Definition of "grifter"

We're all grifters. So we sell each other out for a nickel.

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

That was the train the drunks and the sinners rode—the gambling men and the grifters, the big-time spenders, the skirt-chasers, and all the jolly crew.

1958, Robert Bloch, That Hell-Bound Train

From the small-time grifters like Anna Sorokin, who adopted the last name Delvey to masquerade in downtown New York circles as a European heiress for four years before she was convicted of second-degree grand larceny in 2019, […] all impostors come equipped with a tall tale and a look to match.

2020 November 12, Megan O’Grady, “How ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ Foretold Our Era of Grifting”, in The New York Times‎