Boat Loan Utah
Who is the Cyber-Crime?
Recently, the Nigerian Internet fraudsters have been marked or cyber-criminals. business proposals are sincere rejected by potential business associates soon observed that the IP address originates from Nigeria.
In a country with supposedly the happiest people in the land, one of the most religious and stinking rich in natural and human resources, with your average person actually working daily to eke out, frankly, in most cases, a life is a shock, but also an understandable complaint. Scam emails or from any e-mail can be easily identified by Internet Protocol (IP). However, it takes two to tango. Rightly or wrongly labeled, Nigerians are equal to the average Earthling – compared with the vagaries of reality paced world of a nanosecond. But how it came to be is another question entirely.
The Internet arrived quite late Nigeria. By late afternoon, late 90's and early 2000. So the disappointment was short the agenda as well as in most countries, especially in the western world. Naples, Italy New York, USA, London, UK and many other local conmen had tales to tell and all that. Not much was heard of Cyber-crimes anywhere near the coasts of all the African country from cyber-Activites were virtually nonexistent. Nobody drives a dream car, without actually buying or possessing it.
All the early stories deception or registered ship-biter never been the same dramatis personae Nigeria or Africa, for that matter. According to well informed chroniclers of this ignominious way of life, a breach of trust or confidence game (also known as a scam, con, flim flam, gaffle, cheating, agitation, fraud, fraud scheme, or fool) is an attempt to deceive a person or group, earning their trust. The victim is known as Mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, crook, scoundrel confidence, or crook, and any accomplices are known as shills.
trusted men exploit human characteristics, as greed and dishonesty, and has victimized people from all walks of life con artist is a person who intentionally deceives another person, usually for financial gain personal. In recent history, there have been a number of conmen who really stood out both for the wealth they amassed, or the ease with which he deceived people.
Holders of record reeled of a list of 10 most famous men in recent history with:
Frank Abagnale is a former crook check forger and impostor who, for five years in the 1960s, passed bad checks worth more than $ 2.5 million in 26 countries. His heinous acts inspired the shooting of "Catch Me If You Can" Movie recent success. He began to carve a niche for itself fraudulent, as youth when he used his father's Mobil card to buy car parts that he would then sell back to the gas station at a lower price. Records include that he realized his father was the one who had to pay the bill and when he was finally confronted with the fraud, his mother sent him for four months for an installation juvenile correction.
After moving to New York, Frank lived exclusively on the income of their fraudulent activities. One of his most famous tricks was print your own account number in bank deposit slips false so that when customers of the bank deposited the money, he really would go to your account. Up the time the banks realized what had happened, Frank had taken $ 40,000 and gone underground.
For about two years, Abagnale globe-trotting around the world for free by parading himself as a pilot for Pan Am He was able to abuse the professional courtesy to other airlines to provide free transport riders to compete if they had to move to another city in the short term. Once he nearly got caught out of an airplane, but he changed his outfit to a doctor and he worked as a supervising physician for 11 months without detection. Sometimes he worked as a lawyer and a teacher.
He was eventually caught in France and spent six months in prison there. After that, he was extradited to Sweden and jailed for six months. After a successful escape, while traveling to the United States, he was finally given 12 years in prison. He escaped from his prison, which appears as an undercover officer of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He was captured again in New York and returned to jail. After serve only five years of his sentence, the U.S. Federal Government offered him his freedom in exchange for government help against fraud and scam artists without compensation.
He currently runs Abagnale and Associates, a consulting firm and financial fraud is a multi-millionaire.
2. Charles Ponzi [Date of birth: 1882, died in 1949]
Ponzi, an Italian immigrant in the United States if became one of the most famous men in history con-Americans. Although not many people know the name of the pyramid, the Ponzi scheme is extremely well known and continues today on the Internet make quick money schemes. His childhood is not known how he was willing to fabricate stories about him. What is known is that he spent a short period time at the University of Rome and, after dropping out, took a Boat to Boston, where he arrived with $ 2.50.
His first year in the United States of America was worrisome. He began working in a restaurant, but was soon fired for playing tricks with the law and deceiving customers. His next job was working at a bank in Canada which served the Italian immigrant. His knowledge of numbers helped him to do very well there. Unfortunately, it was discovered that the owner was stealing money from bank accounts recently opened savings to pay the interest on the accounts with interest and to cover the bad investments. The owner of the bank eventually fled to Mexico and Ponzi left without jobs. After passing a fraudulent check and spend a number of years in prison, Ponzi was determined to become rich at any cost.
After he settled in life outside it reply coupons found in a letter that was sent to him from abroad. He realized he could buy coupons foreigners at prices massively devalued (Because of price fixing after the war) and then resell them in the United States for a profit of 400%. This was a form of arbitration and it was cool. Ponzi friends and acquaintances began screens for the money – promising them a return of 50% or double your money in 90 days. He started his own company, the Securities Exchange Company, to promote the scheme.
The word of this great investment spread quickly and before long Ponzi was living in a luxurious mansion. He was taking money at a fantastic rate, but the simplest financial analysis showed that he was not making money, he was rapidly losing. For every dollar he took in, he was deeply in debt. While the money kept flowing, Ponzi would stay ahead of the eventual collapse.
People soon began to get suspicious and the press were beginning to publish negative articles about him. Inevitably, people began to demand their money. Shortly afterward, federal agents raided his office and turn it off. The stock of stamps was found and everyone who had invested their money in Ponzi lost every penny. It probably has lost tens of millions of dollars. Ponzi pleaded guilty to fraud and was sent to prison. After an escape, he was returned to prison to complete his sentence. He was then deported back to Italy and died there in poverty in 1949.
3. Joseph Weil [Date of birth: 1877, Died: 1975]
Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil was one of the most famous con men in his time. Throughout his career, he is believed to have stolen more than $ 8 million. In his first job as a collector, he realized that his colleagues were collecting their debts, but keeping a small portion of the money for himself. Weil started a protection network – offering not to report their activities in exchange for a small part of what they were taking.
He also used false oil deals, women, fixed races, and an endless list of other tricks to steal from a public increasingly credulous. He could change his personality every day for more earnings: one day he was Dr. Henri Reuel, a noted geologist who traveled around and told his hosts that he was a representative of a major oil company, while draining them the money they gave him to "invest in fuel." The next day, he was director of the Elysium Development Company, promising land to innocent believers while robbing them in recording fees and abstract. Or he was a chemist par excellence who had discovered how to copy dollar bills, promising to increase his fortune, he would multiply your bill, then take the booty once the the police arrived.
In his autobiography, Weil writes:
"The desire to get something for nothing has been too expensive for many people who have dealt with me and other crooks," writes Weil. "But I discovered this is how it works. The average person, in my opinion, is ninety-nine percent of the animals and one percent human. The ninety-nine per cent is animal that causes very little problems. But one percent of what is human causes all our ills. When people learn – as I doubt they will – they can not get something for nothing, crime will decrease and we will live in greater harmony. "
4. (Count) Victor Lustig [Date of birth: 1890, Died: 1947]
Victor Lustig was known as The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower. He was born in Bohemia, but later moved to Paris where he was able to fool people on his frequent trips between Paris and New York. His first coup was to show people a device that can print $ 100 bills. The only problem, he would tell them, is that it only prints a bill every six hours. Many people paid him a huge amount of money (usually over $ 30,000) for the device. In fact, the device contained two real hidden $ 100 bills – once you were thrown by the machine that produces only blank paper. By the time the buyers discovered this, Lustig was well gone with your money.
In 1925, France was recovering from the war, maintaining the Eiffel Tower was an unbearable expense for the city of Paris. When he read about it Lustig on paper, it came with the brightest idea. After forging government credentials, he invited six scrap metal merchants for a secret meeting in a hotel. He explained that the city could not afford to keep the tower and they had to sell it for scrap. He told them the secret meetings and all future business was due to the fact that the public can become distressed by the idea of withdrawing from the tower.
Although it seems unlikely at the time the tower was built was to be temporary and it happened only 18 years after the original deadline for the removal of the tower. Lustig took the dealers in a limousine to visit the tower. One of the salesmen, Andre Poisson was convinced that the story was legitimate and he handed over the money. When he realized he had been tricked, he was ashamed to tell the police and Lustig fled with the money. A month later, he returned to Paris to try to blow the whole again. This time it was reported to police, but Lustig managed to escape.
At one point, managed Lustig convince Al Capone to invest $ 50,000 with him. He stored the cash in a safe and he returned two months later, saying the deal fell through. Capone, so impressed with the honesty of Lustig gave him $ 5,000 for his effort. In 1934, Lustig was found guilty of forgery. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years Alcatraz. In 1947, he died of pneumonia while in jail in Springfield, Missouri.
5. George Parker [Date of birth: 1870, Died: 1936]
Parker was one of the most audacious con men in American history. He made his living selling the New York public landmarks to unwary tourists. His favorite object for sale was the Brooklyn Bridge, he sold twice a week for years. He convinced his marks they could make a fortune by controlling access to the road. More than once the police had to remove the buyers naive of the bridge while trying to erect barriers toll.
Other public landmarks which he sold included the original Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grant's Tomb and the Statue of Liberty. George had many different methods to make their sales. When he sold the Grant's Tomb, he used to pass by the general's grandson. He even set an "office" to handle their false real estate shenanigans. He produced impressive false documents to prove it was the legal owner of any property he was selling.
Parker was convicted of fraud three times. After his third conviction on 17 December 1928 he was sentenced to a life sentence in Sing Sing. He spent the last eight years of his life behind bars. He was popular with guards and fellow inmates who liked to hear of his exploits. George is remembered as one of the most successful con men in U.S. history, as well as a story more talented pranksters. His exploits have passed into popular culture, giving rise to phrases like "and if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you" a popular way of expressing an opinion that someone is naive.
6. Soapy Smith [Date of birth: 1860, Died: 1898]
Soapy Smith (born in Jefferson Randolph Smith) was a con artist American Gangster and had a big hand in the operations of organized crime in Denver, Colorado, Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska 1879-1898. He is perhaps the most famous "right thing" bunko man of the old west. Sometime in late 1870 or early 1880, Smith began to deceive multitudes whole with a ploy the Denver newspapers dubbed The Prize Package SOAP Sell Swindle.
Jefferson would open his gut and keister "(display case on a tripod) on a busy corner. soap cakes common stack to the top keister, he could describe its wonders. As he spoke to the growing crowd of onlookers, he would take out his wallet and begin wrapping paper money ranging from one dollar up to one hundred U.S. dollars, around a select group of bars. He then finished each bar by plain wrapping paper around it to hide the money. He mixed the money wrapped up in packages wrapped with bars containing money. He then sold the soap to the crowd for a dollar a cake.
The shill planted in the crowd would buy a bar, tearing it open it and loudly proclaim that he had won some money, waving around for all to see. This performance had the desired effect of stimulating the sale of packages. In most cases, victims bought several bars before sale was completed. In the middle of the sale, Smith will announce that the hundred dollar bill remained in the cell, not purchased. He then would auction off the remaining bars of soap the highest bidder.
Through the masterful art of manipulation and hand-blow, cakes of soap wrapped with the money were hidden and replaced packet without any money. It was ensured that the only money "won" was for members of what became known as the "Gang of soap." Soap was eventually shot dead by a group known to have cheated in a card game.
7. Eduardo de Valfierno
Eduardo de Valfierno, who referred to himself as Marques (Marquis), was an Argentine con man who allegedly masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa. Valfierno paid several men to steal the artwork from the Louvre, including officials from the Vincenzo Perugia museum. On August 21, 1911 Perugia hid the Mona Lisa under his coat and simply walked out the door.
Before the assault occurred, restorer ordered Valfierno French art forger Yves Chaudron and make six copies of the Mona Lisa. The fakes were then shipped to various parts of the world, preparing them for buyers who had lined up. Valfierno knew that once the Mona Lisa was stolen would be more difficult to smuggle past customs copies. After the assault, the specimens were delivered to their buyers, each thinking that the original that was stolen by them. Because just wanted Valfierno sell fakes, he only needed the original Mona Lisa to disappear Perugia and never contacted again after the crime. Eventually, Peruggia was caught trying to sell the painting and was returned to the Louvre in 1913.
8. James Hogue [Date Birth: 1959]
Hogue is a U.S. impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan. In 1986, Hogue enrolled in a High School in Palo Alto as Jay Mitchell Huntsman, a fatherless 16-year-old from Nevada. He adopted the identity of a dead baby. A local reporter exposed him suspect. In 1988, Hogue enrolled at Princeton University, using the alias Indris Alexi Santana, a self-taught orphan from Utah. He deferred admission for a year because he had been convicted for theft of bicycle frames, Utah. Hogue contended in their application materials that he had slept outside in the Grand Canyon, raising sheep and philosophers reading. He violated his probation for entering class. For the next two years he lived as a member of Santana and the track team. He was admitted to the Ivy Club.
In 1991, Hogue real identity was exposed when Renee Pacheco, a high school student in Palo Alto, he acknowledged. He was arrested for defrauding the university for $ 30,000 in aid financial and sentenced to three years imprisonment with five years probation and 100 hours of community service.
On May 16, 1993 Hogue was in the news again with his association with Harvard University. Having lied about his identity again, he was able to take a job as a security on the Harvard museums campus. A few months into his tenure, the museum staff noticed that several rocks on display had been replaced with cheap fakes. police Somerville Hogue seized at his house and accused him of theft, amounting to $ 50,000.
On March 12, 2007 Hogue pleaded guilty to a single count of crime theft over $ 15,000 in exchange for a term of imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, according to prosecutors dropping theft and other criminal charges as usual.
9. Robert Hendy-Freegard [Date of birth: 1971]
Robert Hendy-Freegard is a British barman, car salesman, conman and impostor who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and fooled several people into hiding for fear of being murdered IRA. He met his victim at social occasions, or as clients in granting or pub car where he was working. He would reveal his "role" as an undercover agent for MI5, Special Branch of Scotland Yard or working against the IRA. He would conquer them, to borrow money and make them do his bidding. He demanded that cut off contact with family and friends, go through "loyalty tests" and living alone in squalid conditions. He lured five women, claiming that he wanted to marry them. Initially, some of the victims refused to cooperate with police He warned that because the police would be double agents or perform another MI5 "loyalty test".
Hendy-Freegard also seduced a personal assistant newlywed who was caring for their children. He said he was with MI5 and forced her to cut off contact with friends and family, so that the IRA would kill her. He also took pictures Her naked and threatened to give them to her husband if she would not cooperate. She had to change his name and tell the deed poll officer it was because she was sexually abused as a child. His loyalty tests included sleeping in Heathrow airport and on park benches for several nights and pretending to be a Jehovah's Witness, so their heads MI5 in which to marry.
In 2002, Scotland Yard and the FBI organized a sting operation. First, the FBI wiretapped the phone of parents, the American psychologist. His Hendy-Freegard mother said she would deliver 10,000 pounds, but only in person. Hendy-Freegard met his mother at Heathrow airport, where police apprehended him. He denied all accusations and said they were part of a conspiracy against him and continued this story in the subsequent trial. On June 23, 2005, after a trial eight months, Blackfriars Crown Court convicted Robert Hendy-Freegard of two counts of kidnapping, robbery and August 10 of disappointment. On September 6, 2005 he was given a life sentence. Police doubt that they found all the victims. On April 25, 2007, the BBC reported that Robert Hendy-Freegard had appealed against the conviction of kidnapping and won. This means that the life sentence to be overturned, but he still will serve nine years for other crimes. He could be free by the end of 2007.
10. Bernard Cornfeld [Born in 1927, Died: 1995]
Bernard Cornfeld was a prominent businessman and international financier who sold investments in U.S. mutual funds. He was born in Turkey. When he moved to the U.S., he first worked as a social worker but became a salesman of mutual funds in 1950. Although he suffered from a stammer, he had a natural gift for sale and when the father of a classmate died, two of them used the insurance money of $ 3,000 to purchase and implement an age and weight to guess the amusement park Coney Island.
In 1960 he formed his own sales Cornfeld mutual fund company, foreign investors Services (IOS), which he incorporated outside the U.S. with funds in Canada and based in Geneva, Switzerland. Although the seat was offcially in Geneva, the operational headquarters of the IOS were in Ferney-Voltaire, France, within walking distance the Swiss border from Geneva, this was just a means of avoiding the problems of obtaining work permits for many Swiss workers. During the next ten years, IOS has raised more than $ 2.5 billion, bringing Cornfeld a personal fortune of more than $ 100 million. Cornfeld himself became known by the conspicuous consumption with lavish parties. Socially, he was generous and jovial.
A group of 300 employees complained of IOS to the Swiss authorities that Cornfeld and his co-founders pocketed the revenue from a share issue raised among staff in 1969. Consequently, he was accused of fraud in 1973 by Swiss authorities. When Cornfeld visited Geneva, Swiss authorities arrested him. He served 11 months in a Swiss jail before being released to a bail of $ 600,000. Back in Beverly Hills, who live less ostentatious than in their earlier years. He developed an obsession with healthy food and vitamins, resigned red meat and rarely consuming alcoholic beverages. He suffered a stroke and died of a brain aneurysm on February 27, 1995 in London, England.
The granddaddy of all coup in history is Bernard Madoff, mastermind of the coup biggest investment. This report by Reuters is on his trial and conviction:
Bernard Madoff was sentenced Monday to 150 years in prison – the maximum sentence the judge could give him "extraordinarily bad" crimes of greater investment and more brazen Wall Street fraud. "
It goes:
"Fleeced Investors cheered and applauded in court when the judge imposed the sentence.
Madoff, 71, stood passively with his hands on her hips, showing no reaction when he heard the sentence that will send him to prison for the rest of his life.
The former non-executive president of Nasdaq was arrested in a Manhattan jail since he pleaded guilty to 11 charges including securities fraud, money laundering and perjury in March.
"Here the message must be sent that the crimes were extraordinarily bad Madoff," U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said in rejecting the claims defense of a verdict in favor of 12 years. "The breach of trust was massive.
"I just do not get the sense that Mr. Madoff did everything he could and said everything he knows. "
The money manager with gray hair was dressed in his signature dark gray suit, white shirt and tie instead of a prison jumpsuit.
The disgraced financier sat passively throughout the hearing of an hour and a half, as his victims called him a "beast" "Animal" and a "lowlife."
He apologized to them, a turning point for the 250 people in court.
"I will live with this pain, this torment, for the rest of my life, "he said quietly." I live in a state plagued by knowing the pain and suffering that I created. "
Madoff, who was accused of defrauding investors worldwide out of up to $ 65 billion, said: "In my business, when you make an error negotiation, you must be a trading error is acceptable. My mistake was much more serious. I made a misjudgment. "
Caught by surprise financial crisis
Prison Madoff December, came as investors were feeling the impact of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the decade 1930.
The case provoked widespread criticism from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been accused of missing red flags that could have brought the curtain down to its asset management business.
Do not know where Madoff will serve his sentence for what prosecutors described as a world investor fraud small and rich, charities and financial institutions.
Chin ripped heard statements from nine Madoff victims, some of whom said they had lost their life savings, were forced to sell their homes or had to seek government assistance to buy food.
"I just hope that his imprisonment is long enough for your cell will become your coffin, "said Michael Schwartz, 33, who said his family had been robbed of savings for the care of his mentally disabled brother.
The White House said the judge sent a strong signal to those who handle other people's money.
"My guess is that this message will be heard loud and clear," said the spokesman of President Barack Obama, Robert Gibbs.
Madoff was arrested in December after her two children, told authorities that he had confessed to them that their empire was an investment scam.
Prosecutors said Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities showed $ 65 billion in client accounts weeks before his arrest, but the administrator closure of the company, so far only been able to bill U.S. $ 1.2 billion return to investors.
As much as $ 170000000000 flowed through the principle of Madoff account for decades. Madoff was symbolically ordered to pay that amount in restitution.
Although a much lesser sentence would have sent him to life imprisonment Madoff, Chin said that he deserved the maximum usually given to organized crime bosses.
"The fraud here was incredible," the judge said.
A law professor said he was surprised phrase, but he knows if he would serve as a deterrent.
"I'd like to think that the mini-Madoffs out there might think that what happened today has something to do with them, but I suspect most of them do not, "said Jayne Barnard College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Madoff said attorney that no decision had been made about the possibility of appeal.
None of the relatives came to court Madoff. They took no part in of his appearances in court before.
The judge said he had not received a single letter on behalf of Madoff, certifying any good deeds or works of charity. "The absence of such support is saying," Chin said.
Madoff wife, Ruth, 68, was not charged with any crime, but it has been criticized defrauded investors, shunned by friends, and pursued by the media. Breaking his long silence, she said in a statement Monday that she had been "betrayed and confused "by the blow of her husband.
"From the moment I learned from my husband that he had committed a massive fraud, I have had two thoughts – first place that many people who trusted him would be ruined financially and emotionally, and second, that my life with the man I met more than 50 years are over, " she said.
Madoff said he acted alone. The only other person is criminally charged off his accountant.
Madoff's brother, Peter, and their children, Mark and Andrew, were executives of the unity of his brokerage firm. They said they were not aware or involved in the crooked side of asset management.
Madoff and his wife agreed to the sale of three luxury properties and other assets and values. The proceeds from the sale of assets will be distributed to defrauded investors.
Ruth Madoff will fall $ 2.5 million, after losing their claim to about $ 80 million in assets, including the couple's luxury apartment in Manhattan.
Madoff told investors in court that he could offer excuses, saying he tried to dispose of their crimes, but "the more I tried, the deeper of a hole dug I for myself. "
Investors said the apology left them cold.
"There is something very pathological. He still is giving excuses for yourself, "said George Nierenberg, 57.
(Reporting by Grant McCool, Martha Graybow, Daniel Trotta, Mike Erman and Christine Kearney Editing by John Wallace, Toni Reinhold) "
The fake stuff gets in our collective nerves both business proposals that do not get honest look at ourselves prospects for more foreign as the IP address shows Nigeria: But one fact remains – Victims of scams are either greedy or gullible and proportionately two criminally minded fall 4 such schemes. The victim also ordered around by the acceptance of offers of quick riches, he commits the crime as an accomplice (?) Unlikely.
According to Wikipedia, "The first known use of" confidence man ", a term in English was in 1849, and was used by the American press during the trial in the United States William Thompson. Thompson chatted with strangers until he asked if they had the confidence to lend him his watch, in which he would walk away with the watch, he was captured when a victim recognized him on the street. "
The respected online encyclopedia explains further: "tricks Trust explore typical human qualities such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion credulity and naivete. The common factor is that Mark has the good faith of the crook. Just as there is no typical profile of crooks, and no one of his victims. Virtually anyone can fall for crimes malevolence.
Certainly the victims of fraud high yield investment can have an ambition level that exceeds their caution as well as a willingness to believe they want to believe. However, not all fraud victims are greedy, risk-taking, self-deception individuals looking to make money fast. Also not all fraud victims naive, uneducated, or elderly. A brand can greedy or dishonest attempt to mislead the out-biter, only to discover that he or she has been manipulated into losing from the start. This is a general principle in confidence tricks that there is a saying among con men that "you can not cheat an honest man."
The confidence trickster often works with one or more accomplices called shills, who help manipulate the mark into accepting the plan for the crook. In a confidence trick traditional, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to make money or some other prize by doing some tasks. The accomplices may pretend to be strangers who have received the job done in the past.
Wikipedia also listed its own record of World renowned crooks, some of them were mentioned above in paragraphs earlier, and obviously none of them were from Nigeria or even Africa for that matter:
Notable con artists
Born Century 18
Gregor MacGregor (1786-1845) – Scottish conman who tried to attract investment and settlers for a Poyais nonexistent country.
Born or active in Centur y 19
Lou Blong (1849-1924) – Ring of swindlers organized mass in Denver in 1900.
Helga de la Brache (1817-1885)
Horace de Vere Cole (1881-1936)
Canada Bill Jones – Boat player and a card sharp
Victor Lustig (1890-1947) – Born in Bohemia (now Czech Republic) and known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower."
George C. Parker (1870-1936) – U.S. con man who sold New York monuments to tourists.
Charles Ponzi (1882-1949) - "Ponzi Scheme" is a "get rich fast "fraud named after him.
Death Valley Scotty (1872-1954), artist, mining, and con artist, famous for hits mining Gold and mansion in Death Valley known as Scotty's Castle.
Soapy Smith (1860-1898) – confidence gang boss, who operated in Denver Colorado, Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska
William Thompson (active 1840-1849) - U.S. criminal whose deceptions caused the term confidence man be invented.
Joseph Weil (1875-1976) – one of the most famous American con men of his time.
Cassie Chadwick (1857-1907) – U.S. defrauded several banks of millions of dollars by claiming to be an illegitimate daughter and heiress of Andrew Carnegie.
Born and active in the 20th century
Bernie Cornfeld (1927-1995) – ran the service of foreign investors, a suspected Ponzi scheme.
Richard Eaton (1937-1979) – Dastardly, bar owner and general manager of the factory Moo Moo Vedder dress and an associate of the Lucchese family.
David Hampton (1964-2003) – Inspiration for the game and the film Six Degrees of Separation
Konrad Kujau (1938-2000) – German forger the alleged Hitler Diaries.
Eduardo de Valfierno - n conma Argentine who allegedly masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.
Living people
Frank Abagnale (1948) U.S. – check forger and impostor; his autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, was made into a movie.
Peter Foster (1962) – Australian conman with convictions and arrests across three continents for fraud and money laundering, known for the hit Bai Lin tea weight loss, and involvement in property transactions with Cherie Blair.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (1961) – Bavarian-born con man who, for nearly two decades, said he was a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family.
Robert Hendy-Freegard (1971) – The British people kidnapped, an MI5 officer and cheated them out of money.
James Arthur Hogue (1959) – U.S. impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan.
Clifford Irving (1930) – USA writer best known for an "authorized autobiography" of Howard Hughes false.
Samuel Israel III (1959) – former Ran fraudulent Bayou Hedge Fund Group, faked suicide.
Bon Levi (1943) – Ron Aka Con and Ronald Frederick. Arguably the most notorious swindler Australia and who misled U.S. citizens to invest in business franchise scam. He was arrested in Australia and the United States.
Bernard Madoff Lawrence (1938) - Former U.S. president of Nasdaq, who admitted running a world record 65 billion U.S. dollars Ponzi scheme. He directed the hedge fund Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, until his arrest in 2008. In March 2009 he pleaded guilty to 11 federal crimes.
Matt the Knife (1981) – Born in American card trick and pickpocket who bilked corporations, casinos, and at least one of the Mafia crime family.
Barry Minkow (1967) – American businessman. His company, ZZZZ Best, cost investors an estimated $ 100 million before he served seven years in prison for fraud and other offenses.
Semion Mogilevich (1946) – is a billionaire leader of organized crime and a global con artist believed by European and U.S. federal laws to be the "boss of bosses" of most unions in the world of Russian Mafia.
Lou Pearlman (1954) – U.S. businessman and manager of boy bands, sentenced to 25 years to operate an investment Ponzi scheme.
Casey Serin (1982) – Self-confessed mortgage fraudster who became the poster boy of the housing bubble.
Solomon Dwek (c.1973)-Jewish Rabbi Syrian Orthodox and real estate investor from Deal, NJ, who pleaded guilty to bank fraud involving a $ 50,000,000 PNC Bank.
Michael Sabo (1945) Best known for its history as a check forger of deeds and titles. He became famous during the 1960s and 1990s as the "Great Imposter" and was featured on national television, had more than 100 million won and nickname.
With the foregoing, it is reasonable to stigmatize the Nigerians for inculturation criminal by the Western world in nearly almost every aspect of contemporary life. Westerns bring into the Nigerian and African houses all sorts of immoralities so far alien to them. People wear three-piece suits in hot weather, and lately, lots of scammers began using religion to update their processes scams of thought. Well, it's not a surprise to the real as Jesus has warned us two thousand years ago that "In recent days, many will come to deceive many in my name. "Now we're seeing many, most of whom are Nigerians. But why treat them with such ignominy?
As noted earlier, Internet technology and mobile reached these shores late in 1990. Before that, misleading Western continued to deceive people through various schemes and were not so maligned as Nigerians. They invaded computer systems with viruses and other nasty things I did against humanity. 95% of Nigerians have no access to Internet, but we hear of incomprehensible forms of Internet fraud is attributed to Nigerians.
Many of these emails are also sent to most us (Nigerians), but ignore them without blinking.
For example, you receive a scam e-mail saying you just won the lottery and blah blah blah. Did you know that you've never played any game and you fall for it. This is greed and trying to harvest where you did not sow. Or someone sends an email saying that someone died and left more money on a fictitious bank account and needs your help to get him in yours. I would not buy this idea of half a cent, because I'm not greedy. In my little research I found out that these schemes scam are actually inherited from the Western world itself. Its just like the back-to-sender syndrome. Besides addition, we hear these days Madoffs of this world which serve only overcame the sacking of all the so-called Nigerian scam artists. 0.001% of Nigerians unlike most parts of the world West are really involved in it at all. Its ability to send mass emails to millions of people with the touch of a button does not mean a Nigerian scammer as the singular act of Abdulmutallab action is on Christmas Day 2009 is not all Nigerians terrorists or suicide bombers.
The real, the average Nigerian are hardworking and strive daily to earn their keep. The world thinks in most cases in people and places that never was as a representation of what they receive from their news sources.
My advice to phobic-scam is simple: Never attempt to enter a building through the windows when the door is wide open. Greed and selfishness is a sine qua non for being a scam victim.
I rest my case for now.
PS
This testimony about Nigerian inboxed was real to me by a white American, and one of my Facebook friends:
March 15, 14:54
Hi Henry – thanks for letting me know about the fan page. Yes, I know and understand that – it's a shame that some have not known any Nigerians have been wrong and / assumtions ignorant about them. There are liars and crooks everywhere, and we are praying for the Lord's protection of people so badly. I was deceived and used by people in person in real life, if only recently Here in Montana, and none of them were never Nigerians.
I lived in Southern California and my son had a medical emergency. In order to pay for it I had to refinance the house my mother had just left me like she had just died. I called all the mortgage companies I could find. I lived in Orange County (I hated it there, people was not originally there, scrotum) and called for companies in Los Angeles and Ventura counties as well. All the companies I could find. I had just to declare bankruptcy.
Finally, I reached a company in Thousand Oaks, California. They all had a British accent. They were the only company out of thousands of people to help me. To help me I had to trust me. They were also Christians. I shared with them the condition of my son, and also that the Children's Services were threatening to take my children away because I could not find a doctor who knew how to work with him – he has / had a condition very rare (that's what ended up in Montana).
They refiananced my house. I had to pay $ 6,000 to a lawyer just to keep my child home. Henry was ridiculous as his problem was with his knee and his main complaint was that he was overweight. It was not a threat to life anyway and I had already led to 10 doctors different and had the proof!
Then they refinanced it again! They said they would not be easy as with my bankruptcy, and already has a loan where they would have to find a private entity. I begged them and told them my case and what was happening to my son. He shared with me that they were Christians too.
Everyone in the office was so kind to me. They all said they were praying for me and my children.
I finally sold the house as the surgeon I could find who knew how to work with my son was here in Montana.
On my way out of California, I drove by his office. I wanted to thank them personally for all they had done for us. His confidence and kindness kept my family together. They were also very fair with their rates and business.
I stopped and went, and I was very surprised that they were all from Africa, Nigeria. They had been educated in England. And the wife of the owner to this day remains the most beautiful woman I ever saw Africa in my life. She was wearing tradtitional Nigeria.
Henry, these people were my angels here on earth. My parents were passed from cancer, my brother was a drug addict (he is clean now and has found the Lord, praise God), my husband ran to be a hobo on a train (True story) and his family, who were rich, no matter if my children were alive or dead.
These Nigerians saved my family – my children – The most precious thing on this earth for me. I never, never, never forget what they did for me and my children. I am grateful to God for them.
Moreover, I have met wonderful people here in Nigeria on Facebook.
Thanks for listening to this story. God bless!
Sincerely,
(Name omitted)
About the Author
Born on November 24 1965 in Lagos, Nigeria. Graduated with a B.Sc (Honours) degree in Psychology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 1991. Has had stints in management and construction. Currently involved in Oil and Gas Consultancy
