Were people running the sort of scams or confidence tricks we would be familiar with today? Was this sort of thing common or wide spread?
Although it's about the medieval period and not specifically about the renaissance, I think the excellent answer by u/sunagainstgold in this thread will be of interest to you. It describes several scams you could encounter in medieval Europe, from mixing in questionable ingredients in bread or beer to selling fake medicine. It also has a very modest contribution of myself about religious scams.