hustler
• swindler

What are some words that share a root or word element with con artist?

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• confidence game
• confidential

What are some words that often get used in discussing con artist?

• scam
• scheme
• fraud
• trickery
• hoax
• impostor

Con artist is used as a name for actual criminal swindlers as well as a negative term for someone viewed as liar or a cheater because they use tactics similar to that of a con artist—often a politician or shady businessperson.

Beware of con artists online. I just had one try to convince me if I gave him a $50 Steam gift card he would put $7000 in my CashApp account. I'm nope!!

— Amy Joy Clark (@AmyJoyClark1)

Oh the British press are the low of the low. Journalists are rightly held in the same regard here as snake oil salesman or a con-artist. The low of the low in society. And yes they are inherently and institutionally racist. Stay clear 😊

— Toast_SE (@ToastSE1)

I met a professional liar and con-artist today – she works as a ‘healer’ and is a self-appointed herbalist Flower Essence therapist, intimacy therapist, and Nutrition-wellness ‘coach’ who has no formal training but strictly adheres to homeopathy videos on Facebook!

— T.L. Lewis ✨🌟✨ (@11tigerlewis11)

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Which of the following choices describes the actions of a con artist?

A. gaining someone’s trust in order to steal from them
B. using a trick to cheat someone out of their money
C. creating a scheme to get rich by swindling people
D. all of the above