I am featured in this great article on imposters written by Simon Caterson, author of Hoax Nation.
Simon, like me, is obsessed with hoaxes, imposters and scams and this article looks at famous swindlers such as Ferdinand Demara and Frank Abagnale Jr as well as less famous con artists, like me!
“There is no such thing as Cotswold Cider. There never was, Cider fruit is not grown in the Cotswolds; it never had been and it is doubtful it ever will. Cotswold Cider was an invention. It was invented in Wandsworth Prison by a man who knew the value of a name, and paid more attention to alliteration and the sound of things then he did to the truth of them.”
- Frank James White aka Eustace Hamilton Ian Stewart-Hargraves
“In jail the criminals, most of them, only make a dishonest living out of other people’s fortunes, while these gentlemen [debt collectors] make a so called honest living out of other people’s misfortunes. I find this more despicable.”
- Micheal Karoly aka Baron Hajdu aka Charlotte Bath
“There aint no such thing as a friendly game when there’s money involved.”
- Titanic Thompson
A few days back, Australian broadcaster Derryn Hinch admitted in an article in the Herald Sun to being scammed. He called it a
“…clever internet scam that made those Nigerian banking fraudsters look like amateurs.”
It wasn’t.
Essentially, Hinch sent $4000 to a New Yorker who had offered to rent him an apartment for a few weeks. The scammer didn’t really own the apartment and took off with his money.
Never, ever send a stranger money via Western Union. Using Western Union is like having unprotected sex. (now you have images of Hinch having sex). It’s convient and easy but, eventually it will end up getting you in trouble.
Picture this man having sex. Go on.
“Andy Warhol looks a screm
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, silver screen
Can’t tell them apart at all.”
- David Bowie
It takes balls to be a swindler.
But sometimes even I am impressed by the braziness of some con artists.
Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower. Gregor McGregor sold a country that doesn’t exist. George C Parker sold the Brooklyn Bridge twice a week for ten years.
You can add to that list a pair of Utah con artists who sold paintings by a dead man of a man who does not exist.
The couple sold six Andy Warhol paintings for $100,000 to their victim who ponied up a $25,000 deposit.
Problem is, the paintings were dated 1996 and Warhol died in 1987.
Not only that, the portraits were of Matthew Baldwin, the sixth Baldwin brother. There are only five Baldwins (thank god).
A man received a big surprise when he learned the six Andy Warhol paintings he purchased for $100,000 were fake.
They also tried to sell the man a lithograph of a pink cat that was actually a picture cut out of the newspaper!
I’m never one to blame the victim. We’ve all done stupid things in our lives. But the pay over $25,000 deposit for an artist you obviously know nothing about seems extraordinary stupid. Lindsay Lohen stupid. Sara Palin stupid.
The victim is now forced to eat only this
“My first meeting with you only confirmed what I first suspected about you. You are a fraud, a charlatan and a shyster.
My favourite kind of person in fact.”
- Stephen Fry (The Liar, 1991)