thimblerigger, trickster or con-man
thimblerig (plural thimblerigs)
- A game of skill which requires the bettor to guess under which of three small cups (or thimbles) a pea-sized object has been placed after the party operating the game rapidly rearranges them, providing opportunity for sleight-of-hand trickery; a shell game.
- One operating such a game.
illywhacker (plural illywhackers)
(Australian, colloquial, obsolete) A person who is a small-time confidence trickster or seller of trinkets. This is long obsolete and the exact original sense is thought to be lost. (Reference: The Dinkum Dictionary : The Origins of Australian Words, Susan Butler, Text Publishing, 2001, ISBN 187648585X.)
