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Imposter↕ | Posed As↕ | Era↕ | How Caught↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Frank Abagnale Jr. | Pan Am pilot, doctor, lawyer, professor | 1964-1969 | French police recognized him from wanted poster, FBI arrested him | 'Catch Me If You Can' (Spielberg film, DiCaprio), cashed $2.5M in forged checks, later became FBI consultant, started at age 16 |
Anna Delvey (Anna Sorokin) | German heiress worth $60M | 2013-2017 | Arrested after skipping hotel bills, tried for grand larceny 2019 | Conned NYC elite, banks, and hotels out of $275K+, Netflix's 'Inventing Anna', fashionable court appearances, still in US on immigration hold |
Ferdinand Waldo Demara | Surgeon, monk, prison warden, professor, civil engineer | 1940s-1960s | Patients he operated on in Korea survived, making him famous — then recognized | 'The Great Impostor' (1961 film), successfully performed surgeries with no training, became each role so well people defended him |
Frédéric Bourdin ('The Chameleon') | Missing children (500+ identities across 15 countries) | 1990s-2000s | Private investigator noticed ear shape didn't match missing boy | Impersonated a missing Texas teenager despite being French and 23, 'The Imposter' documentary, blue contact lenses to change eye color |
Victor Lustig | Government official, count, various aristocrats | 1920s-1930s | Arrested for counterfeiting, sentenced to Alcatraz | Sold the Eiffel Tower — TWICE — to scrap metal dealers, conned Al Capone, wrote '10 Commandments for Con Men', master forger |
Tichborne Claimant (Arthur Orton) | Sir Roger Tichborne (missing English baronet) | 1866-1874 | Couldn't speak French, weighed 27 stone (vs. slim original), failed in court | Longest trial in English history (188 days), butcher from Wagga Wagga Australia, mother 'recognized' him, Victorian sensation |
Cassie Chadwick | Illegitimate daughter of Andrew Carnegie | 1897-1904 | Banks investigated after she borrowed $20M+ against Carnegie's name | Borrowed millions from banks claiming Carnegie inheritance, never met Carnegie, banks too embarrassed to verify, died in prison |
Gregor MacGregor | Cazique (prince) of Poyais, a fictional country | 1820s | Settlers arrived to find empty jungle, survivors returned to expose him | Invented an entire country, sold land titles, currency, and government bonds, 200 settlers sailed to nonexistent nation, history's greatest fraud |
Clark Rockefeller (Christian Gerhartsreiter) | Member of the Rockefeller family for 30+ years | 1980s-2008 | Kidnapped his daughter after divorce, FBI identified him as German immigrant | German immigrant posed as Rockefeller for decades, married into wealth, linked to 1985 murder, TV movie with Eric McCormack |
Mary Baker (Princess Caraboo) | Princess from the island of 'Javasu' | 1817 | Former employer recognized her from newspaper portrait | English servant girl fooled a Bristol family into believing she was an exotic princess, spoke invented language, became a celebrity briefly |
Billy Tipton | Male jazz musician (born Dorothy Tipton) | 1940s-1989 | Only discovered after death by paramedics | Lived as a man for 50+ years, successful jazz career, married 5 women, none knew, adopted 3 sons, secret revealed only at death |
Perkin Warbeck | Richard, Duke of York (one of the Princes in the Tower) | 1491-1497 | Captured by Henry VII's forces, confessed under pressure, executed 1499 | Claimed to be the murdered prince, gained support from Scotland, France, and Burgundy, nearly toppled Henry VII, Wars of the Roses pretender |
Elizabeth Holmes | Revolutionary blood-testing innovator | 2003-2018 | Wall Street Journal investigation by John Carreyrou exposed fake technology | Theranos valued at $9 billion, fake demos with rigged machines, deep voice and black turtleneck (imitating Steve Jobs), convicted of fraud 2022 |
Elmyr de Hory | Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani (forged their art) | 1946-1976 | Never fully caught — art dealers wouldn't admit being fooled, subject of Orson Welles documentary | 'F for Fake' (Welles), forged 1,000+ paintings, many still hang in museums undetected, raised questions about what makes art 'real' |
Shi Pei Pu | Woman (to French diplomat Bernard Boursicot for 20 years) | 1964-1986 | Arrested for espionage, medical examination revealed biological sex | Chinese opera singer who convinced French diplomat he was a woman, passed secrets to China, inspired the play and film 'M. Butterfly' |
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