If the authorities ever looked too deeply into most authors’ internet search histories, we might be suspected of a multitude of crimes! As I was writing Lucky, I often found myself looking up detailed instructions on how to pull off everything from common street grifts to complicated Ponzi schemes – and now I’m an expert.

Here are some of the cons I’m sure I could accomplish, but of course never would. Lucky’s life would have been much improved if she’d learned early on that being honest is better than living a life running away from lies – and that her skills and talents could be better used on the side of good. Although reading about grifters, or watching them in shows and movies, is highly entertaining, the reality is most of them get caught eventually – and there’s nothing glamorous about prison life.

This street grift preys on people’s sense of duty and obligation. What would you do if you bumped into someone and broke an expensive gift they were carrying, or spilled their take-away dinner all over the street? You might offer to pay for it – which would be the right thing to do. Unless, of course, you were being conned! Lucky pulls this scam off. Here’s how it works:

Step One: The grifter packs a broken glass into a box or some food they don’t plan to eat into a takeout container.

Step Two: They then run straight into a kind stranger, drop the box or container, start crying their eyes out and saying the box contained a gift for their mom or best friend or the dinner they spent their last pennies buying and …

Step Three: Then they act surprised and gracious when the kind stranger offers to repay them with cash on the spot.

This was an incredibly entertaining part of the pilot for Hustle, a British drama I watched while writing Lucky. The show features a gang of goodhearted hustlers Lucky would fit right in with – and I loved the audacity of their cons! In the opening scenes of the first season, one of the team jumps in front of a moving vehicle, pretends to be hurt, and then takes this dangerous scam to a whole new level. Here’s how it works:

Step One: The con artist bravely steps in front of a moving vehicle. (PLEASE, do not actually try this, as what is more likely to happen is you’ll get hit by a car.)

Step Two: The scammer, who may already have a pre-existing injury, demands immediate compensation or heads to a nearby hospital to get checked out.

Step Three: If the pre-existing injury can be verified by medical tests (this is where things got interesting on Hustle …) the swindler is home free. They can either reap the insurance payment or sue the person who supposedly hit them with their car.

This one requires a partner – and I’m sure this scam is one of John’s favorites. I also loved watching it happen in one of my favorite con artist tv shows, Lupin.

Step One: The first con artist pretends to mug an unsuspecting victim, relieving them of their wallet or handbag.

Step Two: The second con artist sees this happen and gives chase; she recovers the stolen item.

Step Three: She returns the stolen item to the shaken-up victim – and of course, she becomes a big hero! What happens next again depends on the inherent generosity of the victim of this grift. More than likely, the victim will offer a reward, perhaps even sharing some of the cash they had in their wallet with their new best friend.

When Lucky pulls off this tried and tested grift on p. 180, she’s unaware she’s being watched and giving away her true identity. I liked watching Addie Logans and Moses Pray accomplish this classic con in Paper Moon. A con artist needs to have a bit of cash in their pocket to make it happen – and probably needs to practice it a few times, because it’s complicated.

Step One: The grifter heads into a store – preferably one that is reasonably busy, as a flustered cashier is more likely to make the mistake required here – and requests a five, a ten, and five ones in exchange for a twenty.

Step Two: Now, it’s time for the distraction phase. While the till is still open, the con artist makes it look like they just realized they have some ones they need to get rid of. They ask the cashier if they can trade them for a ten-dollar bill, then drop a stack of ones on the counter and snatch that ten as fast as they can.

Step Three: Next, the swindler asks the cashier to make absolute certain they got it right and recount the ones for them. When the cashier counts, they’ll come up short: the con artist only gave them nine ones, and apologizes profusely.

Step Four: What the grifter should do is give the cashier another dollar, but what they’ll really do is amp up the confusion. They’ll say something like, “Sorry, I don’t want to get confused here. We have nine, yes? Let’s make it ten, then. Oh, and I’ve got some more ones in here. We can make it 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15… and 5 dollars more to make it twenty. Hmm. How about we just trade all this for my original twenty instead?”

Step Five: Your head is probably spinning by now, isn’t it? And the cashier’s would be, too. The con artist has used their stack of nine one-dollar bills twice — first to trade for a ten-dollar bill, and then again, added with more money, to trade for a twenty, and has walked away with more money than they came in with.