How History’s Most Notorious Con Artists Fooled Almost Everyone

Victor Lustig famously “sold” the Eiffel Tower… twice. He posed as a French government official and convinced a scrap metal collector that the Eiffel Tower was to be knocked down. Due to the embarrassment, the victim never reported the crime, allowing Lustig to attempt the scheme again. His second attempt was not so lucky, as the second scrap metal collector contacted the police.

Before he hit 21, Frank Abagnale Jr. was scamming banks with fake checks, though his later claims of impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, and a college professor were fabricated, as records show he spent most of those years in prison. The movie ‘Catch Me If You Can’ is based on Abagnale’s story.

Charles Ponzi claimed he had invented a way for investors to profit off international postal reply coupons and said he was exploiting a legal loophole. His scam used the investments of new participants to pay the returns promised to earlier participants. The system collapsed when Ponzi could no longer pay the returns because too many participants demanded their investment returns. He is now the namesake of the investment fraud scheme where new investors’ money is used to pay older investors.

Anna Sorokin, posing as a wealthy German heiress named Anna Delvey, duped New York high society into believing she had access to millions. Anna booked high-end hotels, gained access to exclusive events, and attempted to secure high-value business loans to fund the establishment of a private arts club. Most of her self-indulgent hedonism was paid for through fake bank statements and other fraudulent financial documents, along with various lending scams.

Ferdinand Waldo Demara took on several professions fully knowing he was unqualified, which earned him the title “the Great Impostor.” Among the many professions he assumed, Demara was a monk, a psychologist, a prison official, a Korean War naval surgeon, and a professor. The surgeries he performed during the war were done on an emergency basis while he was serving aboard a Canadian naval vessel. This made him one of the most well-known impostors of the 20th century.

Gregor MacGregor duped countless Europeans into believing that he governed a successful Central American country called Poyais. He created his own official-looking government maps, printed and sold government bonds, and sold land to prospective settlers. Upon arriving to colonize, settlers discovered that Poyais did not exist.

Bernie Madoff ran one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history, conning thousands of investors out of billions of dollars. For decades, Madoff’s firm was seen as a highly consistent and stable investment. He, however, paid out client withdrawals using the capital of new investors. After the 2008 financial crisis, Madoff’s scheme collapsed when too many clients requested withdrawals and his firm could no longer meet the demands.

Cassie Chadwick falsely claimed that she was the illegitimate daughter of rich industrialist Andrew Carnegie. She produced fake papers indicating she would inherit millions and used them to deceive banks into lending her large sums of money. Since the financial institutions believed Carnegie would eventually settle the debts to protect his reputation, they extended her credit. The scheme came apart in 1904 when a creditor demanded repayment, prompting bankers to ask Andrew Carnegie directly, who denied ever knowing her.

Natwarlal is one of India’s most notorious conmen. He became known for impersonating government officials and allegedly attempting to “sell” major landmarks. Although many of the stories about him are part legend and may be exaggerated, he did escape custody from the police multiple times, adding to his infamous notoriety.

Christophe Rocancourt became known for creating multiple false identities, including claims of being a Rockefeller heir, a film producer, and a boxing champion. Using these fabricated personas, he was able to socialize with high-profile celebrities, obtain large loans, and live an extravagant lifestyle funded by his deception before the law eventually caught up with him.

George C. Parker was a con artist who became infamous for selling New York landmarks to unsuspecting immigrants. Most famously, he “sold” the Brooklyn Bridge, and victims sometimes even set up their own toll booths after believing they had purchased it. His scheme was repeated multiple times, targeting newly arrived immigrants who were unfamiliar with how the city worked.

During the 1840s, William Thompson’s approach to gaining victims’ trust and committing theft was documented in a crime story that helped popularize the term “confidence man,” now used to describe a type of fraudster. He politely asked passing upper-class individuals on the streets of New York whether they trusted him to hold their watches until the next day. To his surprise, many of them did.

By claiming she had healed terminal brain cancer through healthy eating and natural therapies, Belle Gibson built a large online following, which led to a successful cookbook and a wellness app. Investigations later found that Gibson had never been diagnosed with cancer. The scandal is often cited as an example of how misinformation in the wellness industry can be both false and harmful to people.

By faking his death in a canoe accident, John Darwin staged his own disappearance. While his family collected the insurance payout and he was declared dead, Darwin was secretly living nearby before moving abroad with his wife. The deception was uncovered after photographs of the couple in Panama resurfaced, revealing their fraudulent life abroad. This led to fraud convictions for both John and Anne Darwin.

Robert Hendy-Freegard tricked victims into believing he was an undercover spy working against the IRA. Claiming they were in danger, he persuaded them to leave their families, hand over their savings, and follow him for years. His psychological manipulation was so extreme that his case later became the subject of documentaries and dramatizations.

Elizabeth Holmes made a lot of big promises with her company, Theranos, and investors quickly jumped on her bandwagon, pouring hundreds of millions into her supposedly groundbreaking blood-testing technology. Claims suggested that Theranos’ technology could run hundreds of different blood tests using only a single finger prick of blood. Investigations later revealed that Theranos’ technology was unable to perform many of the tests it claimed, and the company became one of the most infamous fraud scandals in Silicon Valley.

In the 19th century, Helga de la Brache convinced Swedish authorities and high society that she was the secret legitimate daughter of exiled King Gustav IV Adolf. She collected an official royal pension for years before an investigation disproved her claims and revealed she was a customs caretaker’s daughter from Stockholm.

The deception of Christian Gerhartsreiter is a remarkable tale. Gerhartsreiter, who assumed the identity of “Clark Rockefeller,” a fabricated member of the Rockefeller family, was able to infiltrate America’s high society, marry into a wealthy family, and maintain that identity for around 30 years. His carefully constructed persona eventually began to unravel, and investigators ultimately connected him to a long-unsolved disappearance case, leading to his exposure and arrest in 2008.

During the early 1900s, Joseph “Yellow Kid” Weil became one of the most infamous con men in America. He created elaborate schemes to trick wealthy victims, selling fake “investment” opportunities and other bogus “business” ventures, and was also known for his skill in forgery. Weil later said that one of the biggest weaknesses he observed in people was greed rather than a lack of intelligence, highlighting how many victims of fraud ignore warning signs in the hope of large financial rewards.

Léo Taxil was a sensationalist French writer who became famous for an elaborate hoax about Freemasonry. He published fabricated stories claiming that the secretive organization worshipped the devil and engaged in satanic rituals. Many people believed his claims, and the stories spread widely for years. Taxil eventually admitted that he had made the entire thing up, claiming it was a hoax intended to expose how easily such sensational stories could be believed, which embarrassed many who had accepted his claims as fact.

This content was created with the help of AI.