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While I am not an artist, I always had a distaste for the phrase "scam artist". It didn't seem appropriate to elevate someone who commits fraud to the level of

While I am not an artist, I always had a distaste for the phrase "scam artist". It didn't seem appropriate to elevate someone who commits fraud to the level of "artist". But my hope was the phrase would shift out of the professions entirely. And certainly not into my own profession.

khedoros 10y ago
"Engineered" and "artistic" seem apt descriptions of parts of the scam: the skillful, creative, and well though out parts. Just like "criminal" and "scammer" address the other side of the same activities.
- louprado 10y ago
  Engineering is applied math and science. Hard science mind you.
  - khedoros 10y ago
    That's one sense of the word. There are others. I was thinking of "the action of working artfully to bring something about".
wallace_f 10y ago
It does seem to be a euphemism, one used to paint scammers in a better light. Remember, 10 years ago we were calling social engineering hackers scammers and con men.