List of con artists

This is a list of notable individuals who exploited confidence tricks.

Born or active in the 17th century

• William Chaloner (1650 – 1699): Serial counterfeiter and confidence trickster proven guilty by Sir Isaac Newton^[1]

Born or active in the 18th century

• Gregor MacGregor (1786–1845): Scottish con man who tried to attract investment and settlers for the non-existent country of "Poyais"^[2]
• Jeanne of Valois-Saint-Rémy (1756-1791): Chief conspirator in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, which further tarnished the French royal family's already-poor reputation and, along with other causes, eventually led to the French Revolution^[3]

Born or active in the 19th century

• Lou Blonger (1849–1924): Organized a massive ring of con men in Denver in the early 1900s^[4]
• C. L. Blood (1835–1908) American patent medicine huckster, fraudster, and blackmailer^[5]
• Eduardo de Valfierno (1850–1931): Argentine con man who posed as a marqués and allegedly masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911
• Cassie Chadwick (1857–1907) Canadian woman who defrauded banks out of millions by pretending to be the illegitimate daughter (and heir) of Andrew Carnegie^[6]
• Bertha Heyman (born c. 1851) Active in the United States in the late 19th century^[7][8]
• William McCloundy (1859–19??) Convicted of selling the Brooklyn Bridge to a tourist
• Canada Bill Jones (c.1837–1880): King of the three-card monte men^[4]
• Daniel Levey (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 (1890–1947): Born in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) and known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower twice"^[9]
• George C. Parker (1860–1936): U.S. con man who sold New York monuments to tourists, including most famously the Brooklyn Bridge, which he sold twice a week for years^[10]
• Charles Ponzi (1882–1949): "Ponzi scheme" is a "get rich fast" fraud named after him^[11]
• Soapy Smith (1860–1898): Jefferson Randolph Smith II organized bunco and crime boss in Denver and Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska, in the 1880s and 1890s^[12]
• William Thompson (fl. 1840–1849): U.S. criminal whose deceptions caused the term confidence man to be coined^[13]
• Joseph Weil (1875–1976): American con man^[14]

Born or active in the 20th century

• Bernie Cornfeld (1927–1995): Ran the Investors Overseas Service, alleged to be a Ponzi scheme^[15]
• Ferdinand Waldo Demara (1921–1982): Famed as "the Great Imposter"
• Harry Jelinek (1905–1986): Czech con artist alleged to have sold the Karlstejn Castle to American industrialists.
• Sante Kimes (1934–2014): Convicted of fraud, robbery, murder, and over 100 other crimes along with her son Kenneth Kimes, Jr.^[16]
• Don Lapre (1964–2011): American TV pitchman known for peddling various get-rich-quick schemes
• Daniel Levey (c. 1875-?): American swindler and gambler, specialized in passing fake checks and stealing goods under the pretense of brokering sales for their owners
• David Hampton (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
• Gaston Means (1879–1938): American con-man and associate of the Ohio Gang
• Jerry Tarbot {?–?} Claimed he was amnesic victim of World War I
• 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. ^[17][18][19]
• Alvin Clarence "Titanic Thompson" Thomas (1892–1974): Gambler, golf hustler, proposition bet conman
• Natwarlal (1912–2009): Legendary Indian con man known for having repeatedly "sold" the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Parliament House of India^[20]
• Charles Ponzi (1882–1949): Italian American businessman and con artist
• Lou Pearlman (1954–2016): Former boy band impresario, convicted for perpetrating a large and long-running Ponzi scheme^[21]
• Reed Slatkin (1949–2015): American investor and co-founder of EarthLink
• Alan Conway (1934–1998): American con man best known for impersonating film director Stanley Kubrick

Living people

• Frank Abagnale, Jr. (1948): U.S. check forger and impostor turned FBI consultant; his autobiography was made into the movie Catch Me If You Can.^[22] Abagnale impersonated a PanAm pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, and a teacher to illegally make over $2.5 million^[23]
• Sergio Cragnotti (1940): Former Italian industrialist and president of a football team who masterminded the Cirio bankruptcy
• Ali Dia (1965): Senegalese semi-professional footballer, duped the manager of Premier League team Southampton into signing him after posing as World Player of The Year George Weah in a phone call in which he gave himself a fake reference^[24]
• Marc Dreier (1950): Founder of attorney firm Dreier LLP. Convicted of selling approximately $700 million worth of fictitious promissory notes, and other crimes^[25]
• Kevin Foster (1958/59): British investment fraudster, convicted of running a Ponzi scheme^[26]
• Randy Glass, who defrauded jewelry traders and became involved in the entrapment of undercover arms dealers.^[27]
• Robert Hendy-Freegard (1971): Briton who kidnapped people by impersonating an MI5 agent and conned them out of money^[28]
• James Arthur Hogue (1959): U.S. impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan^[29]
• Brian Kim (1975/76): Hedge fund manager who pleaded guilty to Ponzi scheme, passport fraud, and other crimes^[30][31]
• Steven Kunes (1956): Former television screenwriter convicted for forgery, grand theft, and false use of financial information;^[32] he attempted to sell a faked interview with J. D. Salinger to People magazine^[33][34]
• Bernard Madoff (1938): 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^[35]
• Matt the Knife (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^[36][37][38]
• Simon Lovell (1957): English comedy magician, card shark actor and con man
• Gina Marks (1973): American "psychic" con artist.^[39]
• Barry Minkow (1967): Known for the ZZZZ Best scam^[40]
• Richard Allen Minsky (1944): Scammed female victims for sex by pretending to be jailed family members over the phone^[41]
• Ong Kean Swan (1982): Ran multi-level pyramid schemes in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, walked away with an estimated US$35 million.^[42]
• 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^[43]
• Calisto Tanzi (1938): Former Italian industrialist and president of Parmalat, which he led to one of the costliest bankruptcies in history
• Alessandro Zarrelli (1984): Italian Amateur footballer who posed as a fictitious Italian Football Federation official offering a professional player (himself) for a cultural exchange to various clubs in the United Kingdom; he signed with one club and trained with several more^[44]
• Jim Norman (musician) (2009): 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^[45]
• Jho Low (1981): A cunning Chinese Malaysian financier, traitor, and current fugitive who had access to Malaysian National fund for his debauchery and hedonic lifestyle at epic proportions. Jho Low also disguise his true nature by donating stolen cash to charities and established good relationship with powerful figures, especially from the Middle East, famous Hollywood stars from United States of America and families from the corrupted Malaysian ex-Prime Minister. Many people believes he is now hiding somewhere in China with his families and small band of hired bodyguards as well as the remaining stolen cash in billions of US currency.

See also

• Impostor
• Category:Fictional con artists

References