This is a list of notable individuals who exploited

confidence trick A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have def ...

Born or active in the 17th century

William Chaloner William Chaloner (1650 – 22 March 1699) was a serial counterfeit coiner and confidence trickster, who was imprisoned in Newgate Prison several times and eventually proven guilty of high treason by Sir Isaac Newton, Master of the Royal Mint. ...

(1650 – 1699): Serial counterfeiter and confidence trickster proven guilty by

Sir Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the great ...

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; Paul Hopkins and Stuart Handley, 'Chaloner, William (d. 1699)'
/ref>

Born or active in the 18th century

Gregor MacGregor General Gregor MacGregor (24 December 1786 – 4 December 1845) was a Scottish soldier, adventurer, and confidence trickster who attempted from 1821 to 1837 to draw British and French investors and settlers to "Poyais", a fictional Central Am ...

(1786–1845): Scottish con man who tried to attract investment and settlers for the non-existent country of "Poyais" * Jeanne of Valois-Saint-Rémy (1756-1791): Chief conspirator in the

Affair of the Diamond Necklace The Affair of the Diamond Necklace (, "Affair of the Queen's Necklace") was an incident from 1784 to 1785 at the court of King Louis XVI of France that involved his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The Queen's reputation, already tarnished by gossi ...

, which further tarnished the French royal family's already-poor reputation and, along with other causes, eventually led to the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

Born or active in the 19th century

William Rockefeller Sr. William Avery "Devil Bill" Rockefeller Sr. (November 13, 1810 – May 11, 1906) was an American businessman, lumberman, herbalist, salesman, and con-artist who went by the alias of Dr. William Levingston. He worked as a lumberman and then a travel ...

(1810 - 1906): an American businessman, lumberman, herbalist, salesman, and con-artist. Two of his sons were

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

co-founders John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and William Avery Rockefeller Jr. * George Appo (1856-1930): American fraudster, operated in New York and was involved in

green goods scam The green goods scam, also known as the "green goods game", was a fraud scheme popular in the 19th-century United States in which people were duped into paying for worthless counterfeit money. It is a variation on the pig-in-a-poke scam using mo ...

s. Wrote an autobiography and also had a biography written about him which discusses prison conditions and various other socio-economic conditions in the later 19th century. *

Lou Blonger Lou Blonger (May 13, 1849 – April 20, 1924), born Louis Herbert Belonger, was a Wild West saloonkeeper, gambling-house owner, and mine speculator, but is best known as the kingpin of an extensive ring of confidence tricksters that operated f ...

(1849–1924): American pickpocket and fraudster, organized a massive ring of con men in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

in the early 1900s. *

C. L. Blood Charles Lewis Blood (September 8, 1835 – September 27, 1908; alias C. H. Lewis '' et al.'') was an American con artist and self-styled physician who operated in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. He produced a patent medicine t ...

(1835–1908): American

patent medicine A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...

huckster, fraudster, and blackmailer. *

Amy Bock Amy Maud Bock (18 May 1859 – 29 August 1943) was a Tasmanian-born New Zealand female confidence trickster. Her usual pattern involved making emotional claims to her employer or other acquaintances in order to obtain money or property, or comm ...

(1859–1943): Tasmanian-born New Zealand con artist who committed numerous petty scams and frauds, and in 1909 impersonated a man in order to marry a wealthy woman. * Cassie Chadwick (1857–1907): Canadian woman who defrauded banks out of millions by pretending to be the illegitimate daughter (and heir) of Andrew Carnegie * Eduardo de Valfierno (1850–1931): Argentine con man who posed as a marqués and allegedly masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911. * Lord Gordon Gordon (1840 – 1874): British man who defrauded $1 million from

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...

, who was fighting for control of the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...

. *

Bertha Heyman Bertha Heyman (born ) was a 19th-century American criminal, also known as "Big Bertha" or the "Confidence Queen." She was described by famed New York City detective Thomas F. Byrnes as "one of the smartest confidence trick, confidence women in Am ...

(born c. 1851): American con artist, also known as "Big Bertha"; active in the United States in the late 19th century... *

Canada Bill Jones William "Canada Bill" Jones (c. 1837–1877) was an English-born confidence artist, riverboat gambler and card sharp in Canada and the United States. He has been described by historians, news reporters and others who have written about his life s ...

(c.1837–1880): King of the

three-card monte Three-card Monte – also known as Find the Lady and Three-card Trick – is a confidence game in which the victims, or "marks", are tricked into betting a sum of money, on the assumption that they can find the "money card" among three face-dow ...

men * John E.W. Keely (1837-1898): American grifter. *

David Lamar David Lamar (c. 1877 – January 12, 1934) was a con man known as the Wolf of Wall Street. Biography David Lamar was born circa 1877. (various birth dates can be found; his 1934 obituary reports he was 65 years old) Criminal career He appeare ...

(1877-1934): American con artist known as "The Wolf of Wall Street". *

Daniel Levey Daniel "Professor Dan" Levey (born ) was a 19th and 20th century American criminal, operating in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Oregon and California. He was a forger, embezzler, con artist, thief, gambler, body builde ...

(c. 1875-?): American swindler and gambler, specialized in passing fake checks and stealing goods under the pretense of brokering sales for their owners. *

Victor Lustig Victor Lustig (; January 4, 1890 – March 11, 1947) was a highly skilled con artist from Austria-Hungary, who undertook a criminal career that involved conducting scams across Europe and the United States during the early 20th century. Lusti ...

(1890–1947): Born in

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

(today's

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

) and known as "the man who sold the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "'' ...

twice". * William McCloundy (1859–19??): American con artist, convicted of selling the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...

to a tourist. *

Phillip Musica Philip Mariano Fausto Musica (1877 – December 16, 1938), also known as F. Donald Coster, was an Italian swindler whose criminal career spanned parts of three decades. His various crimes included tax fraud, bank fraud, and bootlegging. However, ...

(1877–1938): Italian fraudster known for tax and securities frauds culminating in the

McKesson & Robbins scandal (1938) The McKesson & Robbins, Inc. scandal of 1938 was one of the major financial scandals of the 20th century. The company McKesson & Robbins, Inc. (now McKesson Corporation) had been taken over in 1925 by Phillip Musica, who had previously used Adelp ...

. * George C. Parker (1860–1936): American con man who sold New York monuments to tourists, including most famously the

, which he sold twice a week for years. The saying "I'll sell you the Brookly Bridge" originated from this con. * Charles Ponzi (1882–1949): Italian swindler and con artist; "

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

" is a type of fraud named after him. *

Soapy Smith Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 – July 8, 1898) was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier. Smith operated confidence schemes across the Western United States, and had a large hand in organized cri ...

(1860–1898): American con artist and gangster in

and Creede, Colorado, and

Skagway The Municipality and Borough of Skagway is a first-class borough in Alaska on the Alaska Panhandle. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,240, up from 968 in 2010. The population doubles in the summer tourist season in order to deal with ...

, Alaska, in the 1880s and 1890s *

Adele Spitzeder Adelheid Luise "Adele" Spitzeder (; 9 February 1832 – 27 or 28 October 1895), also known by her stage name Adele Vio, was a German actress, folk singer, and con artist. Initially a promising young actress, Spitzeder became a well-known private ...

(1832-1895): German actress that arguably was the first to perpetrate a

between 1869 and 1872 when she defrauded thousands of people by promising them 10% return of interest monthly which she paid with the money of new investors. * William Thompson ( fl. 1840–1849): American criminal whose deceptions caused the term ''confidence man'' to be coined. * Ferdinand Ward (1851–1925): American swindler whose victims included Thomas Nast and the former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. *

Joseph Weil Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil (July 1, 1875 – February 26, 1976) was one of the best known American con men of his era. Weil's biographer, W. T. Brannon, wrote of Weil's "uncanny knowledge of human nature". During the course of his career, Weil is ...

(1875–1976): American con man. *

Fernando Wood Fernando Wood (February 14, 1812 – February 13, 1881) was an American Democratic Party politician, merchant, and real estate investor who served as the 73rd and 75th Mayor of New York City. He also represented the city for several terms in ...

(1812-1881): U.S. Congressman, Mayor of New York City, and a con artist who defrauded his brother-in-law and three others of $20,000 in a scheme involving the charter of a ship to sell goods during the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

Born or active in the 20th century

*Archibald Stansfeld Belaney a.k.a.

Grey Owl Archibald Stansfeld Belaney (; September 18, 1888 – April 13, 1938), commonly known as Grey Owl, was a British-born conservationist, fur trapper, and writer who disguised himself as a Native American man. While he achieved fame as a co ...

(1888–1938), a British-born conservationist, fur trapper, and writer impersonated a Native American man. * Alan Conway (1934–1998): American con man best known for impersonating film director

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

. * Bernie Cornfeld (1927–1995): Ran the

Investors Overseas Service Investors Overseas Services, Ltd. (IOS) was founded in 1955 by financier Bernard Cornfeld. The company was incorporated outside the United States with funds in Canada and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. In the 1960s, the company employed 2 ...

, alleged to be a Ponzi scheme. * Ferdinand Waldo Demara (1921–1982): Famed as "the Great Imposter". *

David Hampton David Hampton (April 28, 1964 – July 18, 2003) was an American con artist and robber who became infamous in the 1980s after he convinced a group of wealthy Manhattanites to give him money, food, and shelter under the pretense that he was ...

(1964–2003): American actor and impostor who posed as Sidney Poitier's son "David" in 1983, which inspired a play and a film, ''

Six Degrees of Separation Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of "friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. It is also k ...

.'' * Susanna Mildred Hill: perpetrator of the “lonely hearts scam”. * Harry Jelinek (1905–1986): Czech con artist alleged to have sold the

Karlstejn Castle Karlstein may refer to places in: ; Germany: * Karlstein am Main, a municipality in Landkreis Aschaffenburg, Bavaria * part of Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria ** a rock with a ruin there * Karlstein bei Hornberg, a rock in Hornberg, Baden-Württemberg ...

to American industrialists. *

Sante Kimes Sante Kimes (born Sante Singhrs; July 24, 1934 – May 19, 2014) was an American criminal who was convicted of two murders, as well as robbery, forgery, violation of anti-slavery laws, and numerous other crimes. Many of these crimes were comm ...

(1934–2014): Convicted of fraud, robbery, murder, and over 100 other crimes along with her son Kenneth Kimes, Jr. *

(1877-1934) a.k.a. "The Wolf of Wall Street". * Edgar Laplante (?–1944): Claimed to be "Chief White Elk." Stole from aristocratic European women and gave away large quantities of the money in cash. Presented to Mussolini as a visiting foreign dignitary. *

Don Lapre Donald D. Lapre (May 19, 1964 – October 2, 2011) was an American multi-level marketing and infomercial salesman. His work involved product packages such as "The Greatest Vitamin in the World" and "Making Money Secrets". Lapre was criticized as ...

(1964–2011): American TV pitchman known for peddling various get-rich-quick schemes. *

(c. 1875-?): American swindler and gambler, specialized in passing fake checks and stealing goods under the pretense of brokering sales for their owners. *

Bernard Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDAQ s ...

(1938-2021): Former American stock broker and non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market who admitted to the operation of the largest Ponzi scheme in history. *

Gaston Means Gaston Bullock Means (July 11, 1879 – December 12, 1938) was an American private detective, salesman, bootlegger, forger, swindler, murder suspect, blackmailer, and con artist. While not involved in the Teapot Dome scandal, Means was associ ...

(1879–1938): American con-man and associate of the Ohio Gang. *

Natwarlal Natwarlal (born Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava; 1912 — 25 July 2009) was an Indian fraudster known for his high-profile crimes and prison escapes, including having supposedly repeatedly "sold" the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, the Rashtrapati Bhavan, ...

(1912–2009): Legendary

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n con man known for having repeatedly "sold" the

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

, the

Red Fort The Red Fort or Lal Qila () is a historic fort in Old Delhi, Delhi in India that served as the main residence of the Mughal Emperors. Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned construction of the Red Fort on 12 May 1638, when he decided to shift hi ...

, the

Rashtrapati Bhavan The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, rāsh-truh-puh-ti bha-vun; ; originally Viceroy's House and later Government House) is the official residence of the President of India at the western end of Rajpath, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India. Rashtrapati Bh ...

and the Parliament House of India. *

Lou Pearlman Louis Jay Pearlman (June 19, 1954 – August 19, 2016) was an American record producer. He was the person behind many successful 1990s boy bands, having formed and funded the Backstreet Boys. After their massive success, he then developed NSYNC. ...

(1954–2016): Former boy band impresario, convicted for perpetrating a large and long-running Ponzi scheme. * Charles Ponzi (1882–1949): Italian American businessman and con artist. * Riley Shepard (1918-2009): Country musician who used numerous pseudonyms to break the terms of his recording contracts and defraud investors. *

Reed Slatkin Reed Eliot Slatkin (January 22, 1949 – June 23, 2015) was an initial investor and co-founder of EarthLink and the perpetrator of one of the largest Ponzi schemes in the United States since that conducted by Charles Ponzi himself. Slatkin had b ...

(1949–2015): American investor and co-founder of

EarthLink EarthLink is an American Internet service provider. It went public on NASDAQ in January 1997. Much of the company's growth was via acquisition; by 2000, ''The New York Times'' described Earthlink as the "second largest Internet service provider ...

. * Jerry Tarbot (?–?): Claimed he was amnesic victim of World War I. * Alvin Clarence "

Titanic Thompson Alvin Clarence Thomas (November 30, 1893 – May 19, 1974) was an American gambler, golfer and hustler better known as Titanic Thompson. Thompson traveled the country wagering at cards, dice games, golf, shooting, billiards, horseshoes and propo ...

" Thomas (1892–1974): Gambler, golf hustler,

proposition bet In gambling, a "proposition bet" (prop bet, prop, novelty, or a side bet) is a bet made regarding the occurrence or non-occurrence during a game (usually a gambling game) of an event not directly affecting the game's final outcome. Proposition be ...

conman. * Barton H. Watson (1960–2004): Former CEO of global technology company

CyberNET ''Cybernet'' (also known as Interactive) was a weekly video gaming magazine programme, originally broadcast overnight on the ITV network in the United Kingdom. The programme was commissioned by ''Yorkshire Television'' and produced by ''Caprico ...

who committed suicide after the FBI raided his offices. Watson was accused of stealing millions as a con man, but died before being arrested. Prior to CyberNET he embezzled funds from customers as an

E.F. Hutton EF Hutton was an American brokerage firm, stock brokerage firm founded in 1904 by Edward Francis Hutton and his brother, Franklyn Laws Hutton. Later, it was led by well known Wall Street trader Gerald M. Loeb. Under their leadership, EF Hutton b ...

broker and embezzled funds from his former business partner in WS Services. * Alessandro Zarrelli (1984–2018): Italian amateur footballer who posed as a fictitious

Italian Football Federation The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It ...

official and attempted to dupe clubs in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in to signing a supposed talented young professional player (himself) in a bid to earn a pro contract and kick start a career in the sport.

Living people

Frank Abagnale, Jr. Frank William Abagnale Jr. (; born April 27, 1948) is an American author and convicted felon. Abagnale targeted individuals and small businesses yet gained notoriety in the late 1970s by claiming a diverse range of victimless workplace frauds, m ...

(1948): U.S. check forger and impostor turned FBI consultant; his autobiography was made into the movie ''

Catch Me If You Can ''Catch Me If You Can'' is a 2002 American Biographical film, biographical crime film, crime Comedy drama, comedy-drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks with Christopher Walken, Martin ...

.'' Abagnale impersonated a PanAm pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, and a teacher to illegally make over $2.5 million * Gilbert Chikli (1966): Impersonated French foreign defence minister

Jean-Yves Le Drian Jean-Yves Le Drian (; born 30 June 1947) is a French politician who served as Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs in the First Philippe government, governments of Prime Ministers Édouard Philippe and ...

using silicone masks on video conference software to appeal to politicians and business executives for money. Fraudulently obtained €55 million. * Ali Dia (1965): Senegalese semi-professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

, duped the manager of

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

team

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

into signing him after posing as World Player of The Year

George Weah George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah (; born 1 October 1966) is a Liberian politician and former professional footballer who is the incumbent president of Liberia, in office since 2018. Prior to his election to the presidency, Weah served a ...

in a phone call in which he gave himself a fake reference *

Marc Dreier Marc Stuart Dreier (born May 12, 1950) is an American former lawyer who was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in 2009 for committing investment fraud using a Ponzi scheme. He is scheduled to be released from FCI Sandstone on October 26, 2 ...

(1950): Founder of attorney firm Dreier LLP. Convicted of selling approximately $700 million worth of fictitious promissory notes, and other crimes * Kevin Foster (1958/59): British investment fraudster, convicted of running a Ponzi scheme * Anthony Gignac (1970): Falsely took on the identity of Saudi prince Khalid bin Al Saud to entrap victims in investment scams and other schemes, currently serving an 18-year jail sentence *

Randy Glass Randy Glass started off as a con man and later became a trusted U.S. undercover To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own ident ...

: Defrauded jewelry traders and became involved in the entrapment of undercover arms dealers * Robert Hendy-Freegard (1971): Briton who kidnapped people by impersonating an

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

agent and conned them out of money *

Elizabeth Holmes Elizabeth Anne Holmes (born February 3, 1984) is an American convicted fraudster and former biotechnology entrepreneur. In 2003, Holmes founded and was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Theranos, a now-defunct health technology company that ...

(1984): CEO of

Theranos Theranos Inc. () was an American privately held corporation that was touted as a breakthrough health technology company. Founded in 2003 by then 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists a ...

. Convicted of criminal fraud in United States v. Elizabeth A. Holmes, et al. for defrauding investors. * James Arthur Hogue (1959): U.S. impostor who most famously entered

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

by posing as a self-taught orphan * Brian Kim (1975/76): Hedge fund manager who pleaded guilty to a

passport fraud A passport is a travel document issued by a government to a citizen of that country. The purpose of this document is to allow entry back into the home country, as well as access into other countries around the world by providing legal proof of i ...

, and other crimes * Steven Kunes (1956): Former television screenwriter convicted for forgery, grand theft, and false use of financial information; he attempted to sell a faked interview with

J. D. Salinger Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in '' ...

to ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'' magazine *

Rudy Kurniawan Rudy Kurniawan (born 10 October 1976, in Jakarta, Indonesia) is an Indonesian convicted criminal and perpetrator of wine fraud. He was found to be offering more magnums of the limited edition 1947 Château Lafleur than had been produced, and ...

(wine

connoisseur A connoisseur ( French traditional, pre-1835, spelling of , from Middle-French , then meaning 'to be acquainted with' or 'to know somebody/something') is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts; who is a keen appreciator ...

and collector) (b. 1976): Pulled off the biggest wine scam in history. Famously consigned several lots of Clos St. Denis from

Domaine Ponsot Domaine Ponsot is a wine producer in Burgundy, France that produces white and red wine. They are best known for their Morey-Saint-Denis Blanc 1er cru Clos des Monts Luisants — the only ''premier cru'' Burgundy made entirely from Aligoté — ...

from vintages long prior to any recorded production of Ponsot wines from that vineyard. * Anthony Lasarevitsch (1985): Impersonated French foreign defence minister

using silicone masks on video conference software to appeal to politicians and business executives for money. Fraudulently obtained €55 million. * Simon Leviev (1990): Known as the Tinder Swindler is an Israeli con artist who swindled more than $10 million from several women in Europe, Israel, United States etc., by pretending to be a son of a billionaire diamond magnate; inspired the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

documentary of

The Tinder Swindler ''The Tinder Swindler'' is a British true crime documentary film directed by Felicity Morris and released on Netflix on 2 February 2022. The documentary tells the story of the Israeli conman Simon Leviev (born Shimon Hayut) who used the dating ...

. *

Simon Lovell Simon Lovell (born 1957) is an English comedy magician, actor, and card sharp, who specialises in magic using playing cards. Career Lovell was a regular performer in ''Monday Night Magic'', an off-Broadway show featuring magicians and relate ...

(1957): English comedy magician, card shark actor and con man *

Jho Low Low Taek Jho (, born 4 November 1981), often called Jho Low, is a Malaysian fugitive businessman, wanted by authorities internationally in connection with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal (1MDB scandal). He has been named the mastermin ...

(1981): Claimed to be a financial expert and trusted by Malaysian prime minister,

Najib Razak Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak ( ms, محمد نجيب بن عبد الرزاق, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset, ; born 23 July 1953) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 6th prime minister of Malaysi ...

, in managing 1MDB, a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. He abused his position and stole billions of US dollars, causing Malaysia to end up in heavy debt and further devaluation of its currency. * Gina Marks (1973): American "psychic" con artist *

Matt the Knife Matt the Knife (also called MTK; born 1988) is a magician and mentalist. He has broken a number of Guinness World Records. He began his career as a professional con man. Career Sometime around 2000 he began to perform magic. Since then, he has p ...

(1987): American-born con artist, card cheat and pickpocket who, from the ages of approximately 14 through 21, bilked dozens of casinos, corporations and at least one Mafia crime family * Billy MacFarland (1991): Organizer of the

Fyre Festival Fyre Festival was a fraudulent luxury music festival founded by con artist Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. It was created with the intent of promoting the company's Fyre app for booking music talent. The festival was scheduled to take pla ...

. *

Barry Minkow Barry Jay Minkow (born March 22, 1966) is a former American businessman, pastor, and convicted felon. While still in high school, Minkow founded ZZZZ Best (pronounced "Zee Best"), which appeared to be an immensely successful carpet-cleaning and ...

(1967): Known for the ''ZZZZ Best'' scam * Richard Allen Minsky (1944): Scammed female victims for sex by pretending to be jailed family members over the phone * Jim Norman (musician) (1948): Used the ESPAVO Foundation and Thrum Records to defraud millions of dollars in a cross-border advance fee scam, and was eventually convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud *

Christophe Rocancourt Christophe Thierry Daniel Rocancourt, sometimes also called Christopher Rocancourt (born 16 July 1967), is a French impostor and confidence man who scammed affluent people by masquerading in turn as a French nobleman, the heir to the Rockefelle ...

(1967): French con artist who scammed affluent people by masquerading in turn as a French nobleman, the heir to the Rockefeller family or family member of a celebrity * Steven Jay Russell (1957): Georgia police officer who impersonated several individuals to escape from a Texas prison; embezzled from the North American Medical Management corporation; inspired the movie ''

I Love You Phillip Morris ''I Love You Phillip Morris'' is a 2009 English-language French black comedy film based on a 1980s and 1990s real-life story of con artist, impostor and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell, as played by Jim Carrey. While incarcerated, Russ ...

'' *

Anna Sorokin Anna Sorokin (russian: Анна Сорокина; born January 23, 1991), also known as Anna Delvey, is a con artist and fraudster who posed as a wealthy heiress to access the upper echelons of the New York social and art scenes from 2013 to ...

(1991): Russian-born German con artist who pretended to be a wealthy German heiress under the name Anna Delvey. Inspired the

limited series

Inventing Anna ''Inventing Anna'' is an American drama television miniseries created and produced by Shonda Rhimes, inspired by the story of Anna Sorokin and the article in ''New York'' titled "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People" by Jessica Pres ...

. * Ong Kean Swan (1982): Ran multi-level

pyramid scheme A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products. As recruiting multiplies, recruiting becomes quickly im ...

s in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan; walked away with an estimated US$35 million

References

{{fraud