Oldest Tricks in the Book

Leung’s con game is the latest variation of perhaps the oldest trick in the book:
 pretending you’re someone else to gain some kind of benefit.
—Duane Swierczynski, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Frauds, Scams, and Cons (2002)

A honey pot to lure an agent into service is the oldest trick in the book.
—Raelynn Hillhouse, Rift Zone (2004)

—Michael Yawney, Gay Astrology (2001)

[I]f the kingdom of heaven is hidden in this world, it is hidden really well, and only the most dedicated detectives among us stand a chance of finding it at all.  Unless, of course, God has resorted to the oldest trick in the book and hidden it in plain view.  There is always that possibility, you know—that God decided to hide the kingdom of heaven not in any of the extraordinary places that treasure hunters would be sure to look, namely, in the ordinary circumstances of our everyday lives: like a silver spoon in the drawer with the stainless, like a diamond necklace on the bureau with the rhinestones.
—Barbara Brown Taylor, The Seeds of Heaven (2004)

[A] safe hidden behind a painting—it was the oldest trick in the book.
—James Alan Gardner, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Man of Bronze (2004)

Come on, Roberto, that’s the oldest trick in the book!  Scare off the natives by
 making them think the area’s haunted.  Stay away, or the ghosts will get you.
—Jeanette Windle, The DMZ (2004)

“The Old Hand Behind the Door Trick
(This Is the Oldest Trick in the Book)”
—Peter Lerangis, Yikes! It’s Alive! (2003)

If your man appears to substitute time with gifts: Guilt gifts are the oldest
 trick in the book.
—Jacqueline Powell, Someone to Catch My Drift (2003)

[G]ravity, the oldest trick in the book.
—Jim Murray, The Complete Guide to Whiskey (1997)

The oldest trick in the world is for evil somehow to mix itself with good.
—Peter Attwood, Facing Antichrist Today (2005)

It’s the oldest trick in the book—grabbing credit for the ones that work.
—Robert Littell, The Defection of A.J. Lewinter (2003)

This phony good Samaritan scenario is the oldest trick in the book.
—John Perkins, Attack Proof (2000)

You only think you look bad or your product failed, if you fall for the oldest 
trick in the book: good cop, bad cop.
—Douglas H. Ruben, Publicity for Mental Health Clinicians (1995)

This “good-guy-bad-guy” ploy is one of the oldest tricks in the book.
—Andrew James McLean and Gary W. Eldred, Investing in Real Estate (2005)

The “get them drunk and butcher the lot of them” stratagem was the oldest trick in the book, or would have been if barbarians bothered with books.
—Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times (1994)

Framing somebody to start a war.  Oldest trick in the book.
—Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2005)

The oldest trick for getting people together is to offer to feed them.
—Wayne Erbsen, Old Time Gospel Songbook (1993)

Flimflammed.  Hornswoggled.  The oldest trick in the book.
—Barbara Croft, Moon’s Crossing (2003)

Reader Comments:

Jonathan wrote:

Dear Ms. Croft:

I was recently flimflammed, or possibly hornswoggled.  I'm okay with this; but what concerns me is that I don't know the difference.  Are there guidelines that you can furnish that will allow me, in future, to approach flimflamming and hornswoggling interactions with a better ability to distinguish the two?

bamboozled,
jc-e

Flattery: It’s the oldest trick in the book.  And on most people, it works.
—Wilma Davidson, Most Likely to Succeed at Work (2003)

“Must have made a fortune on that fire.”
“Oldest trick in the bag,” Captain Chase said.
—Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe’s Trafalgar (2002)

[T]he oldest trick in the book is the one where, in a fist fight, you pretend you’re doubled over in pain but really you’re preparing to whip around and blind your enemy with a fistful of dirt.
—Micah, “Oldest Trick in the Book,” AmishRobot.com (2004)