This is a list of notable individuals who exploited confidence tricks.
An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and is a common confidence trick. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim to pay or simply disappears.
A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators at the expense of their victims ".
Frank William Abagnale Jr. is an American security consultant, author, and convicted felon who committed frauds that mainly targeted individuals and small businesses. He later gained notoriety in the late 1970s by claiming a diverse range of workplace frauds, many of which have since been placed in doubt. In 1980, Abagnale co-wrote his autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, which built a narrative around these claimed frauds. The book inspired the film of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg in 2002, in which Abagnale was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. He has also written four other books. Abagnale runs Abagnale and Associates, a consulting firm.
A charlatan is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through pretense or deception. One example of a charlatan appears in the Canterbury Tales story "The Pardoner's Tale," with the Pardoner who tricks sinners into buying fake religious relics. Synonyms for charlatan include shyster, quack, or faker. Quack is a reference to quackery or the practice of dubious medicine, including the sale of snake oil, or a person who does not have medical training who purports to provide medical services.
Email fraud is intentional deception for either personal gain or to damage another individual using email as the vehicle. Almost as soon as email became widely used, it began to be used as a means to defraud people, just as telephony and paper mail were used by previous generations.
Affinity fraud is a form of investment fraud in which the fraudster preys upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, language minorities, the elderly, or professional groups. The fraudsters who promote affinity scams frequently are – or successfully pretend to be – members of the group. They often enlist respected community or religious leaders from within the group to spread the word about the scheme, by convincing those people that a fraudulent investment is legitimate and worthwhile. Many times, those leaders become unwitting victims of the fraudster's ruse.
Gina Marie Marks is an American psychic and convicted fraudster. Using the pseudonym of Regina Milbourne, she co-authored Miami Psychic: Confessions of a Confidante, a memoir published by HarperCollins in 2006.
John Peter Galanis is an American financier in the 1970s and 1980s, who became a notorious white-collar criminal. Galanis has four sons and, at the age of 76, is currently incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island in San Pedro, California, after being convicted in 2019 for defrauding a Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in a fraudulent and deceptive bond scam.
Samuel Israel III is an American fraudster and former hedge fund manager for the Bayou Hedge Fund Group, which he founded in 1996. In 2008, Israel was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $300 million for defrauding his investors.
Kevin Foster is an English investment fraudster, convicted of 14 counts of deception and theft in relation to his operation of a £34m Ponzi scheme, which ran from 2002 to 2004.
Allied Deals Incorporated"Allied Deals Inc." was a company specializing in the trade-brokerage of non-ferrous metals and widely acknowledged as one of the biggest ever cases of Ponzi Scheme bank fraud in legal history. The company, along with affiliates: Hampton Lane, Inc.; SAI Commodity Inc.; and RBG Resources Plc. operated a Ponzi Scheme in the United States of America and the United Kingdom Of Great Britain on a virtually unprecedented scale and defrauding approximately 20 banks out of a massive $683USD million. Victims included: J.P. Morgan Chase & Company; Fleet National Bank; PNC Bank, N.A.; KBC Bank, N.V.; Hypo Vereins Bank, N.A.; Dresdner Bank Lateinamerika AG; China Trust Bank; and General Bank. Controlled by brothers Narendra & Virendra Rastogi, Allied Deals Inc. was based in Piscataway, New Jersey. The Rastogi family started trading metals in India during the 1950s, and in 2002 was even listed in the London Sunday Times Rich List. Allied Deals Inc. established hundreds of sham companies to allegedly trade in non-ferrous metals, and in the process committed a litany of criminal acts including: forging documents, faking credit histories, and impersonation of another person - acting as buyers to the banks. The scheme collapsed in 2002 with the legal outcome of fifteen people arrested and charged in the U.S.A. Nine pleaded guilty; five were convicted by Jury; and one of the accused acquitted of all charges. Two further defendants in the U.S.A. are still at large. Three people in the U.K. were also convicted and found guilty.
Bertha Heyman 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 women in America", and was considered by the New York City police to be "the boldest and most expert of the many female adventuresses who infest the country." She managed to swindle several men out of a total of many thousands of dollars, even while behind bars.
International Investment Group (IIG) is an American financial institution that specializes in short-term trade finance and commercial finance with a focus on emerging markets. Through its affiliate IIG Capital it provides financing to small and medium-sized merchants, traders and processors with a need for supply chain financing.
Goldstein, Samuelson, Inc. was a Los Angeles based commodities options brokerage firm. It was placed in receivership in 1973 after it was discovered that the firm was a Ponzi scheme.
Bob Nygaard is an American private investigator (PI) specializing in the investigation of confidence crimes, most notably psychic fraud. He has been instrumental in the arrest and conviction of numerous psychics, helping their victims obtain justice including financial restitution amounting to millions of dollars. He has consulted for ABC News and 20/20 as a specialist in psychic fraud. Nygaard previously was a member of the New York City Transit Police and Nassau County Police Department, retiring from service in 2008.
David Peter Bloom is a twice convicted American fraudster who defrauded investors of almost $15 million in the 1980s.
Anthony Enrique Gignac is a convicted Colombian-born American fraudster and con artist. In a career spanning 30 years, Gignac used wealthy, high-ranking personas, most notably that of Saudi prince Khalid bin Al Saud, to fraudulently secure investment in a series of schemes that he presented as being backed by a large personal fortune. After defrauding funds of $8.1 million from investors, Gignac was arrested in 2017 after billionaire Jeffery Soffer, the owner of the Fontainebleau Hotel, became suspicious of the supposed Muslim prince ordering pork at a restaurant. He was jailed for over 18 years in 2019.