This Is a Scam Trivia Quiz

Answer: Frank Abagnale

In the 1960s, Frank Abagnale passed bad checks worth more than $2.5 million in 26 countries. The movie "Catch Me If You Can" is based on his life. He made several escapes from justice by impersonating other people. A few examples are: an undercover cop, a Pan Am pilot, and a doctor.

Answer: Charles Ponzi

Charles Ponzi, who died in 1949, is perhaps one of the most commonly known con artists in history. His life both began and ended in poverty. He arrived in the US with $2.50 and a determination to strike it rich. He succeeded at being rich for quite a while, but that all ended with an FBI raid, a prison escape, and deportation to Italy.

Answer: Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil

Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil started out blackmailing his co-workers. When he realized they were skimming off the top of the debts they collected, he told them that for a portion of what they took he wouldn't turn them in. He eventually graduated to impersonation and sales of non-existent stocks.

Answer: Victor Lustig

In 1925, Victor Lustig held a secret meeting with six different scrap metal dealers. He convinced them that the city needed to scrap the tower because it was too expensive to keep. He took them for a tour of the tower in a limo and was so convincing that one of the dealers handed over the necessary money. Victor Lustig ran off with the money.

He was so successful with his first attempt that he tried the scheme again one month later.

Answer: George Parker

George Parker (1870-1936) had a very elaborate scheme, complete with a fake office, fake documents showing him as the owner of various landmarks, and an ability to convince people that what he spoke was the truth. He was able to continue his scheme for years, and regularly "sold" the Brooklyn Bridge to gullible people twice a week, telling them that they could get rich by tolling the bridge. Police had to come shut down people trying to set up toll booths on a regular basis and tell them that they didn't own the bridge.

He was eventually caught and thrown in prison where he died.

Answer: Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith

Soapy Smith, as he was referred, would wrap various denominations of money, ranging from $1-$100 bills around soap, and then cover them on paper. He would convince people to buy the soap for $1 a bar.

Answer: Eduardo de Valfierno

Obviously, Leonardo da Vinci was the painter of this masterpiece. Eduardo de Valfierno masterminded the hoax. Vincenzo Peruggia was an employee at the Louvre Museum who stole the painting, according to orders from Eduardo. Yvez Chaudron painted six forgeries, which were each given to buyers from around the globe.

Answer: James Hogue

In 1988, James Hogue entered Princeton, claiming to be an orphan from Utah who was self-taught. A reporter uncovered the fraud. Later, in 1993 he took a different assumed name and got a job as a security guard in the museum at Harvard. He was convicted of stealing the missing jewels and replacing them with badly-made fakes.

Answer: Robert Hendy-Freegard

Robert Hendy-Freegard posed as an undercover MI5 agent and conned money from people by making them prove their loyalty and making them do tasks for him. He cut off all communication between his victims and their families. He put them through tests to prove their loyalty. Examples of these were: sleeping on benches at the park, sleeping in the airport, and pretending to be a Jehovah's Witness so that his bosses at MI5 would let him marry, or so he claimed.

Answer: Bernard Cornfeld

Bernard Cornfeld opened Investors Overseas Services (IOS), a mutual fund selling company, in the 1960s. Headquarters were officially in Geneva, Switzerland, but the main operational offices of IOS were in Ferney-Voltaire, France. This was so he could avoid the hassle of getting work permits in Switzerland for each and every one of his many employees. Bernard and his co-founders pocketed part of the proceeds of a share issue raised among employees in 1969.

He was arrested in 1973 by Swiss police and served 11 months before his bail of $600,000 was paid.