10 Dishonest People Who Surprisingly Fooled the World

10 Dishonest People Who Surprisingly Fooled the World

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at infamous scoundrels who managed to utterly bamboozle society with their clever cons.

#10: Mary Carleton: German Princess

In 1663, London was enthralled by German princess van Wolway[a], a supposedly orphaned noble fleeing an unwanted suitor. In truth, she was born Mary Moders of Canterbury, England. Her early life was unremarkable: she married a shoemaker named Thomas, lost two children in infancy, left her husband, and wed another Thomas, a surgeon. This led to arrest for bigamy, and she fled to Cologne. There she rebranded herself before returning to England, charming high society with fabricated tales. She married another surgeon, John Carleton, but her deception unraveled when an anonymous letter exposed her. Tried for fraud, she was acquitted, and turned her notoriety into brief fame, even starring as herself on stage. Her cons continued until 1673, when she was executed for escaping penal transportation.

#9: Han van Meegeren[b]'s Fake Vermeers

In the 1930s and 1940s, Dutch painter Han van Meegeren pulled off one of history’s greatest art cons. Frustrated by critics, he developed secret aging techniques. With them, he forged Vermeer paintings so convincingly that experts declared them masterpieces. Van Meegeren sold his best-known forgery, "The Supper at Emmaus," for a fortune. During World War II, he duped high-ranking Nazis, including Hermann Göring, into buying his fakes. This act made van Meegeren an accidental folk hero: his forgeries helped to protect real Dutch art from Nazi clutches. After the war, he was arrested for selling “national treasures” to the enemy, and forced to reveal his deception to avoid execution. Convicted of forgery, he died before serving his one-year sentence.

#8: Calamity Jane's Colorful Biography

Calamity Jane, born Martha Jane Canary in 1852, was a frontierswoman whose life as we know it is an inextricable blend of fact and fiction. She often spun tales of her adventures, many of which were self-aggrandizing fabrications. In her 1896 autobiography, she claimed to have served as a scout for the military and to have performed daring rescues. Historians have since found these stories to be exaggerated at best and completely unsubstantiated at worst. Her reputation for charity, such as nursing smallpox victims in Deadwood, has also been questioned. This mix of truth and tall tales resulted in a larger-than-life folk hero in the eyes of the public. Her dime novels and Wild West shows forever enshrined her legend into the American west.

#7: Sergei Nilus[c]'s Pseudohistory

In the early 20th century, Russian religious writer Sergei Nilus played a pivotal role in propagating one of history's most infamous forgeries. The fictitious "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" first appeared in 1903 in a series of Russian newspapers. This fabricated document falsely claimed to reveal a Jewish plot for global domination. Two years later, Nilus included the full text in his book "The Great within the Small and Antichrist." He presented the made up work as empirical proof of a looming Jewish threat. Despite being debunked as a hoax, the Protocols fueled antisemitic sentiments worldwide, contributing to widespread Jewish persecution. Nilus's endorsement lent the forgery an air of legitimacy, amplifying its reach and impact.

#6: Dr. Sebi[d]'s Popular Herbalism

These days, you can't even open your email without getting advertisements for various health supplements. We forget that, not too long ago, that was a trend that - in part - was popularized by a self-proclaimed herbalist from Honduras. Alfredo Bowman, better known as Dr. Sebi, rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s. Without medical training or evidence, Sebi claimed to cure diseases like AIDS and cancer. He pushed a discredited, plant-based alkaline diet, combined with his special blend of herbal remedies. In 1987, he faced legal challenges in New York for practicing medicine without a license. He was acquitted when the state couldn't prove he’d provided medical diagnoses. Later, he was sued for fraud and prohibited from making therapeutic claims about his supplements.

#5: Frank Abagnale[e]: Forgemaster

Frank Abagnale Jr. is one of history’s most infamous conmen. In the 1960s, he allegedly posed as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and lawyer, forging millions in bad checks before getting caught. His exploits inspired the film "Catch Me If You Can," reinforcing his legend as a reformed genius who now helps the government stop fraudsters. But here’s the real con: much of his backstory is wildly exaggerated. Records show he spent most of his criminal career in prison. The FBI has denied he ever worked closely with them. His most famous cons, like impersonating a lawyer, were likely fabrications. Abagnale duped banks, then duped the public into believing he was the greatest conman ever. In reality, his biggest grift was selling his own myth.

#4: Charles Dawson's Missing Link

Charles Dawson pulled off one of the greatest scientific hoaxes of all time. In 1912, Dawson supposedly unearthed a 500,000-year-old skull in Piltdown[f], England. With a large cranium and a primitive jaw, Piltdown Man fit neatly into early 20th-century ideas about human evolution. Dawson claimed that the skill belonged to the 'missing link' on the evolutionary journey from apes to humans. For 40 years the Piltdown Man was central to our understanding of evolution. Then, in 1953, advanced dating techniques revealed the skull was a fraud; it had been cobbled together from a medieval human skull and an orangutan’s jaw, then stained to look ancient. The perpetrator was almost certainly Dawson himself, a serial forger who’d planted fake fossils for years.

#3: Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos[g] in 2003, promising to revolutionize blood testing with just a few drops. With a black turtleneck and a deep voice, she styled herself after Steve Jobs. Holmes wooed an all-star lineup of investors and political heavyweights. People like Rupert Murdoch and the Waltons of Walmart fame invested tens of millions. By 2015, Theranos was valued at $9 billion, despite its technology never actually working. Whistleblowers and investigative reports exposed the scam, revealing that patients had been misdiagnosed and investors misled. The empire crumbled. In 2022, Holmes was convicted of fraud and sentenced to over 11 years in prison.

#2: Robert Ripley: Capitalist Conman

Robert Ripley made a mint convincing the world to “Believe It or Not!” Born in 1890, he started as a cartoonist, sketching bizarre facts and feats of human endurance. His syndicated column exploded in popularity, evolving into radio shows, books, and eventually museums filled with oddities. He traveled the world collecting curiosities, from shrunken heads to two-headed animals, turning them into entertainment gold. By the time of his death in 1949, Ripley had built a global empire of the weird, one unbelievable fact at a time. Ripley claimed every fact he printed was true. Many ultimately proved to be exaggerated, unverifiable, or downright false.

#1: Charles Ponzi[h]: the Man behind the Scheme

Bernie Madoff was a New York financier who swindled investors out of nearly $65 billion. For decades, he promised investors steady, high returns that never actually existed. His fraud devastated thousands, from everyday retirees to celebrities and charities. But Madoff didn’t invent the game - he just perfected it. The scheme’s namesake, Charles Ponzi, ran a nearly identical con in the 1920s, using international postal reply coupons as the bait. He promised that his investors could double their money in just three months. In reality, he was just using new money to pay off old investors. At his peak, Ponzi was raking in nearly a million a day. When the fraud unraveled, Ponzi was convicted and deported. He would eventually die penniless and alone.


Did we con you into watching a video that’s missing your favorite grifter from history? Let us know in the comments below.

[a]fan VAUL-way https://translate.google.ca/?sl=de&tl=en&text=van%20Wolway&op=translate

MODE-urs https://youtu.be/_LFPnYMHoRc?si=TdPpuldzg_-9g9NN&t=7
CANTER-bur-re (not berry) https://forvo.com/search/Canterbury/
cuh-LOAN https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Cologne
[b]hawn von MEEGER-in https://forvo.com/search/Han%20van%20Meegeren/ (pls use this link for the first name) + https://youtu.be/O6HA2Qo5lfk?si=HNigNyDkeTZXuog3&t=309 (pls use this link for the family name)
vur-MEER https://youtu.be/O6HA2Qo5lfk?si=W2A0-M5EMFLdj0QZ&t=60
emm-MAY-iss https://youtu.be/O6HA2Qo5lfk?si=Gs_TefCTQl3UCUEN&t=382
GURE-ing https://forvo.com/search/Hermann%20G%C3%B6ring/
[c]sare-gay NEE-luss https://youtu.be/WBj9YP8-M2I?si=30IvKNdMX030l144&t=273
[d]doctor SAY-bee https://youtu.be/0hqNj1A8-6w?si=27GzMhLHiLY7H077&t=55
al-FRAY-doh BOH-min https://youtu.be/9ycV9aAWjzM?si=Uh9TzFlqe04DvyqB&t=13
[e]ABBIG-nail https://youtu.be/iJIc16aqpO8?si=bNrnYPXpDJtplMDx&t=794
[f]PILT-down https://forvo.com/search/Piltdown%20Man/
[g]THARE-UH-noce ("noce" rhymes with "dose") https://youtu.be/rGfaJZAdfNE?si=kXkeou-ZiGCSJBiA&t=283
[h]PAWN-zee https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ponzi
MAY-doff https://youtu.be/ab1NTIlO-FM?si=rAf44QQCZ17xROqD&t=144