Real World Social Engineering Examples: Con Men

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A con man is described as one who swindles or misleads his victims through the use of a confidence game.[1] Human nature leads us to naturally want to trust other individuals. Social Engineering is based on this principal and as an extension a Con Man is able manipulate this trust for personal gain. Most of the historically famous Con Men[2] are (in)famous for their exploits involving money. Money seems to be a common thread with the vast majority of Con Men.

Contents


Examples of Confidence Men and Confidence Scams

These article found on the website GranneBlog[3]and this one found on the FBI website[4] breaks down some of the common types of scams and attempts to group them. This list is an example of a few of the most famous genres of confidence scams and some people that are famous for applying them.

Pyramid Scheme

Wikipedia defines a pyramid scheme[5] as: a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, often without any product or service being delivered.

Charles Ponzi

An example of this type of scheme and how devastating it can be is found in the story of Charles Ponzi[6] and this article[7] we found on the US History website that discusses how Charles Ponzi affected US History with his con. Ponzi's con fame was so great that the pyramid scheme is now commonly referred to as a "Ponzi Scheme". Ponzi promised his early investors an almost unbelievable 50% return on their investments. He did this by taking money from new clients to pay back the originals. Ponzi was actually able to pay back the returns for his early tier customers but was not able to pay his new clients back.

Bernard Madoff

Bernard Madoff[8] is famous for scamming millions of dollars from thousands of his customers, friends and relatives. He used the applied and improved on Ponzis' model to generate huge investment returns for his early clients while bringing in new money from new ones. Madoff was essentially "Stealing from Peter and paying Paul".

More information about Bernard Madoff found in this article[9] printed in the NY Times on Jan 2009 and this article.[10]

Nigerian Scams

Wikipedia defines a Nigerian scam[11] as: a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance sums of money in the hope of realizing a significantly larger gain. The Nigerian scam is the most famous type of Advance Fee Scam today. These types of scams usually are perpetrated via the Internet because it is very hard to track the actual sources of the communication. These scams work by promising the victim a large return if only the spend a small amount of money up front to support a larger financial transaction.

More information about this type of scam can be found in this article[12] from scambusters.org[13]

Identity Fraud

Wikipedia defines identity fraud[14] as: a synonym of unlawful identity change. It indicates unlawful activities that use the identity of another person or of a non-existing person as a target or principal tool.

Frank Abagnale aka "Catch Me If You Can"

Frank Abagnale's exploits were documented in the film "Catch Me If You Can". Not only was he famous for check fraud, Abagnale was a very convincing identity fraudster. His most famous exploits revolved around his pilot persona which he used to not only cash hundreds of fake checks, but he was able to travel the world for free.

More information about Frank Abagnale can be found in this article[15] printed in the US News & World Report Magazine highlighting the ways Frank Abagnale worked.

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter aka "Clark Rockefeller"

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter[16] is most famous for claiming that he was a long lost heir to the Rockefeller fortune. He is now awaiting trial for his identity fraud. This link is an interview with Clark Rockefeller on the ABC NEWS website with an audio clip[17].

False Rewards

A false reward scam consists of a con man convincing a mark that he has an item in his/her possession worth more money than the actual value, or has won a prize that does not exist.

Victor Lustig aka "The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower"

Victor Lustig[18] is known as the "Man who sold the Eiffel Tower". Much like his American counterpart Parker, Lustig famously "sold" the Eiffel Tower to a scrap metal dealer in France. He is also famous for scamming Al Capone, he "convinced Al Capone to invest $50,000 with him. He stored the money in a vault and returned it two months later, stating that the deal had fallen through. Capone, so impressed by Lustig’s honesty gave him $5,000 for his effort". This story[19] was outlined on the bottom of a page found on allexperts.com[20]

More information about Victor Lustig aka "The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower" can be found in this article[21] taken from a website which outlines Czechs in History

George Parker

George Parker[22] was famous for scamming tourists into buying famous landmarks, usually in New York City. He was fond of selling the Brooklyn Bridge.

Kevin Trudeau

Kevin Trudeau[23] is a modern day snake oil salesmen. He has been sued many times by the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising and other television sales fraud campaigns. Though he has been sued repeatedly and is banned from selling certain items via TV, he is legally allowed to sell his books.

Telemarketing Fraud

The FTC in the USA has printed a wonderful page with lots of tips and information on Telemarketing Fraud and can be found here.[24]

The Sloniker Brothers

Harvey and Tye Sloniker[25] operated a massive tele-marketing business in Arizona during the early 2000's. They used teams of telemarketers to sell fake low interest credit cards and other services such as fake identity theft protection policies. They were permanently banned from telemarketing by the Federal Trade Commission in 2003 and fined $525,000USD.

Conclusion

For a list of other types of confidence scams and tricks see here.[26]

References

  1. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick
  2. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick#Living_people
  3. ↑ http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/ConMen/ConMen%20-%20Various%20confidence%20scams,%20tricks,%20&%20frauds.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/ConMen/ConMen-fraudschemes.htm
  5. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme
  6. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ponzi
  7. ↑ http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/ConMen/ConMen-CharlesPonzi.html
  8. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Lawrence_Madoff
  9. ↑ http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/ConMen/ConMen-Madoff.htm
  10. ↑ http://social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/Scam/Scam-Madoff.html
  11. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/419_scam
  12. ↑ http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/ConMen/ConMen-Scam-NigerianFee.html
  13. ↑ http://www.scambusters.org
  14. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_fraud
  15. ↑ http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/ConMen/ConMen-how-frank-abagnale-would-swindle-you.html
  16. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Rockefeller
  17. ↑ http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/ConMen/ConMen-ClarkRockefeller.htm
  18. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Lustig
  19. ↑ http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/ConMen/ConMen-victor_lustig.htm
  20. ↑ http://www.allexperts.com
  21. ↑ http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/ConMen/ConMen-VictorLustig.htm
  22. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_C._Parker
  23. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Trudeau
  24. ↑ http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/telemarketing/tel15.shtm
  25. ↑ http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/ConMen/ConMen-sloniker.html
  26. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_confidence_tricks#Other_confidence_tricks_and_techniques



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