It seems incredible that any random person can walk into a luxury hotel, declare that he is the heir of a wealthy family, and instantly be accepted into secular society.
But it turns out it's much easier than you think.
If you're confident enough, you can walk into the opera house arm in arm with a dead prison warden, introduce yourself as Count of Gondolin, and get a week's internship with Anna Wintour.
Los Angeles playboy pretending to be Rockefeller from France
Christophe Rocancourt, the son of an alcoholic artist and a 17-year-old prostitute, grew up in a rural French shack with no water or electricity. It may be strange, but this is the only page of his biography that can be checked. After problems with the law, he escaped charges of armed robbery and went into hiding in Los Angeles in the mid-90s. There he introduced himself as Chris Rockefeller. Sometimes he was Chris de la Renta or Chris de Laurentiis, but always the beloved nephew of some famous uncle. And it became wildly popular.
With such a fantasy rich guy biography, he fooled so many people. The doors of the best houses were opened for him. Rocancourt lived in Mickey Rourke's house, married model and Playboy star Pia Reyes, with whom he had a son, and moved into a room at the posh Beverley Wiltshire hotel.
He signed with Jean-Claude van Damme to create the next film and Jermaine Jackson to sell a line of Michael Jackson-branded fragrances that would be incredibly profitable even without the French guy pretending to be Rockefeller. Law enforcement officials drew attention to Rokancourt after an altercation in a nightclub that somehow ended in a shootout in Dodi al-Fayed's old Hummer.
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He fled to Hampton and tried to revisit his legend, but was almost immediately arrested because the New Yorkers were able to somehow figure out that the heavily tattooed French was not Rockefeller. After his imprisonment, Rocancourt was extradited to France. But even there he did not change his usual way of life, continuing to dream of more.
The fake reality TV star who tricked the socialites
Michael Manos was dubbed "The Glamor Rascal" due to his highly developed fashion sense.
He became famous for posing as a wealthy socialite, obsessed with reality TV, when in fact he was a parole fraudster convicted of kidnapping in the 80s.
It all started when Manos was released on probation and immediately fled from New York to Atlanta, where he took the pseudonym Michael Christian de Medici and founded a fraudulent real estate company.
He became an integral part of the city's social life, attending gala concerts organized by people like Jane Fonda, who, incidentally, was charmed by donating a house to her charitable foundation.
By the time it became clear that the property did not belong to him to act as a gift, he had long since disappeared.
He also used the Medici name to film the reality TV pilot with himself, but disappeared again after the New York premiere and partying.
He then appeared in Washington, DC, claiming to be an influential lobbyist and star of the reality show Two Gays, in which he and his dog participated.
He organized a fundraiser for John McCain very elegantly and disappeared just as brilliantly with the money. In 2010, he went to Dallas, where he introduced himself as the founder of the Greek trust fund Mladen Stefanov, the star of the reality show Bella Boyz, and pulled at least $ 87,000 from the local elite.
Other names include Dane Alexander Manosa, Brooke Carrington III, and Alexis Vanderbilt.
In the end, Manos was brought before the law, but after his release in 2013, he immediately violated the conditions of parole, moving to New Orleans, where he introduced himself as the grandson of J. P. Morgan, again a reality TV star.
He gave public lectures, became a permanent assistant at some of the city's chicest nightclubs, and bought a house for $ 2 million after being evicted from his apartment over a $ 500 rent debt.
As the whole city was buzzing, he announced that he would host a fabulous charity red carpet masquerade ball. But plans collapsed as his notoriety grew and he was recognized.
A senior economics expert turned out to be a recently freed scammer
In 2012, some Portuguese prisoners were surprised to hear the news that UN chief economist Arthur Baptista da Silva vociferously condemned the government's austerity policies.
And not because they had their own opinion about macroeconomics, but because they recognized in it their old friend, who was serving a sentence for fraud and manslaughter as a result of an accident.
In less than a year, he apparently received his doctorate, became a professor at an American university, took a leave of absence to work as a UN special envoy, and became a top scientist in Portugal. What labor activity! Still, the IMF is unlikely to hold many job fairs in prisons.
Da Silva simply downloaded the World Bank document, put his name on it, and wandered around universities and think tanks, posing as a UN envoy and discussing "his" report.
He supported his legend by handing out business cards where he called himself a professor at Milton College of Wisconsin, which was closed back in 1982. All this led him to a performance in the prestigious Lisbon intellectual club, which, in turn, was advertised on two pages in one of the largest newspapers in the country.
And just like that, he suddenly became a respected scholar. Then he went international, and Reuters interviewed him, which was published in newspapers such as The Chicago Tribune.
In the end, it all fell apart after he announced that the UN would oppose Portugal's financial policies and someone contacted the UN for comment. The organization explained that they do not have such an employee.
What did Da Silva get from this deception? Nothing but a chance to declare his attitude towards the government, which he did not like because of his decisive position of "imprisoning".
He was not paid for his media appearances and did not seem to be planning on getting paid through this deception.
He disappeared after he said that his analysis was still credible and announced plans to sue the press for “undermining his reputation,” perhaps because he realized that there could be a lawsuit against him too, and for the same thing and he will sit down again, this time for cheating.
Fantastic wedding of the Duke of Aragon, who was on the run from the motorcycle gang
In 2006, a very prominent public event of the year in Holland was the wedding of Anthony van Wilderode, Duke of Aragon, to Tara Elliot, "the beautiful daughter of a Scottish-Irish aristocrat."
The ceremony was to take place at the famous Basilica of Oudenbosch, after which a reception for 250 guests was planned at the royal palace of Het Loo, which was to be hosted by the famous chef Robert Kranenborg.
The bride had to wear a fabulous ring made of platinum and 108 diamonds. What could go wrong with such a fantastic marriage? Nothing, except that the groom was stolen by some jealous man.
When the solemn day came, the smart guests arrived at the basilica … and found that the doors were locked.
All of the Duke's checks were invalid. Probably because he was not a duke but a con man who was under a witness protection program after making a series of bizarre false confessions against one of the country's most notorious gangs.
His real name was Anthony de Bruyne, and he was serving time for pretending to be a millionaire for free food and helicopter rides. Upon his release, he told authorities that while in prison he became friends with one of the key members of the "motorcycle gang", the head of the Hells Angels. He provided incriminating statements about their correspondence, which the Dutch government used to charge the gangster with three murders. But the matter collapsed when it turned out that de Bruyne was a dreamer who invented everything.
When an angry "motorcycle gang" began looking for him, the Dutch government reluctantly pledged to change his name to Van Wilderode. He introduced himself as Duke of Aragon and used his new identity to pass himself off as a wealthy young aristocrat. The night before his wedding, he was arrested for fraud, served a prison sentence, and then moved to Ireland, where he began selling edible insects.
The charming con man and his clumsy imaginary friend who stole $ 8 million
In 2008, 21-year-old Michael Wilson caused a stir in Buffalo, New York, when he offered $ 6.3 million for a mansion owned by cheese tycoon John Russo. Damn it, for another $ 500,000, he could probably buy out the whole city.
For tax purposes, Russo agreed to accept an advance of $ 2.5 million, with the remainder to be paid at $ 1 million per year. Wilson immediately began extensive renovations to an already obscenely luxurious home, and then tried to become King of Buffalo by inspecting luxury cars and throwing huge Christmas parties for local children. He also entered into negotiations to buy the famous Chrysler Building. Which was pretty impressive considering he had no money.
Wilson introduced himself as the owner of New Frontier Development, which he opened using his mother's loan to buy four well-worn houses. And then somehow he took out mortgages that were $ 200,000 more than those homes were worth. The property was immediately foreclosed, but Wilson had already used the money for his first payment to Russo. Then he began aggressively seeking investors for his "luxury real estate" business, and he got them. After all, the guy was buying the most expensive house in Buffalo, so obviously he was a good partner!
All the investments he received went straight to Russo's remaining initial $ 2.5 million, followed by cars and art.
To keep his acting safe, Wilson came up with a New Frontier boss named George Possiodis, who Wilson himself portrayed, forging a voice over the phone (at some points it was a hired actor). Whenever investors aroused suspicion, they were directed to talk to Possiodis, a huge idiot who never seemed to know exactly what was going on.
When one such suspicious investor came into the house with $ 5 million, Wilson excused himself and called Possiodis on the speakerphone. This investor was undoubtedly furious. He wanted to talk to business genius Michael Wilson, not that fool who ruined everything! Wilson received over $ 8 million in cash from investors without ever investing or starting a company.
The fraud was exposed after Russo exposed it. Wilson is currently in jail, although the evil George Possiodis somehow escaped.
Colombian fugitive with fantastic biography lures money from insiders
When the mysterious Madame Giselle moved into a posh apartment building in Washington DC popular with insiders, she quickly struck up friendships with her fellows. They were fascinated by the incredible stories of her life among the elite. And what a life it was!
Madame Giselle was the ex-wife of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the secret current wife of Egyptian President Abdul-Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil Al-Sisi, and was hopelessly persecuted by the madly in love President of Angola. On which dating site did she find so many world leaders?
She was also close to Ivanka Trump and had an office in the White House, which she also held when she previously advised the Obama administration. Beware, first ladies, your family life is at stake!
Naturally, Madame Giselle went everywhere, accompanied by five undercover bodyguards. Of course, no one has ever seen them, because they were professionals.
She left for several weeks and posted typos on WhatsApp about helicopters in Beirut, a $ 3 million ransom for her kidnapped brother, and meetings with Venezuelan generals.
When she was in town, she spent money like crazy, giving tips of $ 100 and giving expensive gifts. And then she started asking for money. Giselle told her neighbors that she had a deal to sell T-shirts to the Venezuelan army, and since they were such good friends, she wanted them to join her cause.
All they had to do was deposit a small amount of money for “registration costs”. The secret wife of the Egyptian president with a lot of money, asking you to slip $ 1,870 under the door of her apartment, arouses some suspicion, nevertheless, some of her neighbors went for it.
But then there were problems with supplies, and she asked for more money. As a result, she collected tens of thousands of dollars through this scam, and then disappeared.
Later it became known that Giselle fled Colombia in the 90s after allegedly collecting at least $ 1 million in a fraudulent poncho army supply scheme. Nothing new.
