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Brilliant Bullshitting Fraudsters of Our Time

Started by 23 Daves, November 07, 2011, 09:20:14 PM

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23 Daves

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.  We're meant to despise fraudsters, but there are so many whose plans are so ridiculous that you almost feel admiration that they got away with it. 

One of my all-time faves is "Magic" Alex, the "electronics guru" The Beatles hired to join Apple.  A TV Repairman who claimed to be an inventor, he was like a grand mix of far-out hippy, common-or-garden pub bullshitter, and slick spiv.  The Beatles were all supposed to be intelligent gentlemen, but his Wikipedia page is like the Chris Morris Brasseye Science episode come to life - except he didn't film the Fab Four making dicks of themselves talking about the future, he just nabbed all their money instead (£3 million pounds worth in today's cash):

QuoteMardas told Lennon about his ideas for futuristic electronic devices he was "working on", such as a telephone that responded to its owner's voice and could identify who was calling,[9] a force field that would surround The Beatles' homes, an X-ray camera, paint that would make anything invisible, car paint that would change colour by flicking a switch, and wallpaper speakers,[10] which would actually be a part of the wallpaper.[8] Mardas later asked for the V-12 engines from Lennon's Rolls-Royce and Harrison's Ferrari Berlinetta car, so he could build a flying saucer.[8]

I mean, brilliant!  Just brilliant!  This went on for ages to next-to-no results, and once he'd finished ripping the Beatles off, he ended up ripping off King Hussein of Jordan with some bulletproof cars which (of course) weren't bulletproof, then moved on to other Middle Eastern aristocrats.  His Wikipedia page reveals a cad of the highest order, who still gets litigious if anyone calls him a fraud (so I hope he's not a CaB reader).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Alex

Do you have any favourties?  Or have you been lucky (or unlucky) enough to meet such a type, albeit perhaps operating on a much smaller scale? 

Dead kate moss

Much smaller scale... It was a friend of mine who pretended to be Courtney Love* when she went to Stringfellows, and ended up in Peter's jacuzzi. He boasted about it to The Sun the next day, only for the real Courtney to deny everything. To this day she is proud that she gets more space in Stringfellow's autobiography than when he met The Beatles.

*put on a bad American accent.

Little Hoover

Did Peter still photoshop an image of them together?

23 Daves

Quote from: Dead kate moss on November 07, 2011, 10:16:00 PM

*put on a bad American accent.

Is that absolutely all she did?  Did she look anything like Courtney Love, or did she just have a huge suspicion that Stringfellow was so out-of-touch she could have turned up as a brunette and he'd have been none the wiser?

Blue Jam

I remember reading about her, and her claim that she "had tattoos in all the right places". Now that's a dedicated fraudster for you.

Dead kate moss

#5
Quote from: 23 Daves on November 07, 2011, 10:42:53 PMDid she look anything like Courtney Love

Vaguely. My girlfriend/her flatmate at the time and some other people with her supported the ruse, probably just to get in free, and it escalated, and they all played along, getting like loads of free champagne. I went down soon after, before it came out she was a fake (I think she must have done it twice) and sat at Peter's table with Michelle Collins* & Martin Degville**, as one of Courtney's friends too. And when The Sun exposed the fraud they offered cash for info for the fake Courtney, and I rang up but they already had the info from countless other people who ratted her out.


*Off Eastenders/Coronation Street
** Out of Sigue Sigue Sputnik
(for younger readers)


Ignatius_S

George C. Parker is one of my favourites – who I think I first learnt about from a Johnny Ball programme:

QuoteGeorge Parker (1870–1936) was one of the most audacious con men in American history. He made his living selling New York's public landmarks to unwary tourists. His favorite object for sale was the Brooklyn Bridge, which he sold twice a week for years. He convinced his marks that they could make a fortune by controlling access to the roadway. More than once police had to roust naive buyers from the bridge as they tried to erect toll barriers.

Other public landmarks he sold included the original Madison Square Garden[citation needed], the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grant's Tomb and the Statue of Liberty. George had many different methods for making his sales. When he sold Grant's Tomb, he would often pose as the general's grandson. He even set up a fake "office" to handle his real estate swindles. He produced impressive forged documents to prove that he was the legal owner of whatever property he was selling. He also successfully sold several successful shows and plays, of which he had no legal ownership.

Parker was convicted of fraud three times. After his third conviction on December 17, 1928 he was sentenced to a life term at Sing Sing Prison by a Judge McLaughlin in the Kings County Court. He spent the last eight years of his life there behind bars. He was popular among guards and fellow inmates alike who enjoyed hearing of his exploits. George is remembered as one of the most successful con men in the history of the United States, as well as one of history's most talented hoaxers. His exploits have passed into popular culture, giving rise to phrases such as "and if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you", a popular way of expressing a belief that someone is gullible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_C._Parker

Victor Lustig is also a good one – sold the Eiffel Tower twice and had great success with a 'money-printing machine'. The '10 Commandments for Con-Men' has been atrributed to him:
Quote•   Be a patient listener (it is this, not fast talking, that gets a con man his coups).
•   Never look bored.
•   Wait for the other person to reveal any political opinions, then agree with them.
•   Let the other person reveal religious views, then have the same ones.
•   Hint at sex talk, but don't follow it up unless the other person shows a strong interest.
•   Never discuss illness, unless some special concern is shown.
•   Never pry into a person's personal circumstances (they'll tell you all eventually).
•   Never boast - just let your importance be quietly obvious.
•   Never be untidy.
•   Never get drunk.



Absorb the anus burn

Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's audacity is astonishing. He invited musicians from Ash Ra Temple & Wallenstein to acid parties and got them to jam in exchange for drugs. The sessions were recorded and five albums were released under the banner of The Cosmic Jokers. Those fooled included such luminaries as Manuel Göttsching, Klaus Schulze and Harold Grosskopf. Without telling anybody, Kaiser reedited everything, got his girlfriend to sing-speak over some tracks and even put pictures of the musicians on the sleeves. Göttsching (by accident) heard the music in a record shop and the shit hit the fan. Schulze was so pissed off (on hearing the crappy Gilles Zeitschiff) that he sued Kaiser who did a runner.

Two of the albums are really good (self-titled and Galactic Supermarket)

George Oscar Bluth II

I once spent an entertaining train journey sat opposite a man who'd clearly just been released from prison (his belongings were all in see through HMP bags) who told me that he'd written all of Duran Duran's songs and that Simon Le Bon had stolen them and framed him to get him "out of the way".

shiftwork2

Quote from: George Oscar Bluth II on November 08, 2011, 01:11:39 PM
I once spent an entertaining train journey sat opposite a man who'd clearly just been released from prison (his belongings were all in see through HMP bags) who told me that he'd written all of Duran Duran's songs and that Simon Le Bon had stolen them and framed him to get him "out of the way".

Your fault quite frankly for asking Is There Something I Should Know?.  The guy's Notorious for not living on Planet Earth.


23 Daves

In the biography of Clive Selwood (a music industry mogul in the sixties and seventies) he alleges that he briefly worked for a gentleman who operated a pyramid scheme selling cheap, quickly knocked off cover versions of songs on vinyl to various retail outlets.  Quite a simple idea, really, and I'm sure there are other examples of this sort of thing going on during the period.

Where he differed from the norm, however, is that he never, ever paid a single one of his sales force, always telling them "the money's coming as soon as we get an important contract signed", frequently for months on end.  If they turned up at his office to find out what was going on, he'd reassure them, sweet talk them, and tell them "I'm going to talk to somebody right now and I'll return in half an hour with your money".  Of course, he'd do nothing but piss off down the pub for the day and never return to the office.

He also used to pretend he lived in a luxury appartment in the West End to potential investors, arranging to meet them in a place which had nothing to do with him.  He'd merely borrowed the keys off an Estate Agent for a house viewing.

All this sounds common-or-garden, but Selwood maintains that the man in question is now a huge figure in Hollywood, and therefore cannot be directly named and shamed.  I've always been trying to work out who it is he might be referring to, but no obvious names spring to mind.

Beagle 2

Quote from: 23 Daves on November 07, 2011, 09:20:14 PM
One of my all-time faves is "Magic" Alex, the "electronics guru" The Beatles hired to join Apple. 

QuoteMardas impressed John Lennon with his Nothing Box; a small plastic box with randomly blinking lights, and boasted that he could build a 72-track tape machine, so was given the job of designing the new Apple Studio in Savile Row.

Yes, I could see how that would follow. WHAT?


23 Daves

Quote from: Beagle 2 on November 08, 2011, 01:52:26 PM
Yes, I could see how that would follow. WHAT?

I genuinely can't make up my mind whether that's a bad piece of Wikipedia editing, or the whole truth of the matter.  Given that Lennon was strung out on drugs for most of the time during this period, I can actually believe he would be daft enough to think a charismatic individual who designed nothing more than a box with randomly blinking lights could also build a 72 track recording studio. 

ahope

Robert Hendy-Freegard. Obviously a bit of a psychopath, but quite brilliant in his own way:

QuoteRobert Hendy-Freegard (born Robert Freegard, 1 March 1971) is a British barman, car salesman, conman and impostor who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and fooled several people to go underground for fear of IRA assassination. He was born in Hodthorpe, a small village near Whitwell, in Derbyshire.

Methods

Hendy-Freegard met his victims on social occasions or as customers in the pub or car dealership where he was working. He would reveal his "role" as an undercover agent for MI5, Special Branch or Scotland Yard working against the IRA. He would win them over, ask for money and make them do his bidding. He demanded that they cut off contact with family and friends, go through "loyalty tests" and live alone in poor conditions. He seduced five women, claiming that he wanted to marry them. Initially some of the victims refused to cooperate with the police because he had warned them that police would be double agents or MI5 agents performing another "loyalty test".

A television documentary called "The Spy who stole my Life" was shown by Channel Five on 7 September 2005. In Australia, this was called "The spy who conned me".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hendy-Freegard

23 Daves

Brilliant!  That story had been buzzing in the background of my mind for this thread, but I just couldn't remember all the details.

It was an absolutely fascinating documentary, one I genuinely didn't know how to respond to.  On the one hand, Hendy-Freegard was obviously an evil bastard.  On the other, the way he used to trick people was absurd - you did find yourself wondering how anyone could be so daft as to fall for his ploys, and he did seem to have a slight, sneaking respect for people who saw through him.  He forced one of the women to "work undercover as a fish and chip shop assistant", which is unfathomable. 

He also reminded me uncannily of a dodgy sort I used to know from years back who was also obsessed with courting and ripping off gullible wealthy ladies, and I did find myself wondering how much it would take to push him to those sort of limits, and also how many psychos are out there. 

Cohaagen



Pleased to be welcome the patron saint of those gallant saloon bullshitters that a certain type of pub must by law have - middle-aged gin-blossomed farts with blurred tattoos on their hands who mutter darkly about "The Regiment", going on "ops", and the sharpness of a dying man's breath as he slides off your glistening weapon. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Count Baron Chevalier James Shortt: Papal Knight, founder of the International Bodyguard's Association, lately of the SAS, Parachute Regiment, Royal Marines, Cameroon Guards, etc., Bondsman of The Chief, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas. Truly a man for all seasons. Prepare to have your jaws dropped by the man who fooled dozens of publishers, thousands of readers, countless foreign defence departments, and even the UK government.

Crap Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Shortt

Far better and more detailed article:
http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/The_Baron_of_Castleshort

Full list of his achievements:
http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/List_of_James_Shortt's_Dubious_Claims

His many uniforms and gongs detailed:
http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/James_Shortt's_Dodgy_Uniforms_and_Medals

QuoteIn March 2009, Irish media uncovered the fact that Shortt's baronial "castle" was in fact only a modest house built within the village of Castlebellingham

Behemoth.

Gulftastic


Mark Steels Stockbroker

Was Intrepid a fake or not? This chap thinks he was, and I thought the whole thing was settled years ago, but wikipedia doesn't seem to think so.

hoverdonkey

A friend of mine pretended to be Hemingway's nephew at a party, where he met someone who actually knew Hemingway. They got talking and the bloke invited my friend  to his Embankment apartment for dinner. Said friend then had to make up an email address to arrange and after a successful meal, he was invited to the Monaco Grand Prix. Friend almost went, but bottled it when he realised the man would see his passport, so he sent a humbling email apologising for his ruse.

Small fry in the big picture, but thrilling for us. He used to do the cricket updates for the Sky website and developed a cult following with his witty updates, who arranged to meet in Covent Garden for a night out. He went, but pretended he was just a reader, so they were all hugely disappointed that he didn't show. He just wanted to see who these creeps were.