“Mark is induced to sign his autograph.” 

Taken from David W. Maurer’s The Big Con:

• The Autograph: A short-con game in which the mark is induced to sign his autograph to a piece of paper which is later converted into a negotiable check.

• The Big Mitt: A short-con game played against the store with insidermen and ropers. The victim is enticed into the store, drawn into a crooked poker game, and is cold-decked on his own deal.

• The Engineer’s Daughter: A mock con game played by con men for a conceited grifter. A grifter’s wife or girl poses as the “engineer’s daughter.” The point-out is played for the victim, who finally manages to get on intimate terms with the engineer’s daughter. Another con man dressed as an engineer bursts into the apartment, brandishing a pistol. The victim collects what clothing he can and rushes out into the street, where he is welcomed by all the grifters who happen to be in town. Peculiar to resort cities like Hot Springs. Arkansas.

• The Fake: A short-con game practiced by news butchers on trains. The prospective customer buys a cheap book for two dollars because he thinks he sees a five-dollar bill protruding from it.

• The Gold Brick: An obsolete con game in which a sucker bought what appeared to be a genuine gold brick from a farmer or an Indian.

• The Hot-Seat: A British version of the American wipe in which the victim is convinced that he has been commissioned to deliver a large sum of money to the Pope. In reality he takes a parcel of newspaper, while the money he has posted as security is kept by the swindlers.

• The Mush: A short-con game played at the ball parks. The operator poses as a bookmaker, takes money for bets, then raises his umbrella (the mush) and disappears into a maze of umbrellas in the bleachers.

• The Pay-Off: The most lucrative of all big-con games, with touches running from $10,000 up, with those of $100,000 being common. It operates on the principle that a wealthy mark is induced to believe that he has been taken into a deal whereby a large racing syndicate is to be swindled. At first he plays with money furnished him by the confidence men, then is put on the send for all the cash he can raise, fleeced, and blown off.

• The Rocks: A short-con diamond swindle in which the mark is shown “stolen” diamonds and invited to have a jeweller evaluate them. The ones submitted are good, the rest are paste.

• Soap Game: A short-con game in which the grifter appears to wrap up a twenty-dollar bill with each cake of soap he is selling. Said to have been invented by the notorious Soapy Smith.