A Grifter, is somebody who can influence anybody, anywhere, at anytime, into doing whatever they choose to have them do, that will result in the grifter's
personal gain. Usually monetary, but really anything that benefits him or her somehow.
It's
absolutely NOT all of these technical things that puts this person in a specific box or particular "genre" of criminal. This person can literally become anyone or anything they want to. Not nessecarily sociopathic, but I'm sure it helps to be dead inside. Learning other people and how they react to any given situation is a must, because that is the core of what a grifter is: a student of human behavior. And once they have that mastered, the world is their playground.
Con artist, scam artist, Only a real grifter will leave a person thinking that they achieved exactly what they wanted to get out of whatever endeavor was initiated by the grifter. I read other
definitions and people said things like "they don't have a home of their own and they move around from place to place"... I'm sure this CAN be true, in some
circumstances. But again,
You cannot pigeonhole a real grifter. They can be whoever they want to be, and that includes a person who has a normal life,
In their own home. Someone has been watching way too many movies, and the stylized depiction of a "
professional" con artist, is way way too romantic for what happens in the real world. Grifter's are operators that are on the highest level of running the con game on people.
This guy wasn't your run of the mill con man. He was a grifter,
running game on everybody
in the room, and having the luxury of being able to pick and choose who his next mark would be. He picked that woman like he was picking low
hanging fruit from a tree, and when it was all over, his pockets were full, hers were empty, and they both had smiles on their faces. You were out of your depth the moment you walked into the room and he spotted you and sized you up in all of 5 seconds.
