Leading Economic Indicators: Grifters!

Oh my god, it’s like Bill the Butcher will be standing around the corner! Grifters are back:

You’ll never see them coming.

A handful of clever grifters have been scamming unsuspecting passersby in midtown with just a pair of broken glasses, cops warn.

The con artists bump into their mark, flash a pair of prebroken glasses to the ground and then begin angrily demanding cash to pay for the “smashed” specs.

The scam has become so widespread that cops from Manhattan’s Midtown North Precinct put out flyers with the photos of some of the worst scammers — known as “fraudulent accosting recidivists” — for the sheer number of times they have run their schemes.

“The scam is an oldie but a goodie. The victims get flustered and sometimes turn over the cash just to get the suspect to shut up and leave them alone,” a police source said.

Nair (Naim) Jabbar had two pairs of broken eyeglasses in a bag when cops arrested him last month. The ex-con bumped into his latest victim on W. 53rd St. and Fifth Ave., court records show.

“You broke my glasses! You own me $125!” Jabbar, 41, yelled.

But when his victim asked him to come back to his office to figure out a solution, Jabbar slunk off, court papers said.

Jabbar’s 29-year-old lookout, Jshawn Lewis, had $1,478 in cash in his pockets, police said.

Jabbar, who had just been charged in December with an eyeglass scam, was sentenced to 90 days in jail for this last hustle. He gets out April 18.