Who Is The Cyber-Criminal?

In recent times, Nigerians have been tagged internet fraudsters orcyber-criminals. Sincere business proposals are turned down by potentialbusiness associates as soon as it is observed that the IP address originatesfrom Nigeria.

In a country with purportedly the happiest people on earth, one of the mostreligious and stinking rich in human and natural resources, with its averagecitizen actually toiling it out daily to eke out, honestly in most cases, aliving; it is a shocking but also an understandable allegation. Scam mails orany email’s origin can easily be identified through the internet protocol (IP)address. However, it takes two to tango. Rightly or wrongly tagged, Nigeriansare just like the average earthling – faced with the vagaries of the reality ofa nanosecond paced world. But how this has come to be is another matterentirely.

The internet arrived Nigeria quite late. As late as the late, late 90’s andthe early 2000’s. Then, petty deception was the order of day just like in mostcountries especially in the western world. Naples, Italy, New York, USA,London, UK and many other locations had tales to tell of conmen and all that.Not much was heard of Cyber-crimes from anywhere near the shores of any Africancountry since cyber-activites were virtually non-existent. No one drives adream car without actually purchasing or owning it.

All of the earliest recorded histories of deception or conman-ship werenever of Nigerian or even African dramatis personae, for that matter. Accordingto well-informed chroniclers of this ignominious way of life, a confidencetrick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift,hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is an attempt to defraud a personor group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, thetrickster is called a confidence man, con man, confidence trickster, or conartist, and any accomplices are known as shills.

Confidence men exploit human characteristics such as greed and dishonesty,and have victimized individuals from all walks of life conman is a person whointentionally misleads another person, usually for personal financial gain. Inrecent history there have been a number of conmen who have really stood out foreither the wealth they amassed, or the ease with which they tricked people.

The record keepers reeled out a list of 10 of the most famous con men inrecent history:

1. Frank Abagnale (born in 1948)

Frank Abagnale is a former cheque con artist, forger and imposter who, forfive years in the 1960s, passed bad cheques worth more than $2.5 million in 26countries. His nefarious acts inspired the shooting of the recent blockbusterfilm ‘Catch Me If You Can’. He began carving a fraudulent niche for himself asa youth when he used his father’s Mobil card to buy car parts that he wouldthen sell back to the gas station for a lower price. Records have it that hedid not realise that his father was the one who had to foot the bill and whenhe was eventually confronted with the fraud, his mother sent him for fourmonths to a juvenile correction facility.

After moving to New York, Frank lived solely on the income of his fraudulentactivities. One of his most famous tricks was to print his own account numberon fake bank deposit slips so that when clients of the bank deposited money, itwould actually go in to his account. By the time the banks realised what hadhappened, Frank had taken $40,000 and gone underground.

For about two years, Abagnale globe-trotted around the world for free byparading himself as a Pan Am pilot. He was able to abuse the professionalcourtesy of other airlines to provide free transport for competing airlinepilots if they had to move to another city at short notice. Once he was nearlycaught leaving a plane, but he changed his masquerade to that of a Doctor andhe worked as a medical supervisor for 11 months without detection. Sometimes heworked as a lawyer and a teacher.

He was eventually caught in France and spent six months in prison there.After that he was extradited to Sweden and imprisoned for a further six months.After a successful escape whilst travelling to the United States, he wasfinally given 12 years in Prison. He escaped from his prison by masquerading asan undercover officer of the Bureau of Prisons. He was once again captured inNew York City and returned to jail. After serving only five years of hissentence, the US Federal Government offered him his freedom in return forhelping the government against fraud and scam artists without pay.

He currently runs Abagnale and Associates, a financial fraud consultancycompany and is a multi-millionaire.

2. Charles Ponzi [Born: 1882; Died: 1949]

Ponzi, an Italian immigrant to the United States became one of the mostfamous con men in American history. While many people do not know the namePonzi, the Ponzi Scheme is extremely well known and continues today in InternetMake Money Fast schemes. His early life is not entirely known as he was proneto fabricate stories about it. What is known is that he spent a short amount oftime at University in Rome and, after dropping out, caught a boat to Boston,USA where he arrived with $2.50 in his pocket.

His early years in the United States were troublesome. He began working at arestaurant but was soon fired for playing tricks with the bills andshortchanging customers. His next job was working in a bank in Canada thatcatered for Italian immigrants. His knowledge of numbers helped him to do verywell there. Unfortunately it turned out that the owner of the bank was stealingmoney from newly opened savings accounts to pay the interest on the interestbearing accounts and to cover bad investments. The bank owner eventually fledto Mexico and left Ponzi without a job. After writing a fraudulent cheque andspending a number of years in prison, Ponzi determined to become wealthy at anycost.

Once he had settled in to life on the outside, he discovered postal replycoupons through a letter that was sent to him from abroad. He realised that hecould buy foreign coupons at massively devalued prices (because of price fixingafter the war) and then resell them in the United States for a 400% profit.This was a form of arbitrage and it was legal. Ponzi began canvasses friendsand acquaintances for money – promising them a 50% return or a doubling oftheir money in 90 days. He started his own company, the Securities ExchangeCompany, to promote the scheme.

The word of this great investment quickly spread and before long Ponzi wasliving in a luxurious mansion. He was bringing in cash at a fantastic rate, butthe simplest financial analysis showed that he wasn’t making money, he waslosing it rapidly. For every dollar he took in, he went more deeply into debt.As long as money kept flowing in, Ponzi would stay ahead of the eventualcollapse.

People soon began to become suspicious and the press were starting topublish negative articles about him. Inevitably people were starting to demandtheir money. Shortly after, federal agents raided his office and shut it down.No stock of stamps was found and everyone that had invested their money withPonzi lost every penny. It is probably that he lost tens of millions ofdollars. Ponzi plead guilty of mail fraud and was sent to prison. After oneescape he was returned to jail to complete his sentence. He was eventuallydeported back to Italy and he died there in poverty in 1949.

3. Joseph Weil [Born: 1877; Died: 1975]

Joseph “Yellow Kid” Weil was one of the most famous con men in his era. Overthe course of his career he is believed to have stolen over 8 million dollars.In his first job as a collector, he realized that his co-workers werecollecting their debts but keeping a little part of the money for themselves.Weil started a protection racket – offering not to report their activities inreturn for a small portion of what they were taking.

He also used phony oil deals, women, fixed races, and an endless list ofother tricks to steal from an increasingly gullible public. He could change hispersona daily to further his gains: one day he was Dr. Henri Reuel, a notedgeologist who travelled around and told his hosts that he was a representativefor a big oil company while draining them of the cash they gave him to “investin fuel.” The next day he was director of the Elysium Development Company,promising land to innocent believers while robbing them in recording andabstract fees. Or he was a chemist par excellence, who had discovered how tocopy dollar bills; promising to increase your fortune, he would multiply yourbill’s then take the booty once the police arrived.

In his autobiography, Weil writes:

“The desire to get something for nothing has been very costly to many peoplewho have dealt with me and with other con men,” Weil writes. “But I have foundthat this is the way it works. The average person, in my estimation, isninety-nine per cent animal and one per cent human. The ninety-nine per centthat is animal causes very little trouble. But the one per cent that is humancauses all our woes. When people learn — as I doubt they will — that they can’tget something for nothing, crime will diminish and we shall live in greaterharmony.”

4. (Count) Victor Lustig [Born: 1890; Died: 1947]

Victor Lustig was renowned as the Man who Sold the Eiffel Tower. He was bornin Bohemia but later moved to Paris where he was able to con people on hisfrequent journeys between Paris and New York. His first con was to show peoplea device that could print $100 bills. The only problem, he would tell them, isthat it only prints one bill every six hours. Many people paid him enormousamounts of money (usually over $30,000) for the device. In fact, the devicecontained two real hidden $100 bills – once they were spat out by the machineit would produce only blank paper. By the time the buyers discovered this,Lustig was well gone with their money.

In 1925, as France was recovering from the war, the upkeep of the Eiffeltower was an almost unbearable expense for the city of Paris. When Lustig readabout this in a paper, he came up with his most brilliant idea. After forginggovernment credentials, he invited six scrap metal dealers to a secret meetingin a hotel. He explained that the City could not afford to keep the tower andthat they had to sell it for scrap. He told them the secrecy of the meeting andall future dealings was due to the fact that the public may become distressedat the idea of the removal of the tower.

While it seems implausible, at the time the tower was built it was meant tobe temporary and this happened just 18 years after the original date forremoval of the tower. Lustig took the dealers in a limousine to tour the tower.One of the dealers, Andre Poisson was convinced that the tale was legitimateand he handed over the money. When he realised he had been conned, he was tooembarrassed to tell the police and Lustig escaped with the money. One monthlater, he returned to Paris to try the whole scam again. This time it wasreported to the police but Lustig managed to escape.

At one point, Lustig convinced Al Capone to invest $50,000 with him. Hestored the money in a vault and returned it two months later, stating that thedeal had fallen through. Capone, so impressed by Lustig’s honesty gave him$5,000 for his effort. In 1934, Lustig was found guilty of counterfeiting. Heplead guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in Alcatraz. In 1947 he died ofpneumonia whilst in jail in Springfield, Missouri.

5. George Parker [Born: 1870; Died: 1936]

Parker was one of the most audacious con men in American history. He madehis living selling New York’s public landmarks to unwary tourists. His favoriteobject for sale was the Brooklyn Bridge, which he sold twice a week for years.He convinced his marks that they could make a fortune by controlling access tothe roadway. More than once police had to remove naive buyers from the bridgeas they tried to erect toll barriers.

Other public landmarks he sold included the original Madison Square Garden,the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grant’s Tomb, and the Statue of Liberty. Georgehad many different methods for making his sales. When he sold Grant’s Tomb, hewould often pose as the general’s grandson. He even set up a fake “office” tohandle his real estate swindles. He produced impressive forged documents toprove that he was the legal owner of whatever property he was selling.

Parker was convicted of fraud three times. After his third conviction onDecember 17th, 1928 he was sentenced to a life term at Sing Sing Prison. Hespent the last eight years of his life behind bars. He was popular among guardsand fellow inmates who enjoyed hearing of his exploits. George is remembered asone of the most successful con men in the history of the United States, as wellas one of history’s most talented hoaxers. His exploits have passed intopopular culture, giving rise to phrases such as “and if you believe that, Ihave a bridge to sell you”, a popular way of expressing a belief that someoneis gullible.

6. Soapy Smith [Born: 1860; Died: 1898]

Soapy Smith (born Jefferson Randolph Smith) was an American con artist andgangster who had a major hand in the organized criminal operations of Denver,Colorado, Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska from 1879 to 1898. He isperhaps the most famous “sure-thing” bunko man of the old west. Some time inthe late 1870s or early 1880s, Smith began duping entire crowds with a ploy theDenver newspapers dubbed The Prize Package Soap Sell Swindle.

Jefferson would open his “tripe and keister” (display case on a tripod) on abusy street corner. Piling ordinary soap cakes onto the keister top, he woulddescribe their wonders. As he spoke to the growing crowd of curious onlookers,he would pull out his wallet and begin wrapping paper money ranging from onedollar up to one hundred dollars, around a select few of the bars. He thenfinished each bar by wrapping plain paper around it to hide the money. He mixedthe money-wrapped packages in with wrapped bars containing no money. He thensold the soap to the crowd for a dollar a cake.

A shill planted in the crowd would buy a bar, tear it open it, and loudlyproclaim that he had won some money, waving it around for all to see. Thisperformance had the desired effect of enticing the sale of the packages. Moreoften than not, victims bought several bars before the sale was completed.Midway through the sale, Smith would announce that the hundred-dollar billstill remained in the pile, unpurchased. He then would auction off theremaining soap bars to the highest bidders.

Through the masterful art of manipulation and sleight-of-hand, the cakes ofsoap wrapped with money were hidden and replaced with packages holding no cash.It was assured that the only money “won” went to members of what became knownas the “Soap Gang.” Soapy was eventually shot to death by a group he swindledin a card game.

7. Eduardo de Valfierno

Eduardo de Valfierno, who referred to himself as Marqués (marquis), was anArgentine con man who allegedly masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa.Valfierno paid several men to steal the work of art from the Louvre, includingmuseum employee Vincenzo Peruggia. On August 21, 1911 Peruggia hid the MonaLisa under his coat and simply walked out the door.

Before the heist took place, Valfierno commissioned French art restorer andforger Yves Chaudron to make six copies of the Mona Lisa. The forgeries werethen shipped to various parts of the world, readying them for the buyers he hadlined up. Valfierno knew once the Mona Lisa was stolen it would be harder tosmuggle copies past customs. After the heist the copies were delivered to theirbuyers, each thinking they had the original which had just been stolen forthem. Because Valfierno just wanted to sell forgeries, he only needed theoriginal Mona Lisa to disappear and never contacted Peruggia again after thecrime. Eventually Peruggia was caught trying to sell the painting and it wasreturned to the Louvre in 1913.

8. James Hogue [Born: 1959]

Hogue is a US impostor who most famously entered Princeton University byposing as a self-taught orphan. In 1986 Hogue enrolled in a Palo Alto HighSchool as Jay Mitchell Huntsman, a 16-year-old orphan from Nevada. He hadadopted the identity of a dead infant. A suspicious local reporter exposed him.In 1988 Hogue enrolled at Princeton University using the alias Alexi IndrisSantana, a self-taught orphan from Utah. He deferred admission for one yearbecause he had been convicted of the theft of bicycle frames in Utah. Hogueclaimed in his application materials that he had slept outside in the GrandCanyon, raising sheep and reading philosophers. He violated his parole to enterclass. For the next two years he lived as Santana and as a member of the trackteam. He was also admitted into the Ivy Club.

In 1991 Hogue’s real identity was exposed when Renee Pacheco, a student fromthe Palo Alto High School, recognized him. He was arrested for defrauding theuniversity for $30,000 in financial aid and sentenced to three years in jailwith 5 years probation and 100 hours of community service.

On May 16, 1993 Hogue made headlines again through his association withHarvard University. Having lied about his identity again, he was able to take ajob as a security guard in one of Harvard’s on campus museums. A few monthsinto his tenure, museum officials noticed that several gemstones on exhibit hadbeen replaced with inexpensive fakes. Somerville police seized Hogue in hishome and charged him with grand larceny to the tune of $50,000.

On March 12, 2007 Hogue pleaded guilty to a single felony count of theft ofmore than $15,000 in exchange for a prison sentence not to exceed 10 years, andprosecutors’ agreement to drop other theft and habitual criminal charges.

9. Robert Hendy-Freegard [Born: 1971]

Robert Hendy-Freegard is a British barman, car salesman, conman and impostorwho masqueraded as an MI5 agent and fooled several people to go underground forfear of IRA assassination. He met his victims on social occasions or ascustomers in the pub or car dealership where he was working. He would revealhis “role” as an undercover agent for MI5, Special Branch or Scotland Yardworking against the IRA. He would win them over, ask for money and make them dohis bidding. He demanded that they cut off contact with family and friends, gothrough “loyalty tests” and live alone in poor conditions. He seduced fivewomen, claiming that he wanted to marry them. Initially some of the victimsrefused to co-operate with the police because he had warned them that policewould be double agents or MI5 agents performing another “loyalty test”.

Hendy-Freegard also seduced a newly married personal assistant who wastaking care of his children. He told her he was with MI5 and forced her to cutcontact with friends and family lest the IRA would kill her. He also took nakedpictures of her and threatened to give them to her husband if she would notcooperate. She had to change her name and tell the deed poll officer it wasbecause she was sexually abused as a child. Her loyalty tests included sleepingin Heathrow airport and on park benches for several nights and pretending to bea Jehovah’s Witness so that his bosses in MI5 would let them marry.

In 2002 Scotland Yard and the FBI organized a sting operation. First, theFBI bugged the phone of the American psychologist’s parents. Her mother toldHendy-Freegard she would hand over £10,000 but only in person. Hendy-Freegardmet the mother in Heathrow airport where police apprehended him. He denied allcharges and claimed they were part of a conspiracy against him and continuedthis story in the subsequent trial. On June 23, 2005, after an eight monthtrial, Blackfriars Crown Court convicted Robert Hendy-Freegard for two countsof kidnapping, 10 of theft and 8 of deception. On September 6, 2005 he wasgiven a life sentence. Police doubt that they have discovered all the victims.On April 25, 2007, the BBC reported that Robert Hendy-Freegard had appealedagainst his kidnapping convictions and won. This means that the life sentenceis revoked but he will still serve nine years for the other offences. He couldbe free by the end of 2007.

10. Bernard Cornfeld [Born: 1927; Died: 1995]

Bernard Cornfeld was a prominent businessman and international financier whosold investments in US mutual funds. He was born in Turkey. When he moved tothe US, he first worked as a social worker but became a mutual fund salesman inthe 1950s. Although he suffered from a stammer, he had a natural gift forselling and when a schoolfriend’s father died, the two of them used the $3,000insurance money to purchase and run an age and weight guessing stand at theConey Island funfair.

In the 1960s, Cornfeld formed his own mutual fund selling company, InvestorsOverseas Services (IOS), which he incorporated outside the US with funds inCanada and headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Although the headquarters wereoffcially in Geneva, the main operational offices of IOS were inFerney-Voltaire, France, a short drive from the Swiss border to Geneva—this wassimply a means of avoiding the problems of obtaining Swiss work-permits for themany employees. During the next ten years, IOS raised in excess of $2.5billion, bringing Cornfeld a personal fortune of more than $100 million.Cornfeld himself became known for conspicuous consumption with lavish parties.Socially, he was generous and jovial.

A group of 300 IOS employees complained to the Swiss authorities thatCornfeld and his co-founders pocketed part of the proceeds of a share issueraised among employees in 1969. Consequently he was charged with fraud in 1973by the Swiss authorities. When Cornfeld visited Geneva, Swiss authoritiesarrested him. He served 11 months in a Swiss jail before being freed on a bailsurety of $600,000. He returned to Beverly Hills, living less ostentatiouslythan in his previous years. He developed an obsession for health foods andvitamins, renounced red meat and seldom drank alcohol. He suffered a stroke anddied of a cerebral aneurysm on 27th February 1995 in London, England.

The great grandfather of all scammers in history is Bernard Madoff,mastermind of the largest investment scam. This report by Reuters is about histrial and conviction:

“Bernard Madoff was sentenced on Monday to 150 years in prison — the maximumpenalty the judge could give him for “extraordinarily evil” crimes in WallStreet’s biggest and most brazen investment fraud”.

It goes:

“Fleeced investors in the courtroom cheered and applauded as the judgehanded down the penalty.

Madoff, 71, stood passively with his hands clasped at his waist, showing noreaction when he heard the sentence that will send him to prison for the restof his life.

The former nonexecutive chairman of the Nasdaq stock market has been jailedin a Manhattan cell since he pleaded guilty to 11 charges including securitiesfraud, money laundering and perjury in March.

“Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarilyevil,” U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said in rejecting defense pleas for alenient, 12-year sentence. “The breach of trust was massive.

“I simply do not get the sense that Mr. Madoff has done all that he could ortold all that he knows.”

The gray-haired money manager was dressed in his signature dark gray suit,white shirt and tie instead of a prison jumpsuit.

The disgraced financier sat passively throughout the hour-and-a-half hearingas his victims called him a “beast,” an “animal” and a “lowlife.”

He apologized to them, at one point turning toward the 250 people in thecourtroom.

“I will live with this pain, with this torment, for the rest of my life,” hecalmly said. “I live in a tormented state knowing the pain and suffering I havecreated.”

Madoff, who has been accused of bilking investors worldwide out of as muchas $65 billion, said, “In my business, when you make a trading error, you’reexpected to make a trading error, it’s accepted. My error was much moreserious. I made an error of judgment.”

CAUGHT OUT BY FINANCIAL CRISIS

Madoff’s December arrest came as investors were feeling the brunt of theworst financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.

The case has triggered widespread criticism of the U.S. Securities andExchange Commission, which has been accused of missing red flags that couldhave brought the curtain down on his asset management business.

It was not known where Madoff will serve his sentence for what prosecutorsdescribed as a worldwide fraud of small and wealthy investors, charities andfinancial institutions.

Judge Chin heard wrenching statements from nine of Madoff’s victims, some ofwhom said they had lost their life savings, were forced to sell their homes, orhad to apply for government assistance to buy food.

“I only hope that his prison sentence is long enough so that his jail cellwill become his coffin,” said Michael Schwartz, 33, who said his family hadbeen robbed of savings earmarked for the care of his mentally disabledbrother.

The White House said that the judge had sent a strong signal to those whohandle other people’s money.

“My guess is that that message will be heard loud and clear,” said PresidentBarack Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Madoff was arrested in December after his two sons told authorities that hehad confessed to them that his investment empire was a sham.

Prosecutors have said that Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities showed$65 billion in customer accounts weeks before his arrest, but the trusteewinding down the firm has so far only been able to collect $1.2 billion toreturn to investors.

As much as $170 billion flowed through the principle Madoff account overdecades. Madoff was symbolically ordered to pay that amount in restitution.

While a much lower sentence would have sent Madoff to prison for life, Chinsaid he deserved the maximum, typically handed down to organized crimebosses.

“The fraud here was staggering,” the judge said.

One law professor said she was surprised by the sentence but uncertainwhether it would serve as a deterrent.

“I’d love to think that the mini-Madoffs out there would think that whathappened today has something to do with them, but I suspect most of them donot,” said Jayne Barnard of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg,Virginia.

Madoff’s lawyer said no decision had been made on whether to appeal thesentence.

None of Madoff’s relatives came to court. They have not attended any of hisprior court appearances.

The judge said he had not received a single letter on Madoff’s behalf,testifying to any good deeds or charitable works. “The absence of such supportis telling,” Chin said.

Madoff’s wife Ruth, 68, has not been charged with any crimes but she hasbeen vilified by defrauded investors, shunned by friends, and pursued by themedia. Breaking her long silence, she said in a statement on Monday that shehad been “betrayed and confused” by her husband’s scam.

“From the moment I learned from my husband that he had committed an enormousfraud, I have had two thoughts — first, that so many people who trusted himwould be ruined financially and emotionally, and, second, that my life with theman I have known for over 50 years was over,” she said.

Madoff has said he acted alone. The only other person charged criminally ishis outside accountant.

Madoff’s brother, Peter, and his sons, Mark and Andrew, were executives inhis firm’s brokerage unit. They have said that they were not aware of orinvolved in the crooked asset management side.

Madoff and his wife have agreed to the sale of three luxury properties andother assets and valuables. Proceeds from asset sales will be distributed todefrauded investors.

Ruth Madoff will be left with $2.5 million, after forfeiting claim to some$80 million in assets including the couple’s Manhattan penthouse apartment.

Madoff told investors in the courtroom that he could offer no excuses,saying he tried to undo his crimes but “the harder I tried, the deeper a hole Idug for myself.”

Investors said the apologies left them cold.

“There’s something very pathological. He is still making excuses forhimself,” said George Nierenberg, 57.

(Reporting by Grant McCool, Martha Graybow, Daniel Trotta, Mike Erman andChristine Kearney; Editing by John Wallace, Toni Reinhold)”

The scam stuff gets on our collective nerves so much that sincere businessproposals don’t get a look-in by most foreign prospects once the IP addressshows Nigeria: But one fact remains – victims of scams are either greedy, orgullible and commensurately criminally minded 2 fall 4 such schemes. The victimalso willy-nilly by acceptance of the get-rich-quick proposals, perpetrates thecrime as an unlikely (?) accomplice.

According to Wikipedia, “The first known usage of the term “confidence man”in English was in 1849; it was used by American press during the United Statestrial of William Thompson. Thompson chatted with strangers until he asked ifthey had the confidence to lend him their watches, whereupon he would walk offwith the watch; he was captured when a victim recognized him on thestreet”.

The respected online encyclopedia further explains: “Confidence tricksexploit typical human qualities such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty,compassion, credulity and naïveté. The common factor is that the mark relies onthe good faith of the con artist. Just as there is no typical profile forswindlers, neither is there one for their victims. Virtually anyone can fallprey to fraudulent crimes.

Certainly victims of high-yield investment frauds may possess a level ofgreed which exceeds their caution as well as a willingness to believe what theywant to believe. However, not all fraud victims are greedy, risk-taking,self-deceptive individuals looking to make a quick dollar. Nor are all fraudvictims naïve, uneducated, or elderly. A greedy or dishonest mark may attemptto out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he or she has beenmanipulated into losing from the very beginning. This is such a generalprinciple in confidence tricks that there is a saying among con men that “youcan’t cheat an honest man.”

The confidence trickster often works with one or more accomplices calledshills, who help manipulate the mark into accepting the con man’s plan. In atraditional confidence trick, the mark is led to believe that he will be ableto win money or some other prize by doing some task. The accomplices maypretend to be strangers who have benefited from performing the task in thepast.

Wikipedia also listed its own record of World renowned con artists, some ofthem were mentioned in previous paragraphs above, and obviously none of themwas Nigerian or even African for that matter:

Notable con artists

Born in the 18th century

Gregor MacGregor (1786–1845) – Scottish conman who tried toattract investment and settlers for a non-existent country of Poyais.

Born or active in the 19th century

Lou Blonger (1849–1924) – organized massive ring of con menin Denver in early 1900s.

Helga de la Brache (1817-1885)

Horace de Vere Cole (1881–1936)

Canada Bill Jones – riverboat gambler and card sharp

Victor Lustig (1890–1947) – born in Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic)and known as “the man who sold the Eiffel Tower”.

George C. Parker (1870–1936) — U.S. con man who sold NewYork monuments to tourists.

Charles Ponzi (1882–1949) – “Ponzi scheme” is a “get richfast” fraud named after him.

Death Valley Scotty (1872–1954) prospector, performer, andcon man, famous for gold mining scams and the mansion in Death Valley known asScotty’s Castle.

Soapy Smith (1860–1898) — confidence gang boss, whooperated in Denver, Colorado; Creede, Colorado; and Skagway, Alaska

William Thompson (active in 1840–1849) – U.S. criminalwhose deceptions caused the term confidence man to be coined.

Joseph Weil (1875–1976) – one of the most famous Americancon men of his era.

Cassie Chadwick (1857–1907) — defrauded several U.S. banksout of millions of dollars by claiming to be an illegitimate daughter andheiress of Andrew Carnegie.

Born or active in the 20th century

Bernie Cornfeld (1927–1995) – ran the Investors OverseasService, alleged to be a Ponzi scheme.

Richard Eaton (1937–1979) – con artist, saloon owner, andgeneral manager of Moo Moo Vedda’s dress factory and an associate of theLucchese crime family.

David Hampton (1964–2003) – Inspiration for the play andfilm Six Degrees of Separation

Konrad Kujau (1938–2000) – German forger of the supposedHitler Diaries.

Eduardo de Valfierno – Argentine conman who allegedlymasterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.

Living people

Frank Abagnale (1948) — U.S. cheque forger and impostor;his autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, was made into a movie.

Peter Foster (1962) — Australian conman with convictionsand imprisonment on three continents for fraud and money laundering, known forthe Bai Lin slimming tea scam and involvement in property transactions withCherie Blair.

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (1961) — Bavarian-born conartist who, for nearly two decades, claimed to be a member of thewealthy Rockefeller family.

Robert Hendy-Freegard (1971) — Briton who kidnapped peopleby impersonating an MI5 agent and conned them out of money.

James Arthur Hogue (1959) — U.S. impostor who most famouslyentered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan.

Clifford Irving (1930) — U.S. writer, best known for afalse “authorized autobiography” of Howard Hughes.

Samuel Israel III (1959) — Ran the former fraudulent BayouHedge Fund Group; faked suicide.

Bon Levi (1943) — Aka Ron the Con and Ronald Frederick. ArguablyAustralia’s most notorious conman who tricked Australian and U.S.citizens into investing in scam franchise businesses. He has been jailed bothin Australia and the United States.

Bernard Lawrence Madoff (1938) — American former chairmanof the NASDAQ stock market who admitted running a world-record $65 billionPonzi scheme. Headed the hedge fund Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLCuntil his arrest in 2008. In March 2009 he pled guilty to 11 federalcrimes.

Matt the Knife (1981) — American-born card cheat andpickpocket who bilked corporations, casinos, and at least one Mafia crimefamily.

Barry Minkow (1967) — American entrepreneur. His company,ZZZZ Best, cost investors an estimated $100 million before he served sevenyears in prison for fraud and other offenses.

Semion Mogilevich (1946) — is a billionaire organized crimeboss and a global con artist believed by European and United States federal lawenforcement agencies to be the “boss of bosses” of most Russian Mafiasyndicates in the world.

Lou Pearlman (1954) — U.S. businessman and manager of boybands, sentenced to 25 years for operating a Ponzi investment scheme.

Casey Serin (1982) — Self-confessed mortgage fraudster whobecame the “poster child” of the housing bubble.

Solomon Dwek (c.1973) Syrian-Jewish Orthodox rabbi and realestate investor from Deal, New Jersey who pleaded guilty to a $50,000,000 bankfraud involving PNC Bank.

Michael Sabo (1945) Best known for his history as a check,stocks and bonds forger. He became notorious in the 1960s and throughout the1990s as a “Great Impostor”, and was featured on national TV, had over 100aliases, and earned millions.

With the foregoing, it will be unreasonable to stigmatise Nigerians for thecriminal enculturation by the western world in almost virtually every aspect ofcontemporary life. Western movies bring into Nigerian and African homes allsorts of immoralities hitherto alien to them. People wear three-piece suits inhot weather and recently lots of scammers have started using Religion toactualise their scamming thought-processes. Well it is not a surprise to yourstruly as Jesus already warned us two millennia ago that “in the last days, manyshall come to deceive many in my name”. Now we are seeing the many, and most ofthem are not Nigerians. But why treat them with such ignominy?

As noted earlier, the internet and mobile technology arrived these shoresthe late 90’s. Before then, western deceivers continued to cheat people throughvarious schemes and were not as maligned as Nigerians. They hacked computersystems with viruses and did other untoward things against humanity. 95% ofNigerians do not have access to the internet but we hear of mind-bogglinginternet fraud schemes being attributed to Nigerians.

Many of such emails are also sent to most of us (Nigerians) but we ignorethem without batting an eyelid.

For instance, you get a scam mail saying you just won the sweepstakes andblah blah blah. You knew you never played any game and you fall for it. That’sgreed and trying to reap where one did not sow. Or someone sends a mail sayingsomeone else died and left money in a fictitious bank account and needs yourhelp to get it out into yours. I wouldn’t buy that idea for half a cent becauseI am not greedy. In my little research I found out that these scam schemes areactually inherited from the western world itself. Its just like theback-to-sender syndrome. What is more, we hear these days of the Madoffs ofthis world whose loot alone surpassed the entire loot of the so-called Nigerianscam artists. 0.001% of Nigerians unlike most parts of the Western world areactually involved in it in any way. Their ability to send bulk mail to millionsat the touch of button does not make the average Nigerian a scammer much as thesingular act of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s action on Christmas Day 2009 doesnot make all Nigerians terrorists or suicide bombers.

The real, average Nigerian is hardworking and strives daily to earn hiskeep. The world in most cases thinks of people and places they’ve never been asa representation of what they get from their news sources.

My advise to scam-phobics is simple: Never attempt to get into a buildingthrough the windows when the door is wide open. Greed and selfishness is asine-qua-non for being a scam victim.

I rest my case for now.

PS

This testimony about the real Nigerian was inboxed to me by a CaucasianAmerican, and one of my friends on Facebook:

15 March at 14:54Hi Henry – Thanks for telling me about the fan page. Yes, Iknow and understand that – it is a shame that some have not known any Nigeriansand have wrong/ignorant assumtions about them. There are swindlers and hustlersfrom everywhere, and we are to pray for the Lord’s protection from such evilpeople. I have been used and scammed in person by people in real life, evenjust recently here in Montana, and none of them were ever Nigerians.

I used to live in southern California and my son had a medical emergency. Inorder to pay for it I had to refinance the house my mom had just left me as shehad just died. I called every mortgage company I could find. I lived in OrangeCounty (I hated it there, was not originally from there- nasty people) and Icalled companies in Los Angeles, and Ventura counties as well. Any companies Icould find. I had just declared bankruptcy.

Finally, I reached a company in Thousand Oaks, CA. They all had Britishaccents. They were the only company out of thousands who would help me. To helpme they had to trust me. They were also Christians. I shared with them thecondition of my son, and also that the Children’s Services were threatening totake my kids away because I could not find a doctor who knew how to work on him– he had/has a very rare condition (that is how we ended up in Montana).

They refiananced my home. I had to pay 6 thousand dollars to an attorneyjust to keep my son at home. It was ridiculous Henry as his problem was withhis knee and their main complaint was that he was overweight. It was not lifethreatening in anyway and I had already taken him to 10 different doctors andhad the proof!

Then they refinanced it again!! They said it would not be easy as with mybankruptcy, and already having a loan on it, they would have to find a privateparty. I pleaded with them and told them my case and what was happening with myson. He shared with me that they were Christians also.

Everyone in the office was so kind to me. They all said they were prayingfor me and my children.

I finally sold the home as the only surgeon I could find who knew how towork on my son was up here in Montana.

On my way out of California, I drove by their office. I wanted to thank themin person for all they had done for us. Their trust and kindness kept my familytogether. They were also very fair with their rates and business dealings.

I stopped and went in, and was so surprised they were all from Africa, fromNigeria. They had been educated in England. And the owner’s wife to this dayremains the most beautiful African woman I have ever seen in my life. She waswearing tradtitional Nigerian clothing.

Henry, those people were my angels here on this earth. My parents werepassed on from cancer, my brother was a drug addict (he is clean now and hasfound the Lord, praise God), my husband ran off to be a bum on a train (truestory) and his family, who were wealthy, did not care if my children were deador alive.These Nigerians saved my family – my children – the most preciousthing on the face of this earth to me. I will never, ever, ever forget whatthey did for me and my children. I am so grateful to God for them.

Also, i have met wonderful Nigerian people here on facebook.

Thanks for hearing this story. God Bless you!!Sincerely,

(Name withheld)