A person who defrauds or deceives people; a conman.
down below was a wretched herd of thieves, pickpockets, and lurkmen
Example sentencesExamples
You had to be there where it was, so we became lurkmen.
He was a wizened, cackling, brandy-begging lurk-man living on the fringes of a settlement
He was a terrific fixer, showing the Australian lurk-man's perennial talent for hitching a ride into the forbidden zone.
The lurkman should not take heart: the stuff will be changed back at the tourist rate when you leave the country.
Young men searching for the opportunity, lurkmen if you like, hanging around in cities, in the coffee shops of smart hotels, watching and waiting for the main chance.
An unemployed 'lurkman' commented about his call-up
Bernard keeps up a steady barrage of personality-assassination against his ex-lover, an alcoholic ex-Army lurk-man.
I saw a group of four big lurkmen—I've noticed them in the background at Randwick or Rosehill when Bill was in for the kill on some racer.
He was inclined to be uneasy and suspicious on the same principle that thieves, lurkmen, and gangsters have the most locks and alarms on their doors.
Like Milo he was something of a lurkman, but he had the additional quality of humour.
Origin
1940s: from lurk in the noun sense 'a profitable stratagem'.