A
Yiddish insult meaning a thief, con man, or other such unscrupulous and untrustworthy
character looking to conduct a scam, ripoff, or similar evil and dishonest method of personal gain.
The word is an insult. A ganef wouldn'
t generally call himself a ganef, no matter how proud of himself he was, but he might be angrily called a ganef by his victim.
Bernie Madoff convinced me to put
my life'
s savings into his ponzi scheme. That no-
good ganef cost me everything!