Receiving and ignoring scam emails is very normal for us. But this was not the case before! Many scams have succeeded and a huge number of victims!
In the past, scammers were more daring than they are today, and the victims are very naive. From selling golf balls as bomb finders to selling the Brooklyn Bridge, here are the 8 most famous scams of the past!
1-Selling golf ball detectors as bomb detectors
James McCormick sold fake "ADE 652" bomb detectors, mostly in Iraq and in other parts of the world.
He bought golf ball detectors for less than $20 and resold them for $5,000 each.
Counterfeit devices were sold to many people, and gave buyers a false sense of security. Many soldiers, police, border guards, and hotel security staff even thought it was working.
The devices were also sold to the governments of multiple countries including Georgia, Romania, Niger, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.
Even when the entire scam was exposed, McCormick had absolutely no guilt, and unabashedly said that his customers never complained about the product.
2-Blogger deceives people into treating cancer through nutrition and alternative medicine
Bill Gibson marketed herself as someone who cured brain cancer with the help of Ayurvedic medicine, oxygen therapy, gluten and a sugar-free diet.
Gibson specifically targeted girls, asylum seekers and sick children, and aroused sympathy with them by telling her fake story.
She also promised to donate most of the revenue she earned from selling her cookbook, but she actually randomly spent $91,000 in two years between 2017 and 2019 on her clothes, cosmetics, and vacations. She only donated $10,000 to the charity.
When Gibson was arrested, she admitted that the entire diagnosis had been made up. For misleading conduct, she was fined $410,000 and total fees amounting to $500,000 including all fines, penalties and interest.
3-The 'Nigerian Prince' scam
In the infamous “Nigerian Prince” scam, scammers sent emails with poor grammar and filters to automatically select the most gullible recipients
Scammers generally pretend to be wealthy and need to protect their money and therefore need your help. The criminals asked the victims to give bank details to transfer their money and later promised to donate a share of their vast fortune.
But what actually happened is the liquidation of the bank balance of the victims, as expected!
4-Scam people's money with a reality TV show
Nikita Rossi, a British man, tricked people into believing he was producing a reality show that, in fact, didn't even exist.
30 potential contestants were promised instant fame and a $150,000 cash prize for the winner. Some sold their homes, left their partners, and even quit their jobs just to take part in a non-existent show.
The teams were asked to raise $1.5 million which was essentially their own cash prize, and were not offered any living compensation. Furthermore, he demanded full access to the participants' bank accounts.
Most of the selected contestants left the show within two days. The Russian also became homeless and had to live with his manipulated victims.
Since Rossi did not demand any money, he was not charged with any crime, and no civil case was brought for lack of funds.
5-Brooklyn Bridge Sale!
Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge ended in 1883. Immediately afterwards, con artist George C. Parker began selling it to the most gullible by convincing them that once the bridge was bought, he would make a fortune by charging a fee.
C Parker has sold the bridge twice a week for years. Individuals who have already purchased the Brooklyn Bridge have even gone so far as to erect barriers and bridge toll booths to control public access to the bridge.
After Parker, other scammers also started selling the Brooklyn Bridge, which gave rise to the famous phrase: “And if you think so, I have a bridge to sell you” which is mainly used to make fun of a very gullible person!
6-Future car scam
In the midst of the gas crisis of the 1970s, Geraldine Carmichael started her fledgling 20th Century Motor Car Cooperation and introduced a car called the Dale.
Dale was a futuristic-looking, three-wheeled car that promised to solve the fuel crisis. It raised $30 million in investments and $3 million in upfront sales.
,The investigations soon found that the factories, the production, the research plans, Dale herself, everything was fictitious.
Carmichael was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 20 years in prison, but she escaped with the investors' money without a trace.
,However, she was found in 1989 in Dale, Texas and sentenced to 10 years in prison in California. She died in 2004 of cancer.
7-A fake cleaning company turns the stock market upside down
ZZZZ Best was a carpet cleaning company owned by Barry Minko. The value of the company's stock exploded to a total sum of $200 million.
In fact, the company did not exist, did not have any contracts, and was originally funded by several credit card thefts.
The fraud was exposed in 1987, and Minko was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
8-Baker's real estate trick
In December 1936, 28 people staged the "Baker Estate Hoax". They claimed that a wealthy Philadelphian named Jacob Baker had recently passed away leaving his estates open to anyone named Baker.
The scammers collected $3 million from 3,000 people named Baker across the United States who paid for their heir claims.
However, Jacob Baker was not there at all, and neither was the property.Confessions of an economic hit man | the confessions of an economic hitman book