Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Cobweb-cheat and cobweb rig

Well here's a couple for the books "cobweb-cheat" and "cobweb rig." I'm including this two-fer because although they date from about the same era, the meaning of "cobweb" changes, depending on the term. These bits of slang harken back to the 1700s... a bit before my (personal and fictional) time!

Any guesses?
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Let's see how close you were!

From Green's Dictionary of Slang:

cobweb-cheat: a swindler who can be easily found out. 

Green's adds the following to explain the use of "cobweb" in this term:

[His swindles have no more substance than a cobweb.]

Alrighty then. But now, look at this:

cobweb rig: a form of swindle or confidence trick.

With the following explanation:

[despite previous, which imply incompetence; cobweb, a subtly woven snare + rig, a form of swindle or confidence trick.] 

I find it fascinating how one word can be used to imply incompetence on the one hand, and expertise on the other.

I'm sure there are other slang terms where one can find a word's meaning flipped this way then that, depending on the context...

I'm guessing this fellow was a cobweb-cheat. (From Lights and Shadows of New York Life by James D. McCabe, 1872. courtesy of the Guttenberg Project.)