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The badger game is an extortion scheme or confidence trick in which the victims are tricked into compromising positions in order to make them vulnerable to blackmail. Its name is derived from the practice of badger-baiting.
The woman may also claim that the sexual encounter was non-consensual and threaten the victim with a rape or sexual harassment charge.
Variants of the trick involve luring the victim with the promise of a homosexual act, statutory rape, child pornography, a bizarre sexual fetish, or some other activity carrying a legal penalty and/or social stigma. In the most typical form of the trick, an attractive woman approaches a man, preferably a lonely married man of considerable financial means from out of town, and entices him to a private place with the intent of maneuvering him into a compromising position, usually sexual. Afterwards, an accomplice the victim with photographs or similar evidence.
Another form involves accusations of professional misconduct. In an example of this form of the trick, a "sick" woman visits a physician, describing symptoms that require her to disrobe for the examination, require the doctor to examine the genitals, or ensure similar scrutiny from the doctor. During the examination an "outraged husband" or "outraged father" enters the room and accuses the doctor of misconduct. The "sick" woman, who is of course part of the deception, takes the side of her accomplice and threatens the doctor with criminal charges or a lawsuit. This form of the badger game was first widely publicized in an article in the August 25, 1930, edition of Time magazine.
Non-sexual versions of this trick also exist, particularly among ethnic and religious groups with strong social , for example inducing a Mormon to gambling or drink alcohol in violation of his religious vows, and then demanding money to keep the indulgence secret and thus preserve his reputation.Samuel Woolley Taylor (1976). The Kingdom or Nothing: the Life of John Taylor, Militant Mormon. MacMillan, p 199.Charles Kelly and Hoffman Birney (1934). Holy Murder: The Story of Porter Rockwell. Minton & Balch, p. 208.
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