經常聽到身邊的人講述自己或他人被騙財騙物的經歷,講述者最后大多都會感嘆騙子的奸猾和騙局的迷惑.今天就給大家介紹與此相關的兩個英語詞匯:con 和 scam.
　　這兩個詞都有"欺騙、詐騙、誆騙"的意思,用來指通過各種手段,引誘他人上當受騙,以獲取錢財的行為.
　　街頭時常上演的碗蓋石頭或撲克牌的游戲其實就是這類騙局中典型的一種.這類把戲在英文里稱為:confidence game,簡稱con game.
　　這里的confidence(原詞義為"信心、自信")可不是指受騙者有信心贏得賭注,而是指行騙者穩操勝算,設下一個贏你沒商量的圈套.從這個詞組衍生出的con一詞,可以用做動詞和名詞使用, 例如:
　　a con man 騙子
　　They conned me out of all my money. 他們騙走了我所有的錢.
　　另外一個指騙人、騙局的詞是scam.我們先看看下面的例子(from Newsweek May 17 issue 2004):
　　Scams generally fall into two categories: those that appeal to our desire to make money -- usually fast -- and those that appeal to our vanity.
　　The Internet is chock full of the first type. All those complaints we're hearing about "junk mail" on the Internet, especially on popular service providers like America Online, are largely directed against fast-buck operators attempting to lure us into a get-rich-quick scheme.
　　Many of these scams are built on a pyramid structure where the early birds make money, but the suckers at the tail end come up empty.
　　Other scams give the illusion of something-for-nothing that in the end winds up costing quite a bit.
　　上述引文中提到的"快速致富"的騙局,在我們日常生活中時有耳聞.看來騙子的把戲也有國際性.
　　不僅如此,騙子還會緊跟時勢的最新動向,利用一切機會盯住可以誆騙錢財的機會.例如,在下面的報道中,有人利用美國人對恐怖行為的擔心,大玩各種各樣的騙錢把戲:
　　Even as the war in Iraq winds down, many consumers are reporting a barrage of swindles using the war and preying on people's sense of patriotism and craving for security. The scams include everything from telemarketers soliciting money to help victims of the war, Web sites that peddle "government-approved" homeland security kits, and even an Iraqi version of the classic Nigerian letter scams that have been circulating for the past 15 years.
　　騙子的騙術千變萬化,難怪又被稱為scam artist.