On July 23, 1920,
Charles Ponzi hired former Boston Post journalist William H. McMasters as his publicist, who quickly realized that his new client was defrauding the public. Just ten days later, McMasters wrote an exposé published in the Post that led to Ponzi's ultimate downfall. The newspaper won a Pulitzer. McMasters was
The Man Who Time (Almost) Forgot (Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Aug 10, 2011 -
11 comments
"No one guessed the truth, which was simpler, and therefore stranger, than their wildest theories: that the scared young woman so hotly pursued by South Carolina police, the Secret Service, federal marshals and even the U.S. Army was actually on a bizarre and misguided journey of self-discovery." Rolling Stone reports on the strange case of Esther Reed:
The Girl Who Conned The Ivy League.
(via Metachat)
posted by The Whelk
on Jan 17, 2010 -
46 comments
Do you know your close-up con games? Some classics: the
Tip, the
Jamaican Switch, the
Wire (and its incredibly complicated cousin, the
Rag), the
Texas Twist, the
Pigeon Drop, the
Spanish Prisoner (or Nigerian Scam) and the ancient
pig-in-a-poke. Also, learn
the argot of the classic con artist, view
some videos of card scam moves and
discover some patter as well, or just see how the language of the con has been used in one of the more
famous papers in sociology.
posted by blahblahblah
on Aug 8, 2006 -
23 comments
Portrait of a Con-Artist: Due to the efforts of the site
StopAglaia! (which was posted here earlier in the year), The New Jersey Star-Ledger printed this facinating story exposing a con woman of "Kaycee Nicole" proportions, and includes an interview with the woman in question. She's impersonated Denis Leary, Henry Rollins, and the manager for Bright Eyes, and she's conned both men an women out of thousands of dollars. Sadly, the printing of this article has caused
StopAglaia! to shut down, but their
forum is still up, so victims can trade info. [More Inside]
posted by emptybowl
on Mar 21, 2002 -
7 comments
