Rip-Off: A Writer's Guide to Crimes of Deception

Howdunit Series

by Fay Faron

From street level shell games to high stakes real estate swindles, professional PI Fay Faron profiles the con artists, the cons and the victims. Designed for authors who need the facts for realistic narrative, here is the lowdown on scams.'

Genres: Writing, Reference, Nonfiction, Research

232 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

Fay Faron first came into the national conscienceless in 1982 when she founded The Rat Dog Dick Detective Agency in San Francisco. In 1991, her advice column, “Ask Rat Dog,” was syndicated by King Features, leading to appearances on virtually every major TV talk & news show of the decade, including Oprah (3 times), Larry King Live and Good Morning America.

Faron has authored three books (“Missing Persons” & “Rip-off,” published by Writer’s Digest; and the self-published, “A Nasty Bit of Business”) and been the subject of “Hastened to their Graves,” a true crime by Edgar award-winning author, Jack Olsen.

In 2001, Faron sold her detective agency and moved to Louisiana, where she was named “Ferrygodmother of New Orleans” in 2016 for saving the local ferry system. In 2020, she was awarded Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award” for her investigative endeavors and community activism.

“Journey of an Ex-Teetotaling Virgin” is a memoir of her traveling years right out of college.

Reviews

[T.M. Carper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read and very interesting, but it had little to do with the characters I was working with. It focuses mainly on cons involving teams and other famous swindle types like identity theft, gypsy-related scams, carnival scams, contest cons. Worth a read if you're considering have a con artist as a character or having a character fall victim to a con. It has a lot of handy con artist lingo as well.



There's not much in the way of pickpocket type scams or many single person scams.

[Robert Bagnall · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a reference book, very readable; for something written before the internet became ubiquitous, this still feels relevant.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little out of date but good info

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another good book from the Howdunit series. This deals with ripoffs and scams. It's a great writing reference for writers. (If anyone has any copies of other books I don't have in the series like Cause of Death, please let me know.)

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another book found at a garage sale. If you have a con artist character, or just need to know the basics of a scam, this is perfect. I, for one, could never develop one of these massively complicated scams, but I understand it when it's explained to me. This book does JUST that. All the way from classic rip-offs to white collar crime.

[Rebecca Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just a writers guide, but a pretty good look at some very common scams, and how to avoid them.