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Con Artist Starred in Sting That Cost Google Millions - The government's case also contained potentially embarrassing allegations that top Google executives, including co-founder Larry Page, were told about legal problems with the drug ads. [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jan 26, 2012 - 61 comments

Start a home business, get rich quick, win financial freedom! If you watch late-night TV, you've heard it all before. But what's the story behind these slick pitchmen and their dubious schemes? Enter The Salty Droid, your ornery metal guide to the corrupt underworld of scam-marketing scum. This charmingly acerbic bot (owned and operated by mild-mannered Chicago dog-lover Jason Michael Jones [inter-view, long talk + transcript]) is a valiant crusader against the vile con-men who bankrupt the elderly and the desperate with beautiful lies. Exposed so far: A shadowy "Syndicate" of frauduct-pushing personality cults polluting the media with blogspam and woo-woo talking points. Boiler rooms in the Utah desert where telemarketers farm credit from easy targets with cunning, probing scripts [PDF]. Powerful politicians bought wholesale. Believers left to die in fraudulent new-age vision quests. It's a soul-crushing beat, enough to make one feel like a regular catcher-bot in the digital rye. But somebody's got to do it -- preferably someone with plasma nunchucks and titanium skin.
posted by Rhaomi on Aug 31, 2011 - 47 comments

Fantasy Island: The Strange Tale of Alleged Fraudster Pearlasia Gamboa
posted by vidur on Jul 14, 2011 - 4 comments

Meet Rob Granito, Professional Comic Book Con Artist. Sure, his art is perhaps a little similar to other work, and yeah, his claims of industry contacts are pretty much made up, and he's been banned as a fraud from multiple conventions, but hey, a playa's got to get paid, right?
posted by robocop is bleeding on Apr 8, 2011 - 59 comments

Soapy Smith was "the king of the frontier confidence men." Born Jefferson R. Smith, he gained the nickname "Soapy" after running a successful scam that the Denver newspapers dubbed "The Prize Package Soap Sell Swindle." He ran criminal enterprises in Colorado and Alaska until his death at the hands of vigilantes in 1898. Every year his descendants hold a wake in his honor. His story has inspired several books and movies. The Soapy Smith Preservation Trust maintains an extensive archive of his life and times.
posted by amyms on Oct 16, 2007 - 20 comments

Ricky Jay wants to play cards. Place your bets. [more inside]
posted by Bookhouse on Oct 3, 2007 - 38 comments

Stacey Finley convinced 22 friends, neighbors and relatives that she could have satellites scan their bodies for disease, then have CIA agents administer secret medicines to them while they slept. [via]
posted by brundlefly on Jan 24, 2007 - 22 comments

On the Internet, no one knows if you're a dog. Slate continues to unravel the fascinating story of the hoax that was Robert Klingler. A man claiming to be the "head of BMW North America" was picked to do one of Slate's weeklong diaries; two days in, Slate discovered that the man was not at all who he said he was, and set out to find the truth. (Also being covered by Joshua Micah Marshall's excellent Talking Points Memo.). Turns out the likely suspect has quite a history of con artistry...
posted by hincandenza on Mar 13, 2002 - 18 comments