The Biggest Scams in World History: 25 Infamous Cases

The Chinese milk scandal is one of the worst food safety crises in history. It began in 2008 when several dairy companies in China decided that watering down milk would be an easy way to cut costs. To make up for decreased protein levels, they spiked the milk with a toxic chemical called melamine. Sadly, this led to over 300,000 children falling ill, and at least six of them passing away.

From 2011 to 2016, employees at Wells Fargo opened fake bank accounts, forged signatures, and even transferred customer funds without authorization, all in an attempt to meet crazy sales targets. When regulators discovered this misconduct, they fined the bank over $1 billion. Shockingly, even more misconduct was uncovered over the years, and as a result, in 2022, Wells Fargo was ordered to cough up an additional $3.7 billion.

Imagine the joy of not having to get countless vials of blood drawn for medical testing. This is exactly what Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the startup Theranos, claimed her company’s revolutionary technology could do: run hundreds of medical tests using a sample of just a few drops of blood. Despite knowing her technology was faulty and unreliable, she used false data to secure millions of dollars in investments, leading to a company valuation of over $9 billion. After extensive investigations into her company, Holmes was charged with fraud and later sentenced to over 11 years in prison in 2022.

The infamous swindler Charles Ponzi defrauded investors of millions of dollars in 1919 through fraudulent dealings involving international postal coupons. After promising them massive returns, Ponzi would surprisingly honor the commitments, but not in the way you’re expecting. He would actually pay off earlier investors using the money he had conned from new investors. For his crimes, Ponzi was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison in 1920.

The Wachovia Bank sent shockwaves across the United States in 2010 after admitting that it didn’t have adequate systems to prevent money laundering. As a result of these improper systems, the bank became an accessory in laundering money for drug cartels between 2004 and 2007. For its lack of compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, Wachovia Bank had to pay over $100 million in forfeitures and a $50 million fine.

What better way to start this list than with the infamous Tinder Swindler, who took over our TV screens in 2022. Simon Leviev was exposed for running financial scams on unsuspecting women he’d matched with on Tinder. In 2015, Leviev was convicted of fraud in Finland, and unbelievably, that isn’t where his crimes ended. In 2019, he was sentenced to 15 months in an Israeli prison for scamming women in Europe out of thousands of dollars using a fake identity and shady manipulation tactics.

The horsemeat scandal took Europe by storm in 2013, when the public discovered that what they thought was beef was actually horsemeat sold as “beef”. It was uncovered that horsemeat was in everything, from burgers to meatballs, and at many stores across several countries. Although no major health problems were reported, the incident sparked fierce backlash, forcing European governments to tighten food testing and introduce stricter consequences for those who commit food fraud.

Barings Bank, known as the UK’s oldest investment bank, collapsed in 1995 after trader Nick Leeson lost over $1 billion through unauthorized trades in Singapore. Because he had access to both trading and accounting, in an attempt to cover up his mess, he forged financial records and concealed accounts. Unfortunately, his efforts weren’t enough to hide the truth, and by the time his blunder was uncovered, it was already too late to save the bank from bankruptcy.

Dubbed one of the world’s most infamous art forgers, Wolfgang Beltracchi pulled off the largest art forgeries in history, pocketing well over $20 million selling fake paintings. With the help of his wife, he created near-perfect replicas of famous artists’ work and sold them to the highest bidder. After their scam fell apart in 2011, the couple, along with their accomplice, were arrested and sentenced to years in prison. Interestingly, after only serving three years of his six-year sentence, Beltracchi began selling his own original artworks.

In another shocking first for the world, brothers François and Joseph Blanc managed to pull off a telecommunications scam between 1834 and 1836. The pair bribed a telegraph operator to sneak stock market tips into the French government’s telegraph messages, giving them an unfair trading advantage. As it turns out, insider trading wasn’t illegal at the time, so when their scheme was uncovered, they only faced bribery charges and got to keep most of their profits.

Best known as “the man who sold the Eiffel Tower”, Victor Lustig caused quite a stir with his scam in 1925. Posing as a French government official with fake stationery and seals, he managed to convince dealers that the Eiffel Tower would be dismantled and sold to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, one unsuspecting victim fell for the scheme and paid Lustig a large sum of money, which he then used to flee. As it turns out, he was later captured and imprisoned in Alcatraz for his crimes until he passed away in 1947.

The famous phrase “I have a bridge to sell you” comes from George C. Parker’s Brooklyn Bridge scam. Claiming to own the bridge, he repeatedly sold it to unsuspecting buyers over several years. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only landmark he “sold” at the time: the Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden, and even Ulysses S. Grant’s tomb were also used in his scams. In 1928, Parker was sentenced to life in prison for fraud and forgery, remaining in Sing Sing Prison until his passing in 1936.

The 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa is considered one of the world’s most infamous art heists. While handyman Vicenzo Peruggia was the one who actually stole the painting from the Louvre, it’s said that con artist Eduardo de Valfierno was the mastermind behind the plan. Allegedly, he orchestrated the theft just to sell forged copies at exorbitant prices. It wasn’t until 1913 that the Mona Lisa was recovered after Peruggia tried to sell it in Florence.

Anthony Gignac, a Colombian-born con artist, took a page out of Perkin Warbeck’s book when he spent nearly three decades impersonating a Saudi prince. During that time, he used his “royal status” to run elaborate investment and luxury scams, defrauding investors out of millions of dollars. Gignac’s gravy train came to a halt in 2017 when a billionaire business partner grew suspicious of his identity. As a result, he was arrested and sentenced to 18 years in prison for identity theft and wire fraud in 2019.

Funny enough, we’ve all probably received a text or email that reads “you have unclaimed estate funds”. This popular scam dates back to 1916, when Oscar Hartzell conned thousands of people by claiming they were entitled to a share of the Sir Francis Drake Estate. Over $1 million was collected from the victims in a bid to ”recover” the estate, but sadly, it turned out to be an elaborate lie.

Before the Tinder Swindler became a household name, the “newspaper swindler” was scamming women through personal ads in the 1940s. Ruben Oskar Auervaara, a Finnish conman, would pose as a bachelor seeking marriage to lure in single women, then convince them to give him money before disappearing. His schemes made waves in Finland, so much so that even his last name was adopted as the official expression for a silver-tongued trickster. Sadly, Auervaara’s charm couldn’t keep him out of prison, and he spent 26 years of his life locked up.

After experiencing some financial difficulties, former Australian millionaire Harry Gordon decided the only way out was to fake his own passing in 2000. With the help of his wife and daughter, he actually managed to pull it off, hoping to claim his massive life insurance policy. But Gordon’s ruse finally came to an end in 2005 after he was spotted alive and well in New Zealand, living under the alias Rob Motzel. After spending 15 months in prison for attempting to defraud his insurance company, he detailed his scheme in a memoir that’s still available for sale today.

Anna Delvey’s story inspired the hit Netflix series Inventing Anna. In another case of fake identity, she posed as a German heiress to worm her way into New York’s elite circles. From 2013 to 2017, she lived extravagantly and defrauded banks, businesses, and even her own friends out of thousands of dollars. Delvey’s scheming ways eventually led to her downfall in 2018, when she was arrested then later convicted of grand larceny.

It might surprise you that identity fraud dates back to the 15th century, but we have Perkin Warbeck to thank for that. Best known as one of history’s first identity thieves, Warbeck claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, an heir to the English throne. He even went as far as recruiting an army of around 6,000 men to overthrow King Henry VII, but unfortunately, that didn’t go as planned. Initially, Warbeck was spared and kept under guard, but after two escape attempts, the King had no other choice but to end his life

You probably recall Jordan Belfort from the 2013 hit film The Wolf of Wall Street. Well, in real life, the former stockbroker and motivational speaker who inspired the movie ran a huge penny-stock scam through his firm in the 1990s. With his crazy sales tactics and market manipulation, Belfort managed to scam investors out of over $200 million. Unfortunately, his extravagant lifestyle put him on the FBI’s radar, and in 1999, he was sentenced to 22 months in prison for fraud and money laundering.