How to Cheat at Everything: A Con Man Reveals the Secrets of the Esoteric Trade of Cheating, Scams, and Hustles

Lovell creates an interesting story, weaving facts and anecdotes in along with practical advice. His ability to make some of he more dry subjects, namely cards and dice, interesting was a skill which is needed when writing this kind of book. Perhaps the best part of the book, besides the bar cons, was Lovell's ability to make the reader care about the leading con man through which Lovell teaches about the various scams, Freddy the Fox. The book culminates in an somewhat ironic ruse, this time played upon the reader. If you are remotely interested in the mind of a con man as well as the ingenious scams in their arsenal I would definitely recommend this book.

Amazingly told by a true con-man. Simon is well educated and covers the history of scams and even educates the reader on some scams and hussles to entertain friends and family or win the occasional free drink. A must have for anyone who's a fan of the hussle!

Fantastic book by the guy who mentored Matt Bomer on the show "White Collar"...This is the REAL Neal Caffrey...It's a fun, enjoyable read!!

Clearly written in the 1950's, many of the scams described just wouldn't work today. Still, the tone and voice was fun and I enjoyed reading about many of them. It just wasn't as illuminating about the world of cheaters as I'd hoped because so many of the cheats rely on bar bets or casual gambling that doesn't happen these days.

Great

This is a well written entertaining piece of work that can be pursued in small pieces. It covers human nature and the mechanics of some of the more popular cons and how to use them. The sections on bar bets is worth the price of the book alone. I purchased a second copy and sent it to my son-in-law as a Christmas present after I conned him with one of the bar bets. Aside from this, the conman character takes one on a great Elmore Leonard path.

This book is fascinating enough, but I bought it because I hoped that it would include the instructions for a famous and amazing con-game, known as "Thirty-One With Dice." Sure enough, it does! I'd learned this nifty little parlor trick years ago, then I forgot the details and couldn't find the instructions anywhere online, which surprised me. Disclaimer: While it may be useful to learn how to avoid being cheated, I wouldn't advise trying most of these cons on real people, especially not upon one character who the author describes as "17 and one half week Freddy." He says that's how long you will stay in the hospital after Freddy finishes with you if he catches you cheating!

The book covers a lot of ground in the area of scams, cons, etc. It works best when dealing with traditional topics, such as bar, carnival, or card games. It's a little bit weaker when dealing with Internet scams. It does not cover at all the types of scams perpetrated by large financial corporations, foundations, utility companies, etc, which are ironically probably the most significant. The book could use a better editor. I found the infatuation the author seems to have for the scam artist who reveals most of the secrets described in the book a bit off-putting. This said, the descriptions of the scams/cons are precise and eye-opening. I picked this book because I wanted a reference of common types of scams and cons, so I could teach my children to protect themselves when they grow up. In this regard, the book did not disappoint.