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40 Enraging Bits of Trivia About the Biggest Fraudsters To Ever Walk the Earth

Trust no one

40 Enraging Bits of Trivia About the Biggest Fraudsters To Ever Walk the Earth

February 24, 2025

We got you right where we want you! Yep, you were just going about your day until we lured you into this list with a flashy title about fraud. Lucky for you, these fraud facts aren’t fraudulent facts. They’re the real deal, and they actually deliver on their promises — unlike these dastardly swindlers, scammers and schemers.

40

The Warren Buffett Scam

39

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

38

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

37

The Pig Butchering Scam

Crypto Scams THE PIG BUTCHERING 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 — Maridav/Shutterstock
NBC 6 South Florida

36

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

35

Fake Psychics

An heiress convinces her mother that her $140 million art collection was possessed. GRAGKED.COM Sabine Boghici, the daugh- ter of a wealthy Brazilian art collector, used fake for- tune tellers to scam her mother out of family heir- loom paintings, saying they needed to be re- moved from the home. — Daily Beast

34

The Hitman Scam

A Chinese businessman hired a hitman, who hired a hitman who hired another, who hired another. The fifth hitman simply asked the man to fake his death. Ponzi scheme done. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

33

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

32

Sears

Sears tried to scam the inventor of a quick-release ratchet. SEARS Peter Roberts sold his in- vention to Sears for $10,000 who said that it was not worth very much. Sears then went on to make $44 million selling it, so he sued them for fraud and was awarded $1 million. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Time / Wikimedia

31

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

30

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

29

The Andy Wealth Scam

Crypto Scams I THE ANDY WEALTH SCAM In 2022, a scam was going on the Andy Wealth Facebook page that was trying to get people to invest in two apps called MetaEx and MetaEXC using Bitcoin. They said it was a teacher who was giving advice about it, but it was all a scam. CRACKED — kitti Suwanekkasit/Shutterstock
Snopes

28

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

27

Tamara Tunie’s Accountant

Tamara Tunie's accountant stole a million dollars from her. M The Law & Order SVU actress had a bank account opened by him in her name, but without her knowledge - besides that account, he also wrote checks from her other accounts. CRACKED.COM — Source: The Hollywood Reporter

26

The Paypal Scam

Crypto Scams B THE PAYPAL Pay SCAM In 2023, a 79-year-old was tricked out of $79,500 by a crypto scammer using PayPal. The scam relied on fear, guilt, and all sorts of other tactics to take advantage of the victim's lack of computer knowledge. CRACKED — Source

25

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

24

The Tinder Scam

rafapress/Shutterstock

23

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

22

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

21

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

20

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

19

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

18

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

17

The Fake Country

CRACKED MARK PEDLEY CREATED A FAKE COUNTRY. The Dominion of Melchizedek pretty much only existed to perpetuate massive bank fraud. Even the former president of Portugal's brother was taken in by a loan scam based in the country, which was located in several different areas over the years. — Wikipedia / Shrine of Dreams

16

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

15

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

14

A Totally Fake Hedge Fund as a Wedding Present

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

13

Stan Lee’s Business Manager

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

12

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

11

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

10

Lou Pearlman (Yep, Again)

THE BACKSTREET BOYS WERE FUNDED BY THE SCHEME FIRST After chartering a plane for New Kids on the Block, Pearlman decided to get into the boy band busi

9

Lou Pearlman

HE USED THE SAME METHODS FOR NSYNC He intentionally developed a rivalry between the groups, So he could be the financial winner of the feud. CRACKED.C

8

Jerry Seinfeld’s Shady Accountant

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

7

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

6

Uma Thurman’s Financial Advisor

Uma Thurman F6 sued 146661 C her former financial advisor HE H @ EMOC VE998402I DEAE HA05572 She lost over $2 million to Kenneth Starr's Ponzi scheme.

5

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

4

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

3

Multi-Level Marketing Schemes

CRACKEDOON If you're planning to invest in multi-level marketing schemes, don't bother. More than 99 percent of those who participate lose money and o

2

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf and some friends wore fake beards and costumes to scam being Abyssinian princes in order to take a tour of a British dreadnought. The r

1

Donald 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

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