Con Artistry deals with a topic that is important no matter who you are. It is a good book to look at if you're wondering how to spot a con. While the book does talk about cons that you should be aware of, remember that new cons and new variations of cons are popping up all the time. That being said, this book provides enough examples that new cons shouldn't be a problem for you.

One thing mentioned in the book is that people have a tendency to want to please which helps some con artists. Sometimes a need to not admit you've been scammed allows the conartist to not get caught. The book helpfully points out that if you don't report the scammer you will allow them to continue. This means even more people could lose a large amount of money.

I liked reading about past con artists and how their scams worked. Especially how selling the Eiffel Tower could work. Every story ended with them being caught. Each story about a famous con artist is also followed with lessons you can learn from them. Such as Charles Ponzi reminds you to not get greedy and to remain honest. The one person's lesson I got confused about is Frank Abagnale as that seemed to paint the con artist in too good of a light. It's one thing to admire someone but another thing to want to imitate them.

I've used a dating site in the past, a smaller one that doesn't have many commercials on tv, and it's good this book covers cons on that kind of site. Dating websites aren't looked at as they were years ago. Yeah, there was a time when you'd be laughed at for saying you were using a site like e-harmony. So today more people will probably be dating via a dating site.

Something that wasn't brought up in this section is you need to always meet a new person in public. Though that's really more about safety than scams. So I can understand why it was left out, but it still feels odd that it isn't there.

Where I live there is a couple that pretends to be homeless. The wife and husband going to the same place but on different days. I loathe this type of con as it's extremely harmful for those that are actually homeless and in need of help.

All in all this book is a good read to make sure you're aware of cons. Some of these I knew while others I was unsure of how they worked. This is a good starting point as, again, cons evolve to fit the times. This book brings up the fact that it doesn't have enough space to talk about every con. However, it does a great job at preparing you for facing any con and not being fooled. So even if you don't know the exacts of a particular con, you'll stand a good chance at not being fooled by it.

This is a great book that helps warn many about cons, scheme and fraud. I knew a lot about typical cons before I started reading this book, but I still found myself learning a lot while reading it. It also brought forth stuff that I didn’t really think about, like medical scams and stuff like that.

The online dating scam was one I’ve not really thought about, though it is easily prevalent today. We all know about catfishes and the like, but few of us think that can happen to us; even fewer take the time out to study whether or not a profile is fake. I liked that it gave some ideas on how to tell if a profile is fake, such as the fact that they pointed out they’re an American citizen.

Some people reading the book might think that some of the advice is stuff that they already know, and while it may be, I thought I knew a lot of stuff about con information and yet I still learned quite a bit while reading it.

The book is a nice, quick read that you can easily do in one sitting.