A common single-word name for “a target for a conman” is “mark.”

Quick Scoop

In con‑artist and scam slang, a mark is the person the scammer singles out as the likely victim. The term is widely used in discussions of fraud, street cons, and online scams to describe whoever is being deceived or taken advantage of.

In scam stories or crime shows, when characters say “Who’s the mark?”, they mean “Who are we going to trick?”

Related terms

  • Victim – the person who actually loses money or is harmed by the scam.
  • Target – anyone a scammer aims their scheme at (whether or not it succeeds).
  • Sucker (slang, negative) – an insult scammers sometimes use for an easily fooled person.

Why “mark”?

  • Historically in con culture, a “mark” was said to be literally marked or identified in some way (even physically, in old street scams), making them easier for others in the scheme to recognize.
  • Today, the word is used metaphorically for someone who appears trusting, distracted, or vulnerable enough that a scammer thinks the con will work.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.