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38 Schemers, Scammers and Loophole-Exploiters That Got An A for Effort But An F for Fraud Charges

Robberies without all that messy smashing-and-grabbing nonsense

38 Schemers, Scammers and Loophole-Exploiters That Got An A for Effort But An F for Fraud Charges

January 30, 2025

Scam artists and white-collar fraudsters are like the dark magicians of the corporate world. With a flick of their charm and dream-selling wand, they can pull fluffy, cotton-tailed fortunes out of your bank account’s hat. These victims were clapping, oohing and ah-ing in the moment, but some time later, they realized that this show cost them a lot more than just the price of admission.

38

Google

Google had to pay a combined $522.5 million for their shady business Total practices. Google GRAGKED.COM Google paid fines for illegal data collection, knowingly allowing fraudulent pharmacies to advertise on their site, and were accused of profiting from women sex trafficking. — Source

37

Whole Foods Scam

WHOLE FOODS MARKET DON'T FALL FOR... BEING SELECTED AS A SECRET SHOPPER In October 2022, a scam involving Whole Foods Market popped up. People may receive an email, text, or letter claiming they've been chosen to be a secret shopper. The scammer's goal is to get the recipient to deposit a fake check into their account. CRACKED — Ken Wolter/Shutterstock
Snopes

36

The Miss Anna FX Scam

Crypto Scams B THE MISS ANNA FX SCAM Miss Anna FX was found to be a crypto scammer who was taking control of people's accounts and stealing money from Meta users. She was asking people to send her $500 to invest in Bitcoin, and had made over $52,000 in a few months. CRACKED — thanun vongsuravanich/Shutterstock
Snopes

35

Alanis Morissette

Alanis Morrisette's business manager stole $4.8 million from her. Не took it in small chunks over six years, hoping she wouldn't notice. To hide it, he encouraged her to blow money recklessly. When confronted, he tried to pass it off as investing in an (illegal) marijuana growing scheme, but she didn't buy that and successfully sued him. In court, she said the whole thing left her ability to trust shaken to the core. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

The Russian Astronaut Scam

A Japanese woman fell victim to a scam asking for money to return an astronaut to Earth. CRACKED.COM She sent $30,000 to a person who claimed to be a Russian astronaut work- ing at the International Space Station in need of money to return to Earth to marry her. — Kyodo News / Wikipedia

33

Trump

From 2006 to 2015, Donald Trump promoted video phones made by ACN, a multi-level marketing company. AON Trump distanced himself from ACN when he began

32

A Fake Chinese Bank

A fake branch of a genuine bank in China operated normally for more than 1 year. CRACKED.COM By the time authori- ties closed the estab- lishment down, all the money that customers put in (~$32 million) was gone. — Telegraph

31

The Martin Lewis Scam

Crypto Scams only Saving www.moneysavingexpert.com WEEKLY EMAIL NEWS BLOGS - MoneySavingExpert - - - - Founder & THE MARTIN LEWIS CARD LOANS SCAM SAVING Top children's savings. accounts m to 4% - - - One person lost £75,000 after being tricked by a cryptocurrency scam that said it was backed by UK consumer advocate Martin Lewis. CRACKED — chrisdorney/Shutterstock
The Guardian

30

The iEarn Scam

Crypto Scams PURE THE IEARN SCAM At the end of 2020, iEarn Bot stopped people in Romania from taking out their money and asked them to switch it into a new type of currency called iBot, worth the same amount. But users are still waiting to get their hands on actual currency. CRACKED — Source

29

Art Fraud

A curator replaced exhibits at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts with fakes. Не then sold over a hundred of the exhibits, for millions of dollars. Не was arrested, and in his defense claimed that somebody had already been replacing paintings with fakes when he started work at the Academy. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

Tesla on Trial

TE TESLA INVESTORS ARE SUING ELON MUSK. Musk apparently lied about having funding secured to take Tesla private, costing investors millions. His lawyer said the false tweets were technical wordsmith inaccuracies. GRACKED — Phil Stafford/Shutterstock
Ars Technica

27

The Fraud Capital of the U.K.

A Clockwork Orange's brutal buildings are the real-life Thamesmead South Housing Estate. The estate was built in the '60s to look ultramodern, with sharp angles, pyramid roofs, and skywalks. The area later became known as the fraud capital of the UK. There were streets in the complex where every address was accused of running a credit card fraud scheme. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Famous Movie Locations With Killer Back Stories

26

Enron

Evil Things Huge Companies Have Done - In 2001, Enron declared bankruptcy suddenly and without notice. This left thousands of employees and investors — Source: The 6 Most Downright Evil Things Done By Huge Companies

25

Benjamin Ackerman

ES UNION A ES OF 2950 7 ARATESTA ICE EL DEV OP Kg 35926 12 2) L L 0582 Benjamin Ackerman scammed 620 his way 12 into a number of famous people's OEAME houses, including Usher and Adam L3 Lambert, by pretending to be a realtor. After casing the houses, he came back worth millions of dollars. and stole thousands of high-end stuff 12 CRACKED COM — Source

24

The Fake Will Scam

Charles Vance Millar, a rich Canadian financier, made his will one giant practical joke. CRACKED.COM In it, he left three men who hated one another a joint lifetime tenancy in a villa, some protestant ministers $700,000 in Catholic beer stock, and anti-horse rac- ing advocates $25,000 in a Jockey club. — Time

23

The Tinder Scam

rafapress/Shutterstock

22

Fake Dating Ads

Shadorte DATINGAPPTROUBLE Being defrauded - by fake ads The FTC took legal action against Match Group, Inc., owners of dating services like Tinder and Hinge, for allegedly using fake ads to get people to buy subscriptions to Match.com. They claimed that this scam affected hundreds of thousands of people. CRACKED — New Africa/Shutterstock
Federal Trade Commission

21

The Crypto.com Ukraine Scam

Crypto Scams THE CRYPTO.COM UKRAINE SCAM In 2022, a scam on the Crypto.com/Nft Facebook page asked people to donate money to Ukraine. Since April 2021, the wallet address associated with the scam had received around $32,279.94. Kinda depressing! CRACKED — rospoint/Shutterstock
Snopes

20

The OpenAI CTO Scam

Crypto Scams & 6 7 T Y THE OPENAI СТО G SCAM OpenA In 2023, Mira Murati, the сто of OpenAI, had her Twitter account hacked, promoting a scam crypto airdrop. The hacker also made it so that people couldn't reply to the tweet to warn others that it was actually a scam. CRACKED — Ascannio/Shutterstock
Cointelegraph

19

The Jeff Bezos Scam

Crypto Scams THE JEFF BEZOS SCAM British people have lost a lot of money to cryptocurrency scams featuring famous people, with the most expensive one involving a photo of Jeff Bezos costing almost two $200,000 dollars. CRACKED — Tinseltown/Shutterstock
Decrypt

18

The Melissa Jackson Scam

Crypto Scams THE MELISSA JACKSON SCAM Instagram A person using the fake name Melissa Jackson (@melissa_jacks0n) was able to get 452,000 followers on Instagram. Even though it was a crypto scam, Instagram's parent company Metastill allowed them to pay for ads. CRACKED — wichayada suwanachun/Shutterstock
Snopes

17

Moneytron

CRACKED JEAN-PIERRE VAN ROSSEM Van Rossem, who said he was a Marxist, tricked people into investing in his Moneytron machine, which he claimed could predict the stock market. Nobody ever saw it but him, but that didn't seem to get in the way of his making money from it. — Jalopnik / Fi

16

Scam Emails

scam 'Nigerian Prince' scam I 11040 e-mails are intentionally I filled with grammatical errors and typos. E E NATURE I / 20 5 | | 1 I / w GRACKED.COM I This strategy minimiz- es false positives and self-selects for the most gullible and those individuals most defrauded. susceptible to being — Business Insider / Pexels

15

Kris Humphries

Kim Kardashian's ex-husband got scammed by his wedding guest. Kris Humphries lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in a scam that involved a totally fake hedge fund by one Andrey C. Hicks. CRACKED.COM — Source: US Magazine

14

Bernie Madoff (Yep, Him Again)

Harry Markopolos warned people about Bernie Madoff, but no one would listen. The Boston financial analyst knew Madoff's results weren't possible, but between a petty rivalry between the SEC's New York and Boston offices and a staff consisting of lawyers who don't actually understand the financial industry, nothing happened. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Herbalife

An Herbalife insider once admitted on camera that the company was a scam. Lose Weight Now HERBALIFE. Ask Me How! Independent Distributor Investor Bill Ackman claimed Herbalife's nutrition clubs, private settings where Herbalife distributors sell the company's products and recruit new members, amount to a pyramid scheme. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — CNBC

12

Rudy

The person that inspired the sports film Rudy was charged with stock fraud. Former Notre Dame football player Daniel Rudy Ruettiger ran a pump-and-dump scheme and was charged with stock fraud in 2014 and settled for $4.5 million. The stock scheme arose from the sale of shares in Rudy Nutrition, a now-closed sports-drink company. CRACKED.COM — Courthouse News

11

Alexander Hamilton

HAMILTON'S BUDDY FORCED HIM TO MAKE FINANCE LAWS CRACKED 28635 Alexander Hamilton's friend and Treasury department colleague William Duer stole thousands of dollars with insider trading, before there were many laws preventing it.

10

Stan Lee

Stan Lee's business manager stole not just millions of dollars, but also his blood. Besides swindling him out of money, he also allegedly had a nurse take blood from Lee, which he then sold in Las Vegas as a collectible for thousands of dollars. CRACKED.COM — Source: Vulture

9

Healthcare Billing Fraud

In a case of health care billing fraud, one doctor billed for 205 hours in one day. CRACKED.COM In the most extensive case of health care billing fraud in US Department of Justice history, 243 people were busted for fraudulent billing to the tune of $712 million. — Dallas News / Pexels

8

A.I. Crime

CRACKED AI HAS BEEN GREAT FOR CRIME Europol is warning that criminals are already taking advantage of ChatGPT to carry out illegal activities like fraud, cybercrime, and terrorism. Of course. — The Register / Channel News Asia

7

Bernie Madoff

CRACKEDCO COM 9 E HUL EY John Malkovich and Larry King lost $1.7M and $700,000, respectively, to Bernie Madoff's investing scheme. King was fortunate

6

The Lottery Scam

When the virus shut down a country dub, two fired workers ran a lottery saam. They couldn't return to their home in Jamaica, sO they pulled a scam you — Source: WINK News

5

Ingenious Media

4

Seinfeld

CRACKEDOON Jerry Seinfeld was hoodwinked by a shady accountant. Seinfeld gave him an envelope with thousands of dollars in it, the accountant spent it

3

NFL Pyramid Scheme

CRACKED.COM In 1998, NFL player Fred Taylor handed over his $3.6 million signing bonus to his agent William Tank Black. Black then invested the money in a pyramid scheme and lost it all. — Source

2

The Nigerian Prince Scam

The Nigerian Prince has been around for 200 years. Rich people randomly offering you big bucks if you help them out of trouble was already a scam genre in the early 19th century. Later, in the 1890s, scammers got to claiming in their letters that they were prisoners of the Spanish- American war, earning the scheme the name the Spanish prisoner. - - as VIS DE - - - CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Beanie Babies Fraud

The creator of Beanie Babies was charged with tax fraud. The billionaire creator Ty Warner had to pay a $100,000 fine but no jail time (?!) for hiding millions of dollars. CRACKED.COM — Source: 17 (Forgotten) 90's Things

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