Billion Dollar Bunko
Simon Lovell
15 years in writing, rewriting, updating and more, this huge book describes hundreds of cons, scams and cheats that infest our world today. Join Simon, Freddy the Fox and his nefarious gang of chums as they take you by the hand and lead you towards enlightenment. This is not a book of magic tricks but a collection of the exact techniques used to separate you and others from your hard-earned cash.
It's a roller-coaster ride through bar bets, street hustles, carnivals, Internet fraud, big and small cons, card and dice games and more. You'll even find the exact frauds that the NYPD regard as the most common and dangerous today! You'll also learn top tips on how to avoid each and every con! The inside information has come from Simon's lifetime of experience in the field along with additional information from both sides of the law. Top FBI expert Bruce Walstead added fabulous information to the carnival section!
This isn't just a "here's how the con works" book. No, instead it guides you through the set up, the talk, the sell, everything about the con and how you can get suckered into one. Don't say you can't be conned; if you think that, you could already be half-way towards being so! There's no preaching from a lofty perch here, just a fun, ripping ride through a world that so few know about. You'll meet wild, eccentric and larcenous characters, you'll learn how they work their money-making deeds and all without having to risk a penny of your own money.
Magicians who use gambling routines will find this an invaluable resource to make them seem more real. You'll learn how to think, act and talk like a cheat.
With beautiful sequential art by Alan Wassilak, hundreds of photographs from Simon's collection along with others from Carl Mercurio and Simon's own fun style of writing, this is a book you'll find impossible to put down. It is full of deeply disturbing material that you may find hard to believe but people are being taken each and every day by these schemes. Don't be one of them. Learn well and you'll be able to avoid them.
Neither the publisher or author can be held accountable for any reader who tries these schemes to make money themselves. They will, however, be happy to pity them for their idiocy. Great con men are not made, they are born!
Hardcover • 456 pages • Large, 8 1/2 x 11 format
Full-Color Dust Jacket • Acid-free Paper
Gold-Foil Stamped Cover
Illustrations by Alan Wassilak • Hundreds of Photographs
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Now, Simon Lovell is my favorite magician, I'm throwing that out straight up. So while I am prejudiced towards him, I am remaining as neutral as humanly possible.
What Simon has done here is take mountains of very useful and factual information which could just be written out straight (which would make for a very boring read), compiled it and put a loveable face on it, enter our protagonist 'Freddy the Fox'.
Simon has taken his experience as a con-man, and that of others and compiled it into an entertaining and informative read on how to protect yourself from getting cheated. The only area Simon doesn't go into is hustlers who work casino's, which seems fair enough for a self-protection book.
Simon's unusual style of writing (in a good way) combined with his incredible knowledge of cons, hustles, swindles and everything else criminal make this tome a 'can't put down' read.
But that's just my two cents,
Joker.