Most philosophers would have you believe that people are innately good. Left to our own devices, we all seem to lean toward what's right, which gives rise to the idea that goodness and rightness are universal concepts. But then someone comes along and ruins the whole idea, because they seem like complete scumbags, simply robbing people for their own gain in the most dubious ways possible. The scams are so bizarre that they shouldn't work, but somehow they do.
10. Melon Scam
What would you do if you were walking down a crowded street and accidentally bumped into a stranger, causing them to drop their precious melon? Would you apologize? Maybe give them a few bucks for their melon? Well, then this scam isn't for you, because this scam can cheat people out of $60 or more apiece. Melon pop, that is.
A busy city like New York will see a lot of tourists from places like Japan. And in Japan, a watermelon can cost you a lot more than in New York. Scammers know this, so when they identify certain Japanese tourists, they deliberately get in their way., stumble upon and throw a melon. A very remorseful and apologetic tourist will offer to pay for the melon, and the scammers will receive perhaps 10 times its worth, or even more.
If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, don't hesitate to let them know. Or call the cops.
9. Cruise Line Art Fraud
Art fraud seems a bit arrogant for the average person on the street. How often do you buy a new painting, anyway? Of course, if you're not on the street, it must be a bit easier to pull off, since that's what happens when people are at sea.
Detroit-based gallery Park West has been repeatedly sued by art buyers who stumbled upon fake art auctions while cruising international waters. As far back as 2009 they were accused of this 10 customers . These auctions seem to bring in profits every year. cruise companies hundreds of millions of dollars income, which is divided between them and the galleries that supply the artworks. The problem is that some of the art is fake. Somehow, people are deluded into believing their cruise line has found the real Picasso or Dalí.
Since 2008, the company has faced 21 lawsuits . Among the allegations are that the cruise line and gallery pressured and lied to customers while simultaneously winning and dining them out to carry out the scam.
8. Bomb Detector Scam
Some scams are a little more vile than others. Overpaying for a melon is one thing, but doing something that could lead to death takes it to a whole new level. That's what got scammer James McCormick jailed for. 10 years .
McCormick was involved in fraud in Iraq. He sold bomb detectors to various governments and agencies for huge sums of money. Some went for as little as £5,000, and on one occasion he even fraudulently obtained £500,000 for one . But they weren't actual bomb detectors. They were modified versions of a device called the Gopher, which was designed to retrieve golf balls. And he sold 5,000 of them to Iraq for £53 million. No one has the total sales figures, but they could have been worth as much as £100 million.
Several years ago, the devices were exposed as counterfeits in the US, but the creator moved to the UK, where McCormick got involved. They were also discovered as useless counterfeits by multiple agencies, but no one did anything about it. They were simply boxes with bulbs and antennas that didn't connect to anything and served no purpose.
The McCormick scam resulted in the deaths of several people and many others were sent to prison by corrupt officials.
7. Automobile bus from China
Back in 2016, the internet was briefly captivated by a story from China about overground bus . The bus was designed to reduce traffic congestion by allowing cars to pass directly underneath it. The bus was raised on narrow side supports, but the center was clear and large enough for cars to pass underneath while they went about their business. No more being stuck waiting for people to get on and off the bus, right? Well, not exactly.
The bus did exist, but there was a problem with it. After it had demonstrated several times riding up and down On one stretch of road, he didn't do anything else. And the days went by, and that bus didn't go anywhere. It was abandoned in the middle of the road. But people could still drive under it, so it wasn't so bad.
It turns out the entire project was a fundraising scam. Thirty people were arrested in connection with a scam that raised money for investors for a project that apparently was never going to get off the ground, so to speak.
6. Chocolate Weight Loss Scam
Remember the chocolate diet? You can still find articles online from 2015 that claim chocolate can help you. lose weight . Some articles were updated and some had their wording changed after the fact when it became clear that all this divorce . But not malicious.
The story was exposed by a journalist named John Bohannon. He created the fake story to prove how easily health and nutrition news spreads without any critical thought or analysis. Nobody checks , is the news true?.
In fact, it was a real study, in which 16 participants followed a low-carb diet and also ate a chocolate bar daily. But the methodology was deliberately terrible. The group was too small, and too many factors were included that could have skewed the results. It was bad science, but none of the media outlets that printed their stories cared.
5. Brooklyn Bridge Scam
It may be one of the most famous scams ever, and it's still strange to think that anyone ever fell for it. George Parker was the man who sold the Brooklyn Bridge . Again and again. He also sold the Statue of Liberty, Grant's Tomb, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The man was truly good at what he did. Some of his victims tried to set up toll barriers to profit from their new purchases.
At some point, Packer managed to get from its customers as much as 50,000 dollars , which was a significant amount of change in the late 1800s. Other times, he settled for as little as $75. He used forged documents to sell his counterfeit property, and by some estimates, he could sell the bridge twice a year for 40 years. In 1908, he was charged with fraud, but stole a policeman's hat and coat and walked out of the building unpunished. It wasn't until 1928 that he was finally sent to Sing Sing, where he died eight years later.
4. Fraudulent impotence medicine
Medical fraud is always painful because the outcome is rarely pleasant. This is definitely the case withDr. John Brinkley, who wasn't actually a doctor at all. But he achieved fame by offering a cure for impotence back in the 1920s and '30s, when nothing else worked. Unfortunately, his fraudulent solution wasn't as harmless as a tonic. The man sewed on goat testicles to their human patients.
Believe it or not, goat testicles don't cure impotence. But they made Brinkley a millionaire, and he eventually opened his own Mexican radio station. The surgery "worked" because he transplanted the goat's testicles and sealed them in. Over time, they would be destroyed by the patient's own immune system as foreign bodies. It's doubtful, of course, that anyone would experience increased virility, because the surgery was nonsense. Unsurprisingly, he was also affected. filed lawsuits repeatedly for abuse of office.
3. Chinese University Scam
Fraudulent schools are nothing new. Trump University is one of the most famous examples, and many other places will sell you a fake diploma online. But this scam from China played out in a truly bizarre way, as the school wasn't fake, and the students weren't fake. The two simply had nothing to do with each other.
As part of the scandal with fake diplomas, at least 68 students thought they were enrolled in the Shandong Institute of Light Industry for the equivalent of about $1,200 a year. They attended classes, did all their work, and shortly before release We found out that none of them were actually enrolled. That's four whole years of schooling, by the way. The school wasn't involved, just some dude and his accomplices who showed up every day for four years to teach these students in rooms no one else was using.
2. Cremation diamonds are a scam
Have you ever seen an advert for turning a loved one's remains into a diamond to remember them forever? There are many companies offering this service. The problem is, it's all a scam. The idea is that cremated remains are carbon, diamonds are carbon, and you can get a lab-grown diamond from cremated remains. But experts say cremated remains contain incredibly high levels of small quantity material from which a diamond can be made. More needs to be added, so it's impossible to know what a diamond's composition is.
Companies they take more for your fake diamonds than for natural diamonds of the same size, and there is no guarantee that the remains of your loved ones are inside.
1. Gregor McGregor's Country of Fraud
We've seen some pretty big scams here that actually worked, despite sounding a bit dubious. Now it's time to give credit to Gregor MacGregor for pulling off perhaps the most incredible scam of all. This man created an entire country and made people believe in it.
Back in 1822, MacGregor was living in England and was the son of a banker and a former military man. Or was he? He began spreading the rumor that he was actually a prince from Poyais lands . You know Poyais, right? Right there, not far from Honduras, you can't miss it unless you look at any maps, because it's not a real place.
McGregor received from the king eight million acres The Mosquito Coast territories in modern-day Honduras and Nicaragua. The land belonged to him, but was still under government control. But investment in South America was booming at the time, driven by a British elite that had no idea what it was doing.
MacGregor created an entire fake country, complete with a flag and even a book, to dupe wealthy investors. He made the equivalent of millions of dollars by selling land that people believed would prosper and pay off. Hundreds scrambled to move there. But there was nothing waiting for them. Less than a third returned to England alive. Another five ships had to be stopped before their passengers could set sail.
For his part, MacGregor fled to France and tried the same scam again. He was arrested and fled again, ending up in Caracas, where he spent the rest of his days.