The most audacious con artists of all time
lovemoney staff
08 November 2017
History's greatest con artists
From scamming the Nazis and ISIS to making millions from multiple identities or elaborate frauds, we take a look at some of the most audacious con artists of all time.
Gregor MacGregor
Ever wanted to run your own country? Gregor MacGregor’s solution was simple: he invented one and convinced would-be colonists to pay through the nose to be part of it. He claimed to be the leader of a fictional Latin American colony called Poyais and convinced colonists to set sail and start a new life there. Unfortunately, it never existed and many of them died trying to find a country that wasn’t there.
Boss Tweed
The name Tammany Hall has gone down in history to symbolise everything corrupt and it’s all thanks to William ‘Boss’ Tweed. It was the name given to the Democratic Party organisation in New York in the 18th and 19th centuries. When he was at the helm it became a byword for corruption and chaos. He started by rigging elections – dragging bearded homeless men off the street, sending them in to vote before shaving them and sending them again.
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Boss Tweed
He used his positions on various committees to create jobs and contracts all around the city. His crowning moment was when he bid $250,000 to build a new courthouse. He made money through kickbacks and ensuring people charged vast sums for small jobs. One carpenter was paid the equivalent of more than $4 million (£3m) in today’s money for a month’s work on a building made of stone. Most of it ended up in Tweed's pocket.
Boss Tweed
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An investigation was commissioned into the delays and cost-overruns. This cost a whopping $7,718 and, yes, Tweed even owned the printing company which produced the report. In the end, it was cartoonists who were his biggest problem. They exposed his misdeeds in the press and he eventually – if belatedly – felt the long arm of the law.
George C. Parker
If someone came up to you and said they had a bridge going cheap, what would you say? Well, many of the people George Parker met in Brooklyn during the early 1900s said: “Yes please.”
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George C. Parker
Parker made a habit of approaching wealthy people – especially recently arrived immigrants – and convincing them that they could make a lot of money charging for traffic tolls over the bridge. He happened to own it and was happy to let them have it at a knock-down price. Remarkably, this worked many, many times.
Charles Ponzi
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Charles Ponzi was such a successful con artist that they named a scam after him. He arrived in America as an impoverished Italian immigrant but soon set about changing that with an elaborate fraud which is still with us today. We call it the Ponzi Scheme.
Charles Ponzi
Ponzi noticed that there were international reply coupons he could buy in Italy and redeem for postage stamps in the US. These coupons were less expensive than the stamps so he quickly made a cool fortune. He then set up a company called the Securities Exchange Company, which promised investors extraordinary (and unrealistic) returns, and before long it was making $250,000 a day. Trouble was, Ponzi was paying out the original investors with the new investors' money, meaning he had no money to pay the new investors any returns. It was a gigantic pyramid scheme. He was eventually caught and jailed.
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Victor Lustig
Here's another smooth-talking European who ran amok in America. Well dressed, cultured and charming, he politely wreaked havoc in the 1920s and 30s, carrying out some of the most ambitious scams ever.
Victor Lustig
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His ambitions knew no bounds; after reading a newspaper article about problems with the Eiffel Tower he decided to sell it. He told scrap metal dealers the tower had been condemned and he'd been tasked with selling the metal. One dealer was so impressed he stumped up $70,000. When he found out he'd been scammed he was so embarrassed that he kept it to himself, so Lustig ran the scam again. And again, until he was eventually caught and jailed.
Freeman Bernstein
Here’s a situation: you’re a Jewish entertainer in 1930s Germany watching the rise of Adolf Hitler. What do you do? Freeman Bernstein decided to con him with an elaborate and very risky 'bait and switch' trick.
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Freeman Bernstein
Bernstein was many things: a vaudevillian entertainer, a boxing promoter and con artist, but the rise of Hitler saw him move into grand larceny. He convinced the Nazis he could help them get hold of embargoed Canadian Nickel. They paid a hefty price, but when it arrived all they got was mostly useless scrap metal. The Nazis petitioned the US government to have him arrested for grand larceny and a year later he was caught, reportedly having just left actress Mae West's apartment.
Frank Abagnale
By the time most people are starting college Frank Abagnale had already travelled around the world, made a small fortune, been arrested, escaped from a moving airplane and been locked up in a French prison. It’s exactly the kind of thing they make movies about.
Frank Abagnale
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Which is exactly what they did. In 2002 Frank's life was turned into the film Catch Me If You Can, creating a new target for aspiring con men: if you do really well, one day you might be played by Leonardo DiCaprio in a movie.
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Frank Abagnale
Abagnale's skill was pretending to be people. At various times he masqueraded as an airline pilot, doctor, teacher, lawyer and much more. All the while, he made a living by using forged cheques to collect thousands of dollars from banks. However, the law eventually caught up with him. He spent time in prison before working with the FBI to counter fraud. He is now one of the world's most prominent fraud investigators and has repaid the money he stole.
Jordan Belfort
Another fraudster immortalised by Leonardo DiCaprio in a movie, Jordan Belfort is better known as the 'Wolf of Wall Street'. He made millions from securities fraud and running a so-called 'boiler room' scamming potential investors. He was arrested, but only spent 22 months in prison after testifying against his fellow conspirators. He is now a motivational speaker.
Bernard Madoff
The man who did the Ponzi scheme better and bigger than anyone else. As the former Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange he seemed respectable. So when his firm the US Securities and Exchange Commission started raking it in, everyone wanted in.
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Bernard Madoff
Unfortunately, it was all a scam and when he admitted as much to his children they went to the police. He is now serving 150 years in prison, but his scam was so large that the repercussions shuddered around Wall Street. Charities folded and other banks which had invested with Madoff faced legal action from furious customers.
Three Chechen girls
We’ve all heard horror stories about innocent girls groomed online by sinister people using fake email addresses. In 2015, three Chechen girls decided to flip that on its head and target the mother of all Caliphates: ISIS.
Three Chechen girls
It all started when one girl was contacted by extremists asking her to come and fight for them. She said she didn’t have any money, at which point he offered to transfer some across. She accepted and the idea for a lucrative scam was born.
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Three Chechen girls
Posing as women looking to become jihadi brides, they successfully managed to scam the terrorist group out of more than $3,000 (£2,280) before they were finally caught by the authorities. Although they may have fallen foul of the law, they quickly became internet heroines.
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