Spanish Prisoner

Spanish Prisoner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the film based on this term, see The Spanish Prisoner. ... Modern variants of the Spanish Prisoner include the advance fee fraud, in ...
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The Spanish Prisoner is a confidence trick dating back to 1588. In its original form, the confidence artist (con-man) tells his victim (the Mark (victim)) that he is in correspondence with a wealthy person of high estate who has been imprisoned in Spain (originally by King Philip II of Spain) under a false identity. The alleged prisoner cannot reveal his identity without serious repercussions, and is relying on the confidence artist to raise money to secure his release. The confidence artist offers to let the mark supply some of the money, with a promise that he will be rewarded generously when the prisoner returns; financially and perhaps also by being married to the prisoner's beautiful daughter. However, once the mark has turned over his money, he learns that further difficulties have arisen, requiring more money, until the mark is cleaned out and the game ends.

Key features of the Spanish Prisoner are the emphasis on secrecy and the trust the confidence artist is placing in the mark not to reveal the prisoner's identity or situation. The confidence artist will often claim to have chosen the mark carefully based on his reputation for honesty and straight dealing, and may appear to structure the deal so that the confidence artist's ultimate share of the reward will be distributed voluntarily by the mark.

Modern variants of the Spanish Prisoner include the advance fee fraud and Nigerian money transfer fraud. In the advance fee fraud, a valuable item must be ransomed from a warehouse, crooked customs agent, or lost baggage facility before the authorities or thieves recognize its value. In the Nigerian variation, a self-proclaimed relative of a deposed African dictator offers to transfer millions of ill-gotten dollars into the bank account of the mark in return for small initial payments to cover bribes and other expenses.

The film The Spanish Prisoner, written and directed by David Mamet, includes such a confidence trick as part of the plot, as does his other film about con men, House of Games. This scam is also contained in the movie The Flim-Flam Man. Arthur Train's story "The Spanish Prisoner" was published in the March, 1910 issue of The Cosmopolitan Magazine.

See also

Advance fee fraud (also known as the Nigerian Letter)

External links

The Spanish Prisoner Original story by Arthur Train
Metropolitan Police Service - Fraud Alert

References

Spanish Prisoner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Spanish Prisoner is a confidence trick dating back to the early 1900s [1]. In its original form, the confidence trickster (con-man) tells his victim (the mark) that he is in ...

The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
advertisement Overview. User Rating: 7.3/10 10,616 votes. Director: David Mamet. Writer (WGA): David Mamet (written by) Release Date: 3 April 1998 (USA) more

The Spanish Prisoner
It's an interesting setup, Mr. Ross. It is the oldest confidence game on the books. The Spanish Prisoner... Fellow says, him and his sister, wealthy refugees, left a fortune in the ...

The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
Plot: An employee of a corporation with a lucrative secret process is tempted to betray it. But there's more to it than that. full summary | add synopsis

The Spanish Prisoner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Spanish Prisoner is a 1997 American suspense film, written and directed by David Mamet and staring Campbell Scott, Steve Martin, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ben Gazzara and Ricky Jay.

Amazon.co.uk: The Spanish Prisoner
Spanish Armada Prisoners: The Story of "Nuestra Senora Del Rosario" and Her Crew and of Other Prisoners in England, 1587-97 (Maritime Studies) by Paula Martin (Hardcover - Sep ...

Spanish Prisoner - Spam - STN Peer-to-Peer Discussion Forums
Sometimes in this job you can be a kill joy. Take, for instance, a situation I was involved in a couple of weeks ago. I had the unpleasant task of informing someone that they were ...

Henry Moore Foundation
Spanish Prisoner c.1939 (CGM 3)

Amazon.com: The Spanish Prisoner: Campbell Scott, Steve Martin ...
Amazon.com: The Spanish Prisoner: Campbell Scott, Steve Martin, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ben Gazzara, Ricky Jay, Felicity Huffman, Richard L. Friedman, Jerry Graff, G. Roy Levin, Hilary ...

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