This book examines a broad range of infamous scams, cons, swindles, and hoaxes throughout American history-and considers why human gullibility continues in an age of easy access to information.
Front Cover.
Half Title Page.
Title Page.
Copyright Page.
Dedication.
Contents.
Acknowledgments.
Introduction.
Classic Cons.
1: Short Cons.
2: Big Cons.
3: Rigging the Numbers Racket.
4: The Spanish Prisoner.
5: Classic Card Scams.
Business Fraud.
6: Advance Fee Fraud.
7: Affinity Fraud.
8: ATM Skimming.
9: Counterfeiting.
10: Charles Ponzi.
11: Pyramid Schemes.
12: Pump and Dump.
13: Leo Koretz.
Despicable Scams.
14: Disaster Scams.
15: Faking Cancer.
16: Faking Car Accidents.
17: Funeral Fraud.
18: Scamming Senior Citizens.
19: Surrogacy/Adoption Fraud.
Great Pretenders.
20: Frank Abagnale.
21: James Capone (aka Richard Joseph “Two-Gun” Hart).
22: Emperor Norton of San Francisco.
23: Iron Eyes Cody.
24: Joseph Pistone (aka “Donnie Brasco”).
Hoaxes, Urban Legends, and Popular Delusions.
25: Alan Abel, Master Hoaxer.
26: The Bermuda Triangle.
27: The Black Hand Extortion Racket.
28: Blackout Babies.
29: The Cardiff Giant.
30: Daycare Devils.
31: Extraterrestrials.
32: The Great Chess Automaton.
33: Kentucky Fried Lies.
34: Learned Nonsense.
35: The Lurid Confessions of Maria Monk.
36: New York Newspaper Hoaxes.
37: The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.
38: The War of the Worlds Broadcast.
Dubious Remedies.
39: Drugs.
40: Curious Cancer Cures.
41: Goat Gonad Therapy.
42: Health Care Fraud.
43: Energizing Elixirs.
44: Psychic Surgery.
45: Radium Medicine.
46: Repressed Memories and Multiple Personality Disorder.
