As Houdini himself notes in the introduction this book has two purposes: to protect the public from the swindles within by greater knowledge, and to entertain. It achieves both masterfully with clear, concise explanations of the various frauds and cons. While the setting is of course that of Houdini's time (this book was published in 1906) you may notice the ancestors of various modern phishing schemes and banking scams within. Houdini was such a famous escape artist and illusionist that his name has entered language. Those expecting a biography of the great man will be disappointed, although he does take diversions into discussions of rope tricks and a few other escapes. Most of the "ways to do wrong" inside are fascinating and skillful in how they part the target from their money and valuables without violence, but many of the perpetrators were still violent criminals. If there is a take home message it is that if somethings sounds too good to be true it probably is. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.