List of con artists  

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This is a list of notable individuals who exploited confidence tricks.

Contents

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Born or active in the 17th century

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Born or active in the 18th century

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Born or active in the 19th century

  • George Appo (1856-1930): American fraudster, operated in New York and was involved in green goods scams. Wrote an autobiography and also had a biography written about him which discusses prison conditions and various other socio-economic conditions in the later 19th century.
  • Lou Blonger (1849–1924): American pickpocket and fraudster, organized a massive ring of con men in Denver in the early 1900s.<ref name="The Big Con"> book |last1=Maurer |first1=David W. |title=The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man and the Confidence Game |publisher=Bobbs Merrill |year=1940 |oclc=1446571 }}</ref>
  • C. L. Blood (1835–1908): American patent medicine huckster, fraudster, and blackmailer.<ref name="man"> news |author= |title=A Man of Ominous Name |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3461943/dr_blood_and_the_sawtelles/ |newspaper=The Inter Ocean |date=1890-02-19 |access-date=2015-10-26 }}</ref>
  • Amy Bock (1859–1943): Tasmanian-born New Zealand con artist who committed numerous petty scams and frauds, and in 1909 impersonated a man in order to marry a wealthy woman.
  • Cassie Chadwick (1857–1907): Canadian woman who defrauded banks out of millions by pretending to be the illegitimate daughter (and heir) of Andrew Carnegie<ref> web|url=http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CCL|title=Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: CHADWICK, CASSIE L.|website=ech.cwru.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-05-09}}</ref>
  • Eduardo de Valfierno (1850–1931): Argentine con man who posed as a marqués and allegedly masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.
  • Lord Gordon Gordon (1840 – 1874): British man who defrauded $1 million from Jay Gould, who was fighting for control of the Erie Railroad.
  • Bertha Heyman (born c. 1851): American con artist, also known as "Big Bertha"; active in the United States in the late 19th century.<ref name="Byrnes">Template:Citation.</ref><ref name="Wired">Template:Citation.</ref>
  • Canada Bill Jones (c.1837–1880): King of the three-card monte men<ref name="The Big Con" />
  • John E.W. Keely (1837-1898): American grifter.
  • David Lamar (1877-1934): American con artist known as "The Wolf of Wall Street".
  • Daniel Levey (c. 1875-?): American swindler and gambler, specialized in passing fake checks and stealing goods under the pretense of brokering sales for their owners.
  • Victor Lustig (1890–1947): Born in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) and known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower twice".<ref> journal |last1=Johnson |first1=James F. |last2=Miller |first2=Floyd |title=The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower |publisher=Doubleday |year=1961 }}</ref>
  • William McCloundy (1859–19??): American con artist, convicted of selling the Brooklyn Bridge to a tourist.
  • Phillip Musica (1877–1938): Italian fraudster known for tax and securities frauds culminating in the McKesson & Robbins scandal (1938).
  • George C. Parker (1860–1936): American con man who sold New York monuments to tourists, including most famously the Brooklyn Bridge, which he sold twice a week for years. The saying "I'll sell you the Brookly Bridge" originated from this con. <ref> news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/nyregion/thecity/for-you-half-price.html |title=For You, Half Price |access-date=19 August 2007 |first=Gabriel |last=Cohen |date=27 November 2005}}</ref>
  • Charles Ponzi (1882–1949): Italian swindler and con artist; "Ponzi scheme" is a type of fraud named after him.<ref> book |last1=Zuckoff |first1=Mitchell |title=Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend |publisher=Random House |date=March 8, 2005 |isbn=1-4000-6039-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ponzisschemetrue00zuck }}</ref>
  • Soapy Smith (1860–1898): American con artist and gangster in Denver and Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska, in the 1880s and 1890s<ref>Smith, Jeff (2009). Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, Klondike Research. Template:ISBN</ref>
  • Adele Spitzeder (1832-1895): German actress that arguably was the first to perpetrate a Ponzi scheme between 1869 and 1872 when she defrauded thousands of people by promising them 10% return of interest monthly which she paid with the money of new investors.
  • William Thompson (fl. 1840–1849): American criminal whose deceptions caused the term confidence man to be coined.<ref> news |newspaper=New York Herald |url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/lm/328/ |title=Arrest of the Confidence Man |year=1849 |access-date=19 August 2007}}</ref>
  • Ferdinand Ward (1851–1925): American swindler whose victims included Thomas Nast and the former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.<ref> news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/04/06/101876121.pdf |newspaper=New York Times |date=6 April 1909 |title=Son's Gems Claimed By Ferdinand Ward}}</ref>
  • Joseph Weil (1875–1976): American con man.<ref> book |last1=Weil |first1=Joseph |title="Yellow Kid" Weil: The Autobiography of America's Master Swindler |url=https://archive.org/details/yellowkidweilaut00weil |publisher=Ziff-Davis |year=1948 |isbn=0-7812-8661-1 }}</ref>
  • Fernando Wood (1812-1881): U.S. Congressman, Mayor of New York City, and a con artist who defrauded his brother-in-law and three others of $20,000 in a scheme involving the charter of a ship to sell goods during the California Gold Rush.<ref> book|last=Allen|first=Oliver E.|title=The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall|date=1993|page=63|publisher=Addison-Wesley Publishing Company|isbn=0-201-62463-X|url=https://archive.org/details/tigerrisefalloft00alle/page/63}}</ref>
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Born or active in the 20th century

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Living people

|url=https://money.cnn.com/2009/03/19/news/hedge_fund_fraud/index.htm?postversion=2009031914 |title=N.Y. lawyer arraigned in alleged $700M fraud |publisher=CNNMoney.com |date=March 19, 2009 |access-date=2011-02-14}}</ref>

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See also


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