wallet inspector

English

Etymology

Coined in The Simpsons 1993 episode "Homer Goes to College" in which a group of naive nerds willingly give their wallets to a thief identifying himself as "the wallet inspector".

Noun

wallet inspector (plural wallet inspectors)

  1. (Internet slang) A confidence trickster or other person who is covering up their ulterior motive, particularly if the lie appears obvious.
    • 2015 April 15, Christopher Boyd, “Apple ID Phish Goes Horribly Wrong”, in Malware Bytes‎[1]:
      For years, scammers have walked a razor’s edge of trying to look legitimate while claiming to be some sort of distant relation to the wallet inspector.
    • 2024 December 9, Tim Britton, “For Mets fans, signing Juan Soto away from the Yankees is extra special”, in The Athletic (New York Times)‎[2]:
      It isn’t just that a franchise that spent more than a decade crying poor because it handed its cash to the wallet inspector has become the behemoth it should have been all along.
    • 2025 February 13, Madeline Grant, “Mole defends Big Don as Lib Dems succumb to an attack of America-brain”, in The Daily Telegraph‎[3]:
      Less convincing was Mole’s wriggling when asked the $1million – or rather £40 billion – question by Ben Spencer about how on earth the Government expected people (including, one presumes, President Trump) to believe that Britain couldn’t afford to increase defence spending, while splurging seemingly endless cash into the hands of the Mauritian wallet inspectors.

Derived terms

  • have one's wallet inspected
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