"Why do we love stories about scammers so much? Journalist Tori Telfer dives into the stories of historical female con women and explains why we are so enamored by their scams"-- The art of the con has a long and venerable tradition, and its female practitioners are some of the best-- or worst. Telfer introduces us to a host of lady swindlers whose scams ranged from the outrageous to the deadly. Among them: In 1700s Paris, Jeanne de Saint-Rémy scammed...

You’ve heard of the scheme. Now comes the man behind it. In Mitchell Zuckoff's exhilarating book, the first nonfiction account of Charles Ponzi, we meet the charismatic rogue who launched the most famous and extraordinary scam in the annals of American finance.

It was a time when anything seemed possible–instant wealth, glittering fame, fabulous luxury–and for a run of magical weeks in the spring and summer of 1920,...

In the early 1900s, Robert Miller, a.k.a. "Count Victor Lustig," moved to Paris hoping to be an artist. A "con" artist, that is. He used his ingenious scams on unsuspecting marks all over the world, from the Czech Republic, to Atlantic ocean liners, and across America. Tricky Vic pulled off his most daring con in 1925, when he managed to "sell" the Eiffel Tower to one of the city's most successful scrap metal dealers! Six weeks later, he tried to...

In December 2008, amidst a world gripped by financial crisis, Bernard Madoff, a respected fund manager and former chairman of NASDAQ, was arrested by the FBI for reportedly bilking thousands of trusting investors out of $50 billion. This book tells the story of that debacle, including how he seduced and persuaded sophisticated investors, how he evaded SEC watchdogs, and how his far-reaching crime pervaded the world. Includes first-hand accounts by...