FEATURED
Bernie Madoff's Ponzi Scheme
💰 $65 billion
📅 1991-2008
👤 Bernard Madoff
📊 Financial
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Bernard Madoff operated the largest Ponzi scheme in history from his Manhattan investment firm. For nearly two decades, he convinced thousands that he was generating consistent returns through sophist...
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FEATURED
Enron Scandal
💰 $74 billion losses
📅 1985-2001
👤 Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling
📊 Corporate
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Enron was once America's seventh-largest company. Behind the impressive facade, executives engaged in massive accounting fraud using special purpose entities and mark-to-market accounting to hide bill...
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FEATURED
Theranos Blood Testing Fraud
💰 $700+ million
📅 2003-2018
👤 Elizabeth Holmes
📊 Tech
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Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos at 19, claiming revolutionary blood testing technology requiring only a finger prick. She became Silicon Valley's darling, attracting nearly $1 billion in funding fro...
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FEATURED
FTX - Sam Bankman-Fried
💰 $8+ billion
📅 2019-2022
👤 Sam Bankman-Fried
📊 Cryptocurrency
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Sam Bankman-Fried founded FTX cryptocurrency exchange in 2019. Within three years, FTX became the world's second-largest crypto exchange, valued at $32 billion. SBF became a billionaire celebrity.
Be...
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FEATURED
Victor Lustig - Sold Eiffel Tower
💰 Millions in modern value
📅 1925
👤 Victor Lustig
📊 Classic Con
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Victor Lustig's most famous scam occurred in 1925 Paris when he read about the Eiffel Tower's expensive maintenance. Posing as a government official, he invited scrap metal dealers to a confidential m...
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FEATURED
Fyre Festival
💰 $26+ million
📅 2017
👤 Billy McFarland
📊 Tech
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Billed as a luxury music festival on a private island in the Bahamas, Fyre Festival was promoted by influencers like Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid. Attendees paid thousands for VIP packages promising...
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FEATURED
Wolf of Wall Street - Stratton Oakmont
💰 $200+ million
📅 1989-1996
👤 Jordan Belfort
📊 Financial
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Jordan Belfort's brokerage firm, Stratton Oakmont, operated as a 'boiler room,' where aggressive brokers used high-pressure sales tactics to push penny stocks onto unsophisticated investors. The firm ...
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FEATURED
Wirecard AG
💰 $2+ billion
📅 2015-2020
👤 Markus Braun
📊 Corporate
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Wirecard was a German payment processor and financial services provider that was once a darling of the fintech world, valued at over $28 billion. The company claimed vast revenues from obscure third-p...
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FEATURED
The Tinder Swindler
💰 $10+ million
📅 2017-2019
👤 Simon Leviev (Shimon Hayut)
📊 Classic Con
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Using the dating app Tinder, Simon Leviev posed as the son of a billionaire diamond magnate. He wooed women with a lavish lifestyle of private jets, luxury hotels, and expensive gifts. After gaining t...
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FEATURED
Fake Pharma - Martin Shkreli
💰 N/A (Reputational)
📅 2015
👤 Martin Shkreli
📊 Corporate
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As CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli acquired the rights to Daraprim, a life-saving anti-parasitic drug that had been on the market for decades. He immediately raised the price from $13.50...
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FEATURED
The Panama Papers
💰 Trillions hidden
📅 1977-2016
👤 Mossack Fonseca (Law Firm)
📊 Corporate
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In 2016, an anonymous source leaked 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The papers revealed how the firm helped world leaders, celebrities, and billionaires set up sec...
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FEATURED
Lucky Thompson - The Psychic Scam
💰 $1+ million
📅 2000s-2010s
👤 Lucky Thompson (Pseudonym)
📊 Classic Con
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A classic 'psychic' mail fraud where letters were sent to thousands of people claiming a psychic, 'Lucky Thompson,' could see a curse on their family. For a fee (starting at $50), she would remove the...
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FEATURED
The Albanian Pyramid Schemes
💰 $1.2+ billion
📅 1996-1997
👤 Multiple companies (VEFA, Gjallica, etc.)
📊 Financial
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In the chaotic transition from communism, several companies promised Albanians absurd returns of up to 50% per month. Nearly every family invested their life savings. The government initially endorsed...
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FEATURED
Wells Fargo Fake Accounts Scandal
💰 Millions in fake fees
📅 2002-2016
👤 Wells Fargo & Co.
📊 Corporate
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To meet impossible sales quotas, Wells Fargo employees opened millions of checking, savings, and credit card accounts without customers' knowledge or consent. Customers were charged fraudulent fees on...
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FEATURED
The Lazarus Heist (Bangladesh Bank Robbery)
💰 $81 million (stolen), $1 billion (attempted)
📅 2016
👤 Lazarus Group (North Korean state-sponsored hackers)
📊 Cybercrime
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In one of the most audacious cyberheists in history, hackers infiltrated the Bangladesh Bank's systems and gained access to its SWIFT credentials. They issued 35 fraudulent orders to transfer nearly $...
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FEATURED
ZZZZ Best Carpet Cleaning
💰 $100+ million (market cap)
📅 1982-1987
👤 Barry Minkow
📊 Corporate
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Barry Minkow started a carpet cleaning business from his garage as a teenager. To secure loans and go public, he invented a massive insurance restoration business that didn't exist. He created fake in...
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FEATURED
The Varsity Blues College Admissions Scandal
💰 $25+ million in bribes
📅 2011-2018
👤 Rick Singer, wealthy parents including celebrities
📊 Corruption
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College consultant Rick Singer ran a massive scheme to get the children of wealthy families into elite universities through fraud. He had two methods: 1) bribing college coaches to designate students ...
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FEATURED
The Bre-X Minerals Gold Salting Scandal
💰 $6+ billion (market cap)
📅 1993-1997
👤 Michael de Guzman, John Felderhof, others
📊 Corporate
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A small Canadian mining company, Bre-X, claimed to have discovered the world's largest gold deposit in the jungles of Indonesia. Their stock soared from pennies to over $280 per share, creating a $6 b...
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FEATURED
The McDonald's Monopoly Game Fraud
💰 $24+ million in stolen prizes
📅 1995-2001
👤 Jerome Jacobson and co-conspirators
📊 Corruption
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Jerome Jacobson was the head of security at Simon Marketing, the company that ran McDonald's Monopoly game. He stole all the winning game pieces for the major prizes ($1 million, cars, etc.) and distr...
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FEATURED
The Libor Scandal
💰 Trillions in affected contracts
📅 2005-2009
👤 Multiple major banks (Barclays, UBS, RBS, etc.)
📊 Financial
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The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a benchmark interest rate that affects trillions in loans and derivatives worldwide. Traders at multiple banks colluded to manipulate this rate to benefit ...
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FEATURED
The 'Dr. Death' Medical Malpractice
💰 Incaluclable (human cost)
📅 2011-2013
👤 Dr. Christopher Duntsch
📊 Corruption
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Neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch practiced in Dallas where he maimed or killed nearly every patient he operated on. He severed nerves, left surgical sponges in patients, and operated on the wrong body...
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FEATURED
The Catch Me If You Can - Frank Abagnale
💰 $2.5+ million
📅 1964-1969
👤 Frank Abagnale Jr.
📊 Classic Con
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As a teenager, Frank Abagnale successfully posed as an airline pilot, a pediatrician, a lawyer, and a college professor. He cashed over $2.5 million in fraudulent checks across 26 countries while stay...
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FEATURED
The Ransomware Pandemic
💰 Billions+ in ransom payments
📅 2013-Present
👤 Various cybercrime groups (REvil, DarkSide, etc.)
📊 Cybercrime
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Cybercriminals use malware to encrypt victims' files and demand ransom payments (usually in cryptocurrency) for the decryption key. The attacks have evolved from targeting individuals to crippling hos...
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FEATURED
The 'Free Energy' Perpetual Motion Machines
💰 Hundreds of millions from investors over centuries
📅 1100s-Present
👤 Various inventors and charlatans
📊 Scientific Fraud
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For centuries, inventors have claimed to create machines that produce more energy than they consume, violating the laws of thermodynamics. From Robert Fludd's water screw in 1618 to modern 'over-unity...
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