One point that Wilson makes over and over is that he hopes to provide protection to the reader in the form of information. By reading about all these various cons and scams, many of which Wilson pulled off himself for his various series on BBC television—he always gave the money back to the "mark" and explained what happened and why—readers can get an idea of how easy it is to be fooled, how entire phony environments (the "con bubble") can be created to steal money from strangers.

Which is another point. Most con games are like being mugged, just without the violence. But Wilson mentions that if you recognize the con being pulled on you, it's a mistake to try to outsmart the grifters. If you think they're going to be chastened once you reveal that you're smarter than them and you were onto their trick from the start, they might just pull a gun or a knife or beat you up to take your money.

A common criticism Wilson says he faced is that his book is basically an instruction manual for how to cheat people. Certainly he does show how these things work, but he does it for the victims, not the predators. He asserts, and it seems like reasonable enough to me, that con artists already know how to do all this stuff. He learned it from them! Your only defense is knowledge, having a sense of the structure and psychology of these things, so when something doesn't feel right, you'll play it safe. You'll remember that when something seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

And it is fascinating and entertaining reading. One con had a few people set up their own counter and cash register in a large department store and take any customers who would pay cash for whatever they wanted to buy. A few hours in a busy holiday season would make them thousands of dollars and they can just walk away.