10 Infamous Con Men from History You Should Know About

It seems like everything is a scam nowadays. There are so many people pushing for your time, your money, your attention, and everything else. The world is getting faster and more complicated, and it doesn’t help that the internet is driving much of that push. In that realm, it sometimes seems like the bad guys are everywhere and con men are proliferating. Then, the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves. Bleak! (To say the very least…)

But obviously, con men and charlatans have existed for as long as humanity has been on this planet. And in this list, we’re going to prove that to you. These are the stories of ten crazy, bold, and shameless con artists who lived decades and sometimes centuries ago. They’ll confirm that fraud and trickery have been around since time immemorial. We’re not sure whether that makes us feel good about all the scams going around today. But at least this sheds some fascinating light on the tricks and dupes of yesteryear!

Related: Ten of Scotland’s Most Infamous Murder Cases

10 Comte de Saint-Germain

The man who came to be known as the Comte de Saint-Germain probably wasn’t even really a count, but nobody knows for sure. Beginning in the first part of the 18th century, he gained notoriety in France as a chemist. He supposedly came from a high-class Portuguese family. Or maybe he was from a well-connected Jewish family. Or perhaps he was just a total charlatan—but nobody could tell for sure. Either way, he claimed that he had chemistry talents unrivaled by anyone in France at the time. One boast he liked to make was that he could transmute one type of metal into another. He also claimed to be able to purify diamonds of their flaws.

Saint-Germain was both charismatic and attractive, so women were naturally drawn to him. He sought their favor in turn by promising to preserve their beauty regardless of the ravages of age and time. Speaking of age and time, Saint-German also alleged at various points that he was over 300 years old. Sometimes, he even told people that he was immortal. In turn, his most loyal followers began to call him “der Wundermann,” the translation of which you can probably figure out for yourself.

While Saint-Germain made wild and crazy boasts like that, he wasn’t quite the same con man with nearly the same fraudulent intensity as some of the others who will appear on this list. Instead, he was simply an “extraordinary man,” as one of his sycophants liked to say. The Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova was a Saint-Germain observer and even said once of the trickster that he was “intended by nature to be the king of impostors and quacks.” Uh, we think that’s a compliment? Regardless, Saint-Germain faded into history after spending the last decade of his life studying alchemy and holding opera performances.^[1]

9 Amy Bock

Born in New Zealand in 1859, Amy Bock became one of the Southern Hemisphere’s most notorious con artists to ever live. She staged a number of outrageous scams beginning when she was just a kid, but it was in adulthood that things really got crazy. For one, at the age of 49 in 1898, she put together a scheme to illegally marry another woman. In the New Zealand town of South Otago, Bock showed up and presented herself as a wealthy sheep farmer. She called herself Percy Redwood and made it her mission to woo a very rich woman named Agnes Ottaway. “Redwood” charmed the pants off Ottaway and then won over her neighbors by lavishing them with gifts and presents.

The locals had no way of knowing it, but Bock wasn’t who she said she was, and Redwood was a complete fabrication. Even worse, all those gifts were bought on credit. And while Agnes very quickly fell in love with “Redwood,” the rest of the Ottaway clan was incredibly skeptical of this new woman who had suddenly appeared in their lives. So Bock did the next natural thing in the con: she invented Redwood’s supposedly rich mother and began sending letters to Agness’ mother to try to assuage the family’s fears. And it worked.

“Percy Redwood” and Agnes got married. However, just days after the wedding, a local detective arrived at the family’s door and arrested Bock for fraud. She ended up pleading guilty to both forgery and acquiring material gain under false pretenses. She then had the notorious distinction of becoming the first-ever woman in New Zealand to be classified by the government as a habitual criminal. Oh, and she didn’t stop there, either. For the rest of her life, Bock kept pulling small cons and little swindle jobs. But none ever compared to the audacity of the time she became Percy Redwood…^[2]

8 William Thompson

William Thompson was the con man who coined the phrase “con man,” so in some ways, he was the granddaddy of them all! Of course, con games, fraud, and trickery existed long before Thompson lived through the middle of the 19th century. And to be fair, his con was so unbelievably dumb that we’re amazed people ever fell for it in the first place. But regardless, he was so prolific at conning people out of their stuff (specifically their watches) that he went down in history as the best to ever do it.

Here’s how the con worked: Thompson operated in New York City in the 1840s with a surprisingly simple ruse. He would dress well, approach somebody who appeared to be fairly upper class in demeanor and look, and engage in a conversation. Thompson had a knack for speaking to people as though he knew them, and so naturally, those marks would talk back in a familiar tone while trying to figure out where they remembered this random guy from. Thus, the con was initiated. Then, as their confidence grew in Thompson being one of them, he pulled his trick: he’d say that he forgot his watch, and he asked to borrow theirs for a time.

Not wanting to seem rude to a friend whom they couldn’t recall, the people would hand over their watches, expecting to get them back in another day or two. Of course, Thompson never returned. He’d go pawn the watch, pocket the cash, and try the con on someone else a few days or weeks later. Not bad work, if you can get it—and keep it without getting caught. Of course, Thompson eventually did get caught.

In 1849, he was arrested and then incarcerated at NYC’s notorious Tombs. He had scammed so many people that his arrest was actually big news in New York, even if his individual crimes were relatively minor. His prolific fraud string also likely inspired Herman Melville’s 1857 novel The Confidence Man. And the term was coined!^[3]

7 Dr. Sebi

Born under the name Alfredo Bowman in Honduras in 1933, the man who became known in his adult life as Dr. Sebi was one of the most interesting (and controversial) tricksters of all time. He developed a following as a leader in so-called herbalist medicine. He was so popular at various points in his adult life that celebrities, including the likes of John Travolta, Michael Jackson, and Teddy Pendergrass, supposedly swore by his methods. And he wasn’t shy about marketing herbal remedies for products that he claimed reduced the body’s acidity and had all kinds of unbelievable health benefits.

The most notorious product he designed was something called Cell Food. It purportedly detoxifies the human body of its alkalinity. Without any actual medical proof to back him up, Dr. Sebi claimed that his remedies, like Cell Food, would cure people of a number of diseases, including cancer and lupus. But unfortunately for him, those claims weren’t without legal action. In the late 1980s, he was sued twice: once for consumer fraud due to mis-marketing his products and making outlandish claims, and then again for practicing medicine without a license. Not great!

But like many con men, Dr. Sebi excelled with his back against the wall. In court, he brought in 77 people to testify that they’d actually been cured by his methods. In the end, the trial concluded with him being forced to stop marketing his health potions and remedies. But other than that, he faced no real consequences for his outlandish medical quackery. He went on “treating” all kinds of celebrities like the King of Pop. Bowman (er, excuse us, “Doctor” Sebi) eventually went back to his native Honduras and died there in 2016.^[4]

6 Baron Münchhausen

You may not know the man, but we have a feeling you certainly know the name. Baron Münchhausen was born in Germany in 1720 and then spent the rest of the 18th century hammering his name into the most legendary annals of global folklore.

As a young man, he was in the military. And after retiring from that, he became a storyteller. Not professionally—it was just what he did to attract attention. He started telling all kinds of wild stories about things he’d claimed to have done in war, none of which were true. He would gather locals all around him and tell tales that had absolutely no basis in fact. Nevertheless, they ate it up, and he became renowned across Germany for his alleged exploits. That it all came in the years before fact-checking helped his lies spread like total wildfire.

Another thing helped his fabrications take hold in Germany, too: authors and translators who picked up his tales and wrote whole books about them. Literary giants through the centuries, like Rudolf Erich Raspe and Gottfried August Bürger, published books based on the Baron’s insane war fibs. Soon, those books inspired more books and other pieces of art that immortalized Münchhausen’s too-good-to-be-true tales.

In time, he became a truly famous character of fantasy, as people loved to read the phony tales of his supposed military glory. Oh, and his lies were so profound and so widespread that he eventually and unintentionally lent his name to a medical disorder—Münchhausen syndrome. You know you were a powerful con man when they start naming cons after you!^[5]

5 Natwarlal

Natwarlal is one of the most well-known con artists of all time and certainly the most celebrated one to ever come out of India. He was born in 1913 (or so) in the city of Bihar under the real name Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava. The first few years of his life are highly uncertain, though. Some claim that he was abused by his father as a young child and was thus forced to flee a terrible home situation. With no way to make money and nothing else to reliably do, he supposedly began to con people to survive. Others claim that he was supremely talented at forgery and developed those skills as a teenager. As the story goes, he would forge checks and bank documents, steal money, and then disappear.

Regardless, as he grew up, Natwarlal became a prolific con man. He was said to have been imprisoned at least ten different times after conning people out of money and other valuable items. One legendary account claims that he even scammed a prison guard while he was in jail after one particular 1957 arrest. As the story goes, he tricked (and bribed) the guard into handing over the prison superintendent’s uniform, which he promptly put on and then used to get out of jail free. (Literally.) And as if that weren’t enough, the guard later opened a box that was supposed to contain the bribe and found phony money and worthless pieces of paper hidden inside instead of real cash. Oops!

The most notorious story involving Natwarlal, and one you probably have heard before if you’ve ever heard of the man, is that he supposedly sold the Taj Mahal—three times. Disguised as a government official, he purportedly swindled rich buyers out of purchasing the iconic property and pocketed their cash. Of course, he wasn’t a government official. And he certainly didn’t have the connections, power, or influence to sell the Taj Mahal. But that didn’t stop him from thrice taking the money for it, as the legend goes. Ultimately, it’s tough to determine what’s real and what’s phony in the story of Natwarlal, but he does sound like one of the most prolific and cunning tricksters to ever live.^[6]

4 Alessandro di Cagliostro

Alessandro di Cagliostro was one of the most famous alchemy fraudsters to ever live. Like the so-called Comte Saint-Germain about whom we’ve already learned, di Cagliostro claimed to be able to turn various metals into gold and do a whole host of other shady things. Of course, he couldn’t do those things, but people desperately wanted to believe in the Italian trickster. Born in 1743 to an impoverished and very rural Italian family, he also wanted to believe—at least insofar as the con could grant him a better life.

Unfortunately, Alessandro started very early. As a teenager, he began to swipe gold from a local goldsmith using a devious little scheme. In it, he successfully persuaded the man that he had a cave full of hidden treasure that was being guarded by demons. Alessandro even led the man to the very cave—and they saw the demons together! Except, well, the “demons” in question were actually a number of other kids and teens who Alessandro had hired to pretend. The goldsmith was terrified, though, and Alessandro pocketed his money before abandoning him. He then took up the phony “Count” title and began to travel all around Europe while learning about alchemy.

Eventually, the “Count” married a woman named Lorenza Feliciani. The two of them became partners in crime, going to pretty much every major city in Europe. Once they arrived, they began selling magic potions and holding séances. The Count’s reputation as a so-called sorcerer and witch doctor began to rise. But eventually, the law caught up with him. In 1785, he was sentenced to serve nine months in France’s legendary Bastille prison for fraud. He was banished after serving the sentence. He was later arrested in Rome, too, and eventually sentenced to death for long-standing crimes. However, that punishment was eventually commuted to life in prison. Still brutal!^[7]

3 Gregor MacGregor

Gregor MacGregor might be one of the goofiest con men to ever live. Born in Scotland in the late 18th century, he became a soldier and soon traveled the world. But by the late 1810s, he wanted more. More money, that is. So, after spending some time in South America, he returned to England and Scotland and began to con people out of their hard-earned cash. He did this by looping in that South American experience in one of the most brazen and wild ways we could ever imagine. Basically, after spending considerable time in Venezuela with a well-off woman there, he went to London in 1821 and told his countrymen that there was a new island nation called Poyais. And then the con began.

Poyais was totally fake, but MacGregor insisted that it was some rich island kingdom in the Bay of Honduras. He told Londoners that he was the “Cazique” prince of Poyais and had access to all kinds of riches there. That included a thriving harbor, fertile land, and—get this—supposed rivers of gold. He even went so far as to create fake maps, a phony flag, and counterfeit money in order to sell his fraudulent claims. And when it came time for Londoners to cough up the dough and get a little piece of Poyais, MacGregor had entirely fake land grant documents and “legal” papers to seal the deal. Talk about an involved scheme. But it worked on quite a few Londoners!^[8]

2 False Dmitry

The “False Dmitry” con is definitely one of the strangest frauds in history. Basically, a man named Dmitry Ivanovich was the son of the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible. But beginning in about 1598, after the real Dmitry’s apparent death, a bunch of fake Dmitry pretenders began popping up. Seeking power, they all claimed that they were actually the deceased son of the Russian tsar, and thus, they should ascend to the top of the nation’s political structure and hobnob with the elite.

The first so-called “False Dmitry” attempted to take the throne from Boris Godunov, who himself had invaded Russia in 1604 and took power. The impostor succeeded for a hot second, but his victory proved to be very short-lived. An aristocrat named Vasily Shuysky became angry at this False Dmitry and his unorthodox customs, and so he launched a coup that killed the man. But almost immediately, rumors began to swirl that the phony Dmitry had actually survived the coup attempt. And so, that opened the door for another False Dmitry… and another… and another.

A second False Dmitry popped up and cultivated an underground following across Moscow that eventually grew in time. He settled outside the city in the town of Tushino and began to accumulate power for an attempted takeover. Those in power at the time didn’t care for that, though, so they ran in and forced him to flee. He was eventually murdered by one of his own followers. A rough end. A third False Dmitry showed up on the scene in 1611 and earned a great following among the mighty Kossacks. He was betrayed by an insider, though, and eventually arrested, imprisoned, and executed in Moscow.^[9]

1 Mary Carleton

Mary Carleton was born in Canterbury, England, in about 1635. As an adult, she became a crafty and phony con woman. Her ruse was to pose as a German princess and get older men to come around so that she could rob them. Her first documented fraud occurred in 1660 when she was charged with bigamy for remarrying a wealthy man while her first husband was still alive. She escaped punishment there, then fled from Canterbury and turned her fraud games up a notch.

After a few years in the wind, Mary showed up in London with a new back story: she was a German princess who had come to the city from the German town of Cologne. She constructed an entirely false back story as part of it and had cultivated mannerisms (and forged papers and documents, of course) to convince elite Londoners that she was legit. Eventually, using her disguise as bait, she married a scrivener and nobleman named John Carleton.

It didn’t take long for the chickens to come home to roost. John and his pals eventually figured out Mary wasn’t who she said she was. But she had a backup plan for that: when she was arrested and brought to court to testify about her fraud, she told John that he wasn’t the nobleman he’d made himself out to be, either! “You told me you were a lord, and I told you I was a princess, and I think I fitted you,” she said on the stand.

Her defense was so bold and passionate that it actually worked! She was acquitted and set free from the bigamy charges. For the next five years, she continued to practice bigamy in that very same manner and marry other unsuspecting rich men after creating fantastic and phony backstories to woo them. It all caught up to her in the end, though. At just 30 years old, she was hanged after being found guilty of several more high-end frauds.^[10]