Confidence trick

Bauernfängerei refers to a type of deception including fraud, in the assumed that a party to the arrangements either does not understand or relevant passages ( small print ) on reads. The name comes from the Thirty Years' War, in which recruiters of mercenaries farmers have often made ​​it drunk and then have a recruitment contract it signed, the they could not read.

A classic example of this is the post sent prize notification, though promised in the supposedly high profits, but ultimately never paid. The sole purpose of this confidence trick is overpriced merchandise for sale or directly ripping off money. This also applies to coffee journeys where the only goal of the organizers is a sales event with overpriced goods.

A special variant of Bauernfängerei are called Useless providers that offer Internet users a bid, the free on other websites there are in a comparable way, but that is connected on its side with a hidden invoicing, this is usually associated with a subscription.

The warning " nepper, tugs, Bauernfänger " was as subtitles on the television program Beware of traps! ( ZDF) with Eduard Zimmermann dictum.