What is Bunco: 7 Main Schemes
What is bunco – the definition of the term, its reasons and main characteristics as well as the description of 7 most widespread schemes.

Bunco follows people for all human history.
This or that way every one of us faced cheating, excessive use of trust, which were used for criminal purposes.
However, we rarely think what bunco is and how to avoid becoming a victim of the criminal fraud.
Read our article in order to get familiar with these questions.
What bunco is: the definition of the term
Bunco is a usual term for disgracefulness and selfish behavior.
There is quite a thin line between socially unacceptable and criminal behavior.
There is not a single person in the world, who never cheated at least a couple of times in his lifetime.
So, why not all of them fall under criminal responsibility?
What stops a person from committing wrongdoings?
The research has uncovered the main associations, which the word “bunco” triggers.
Associations of people, who were asked what bunco is:
- At the level of usual conscious people identify the terms of bunco and fraud.
-
There were defined the main characteristics, with which people endue the term bunco and it formulated the ordinary definition of this occurrence.
The most widespread association with the word bunco were:
- fraud
- deceit
- hypocrisy
- theft
- crime
- robbery
- foul game
Besides, the additional analysis of associations, which were formulated by the probationers, allowed defining the main groups of terms, which were connected to bunco.
The main of them are:
- Criminal Law Category (fraud; theft; crime; robbery; punishable act; quackery; zone; corruption; lawlessness and so on)
- Moral Ethic Category (lie; hypocrisy; foul game; roguery; trick; swindling; breach of justice; falsehood; cunning; sordid act; insecurity; naivete and so on)
The general characteristics of bunco
Bunco may be different and because of it there are many kinds of it.
However, regardless of all it, one can define the common characteristics, which are peculiar for all of them.
The main bunco characteristics are:
- criminals widely use various psychological methods of influence on their victims;
- a victim does not realize the real motives of the criminal’s behavior;
- a victim voluntarily and without conscious forcing gives money and valuables to the criminal;
- in most cases swindlers work in groups;
- they use “false” as if accidental people, who suddenly turned to be present at the crime scene;
- they use additional complicated devices or things very seldom;
- people around have usually mixed feelings about the criminals.
The reasons for bunco
Surely, the initial reason for bunco is money.
Easy money attracts many people and it is not considered as a major sin, because the nature placed in us the easy solutions of the problems.
However, among of all living creatures people have conscience as well as moral and ethical principles.
They keep people from wrongdoings.
Unfortunately, not all of them!
People are capable of bunco in two cases:
- moral and ethical principles are broken or almost absent;
- the desire to risk, i.e. the wish to get some adrenalin.
Besides, you should pay attention that in the first case a person mostly feels the need in money, while in the second case the desire to become rich can be absent at all.
Deceit as a sign of bunco
As it was previously mentioned, many people answering the question of what bunco is associate it with deceit.
Committing this crime a victim gives his belongings to the criminal personally, believing that he has a right to get it.
In this case deceit or violation of trust pushes the keeper or another legal owner to give the criminal all property or the right of property.
- Deceit may be expressed in the false statement that primarily does not correspond to the reality, or in the deliberate ignorance of the existence of a fact, which concerns the past, present or future.
-
Deceit may concern the actual criminal’s intentions.
Let’s assume he borrowed a thing and has no intention of returning it.
Deceit may also concern the object, its price, quality or amount.
- Moreover, deceit is possible, when we speak about the criminal’s identity, his profession, post, position in society.
7 main bunco schemes
After watching the latest report about the victims of fraud, you must feel something like pride, and the head is full of thoughts like “Of all men, these frauds won’t be able to trick me”.
Do not get your hopes up – swindlers learned long ago how to “cheat” even the most careful and distrustful smarty pants, to the category of which you put yourself.
Swindlers, as a rule, are perfect psychologists.
That’s why they see at once the potential victims, which allows them foreseeing all possible developments of events and use your weaknesses against you.
-
“The fallen melon”
This bunco scheme was extremely widespread in the country of the Rising Sun, when the fruits were very expensive – particularly melons.
Criminals with melons in their hands deliberately crushed in tourists dropping their carriage and demanded compensation.
As a rule, tourists preferred paying to hide up a scandal.
Surely, the scheme of “the fallen melon” is used even nowadays, but instead of melons they drop household appliances (which were probably broken long before falling) or boxes with “expensive vases” (i.e. with broken glass), which were bought as a gist to a wife.
-
“A gift of the destiny”
In the street a complete stranger turns to you and convinces you he found a wallet full of money and does not know what to do with it.
Discussing it both you and your interlocutor come to the idea that you should divide the money in question.
A swindler calls his “lawyer”, which advises you to take money for saving, because of a certain reason: it’s better to wait till the owner of the wallet shows up or something like that.
Swindlers ask you to leave a smaller sum of money as a guarantee of the future receiving of the finding and you agree to the fast talk, because you already imagine what you can buy using this “fallen from the sky” fortune.
It’s quite easy to foresee the future development of the event – looking in the wallet you are likely to find there “the tricky tickets” or the money printed for fun.
-
“Ring”
Using such scheme criminals mostly act the following way: in the street you meet a heart-broken girl, who asked you whether you saw her golden wedding ring she lost somewhere there.
Receiving a negative answer the beauty promises you the reward for finding and returning the jewelry and leaves a contact number, in case you found the ring and was able to contact her.
Some time later you miraculously meet the stranger, who “literally today” found a golden ring, which costs a lump sum of money and surely, the finding took place where the disappointed bride met you.
Even a fool understands that it’s her ring and you decide to buy the ring to resell it to the “victim”, leave for yourself or simply sell.
Paying a pretty penny for the ring you take it to the jeweler and ask to estimate “a great bargain”, but he says that this is a piece of copper, which costs less than nothing.
-
“An inspector comes to you!”
Just like any reasonable person you won’t tell unknown people the information about your bank accounts.
However, criminals can cheat you and get the access to your money assets.
In most situations swindlers conduct their machinations by means of the accomplice, who works in a bank.
For instance, someone says that your account is frozen for the banking information check, because of the suspicion it may be fictitious or any other reason (the most important that it sounded convincing), and while you are trying to figure out what is going on, criminals transfer money to their own account and cover the traces of the illegal operations.
-
“Have you called for a plumber?”
Swindlers are often masked as the workers of the community services and governmental organizations, which let them wind themselves into favor of the potential victim.
Under the pretext of checking the counters or revealing the illegal reconfiguration swindlers get into the houses and distracting the owners take the household appliances and other valuables out.
-
“A stain on the tie”
Many tricks are rather simple, but not less effective.
Let’s say you are going down the street and suddenly the complete stranger sees a stain on your tie (or another item of clothing) and offers to wipe it up.
You won’t even have time to blink, when your “good-doer” removes the stain and your wallet together with it.
In most cases swindlers put the stains on your clothes on their own, so that the offer looked convincing.
As a rule, people are embarrassed and start looking at their clothes attentively, when someone says them about the stain, that’s why swindlers act very quickly and confidently.
-
“Settle the case there and then”
There is nothing worse for a driver than to hit a pedestrian: in the best case he’ll have to waste much time and money on the court sessions, needless to mention all compensations, and in the worse case he might land in jail.
Wishing to avoid serious problems, many drivers prefer to settle the matter right at the scene, which swindlers successfully use and deliberately jump at the car wheels and then blackmail the driver to make them pay.
It should also be said that this kind of bunco demands much courage, because there is always high risk to be seriously injured.
This way one can say that in everyday consciousness there are two different concepts of what bunco is: criminally liable actions and unacceptable behavior from the moral and ethical point of view.
We hope our article taught you how the swindlers act and you won’t fall for a scam.
Forewarned is forearmed, after all.
Enter e-mail and receive new articles in mail