Top 10 Greatest Scam In The World

Misrepresentation, coercion, shakedown, misappropriation, tricksters, con artists are terms we knew about. Since the beginning of time, people have been deceiving one another for monetary gain, political power, territory gain, religious belief gain, or personal gain.

Investors are always seeking maximum profits and immediate returns. Opportunities with high returns frequently appear too good to be true. The issue is that they sometimes are, and millions of intelligent and wealthy investors have been duped by these scams.

Ten of the most inventive, daring, and dishonest con artists and scammers are listed here. You'll probably agree that some of them may have also just lied to you!

Top 10 greatest scam of all time

• Frederick Cook – 1908 – Total Scammed – No £ Value
• Charles Ponzi and the Ponzi Scheme – 1920 – Total Scammed US$20 Million
• Oscar Hartzell – 1919 to 1934 – Total Scammed Unknown
• Donald Crowhurst – 1968 – Total Scammed No £ Value
• Enron & Kenneth Lay / Jeffrey Skilling – 2001 – Total Scammed US$74 Billion
• Worldcom & Bernard Ebbers – 2002 – Total Scammed US$74 Billion
• Kazutsugi Nami – 2007 – Total Scammed US$1.4 Billion
• Joseph Nacchio – 2007 – Total Scammed US$3 Billion
• Bernard Madoff and Enron – 2008 – Total Scammed US$64.8 Billion
• Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and Olympus – 2012 – Total Scammed US$1.5 Billion

10.Frederick Cook – 1908 – Total Scam – No Value in Pounds

It is still up for debate whether Cook actually committed the fraud. He struggled to demonstrate it in either direction. Furthermore, his rival Robert Peary could have carried out the fraud. This scam is also quite intriguing because it did not involve money but rather male pride.

Cook and Peary entered a race to become the first person to reach the North Pole. Cook kept his journals and instruments as evidence to support his claim that he was the first person to reach the North Pole. He reached civilization at Annoatok. Peary eventually made it to the North Pole, but he challenged Cook to show that he had found the Pole. Cook couldn't prove he had been there because all of his journals had mysteriously vanished. On the other hand, Peary's documentation appeared to be more trustworthy than Cook's, despite its flaws.

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However, recent comparisons appeared to suggest that Cook's account of the North Pole was more accurate than Peary's. Therefore, the debate continues regarding which of the two was lying.

9.Charles Ponzi and the Ponzi Scheme, 1920 – Total Scam of US$20 Million

Ponzi who was born in Parma, Italy, arrived in Boston in 1903 without having earned a dime. The Ponzi Scheme, also known as the Pyramid Scheme, was one of the most well-known, yet straightforward, frauds in history. He was the one who carried it out. The scheme's genius lies in its simplicity, which is why it has been imitated in numerous forms up to the present day.

Investors are lured in by the scheme's promise of payments or services for joining. The effective financial planning trick guarantees high paces of return with insignificant gamble to financial backers. The early investors in the Ponzi scheme get their money back by getting new investors who will basically pay the early investors. The amount of money needed to compensate previous investors decreases with the number of new investors. When this occurs, the scheme ceases to be viable and ends, resulting in no return for the most recent investors.

Ponzi was found guilty of 86 counts of fraud after being arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He died without a dime.

8.Oscar Hartzell – 1919–1934 – Total Scammed Unknown

Hartzell was the mastermind of one of the most innovative scams, known as the Sir Francis Drake Estate scam. The con was aimed at people with the name Drake. Ironically, he got the idea from a different con artist who tried to scam him!

The scam was centered on Sir Francis Drake's estate, which was said to belong to the British government and had never been paid out. In 1919, Hartzell informed people with the surname Drake that they might have a claim to Sir Drake's estate because they were distant relatives. It was said that he was getting ready to file a lawsuit to get the British government to let the estate go. He was requesting investment and promising 500:1 returns.

Drakes fell about themselves to be a piece of the plan, to such an extent that the plan was reached out across different US states. In 1924, Hartzell made the luxurious move to London and employed salespeople to continue obtaining funds from other Drakes across the United States. In 1934, he was eventually apprehended and found guilty of fraud. While he was in prison, he continued to collect an additional US$500,000, although the exact amount he defrauded is unknown.

7.Donald Crowhurst – 1968 – Total Scam With No Value

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In the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, Crowhurst fabricated a story. Crowhurst built his own boat to compete in the race and was an enthusiastic amateur sailor. However, despite the boat's poor performance in the initial tests, he decided to race it anyway.

He fabricated false positions that suggested he was doing well in the race in an effort to portray him as sailing well. The people back home were exclaiming that he was going to win the race as he floated in the Atlantic. Crowhurst, on the other hand, never returned. His logs showed that he was lying after his boat was discovered. However, his body was never located.

6.Enron & Kenneth Lay / Jeffrey Skilling – 2001 – Total Scammed US$74 Billion

A global scandal at the turn of the century was Enron, Kenneth Lay, and Jeffrey Skilling's scam in 2001, which totaled US$74 billion. With a share price of US$90, Enron was once the seventh largest company in the United States. Enron was able to remove hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of debt from its books of accounts by employing some inventive accounting practices. The fraud was carried out with the help of shell companies, which can be illegally used to get money or avoid paying taxes.

Enron's share price dropped to 70 cents after the scam was exposed and the investigation began, and Arthur Anderson, the fifth-largest accounting firm, was also taken with it. The con was a perfect example of cooking the books.

5.Worldcom & Bernard Ebbers – 2002 – Total Scammed US$74 Billion

Worldcom and Bernard Ebbers swindled a total of US$74 billion in 2002. Shortly after the Enron scandal, another huge company known as Worldcom also committed fraud. It was the biggest account scandal the US had ever seen and led to one of the biggest programs for bankruptcy and layoffs.

Worldcom was also expected to employ innovative accounting methods and declare operating expenses as investments. As a result, operating expenses totaling US$3.8 billion were actually recorded as investments, significantly affecting profit figures. Instead of a huge loss, it reported a profit of US$1.4 billion.

As a result, tens of thousands of jobs were lost and the share price dropped from $60 to 20 cents.

4.Kazutsugi Nami – 2007 – Total Scam of US$1.4 Billion

Kazutsugi Nami, chairman of the Tokyo-based L&G Bedding company, was responsible for the largest investment fraud in the history of Japan. While most scams of this magnitude target corporations or wealthy individuals, Nami's targeted 37,000 individuals, defrauding them of $US1.4 billion.

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The conman offered riches in the form of Enten, a virtual currency. He promised 36% annual returns, but they never came. Only in Enten did dividends begin to be paid, and the business was declared bankrupt in 2007. Nami received an 18-year prison term.

3.Joseph Nacchio – 2007 – Total Scammed US$3 Billion

Joseph Naccio, CEO of Qwest Communications International, orchestrated a financial fraud scheme that cost US$3 billion. In addition, he inflated stock prices and was found guilty of insider trading. Even though Nachio was aware that the company was headed for complete disaster, he misled Wall Street into believing that aggressive revenue targets would be met. By selling stock, he made more than $50 million.

He was found guilty of 19 counts of insider trading, sentenced to six years in prison, fined $19 million, and ordered to return the $52 million he had earned from illegal stock trading.

2.Bernard Madoff and Enron – 2008 – Total Scammed US$64.8 Billion

In 2008, Bernard Madoff and Enron scammed a total of $64.8 billion. Through his company, Madof Investment Securities LCC, Madoff orchestrated one of the most recent and well-known forms of the Ponzi Scheme. Prosecutors estimated the fraud's value at US$64.8 billion, making it the largest Ponzi scheme ever.

Madoff initially targeted an exclusive clientele through high-end country clubs and establishments, offering modest but steady returns. Since Madof's returns were less than a typical Ponzi scheme's 20%, there was no cause for concern. The markets believed that Madoff's trading was cutting-edge, well-timed, and ahead of its time because of his strong reputation as a high-volume broker-dealer.

In 2008, the scheme began to unravel simultaneously with the general market decline. Despite a $500 million investment from one of Madoff's closest friends, the scheme failed to survive. His sons eventually informed the federal government about Madof. It is estimated that approximately 5,000 of Madof's customers were affected.

1.Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and Olympus – 2012 – Total Scam of US$1.5 Billion

British-born Michael Woodford was abruptly fired from his position as chief executive of Olympus Corporation when he exposed one of the largest and longest-running loss-hiding arrangements in the history of Japanese business.

Tobashi schemes, in which an investment firm moves a client's losses between portfolios of other clients, were the focus of the fraud. The Yakuzu, an organized Japanese criminal organization, was the subject of speculation in the Japanese press. The fraud wiped out 80% of the company's stock market valuation and concealed investments worth US$1.5 billion. Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the former president of the company, was firmly blamed for the incident.

For being unfairly fired, Michael Woodword was awarded £10 million in compensation.