Editing Scam (section)

==History==
The [[shell game]] dates back at least to [[Ancient Greece]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Shell Game|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/539702/shell-game|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714065828/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/539702/shell-game |archive-date=2011-07-14 }}</ref> [[William Thompson (confidence man)|William Thompson]] (1821–1856) was the original "confidence man". Thompson was a clumsy swindler who asked his victims to express confidence in him by giving him money or their watch rather than gaining their confidence in a more nuanced way. A few people trusted Thompson with their money and watches.<ref name=Braucher15>{{cite journal |first1=Jean |last1=Braucher |first2=Barak |last2=Orbach  |title=Scamming: The Misunderstood Confidence Man |journal=Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities |year=2015 |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=249–292  |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2314071 |s2cid=148270133 }}</ref> Thompson was arrested in July 1849. Reporting on this arrest, James Houston, a reporter for the ''[[New York Herald]]'', publicized Thompson by naming him the "Confidence Man".<ref name=Braucher15/> Although Thompson was an unsuccessful scammer, he gained a reputation as a genius operator mostly because Houston's satirical tone was not understood as such.<ref name=Braucher15 /> The ''[[National Police Gazette]]'' coined the term "confidence game" a few weeks after Houston first used the name "confidence man".<ref name=Braucher15 />