『Scammers and Con Artists.』のカバーアート

Scammers and Con Artists.

Scammers and Con Artists.

著者： Popular Culture and Religion.
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Scammers and Con Artists.
The history of scammers and con artists dates back to antiquity, evolving from simple maritime insurance fraud in 300 BC to today's highly sophisticated global cyber schemes. While their methods have advanced alongside technology, the fundamental psychology of the con—exploiting greed, desperation, and human trust—remains unchanged.

1 - Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Early Swindles.
- 300 BC (Insurance Fraud): The earliest recorded scam involved a Greek sea merchant named Hegestratos, who took out a large bottomry loan (marine insurance), sank his empty ship, and attempted to flee with the cash. He was caught and drowned at sea.
- 3 AD (Counterfeiting & Power): Ancient Egyptian tax collectors frequently inflated the weight of goods, and in 193 AD, the Praetorian Guard brazenly auctioned off the Roman Emperor's throne to the highest bidder.

2 - The 18th & 19th Centuries: The "Confidence" Men.
- The Original "Con" (1849): William Thompson, an American grifter, is credited with inventing the term "con man". He approached wealthy strangers, struck up a polite conversation, and asked to borrow their expensive watches to see if they trusted him. Once handed the watch, he would vanish.
- The Prince of Poyais (1821): Scottish adventurer Gregor MacGregor successfully conned British and French investors out of millions by selling land in a completely fictional Central American country called "Poyais," which he claimed was booming with opportunity.

3 - The Roaring 20s: The Golden Age of Fraud.
- Charles Ponzi (1920): While the namesake of the modern "Ponzi scheme," Ponzi did not invent it. He defrauded investors by promising massive returns on international postal reply coupons, paying older investors with the funds contributed by newer ones.
- Victor Lustig (1925): Operating across Europe and America, Lustig famously pulled off "The Eiffel Tower Scam" by posing as a government official and conning a scrap metal dealer into "purchasing" the famous landmark for its raw iron.

4 - The Late 20th Century: Impostors and Embezzlers.
- Frank Abagnale Jr. (1960s): Fabricating a series of elaborate aliases, he successfully passed over $2.5 million in bad checks and impersonated an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer—all before the age of 30. His life later inspired the book and film Catch Me If You Can.
- Bernie Madoff (1970s–2008): Starting as a legitimate broker, Madoff evolved his business into the largest financial fraud in history, running a massive multi-decade Ponzi scheme estimated to be worth nearly $65 billion before it collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis.

5 - The Digital Era: The Rise of Cyber Grifting.
- The 419 Scam: Popularized through early email (and originally traditional mail), this scam—often called the "Nigerian Prince" scam—persuades victims to send upfront money in exchange for a promised, but non-existent, massive fortune.
- Modern Schemes: Today's con artists rely on digital deception, such as phishing, identity theft, and ransomware, exploiting massive global networks to target millions of victims simultaneously.

If you are interested in a specific era, type of scam, or the psychology of why these people succeed, let me know how you would like to narrow down the topic.Copyright Popular Culture and Religion. ノンフィクション犯罪 世界 社会科学
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  • 24 - C. L. Blood.

    24 - C. L. Blood.
    2026/06/11
    C. L. Blood. Charles Lewis Blood (September 8, 1835 – September 27, 1908; alias C. H. Lewis et al.) was an American con artist and self-styled physician who operated in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. He produced a patent medicine treatment known as "oxygenized air", which he promoted as a cure for catarrh, scrofula, consumption, and diseases of the respiratory tract. Career. Charles Lewis Blood was born 1835 in Groton, Massachusetts; he claimed to be the son of Dr. Louis Blood, a physician, though this was correctly believed at the time to be a fabrication. His father was actually Lewis Blood (1805–1887), a successful farmer, timber dealer, contractor and prominent citizen in Ayer (formerly Groton Junction), Massachusetts. His medical credentials were likewise in question—though he styled himself "Dr. C. L. Blood" or "C. L. Blood, M.D." and authored a book on medicine, he was widely supposed to be a con artist with no legitimate claim to any medical degree. His notoriety was said to be national, albeit distributed among a variety of aliases. Around 1865, Blood moved from Philadelphia to Boston, where he established an office in the old Congregational Library building at 12 Chauncy Street. He began promoting his medical services via full-page newspaper advertisements, as well as advertising sheets which he distributed to the surrounding country. Around this time he also developed an interest in Gardner Quincy Colton's use of "laughing gas", or nitrous oxide. Blood learned the manner of its manufacture and thereafter claimed the invention as his own, rebranding it as "oxygenized air" and touting it as a cure for diseases of the throat and lungs. Blood's business flourished, which enabled him to move into better quarters at 119 Harrison Avenue. He extensively advertised his ability to cure all diseases of the blood and lungs by means of his "air", which he administered at his practice. A page would answer the calls of visitors at his door and usher them into elegantly furnished reception areas to await the appearance of Blood from his consultation room. Blood employed numerous shills to maintain the appearance of doing an immense business, which artifice he used to lure investors. To these he offered contracts securing the exclusive right to resell his "air" in various states and territories. Blood left Boston some time after 1867, shifting his activities to various cities in the Northeast and Midwest. He was known to maintain practices in New York City around 1875, in Chicago from 1875 to 1876, in Philadelphia in 1883, and again in Boston in the late 1880s. He died aged 73 in Manhattan on September 27, 1908, after an illness lasting eleven weeks. In a short obituary in his hometown Ayer, Massachusetts newspaper, it was reported that Blood "had lived in New York city twelve years, where he was in a manufacturing business." His remains were transported to Ayer where he was buried in the family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery on October 1, a funeral having taken place the day before in the Lewis Blood house in Washington Street. Perhaps in view of the shame brought upon the Bloods by Charles' sordid past, his widow and four surviving sisters chose not to add his name to the family memorial. Criminal activities and allegations. Blackmail. While in Boston, Blood gained a rival in the person of a certain Dr. Jerome Harris, who also applied nitrous oxide but under the name of "super-oxygenized air". Unlike Blood, Harris was a trained physician, albeit one who traded on Blood's popularity by operating his practice from Blood's old quarters on Chauncy Lane. One day in the winter of 1866–67, Harris was visited by a Mr. Carvill of Lewiston, Maine who had a bronchial complaint and specifically requested Harris's "super-oxygenized air" treatment. The air was administered, and in a moment Carvill began frothing at the mouth and rolling on the floor, apparently in a fit, his contortions lasting about an hour. Finally Harris sent his patient home, whereupon the latter called for the services of his own physician, who turned out to be Blood. The next day the newspapers described Harris's supposed "poisoning" of Carvill by the administering of "super-oxygenized air", and the subsequent relief afforded the patient by Blood. Blood saw to it that the public were kept apprised of the supposedly continual improvement of the patient under his care, and reassured of the efficacy and harmlessness of his own "oxygenized air". Carvill subsequently brought suit against Harris, which served to maintain the media publicity against Harris's rival treatment. Though Harris was anxious to settle with Carvill, his legal counsel advised him not to pay, claiming it was a blackmail scheme. The case finally fell through, but Harris was frightened and left the city, after which Blood's business prospered. In May 1884, Blood was brought into the public eye again in Boston by reason of his arrest for ...
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    14 分
  • 23 - Lou Blonger.

    23 - Lou Blonger.
    2026/06/11
    Lou Blonger. Lou Blonger (May 13, 1849 – April 20, 1924), born Louis Herbert Belonger, was a Wild West saloonkeeper, gambling-house owner, and mine speculator, but is best known as the kingpin of an extensive ring of confidence tricksters that operated for more than 25 years in Denver, Colorado. His "Million-Dollar Bunco Ring" was brought to justice in a famous trial in 1923. Blonger's gang set up rooms resembling stock exchanges and betting parlors that were used by several teams to run "big cons". The goal of the con was to convince tourists to put up large sums of cash in order to secure delivery of stock profits or winning bets. The depiction of the "Wire Con" seen in the movie The Sting is a fairly accurate representation of a typical big con. Blonger had longstanding ties to numerous Denver politicians and law enforcement officials, including the mayor and the chief of police. In 1922, however, District Attorney Philip S. Van Cise bypassed the Denver police and used his own force, funded by donations solicited in secret from local citizens, to arrest 33 con men, including Blonger, and bring the ring to justice. Childhood. Lou Blonger was born in Swanton, Vermont, on May 13, 1849, the eighth of 13 children. His father, Simon Peter Belonger, was a stonemason born in Canada of French ancestry. His mother, Judith Kennedy, was raised in an orphanage in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland. The Belonger family migrated from Vermont to the lead mining village of Shullsburg, Wisconsin, when Lou was five years old. After his mother died in 1859, Lou lived with his older sister and her husband for a few years. Around this time Blonger began using a shortened version of the family name (omitting the first "e"), as most of his brothers did. Blonger followed brothers Mike and Joe into the Union Army in 1864. Although he was still three days shy of his 15th birthday, Blonger was mustered in as a fifer at Warren, Illinois, and served a few weeks with Company B of the 142nd Illinois Regiment before suffering a leg injury at White Station, Tennessee. He spent the remainder of his 100-day enlistment recovering at the Marine Hospital in Chicago. At the conclusion of the Civil War, Blonger reunited with his brother Sam, ten years his elder, who had spent the war years prospecting in Colorado and driving freight over the mountains in California and Nevada. Lou was living in Mount Carroll, Illinois, with a friend named William Livingston when Sam returned. While Sam courted and eventually married Livingston's sister Ella, Lou attended high school. Later Sam sent his brother to study at Bryant & Stratton Business College in Chicago. In the Western boomtowns. In 1870 Sam and Lou Blonger, along with many of the Livingstons, left the Midwest for the western frontier. Following the path of the newly completed Transcontinental Railroad, they briefly ran a hotel and saloon in Red Oak, Iowa, before moving on to Salt Lake City, Utah and the nearby mining towns of Stockton and Dry Canyon. In a pattern that repeated itself at many of their stops, Lou owned and operated saloons with assorted entertainments while Sam developed mining claims in the surrounding mountains, served occasionally as a peace officer and, in his spare time, raced horses. Similar stops followed in Virginia City, Nevada; Cornucopia, Nevada; Silver Reef, Utah; and again in Salt Lake City. Moving to Colorado in 1879, Lou Blonger took a shot at running a vaudeville theater in Georgetown, while Sam made an unsuccessful bid to become the first mayor of nearby Leadville. There the Blongers were joined by two other brothers: Simon, the eldest, who worked as superintendent at the Robert E. Lee Mine, and Marvin, the youngest, also a miner. Soon afterward, Sam and Lou were on the move again, this time to the burgeoning railroad town of New Albuquerque, New Mexico (soon to merge with Albuquerque). Albuquerque days. Sam Blonger was appointed marshal of New Albuquerque in February 1882 and quickly deputized his brother. Newspaper accounts indicate that while the brothers engaged in a few shootouts and jailed their share of vagrants, they also took plenty of time off to pursue other interests: prospecting, horse racing, and even running a brothel. For a couple of months the Blongers were toasted as the solution to the town's law enforcement problem (a previous marshal, Milt Yarberry, had murdered two citizens). When Sam and Lou were joined briefly by brother Joe, a prospector in the nearby Cerrillos Hills, a local newspaper wrote: "The three brothers are all of them young, nervy and square western men and it would be a good thing for the town if they were all on the police force." In April 1882, Lou Blonger served as acting town marshal while Sam traveled to Denver to negotiate the sale of a mine. Lou's stint roughly coincided with the escape to New Mexico by the Vendetta Posse, composed of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and five others. Hoping to ...
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    21 分
  • 22 - William Rockefeller Sr.

    22 - William Rockefeller Sr.
    2026/06/11
    William Rockefeller Sr. William Avery "Devil Bill" Rockefeller Sr. (November 13, 1810 – May 11, 1906) was an American businessman, lumberman, herbalist, salesman, and con artist who went by the alias of Dr. William Levingston. He worked as a lumberman and then a traveling salesman who identified himself as a "botanic physician" and sold elixirs. He was known to buy and sell horses, and was also known at one point to have bought a barge-load of salt in Syracuse. Land speculation was another type of his business, and the selling of elixirs served to keep him with cash and aided in his scouting of land deals. He loaned money to farmers at twelve percent, but tried to lend to farmers who could not pay so as to foreclose and take the farms. Two of his sons were Standard Oil co-founders John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and William Avery Rockefeller Jr. Family. William Avery Rockefeller was born in Ancram, New York. He was the eldest son of businessman and farmer Godfrey Lewis Rockefeller and Lucy Avery. Godfrey and Lucy had married on September 20, 1806, in Amwell, New Jersey. Bill had two elder sisters, Melinda and Olympia, as well as seven younger siblings: Norman, Sally, Jacob, Mary, Miles, Mary Miranda, and Egbert. Ancestry.The Rockefellers trace their patrilineal line to Goddard Rockefeller (born Gotthard Rockenfeller; 1590) of Fahr, Germany, and the now deserted village of Rockenfeld as namesake. The first Rockefeller to emigrate to America (1723) was Johann Peter Rockenfeller (1710 – 1787), who changed his name to Rockefeller. Godfrey Lewis Rockefeller was a son of distant cousins William Rockefeller (1750–1793) and Christina Rockefeller (1754–1800). Lucy Avery was born to Miles Avery and Melinda Pixley, New England Yankees of mostly English descent, being a descendant of James Avery. Marriage and children. Rockefeller married his first wife, Eliza Davison, on February 18, 1837 in Niles, New York. Rockefeller met Eliza on one of his business trips in Upstate New York. It is said that Rockefeller pulled out a slate and chalk to communicate when he arrived at the Davison residence, as he often pretended to be deaf and dumb on his selling trips. Eliza is to have supposedly remarked, "If that man were not deaf and dumb, I'd marry him." The couple had three sons and three daughters: Lucy Rockefeller (1838–1878), married Pierson Briggs. John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (1839–1937), married Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman. William Avery Rockefeller Jr. (1841–1922), married Almira Geraldine Goodsell. Mary Ann Rockefeller (1843–1925), married William Cullen Rudd Sr. Franklin "Frank" Rockefeller (1845–1917) [twin]. Frances Rockefeller (1845–1847) [twin]. Bill once bragged, "I cheat my boys every chance I get. I want to make 'em sharp." Although Bill abandoned the family while Lucy, John, and William Jr. were teenagers, he remained legally married to Eliza until her death. In 1856, having assumed the name Dr. William Levingston, he married Margaret Allen in Norwich, Ontario, Canada. Bill and Margaret had no children together. Before leaving his first wife, he also had two daughters with his mistress and housekeeper Nancy Brown: Clorinda Rockefeller (c. 1838–?, died young). Cornelia Rockefeller (c. 1840–?). Before marrying Eliza, Bill had been in love with Nancy. However, he ended up marrying Eliza since her father was to give her $500 when she married, and Nancy was poor. When John D. Rockefeller started his own produce commission business with Maurice B. Clark in 1859, Clark initiated the idea of the partnership and offered $2,000 towards the goal. John D. Rockefeller had only $800 saved up at the time and so borrowed $1,000 from his father, "Big Bill" Rockefeller, at 10 percent interest. This loan was a crucial point of John's career, allowing him enough money to build his own wealth, eventually leading to his ability to buy equity in larger quantities. Bill visited with his grandchildren at the Forest Hill estate in Cleveland and at Pocantico Hills in Tarrytown. He taught his grandchildren how to shoot and played fiddle in the evenings for them. Prior to Bill's visits, John D. would invite some of Bill's Upstate New York relatives and friends. Scandal. On July 26, 1849, in the city of Auburn, New York, William was indicted for a rape which had occurred at gunpoint. His victim had worked in the Rockefeller household; her name was Ann Vanderbeak. In the 1905 book Memoirs of an American Citizen, Robert Herrick says an improper relationship had been rumoured to exist. The court document reads, "That William A. Rockefeller late of the Town of Moravia in the County of Cayuga, on the first day of May in the year of the Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty eight, with force and arms at the Town of Moravia in said County, in and upon one Ann Vanderbeak in the Peace of God with the People of the State of New York then and there being, violently did make ...
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    8 分
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