A Christmas Con Artist or the classics never really go out of style do they?

     So, its Christmas Eve and I am out on the town in very busy traffic trying to get a last few presents bought for my wife before everything closes down.  I make the turn onto a very crowded street filled with practically stationary cars.  I pull up as far as I can and I wait patiently for traffic to move.  Suddenly the car in front of me pops into reverse and its rear bumper taps the front of my car.  It doesn't hit  hard enough to even jostle my car.  Immediately afterwards, the people in front pop on the hazard lights and step out.  I pop my own lights and wait.  The man studies his bumper and says "you ran into us."  His wife starts yelling about how the bumper is damaged and how "all of the paint is going to fall off."
     So I get out of my car and examine their rear end.  There are indeed serious scratches across the top of the bumper that really should be repaired and several dents that need to be pulled out.  Problem is that not only is all of the damage noticeably old, but is so high on the bumper that there is no way my much smaller car could have made them.  The man proceeds to tell me that he would ordinarily call the police and have it reported, but he would be nice to me and not report it if I agreed to pay for the damages.  I simply smiled and said, "No I have insurance so lets just call the cops and have all of the reports filled out so that you can get your car fixed."  At this point, the wife suddenly snapped out of her near hysteria in a manner that can only be described as a Christmas Miracle and both she and her husband quickly get back in their car and leave.
     And that dear readers is one of the oldest cons around known simply as a Slider.  It takes advantage of most people's innate distrust and even fear of the police.  It also plays off their "OMG I DID SOMETHING BAD!" fears.  This particular con has been around forever.  Pretty sure someone used it on Hannibal when he was driving his elephants across the mountains.  It is a simple and unusually effective "physical con" that is probably pulled off thousands of times a year all over the world.
     The mechanics is pretty simple.  You need at least two people (Man and Woman work good and Woman and young child works even better) and a vehicle.  They cruise locations looking for just the right situation.  High volume slow moving traffic works best.  When they spot  a possible Mark, they get in front of him and when the time is just right, the driver either puts the car in reverse or if its on a hill, simply puts it in neutral.  (As a side note here, cars with standard transmissions are perfect for these cons because you simply have to push in the clutch and roll backwards.)  Once you tap the car behind you, you simply step out and one of you (here's why kids are best) goes into hysterics.  The Mark gets confronted and has to deal with the hysterical one while trying to figure out what to do.  At this point, the Con artist offers to forget the accident ever happened in return for some amount of money.  The Mark is so confused and frustrated that he gives up the money because he has become convinced it was all somehow his fault.  The Artists collect their money and split leaving the Mark poorer and confused.  The sheer beauty of this particular con is the relatively safe aspect of it.  If the Mark calls you on the Con, you simply smile and say "Hey that is okay" and then move on to someone who isn't as bright.  Very little danger of getting caught.
     In the Con Artist world, there are two adages that hold true 99.99% of the time.  One is "You can't cheat an honest man" and the other is "Never try to con a Con Man."  A Con works on the idea that the Mark understands that what is happening is questionable at best and probably illegal at worse, but he is tempted to swallow the con anyway.  In the Slider case, the Mark knows that he is supposed to call the cops, report the accident and exchange insurance information.  He falls for the con for multiple reasons like he is afraid his insurance rates will go up or that he actually did something bad.  So he agrees to do the wrong thing to keep from getting in trouble.  The second is true because any con man worth his salt will immediately spot a con going on and either call the people on it or play along just to mess with them.
     Thanks to a somewhat shady and adventurous youth, lets just say that I am very very familiar with most of the Cons and their variations out there.  So I am afraid this couple didn't find the easy mark that they had expected.  I knew I had done nothing wrong and even if I had somehow hit their car, I knew I had insurance to cover it.  So I did the one thing a Con Artist never wants you to do, I agreed we should call the cops and get everything down on the record.
     Guess I was literally involved in a Hit and OH CRAP SCRAM!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

End of Rant