The world is full of scammers and fraudsters who are great at tricking people. Some of their victims are too trusting, some too gullible. But sometimes even the best of us can fall for a scammer who has done everything in their power to convince us of their legitimacy. If someone says all the right things and has all the necessary credentials, who are we to doubt them? The problem is, these credentials are fake, and they cause serious chaos.
10. Rogue pilots in Pakistan
In 2020, a plane crash in Pakistan killed 97 people. As part of the investigation into the cause of the crash, the airline launched an investigation into all of its pilots and uncovered truly heartbreaking statistics. Around a third of all Pakistan International Airlines pilots were complete frauds. They had fake licenses and had never flown the planes.
The investigation found that 262 pilots They either never took the pilot's exam, instead paying someone else to take it for them, or otherwise cheated. Ultimately, 150 pilots were arrested.
A fatal crash in 2020 was the result of pilot error, although no one has specifically stated whether the pilots on board had valid licenses or not. What was known was that air traffic controllers told them three times they were too high, but the pilots didn't listen, and when they attempted to land, they failed to lower the landing gear. Only two people survived.
This was not the first time the issue had arisen in Pakistan, as a pilot had caused an accident two years ago, and the license he had been given had a public holiday on it, which immediately exposed it as counterfeit .
9. British eye surgeon John Taylor
English surgeon John Taylor lived in the 1700s, and his main claim to fame is his ability as an oculist, or eye surgeon, to treat the renowned composers George Frederic Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach. He didn't treat them kindly, mind you, but he treated you well.
After a brief medical training as a young man, Taylor opened a clinic in his hometown and did so poorly that his patients burned it to the ground and attacked him. After that, he set out on his journey, received additional education in at least four different schools, and managed to speak well enough to become the king's eye doctor.
As his reputation grew, he traveled from town to town performing pubic surgeries, then departed before anyone had even removed the bandages. By all accounts, his expertise was more quackery than any real cure, but he was a well-spoken man and had an impressive pedigree, which made people trust him.
His client list grew, and he eventually treated Bach, who was steadily losing his sight, possibly as a result of diabetes. Taylor immediately blinded him, but he died just four months later, possibly from a postoperative infection. When he moved on to Handel, he used a needle to pierce his eye and push back his cataracts so he could see through them. At least, that was the idea. It didn't work. And none of this was done with anesthesia or antibiotics, of course, because they didn't exist yet.
Ironically, Taylor also began to lose his sight, underwent surgery, and eventually became completely blind.
8. Fake Dark Purple
If you're a classic rock fan, you're familiar with Deep Purple, whose most famous song is arguably the hit "Smoke on the Water." The band formed in the 1960s and was arguably one of the fathers of modern heavy metal. But they also had two bands for a short period of time, leading to riots from fans who didn't like the confusion.
A man named Rod Evans was the lead singer of Deep Purple when the band got together and auditioned singers to find the perfect frontman. He was gone within a year. The band's name was registered in the UK, and in 1971 they even created a company under that name. But in 1980, another band registered the name Deep Purple as a trademark in the US. Rod Evans was in that band, but the rest of the musicians were actually fromSteppenwolf counterfeits .
The fake Deep Purple was created by a management company that simply wanted to cash in on the name. Fans didn't know they were getting a fake Deep Purple, and when the band took the stage in Texas, the crowd pelted them with bottles, and the show ended after 40 minutes. The situation later worsened, with some concertsended in riots . The scheme came to an end when the real Deep Purple got word and sued Evans for $672,000.
7. Fake Cop Doug Smith
You've probably heard stories about people, pretending to be police officers . This actually happens quite often and usually involves someone making a traffic stop. In these cases, it's just an ordinary Joe, acting alone and trying to fool the public into thinking he's a cop. Much more unusual is what Doug Smith did.
Douglas J. Smith was hired as a police captain inRobbins, Illinois . By that point, the city had experienced an almost unbelievable level of police incompetence and corruption. The previous chief had resigned after being arrested for drunk driving. Sheriffs investigated the city because it had so few crime reports and discovered evidence lockers full of unmarked guns and unprocessed rape kits dating back decades. Smith was supposed to fix it. But he didn't.
Smith falsified his credentials to get the job. What's more, the badge he presented, supposedly from his job in Los Angeles, was actually a badge belonging to a character. Joe Friday from the show Dragnet. He was fired three months later after it was discovered he had never worked as a police officer at any of the previous jobs he applied for.
6. Fake forensic psychologist
Psychologists and forensic experts are the main characters in forensic television series and films. You can see them in the series «Law and Order» every two weeks. They are also valuable witnesses in real life, provided they are who they say they are. Gene Morrison was called by the courts to testify as a forensic psychologist during 27 years old . He was a fraudster and bought his credentials through the mail in 1977.
Over the years, Morrison has received £250,000 from the government to work on cases on their behalf. delegated part of the work to genuine experts, and then took credit for it, charging more money. He even insisted on being called as a doctor during the trial after he was caught.
Because of his lack of real-world experience, the courts had to go back and review about 700 cases.
5. Fake lawyer from Australia
Australian authorities have warned Dennis Jensen that he faces extended prison sentences if he continues to pose as a lawyer. He has already been convicted. three months . This arose because he advised a client accused of rape to contact the alleged victim despite a prohibition against it. His terrible legal advice, since he is not a lawyer, brought the consequences on his client. additional charges .
Fake advocacy is a new career path for Jensen, who previously made headlines as a fake oncologist whose patient died of ovarian cancer because he, too, lacked medical training. He gave her a caustic and illegal ointment to treat the cancer, which had severely damaged her stomach.
4. Fake surgeon
Unfortunately, fake stories about doctors are not that uncommon, but India's Om Pal is a next-level scam. He stole a real doctor's ID and worked as a doctor for an entire decade . At that time, he performed operations despite not having the qualifications to do so. According to him, he performed 70,000 . His medical training was as a paramedic.
By a strange coincidence, the scam came to light when someone tried to extort from him charges of fraud, and he told the police about it.
3. Jean-Claude Romand, the fake doctor-killer
Some people will lie, and then, trying to cover it up, will lie again and again. This can spiral out of control, and in many cases, the liar will be caught and suffer personal or professional consequences. But a small percentage of these people spiral even lower. When lying isn't enough, they resort to violence to conceal the truth at any cost.
Jean-Claude Roman claimed to be a doctor, but he wasn't. He spent 18 years living this lie, pretending to work for World Health Organization . He made money by defrauding friends and family with fake investments.
In reality, Roman attended medical school but never passed his first-year exams. Instead, he repeated his first year 12 times. When his lie was about to be exposed, Roman began kill . He killed his wife and then cooked breakfast for the children and watched a cartoon with them , before killing them too. He then went to his parents' house and killed them, eliminating anyone who might expose him as a liar. He even killed his parents' dog.
He attempted to commit suicide in a fire, but was rescued and later convicted of the murders.
2. Missionary René Bach
The desire for charity and altruism may not be something that many people have, and the world would be a better place if more of us helped each other. However, you need to know how to help people before you try, and Renée Bach missed that part of the equation.
Bach was a missionary who, at just 19 years old, traveled to Uganda to help children there after serving as a missionary in high school. She founded a charity called "Serving His Children" in a rented house in Jinja. Soon, she was distributing up to 1,000 hot meals to local children twice a week. But somewhere along the way, she shifted from feeding the hungry to serving them.
Locals say Bach was in in a white lab coat and with a stethoscope. Parents brought sick and malnourished children to her for treatment, and she treated them, despite having no medical training. Every week were dying children .
Bach blogged about the children's treatments, including IVs and oxygen. There was no doubt that she had taken over their medical care. Ultimately, 105 children died, and some parents sued Bach for misrepresenting herself, leading to the children's deaths. settled the case , paying $9,500 to each of the two mothers without admitting any liability.
1. Annie Dookhan, Fraud Lab Technician
In 2017, Massachusetts courts had to overturn more than 21,000 drug-related convictions , thanks to Annie Dookhan. Dookhan worked as a lab technician at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute, where she falsified lab results, forged signatures, and fabricated evidence, apparently simply to improve her overall standing as the lab's top technician. Her falsified records led to the expungement of all her criminal records.
Colleagues discovered that she had been padding her resume, claiming that She doesn't have a master's degree. She deleted the lie after being caught, but then reinstated it. Ironically, Dukhan actually had the necessary skills to do her job, as her education was adequate. But something compelled her to lie and act beyond her limits. She spent three years in prison for her troubles.