"White Rabbit Project S01E04 "Scam Artists" Air Date:" "December 9, 2016" "Sync and corrected by:" "DeruGuy" "♪ [Intro music playing] ♪" "TORY:" "In this White Rabbit Project..." "KARI:" "Bonjour" "TORY: we're putting hustlers head to head... to find the most audacious rip-offs in history." "[laughs]" "Grant's trying to sell us the car of the future." "Most people have never even heard of the Dale." "TORY:" "While Kari discovers how a gang took Vegas for millions." "It should not be possible." "[laughs] -[Tory] I'm revealing the secrets... of the world's greediest gigolo." "This kind of stuff doesn't come naturally to me." "Six contenders are tested against our criteria, then scored and ranked to find the best scam of all time." "So, scams..." "We're gonna rank these based on how much they got away with, duration of the scam and originality." "I like a good story." "GRANT:" "You don't wanna give points for doing the same thing over and over." "TORY:" "My first scam contender is gonna rate high but to give it the best chance of success, we need just the right atmosphere." "Hey." "[laughs]" "All right, now, have you guys ever heard of the Swiss Gigolo?" "No, but if you're buying, I'm listening." "Well, there was a lot of sex, a lot of lies and a whole lot of money." "That sounds promising." "Go on, set the scene." "Well, this guy decides he doesn't wanna work anymore, so he turns con artist." "Nice shot." "Yeah." "TORY:" "It starts around 2001." "The guy's Swiss." "And this is an investment banker who's breaking bad." "His target demographic:" "Older women." "Now, this guy's no hunk." "There's a reason they called him the Swiss Gigolo." "Here's how he operates:" "First, he wines and dines his mark." "He romances them, you know, like:" ""Sixty-five?" "You don't look a day over 47."" "[giggles]" "He's telling them all kinds of stuff, like "You look ravishing."" "[laughs]" "And, I don't know, "I wanna devour you, not these... shrimps."" "So sweet." "Wait!" "Are you making this up?" "What?" "No." "I mean I'm making up what he said." "I don't know." "I wasn't there." "Can I finish?" "Go on." "TORY:" "He's sweet talking them, stuff like:" ""The universe is four billion years old." "You're just 75." "[laughs]" "Would you like a straw?" "Here, let me cut that up for you."" "Like, he is literally showering them with flowers and flattery." "And before long, they're in love... and in his bed." "So, he gives them this sob story about accidentally running over a young girl in America." "[gasps]" "Either he pays up millions of dollars or faces... jail time." "[gasps]" "In other versions, his victim is the daughter of a Mafia big shot and without the money, he's... a dead man." "[gasps, then sobs]" "So moved by his story, the women hand over piles of money to save his butt." "He goes, "I do love you."" "Oh." "TORY:" "Then vanishes." "Darling..." "Oh, come back to bed." "Where have you gone?" "[woman] Darling..." "Oh, thanks, dude." "Yay." "Right on." "Cheers." "Cheers." "And all these women fell for it?" "Except for one." "An 83-year-old that he was dating got suspicious and turned him in to the cops, but then later dropped the charges." "A year later she died." "And one lady he was dating was 50 years older than him." "I guess older women need love, too." "Cheers." "Apparently." "Cheers." "[Kari and Grant laugh] [indistinct chatter]" "TORY:" "By 2007, he's ready to play in the big leagues." "So, he targets... a well-known billionaire heiress, one of the richest hundred women on earth." "Let's call her Holly." "He slides up to her and his opening line is:" ""My favorite book."" "Now, this girl's no slouch." "She knows when she's getting hit on, so she gives the guy the cold shoulder." "But this scam artist is ready for the long haul." "Well, okay, not so long." "I mean, at first Holly tries to keep things in the shallow end." "But this is the Swiss Gigolo, and pretty soon... she's in deep." "And they're rocking the trailer." "[both moaning]" "He gives her his usual routine about the injured girl and the money he needs." "And blah-blah-blah." "Holly?" "She's been half expecting something like this." "She smells a scam." "But he senses her suspicion, so he changes things up and puts the blame on her." ""You see things too materialistically." "We are dealing with love." "This is a matter of love."" "Dude, that sounds so creepy coming out of your mouth." "I don't talk like that." "This kind of stuff doesn't come naturally to me." "Quit nursing your beer." "Okay, okay, okay." "So, what happens?" "Does she send him packing?" "Oh, no, no, no, no." "This guy's an experienced con man." "He knows how to pick his targets." "I bet he gets the money." "No way." "She's rich, she's seen this before." "I think she turns him in." "You guys wanna bet?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Yeah." "I say Andrew Jackson says that she turns him in." "Twenty bucks, I'm in." "All right." "Next time we see him, they're in the parking garage of the gigolo's hotel." "[Grant laughing]" "And as always, Holly is driving a small car." "She's a public figure, doesn't like to flaunt the wealth." "She's careful." "But not careful enough." "In the trunk there's 7 million euros." "That's $9 million." "The Swiss Gigolo strikes again." "No, why did she pay up?" "She eventually believed in his bullshit story about the girl getting hit in America." "She had a big heart and she paid him." "Yes!" "I win." "Pay up." "God, that makes her so stupid." "Thank you." "It's still your round." "I'll be right back." "Damn, that was fast." "I know, this bar's amazing." "Where was I?" "Uh..." "So, $9 million." "Probably more to come." "What do you say, Byron?" "Double or nothing?" "No way she's doing this twice." "You're on." "Well, he figured if he got nine million out of her, she probably has a lot more." "So, his whole goal, he's gonna get the rest." "And?" "She says no." "Flat-out denies him." "But then he drops a bombshell on her." "He's secretly filmed their sexual encounters." "[gasps]" ""Pay up," he tells her, or he's going to the press." "The price?" "49 million euros." "That is $55 million." "Holly's world collapses, right before her eyes." "Give in and she's his prisoner for life." "Call the cops and the tape goes public." "Oh, my God." "I hate men." "We are not blackmailers." "[Grant] Right." "That's where I draw the line." "Whatever, what--?" "How'd it end?" "She called the cops." "I knew she'd turn him in." "I knew she was turning him in." "I told you." "Yup." "And that is the Swiss Gigolo story." "Go, Holly." "[thud]" "Where'd Kari go?" "KARI:" "It is so much fun down here." "Check, please." "[laughs]" "So, that's what I call comedy gold." "Oh, God, that's what you call that." "Okay, I feel like the Swiss Gigolo rates pretty high." "He took ten million, that's one person who came forward, the others didn't." "And he operated for seven years." "That's a long time." "And the fact that he actually took money from very smart women." "As for originality, gigolo and blackmail, they've been around for a long, long time." "You get low points there." "Fine." "Next, I wanna show you guys a story about a guy who says he could make it rain." "His name was Charles Hatfield." "And in 1916, this scam artist was poised for the greatest score of his career." "The stakes were high." "And the mark... was an entire city." "After four years of drought, the city of San Diego, California, was dry as a bone." "And as incredible as it seems, the city council offered Hatfield $10,000 to make it rain." "In today's money, that would be almost a quarter of a million dollars." "[thunder crashing]" "Before we find out if he succeeded and claimed his reward, let's backtrack." "As a young man, Hatfield became obsessed with the so-called science of pluviculture." "Using a proprietary combination of 23 chemicals poured into evaporative tanks on top of 25-foot towers... he claimed he could tickle the clouds and coax rain out of the sky." "But he never told anyone what chemicals he was using." "Sound suspicious?" "I agree." "Cloud seeding exists today." "It involves aircraft introducing chemicals into the atmosphere, causing clouds to form ice crystals and eventually making it rain." "But scientists can't agree that it actually works." "Yet back in the early 1900s," "Hatfield convinced dozens of communities he could do it using only ground-based towers." "After supposedly bringing more than 7 inches of rain to Hemet, California..." "The Hemet News proclaimed:" ""Mr. Hatfield has had 15 contracts and he has not failed in one instance." "His theory is proving beyond doubt that rain can be produced."" "True or not, his propaganda was so good, he was hired by the city of San Diego with a promise of $10,000 if he could fill the Morena Reservoir with rain." "So, he got started mixing chemicals... setting up his towers... sending his rainmaking goodness towards the sky." "In a matter of days, the skies opened up." "[thunder crashing]" "It was fantastic." "His magic was working again." "Soon the reservoir would be full, and he'd be a rich man." "There was just one problem." "The rain didn't stop for over a month." "[thunder rumbling]" "The dams broke and the city of San Diego suffered the most devastating flood of the 20th century." "Twenty people died." "The damage was estimated to be in the millions." "The city of San Diego offered to pay him the $10,000 reward, but only if he took responsibility for the damage the flood caused." "Knowing that would mean he'd be paying out civil damages claims for the rest of his life, Hatfield declined the fee." "So, scam artist or meteorological genius?" "My guess is that Hatfield's success was mostly a combination of luck and clever timing." "January and February are the wettest months in San Diego." "Guess when he put up his tower." "Right at the beginning of January." "My money's on scam artist." "Armed with nothing more than basic knowledge of rainfall patterns and a bit of showmanship," "Hatfield pulled the wool over the eyes of a whole city." "Hatfield never collected on this con, but over his rainmaking career, he banked about $250,000 in today's money." "All told, he operated for 25 years, which should score well in criteria two." "But I have to admit, he wasn't the first to claim to be a rainmaker." "So, not so high on originality." "Okay, you can stop with the rain." "KARI:" "That's our second incredible scam." "And there's some totally unbelievable ones to come." "Next I'm gonna take you to a place with more grifters, charlatans, con artists and scammers per square mile than anywhere on the planet:" "The Las Vegas Strip." "Card counting." "Dodgy dealers." "Rigged roulette wheels." "With 80 over years of surveilling Vegas's gaming rooms, casino security thought they'd seen it all." "But one game in 2011 proved them wrong." "Time: 10 p.m." "Location:" "One of Sin City's iconic casinos." "Three men." "One game of baccarat." "Mind cutting the deck for us, sir?" "KARI:" "As always, the dealer offers the red cutting card to one of the players." "Baccarat uses an eight-pack deck, a total of 416 cards." "Place your bets." "Based on pure chance and said to be virtually un-scammable." "No more bets." "At first, it's just a routine game with unremarkable bets being won... and lost." "Then..." "Excuse me." "One of the players leaves to go to the bathroom." "I'll be right back." "Not unusual, either." "Baccarat is a slow-moving game." "The others keep playing... taking phone calls... listening to music." "Still nothing strange, until our man gets back from the bathroom." "And then the whole game changes." "Out of the blue, player two makes a huge bet." "The others follow his lead." "Bankers win." "And they hit the jackpot." "It's just the start of an incredible winning streak... that soon catches the eye of casino security." "We have a situation at Table 1." "A game of pure chance seems to have become a sure bet." "The casino knows it's being scammed... but it doesn't know how." "Powerless to act, security watch the trio cash their chips and stroll out $1 million richer." "All right, so a baccarat hustle is the scammer's equivalent to escaping from Alcatraz." "It should not be possible." "Usually a casino con man's gonna go for poker or blackjack because they're counting cards, which is the classic casino scam." "But in baccarat, even if you could count 416 cards, you'd still have to know the exact order they'd come out in." "So, if they aren't counting cards, what exactly is the scam?" "Let's rewind and check out what's happening." "So, three players... one dealer... eight decks, here we go." "Mind cutting the deck for us, sir?" "Player one makes his cut." "Baccarat tradition." "But also a weak link." "Because now he knows the order of every card in the deck." "You're kidding me, right?" "Nope." "Let's zoom in and check out how." "Right there." "Attached to his finger, a tiny plastic spike, hidden from the dealer by the cut card." "The spike rifles the deck, revealing the value, suit and sequence of the entire pack." "Thank you." "But each card is only revealed for like a fraction of a second, and how would he remember them all?" "There's 416 cards in the deck." "That's where his second trick comes into play." "It's hidden right up his sleeve." "A tiny camera... quietly recording." "Now, here comes the bathroom break." "Excuse me." "Be right back." "But it's not nature calling." "Inside a cubicle, an accomplice with a laptop is waiting." "Player one palms off the camera, then returns to the table." "Meanwhile, back in the stall, the computer guy runs special software that analyzes the footage... and turns it into a cheat sheet." "Minutes later, player two gets a message." "Now the whole deck is in the palm of his hand." "The game's changed from baccarat... to follow the leader." "When you know what card is coming up next, you just can't lose." "We have a situation at Table 1." "And security?" "They just can't win." "What they don't know is they've just been hustled by the so-called "Cutter Gang"" "who've been ripping off Asian casinos for years." "What they do is morally wrong... but they're also masters of their trade." "This is such an elegant scam." "They have 70 members in their gang." "Wait a minute." "Seventy guys?" "Yeah, they can substitute out their core players." "They're never identifiable." "So, these guys are like cheating ninjas." "KARI:" "Right?" "How much money did they steal?" "We have no idea how much they've actually gotten away with." "It's been rumored that there's been tens of millions of dollars, but you have to assume casinos don't even know they've been hit." "Conservatively, I'm gonna give you the number 50 million." "Fifty million is a conservative number?" "Yeah." "So, how long have they been operating and have any of them been caught?" "Seven years ago, we first started hearing about them." "They're still out there." "They've never been caught." "All right, what about originality?" "How does this gang rate?" "I think they rate really high for originality." "When you think casino scam, you think counting cards." "You can't for baccarat." "It's considered unbeatable." "And finally, they never get greedy." "They're smart." "They get out before the heat's on." "These guys are impressive." "TORY:" "Next up, I'm backing a con man so successful, his name became synonymous with the word "scam."" "In the 1920's, America seemed like a place where anything was possible." "Jazz joints were hopping, Wall Street was booming." "You could almost reach out and touch the American dream." "Millions of poor European immigrants were hoping the '20s would roar for them, too." "Many would get by." "A few would get rich." "But one Italian-born businessman was getting so rich so fast that he would go down in history as one of the greatest con artists of all time." "MAN 1:" "A few more flames here." "MAN 2:" "Marker." "MAN 1:" "Roll cameras." "MAN 3:" "We're rolling." "TORY:" "In 1919 Boston," "Carlo was broke." "But he was handsome, charismatic... and, like, really handsome." "MAN 1:" "And action." "Then he stumbled across the idea that would make him famous." "[ringing]" "Hey, ciao." "[in Italian accent] It's Mar" " No, Marco, no." "It's Carlo." "MAN 1:" "And cut." "MAN 2:" "Cutting." "That guy cracks me up." "MAN 2:" "Take two." "MAN 1:" "Action." "[bell rings]" "Hey, ciao." "It's Carlo." "Now, do I have a deal for you." "You're gonna love it." "Carlo's big deal was based on the resale of mail vouchers." "Let me explain." "Back in 1920, if you were in America and were sending a letter to, say, Italy, you would include one of these." "This was an international reply coupon." "It was good for postage." "You'd take this to the post office, exchange for a stamp, and they can mail the letter back to you in the US." "Now, Carlo realized quickly that the coupons not only could be exchanged for stamps, but they could also be sold for cash." "Now, he could buy a coupon in Italy, for let's say, a dollar." "He'd ship it to the United States and sell it for, say, $6." "That's a 500% return on your investment." "Trust me, this deal you can't lose." "Now all Carlo needs is seed money." "I know, I know I owe you the money." "I" "It's not the first time he's pitched a get-rich-quick scheme so it's not an easy sell at first." "No, no, no." "This is better than the last idea." "And the time before that, si." "Carlo persists, and finally gains some traction." "Grazie." "You won't regret it." "I'll take you for dinner." "Where?" "Chinese." "Okay." "MAN:" "No, Tory, you're not supposed to leave." "[in normal voice] Oh, yeah, I do." "My character would leave." "[people laughing]" "He wouldn't sit there and wait for the cops to come." "[chuckles] I like this guy." "He's funny." "In Carlo's first deal, he gets 18 investors to give him a hundred bucks each." "He buys coupons in Italy and sells them in the US." "Each of the investors gets paid 50 bucks more than they put in." "And Carlo pockets $6,300 of easy money." "MAN:" "Clear set." "Okay, Tory, you've made your first big score." "You're gonna unpack all of it." "So, I'm gonna walk over." "[man] Yeah, that's right." "Pop it?" "Uh-huh." "Carlo's happy." "And with a 50% return, his investors are, too." "[phone rings]" "Word gets out, and now basically everyone on the Eastern seaboard wants a piece of the action." "[in Italian accent] This is beautiful!" "Soon Carlo has over seven and a half thousand investors." "You're gonna make so much money!" "Totaling $2.5 million." "You're gonna tell all of your friends." "And your mama." "[indistinct chatter over phone]" "Wait, don't tell your mama." "But he also has a big problem." "MAN:" "Cut." "Is that real whiskey?" "There weren't enough reply coupons in the world to repay investors, let alone turn a profit." "And that's when Carlo had a second idea:" "MAN:" "Okay, Tory, now for the light bulb moment." "Nice." "Turn this legitimate business venture into a huge con." "His idea:" "Stop trading coupons, but keep taking the money." "He makes investors think he's using their cash to buy coupons, but instead, he uses it to pay off an earlier group of investors and pockets the rest for himself." "But the latest group still need to be paid." "So, Carlo gets a new, larger group of investors, and so on." "Unlike a legit business, nothing's being built, produced, bought or sold." "And for a while, everyone wins." "In just eight months, Carlo was estimated to have taken $20 million." "In today's dollar amount, that would be 220 million." "But Carlo can't relax." "He's gotta consistently recruit new investors while keeping his existing creditors at bay." "MAN:" "Okay, cue the phone." "[phone rings]" "Now, Tory, it's one of your investors, and she's pissed." "KARI:" "Where's my money?" "Where is it?" "Hey, ciao, Kari." "Where is my money?" "No, no, no." "Don't worry." "No, no, no, we'll get your money." "Where is my money?" "Don't worry." "When have I ever let you down?" "Well..." "There was that one." "Maybe that time in Cabo?" "But-- That's all." "That time in Alaska." "Right." "Okay." "Sure." "You said you needed cash for that operation or something." "Every day, Carlo's need for investors gets exponentially larger." "Finally the day comes where he can't find enough... and the whole pyramid comes crashing down." "Eight months after he launched, Carlo can't sustain his scam anymore." "...nothing." "I mean..." "MAN:" "Okay, now you realize the game's up." "Stand, grab the money and split." "Wait." "Go back." "Grab that statue." "KARI:" "You hear me?" "Tory?" "Tory?" "MAN:" "Okay, people, that's a wrap." "TORY:" "Unfortunately for Carlo, the law catches up with him." "He lands in prison, and most of his investors lose their money." "What's the moral of the story?" "If it's too good to be true, it probably is, especially if you're dealing with money." "All right, now how does this scam rate?" "How much did Carlo take?" "$220 million." "How long did he operate for?" "Eight months." "Not very long but he took a lot." "Originality?" "This is where it gets interesting." "And he's probably gonna score high, because Carlo, better known as Charles Ponzi, gave his name to one of the most notorious scams of all time." "The so-called Ponzi Scheme was used to its most devastating effect by Wall Street fraudster Bernie Madoff." "He ripped off a staggering 65 billion from his investors." "He owes them the money, but Charles Ponzi for the idea." "GRANT:" "Okay, so we've all heard of a Ponzi scheme, but my next contender is one you probably don't know about." "The sight of this iconic LA building is enough to get any car buff's heart racing." "It's the Petersen Automotive Museum." "Some of its finest treasures are in a hidden underground vault." "But even in this illustrious company, one car stands out." "Its name:" "The Dale." "The what?" "Is that thing for real?" "You've never heard of the Dale?" "[Tory] No." "I know a lemon when I see one, though." "All right, the Dale was the most talked about car of its era." "If this was such a big hit, how come we haven't heard of it?" "And how come we don't see any of them on the road?" "You got a lot of questions." "But believe me, this is just the beginning." "The driving force behind the Dale was street-smart entrepreneur Liz Carmichael." "We hope there'll be a quarter million Dales on the road by 1978." "Now, Liz Carmichael wasn't quite what she seemed." "She was born Jerry Michael." "More on that later." "But that's the least surprising thing about the tale of the Dale." "To understand the scale of this scam, we need a quick lesson in global geopolitics." "In 1973, the US supports Israel in the Yom Kippur War." "The Arab countries retaliate with an oil embargo." "By 1974, US gas prices are skyrocketing, and shortages mean long lines and rationing." "TV ANNOUCER: ...remarkable scenes at gas stations all over the country." "Fuel prices have already doubled..." "GRANT:" "America is crying out for an answer" "And this guy, Dale Clifft, has just invented a three-wheeled vehicle in his garage." "Mr. Clifft, Dale." "Liz thinks his car could be a solution to the gas crisis." "You're serious?" "Liz offers a big payout to mass-produce his vehicle." "[laughing]" "The clincher?" "The car will bear his name." "To the Dale?" "[chuckles] The Dale." "With Clifft on board, Liz is in business." "She sets up the 20th Century Motor Corporation in LA, puts a Dale prototype on display, and goes into marketing overdrive." "We've been all over the papers, radio, television." "MAN ON TV:" "Now, here's the ultimate:" "A three-wheeled car." "GRANT:" "From The Price Is Right... to the press, people can't get enough." "This little three-wheeler is gonna take America by storm." "Seventy mpg, that's right." "Eighty-five miles per hour." "It's unbreakable." "The Dale is going to revolutionize the car industry." "MAN ON TV:" "A new concept in automotive design." "And I'm offering you..." "a piece of the action." "This is a goldmine." "GRANT:" "Investors buy in." "Pre-orders stack up." "I'll send the paperwork right out to you." "The Dale is speeding into automotive history." "LIZ:" "Bye." "So, Liz markets the Dale as capable of getting 70 miles per gallon." "Now, in 1974, the number one selling car, the Ford Pinto, got less than half that at 34 miles per gallon." "I mean, the best hybrids today are only getting 50 miles per gallon." "Can you imagine, back then, a car getting 70 miles per gallon?" "That'd be a game-changer." "The marketing material offers a futuristic car for the space age." "As well as its revolutionary fuel efficiency, it promises great handling... superior strength and safety... more bang for your buck." "And all at a fraction of the cost of any other car on the market." "MAN:" "It sells for $1,969 and gets 70 miles to the gallon." "GRANT:" "It's unveiled at the 1975 LA Auto Show." "Liz announces the assembly line is up and running." "She basks in the limelight, and the sky's the limit." "MAN ON TV:" "The straight-talking promoter is Liz Carmichael." "We are going to build a car in '75." "Now, Liz was a maverick and her claim that she was gonna break Detroit's stranglehold on the automotive industry could not be ignored." "According to Leslie Kendall, curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum," "Liz had impeccable timing." "Keeping in mind that this was during the depths of the gas crisis... the stage was set." "When Liz came on, she had her car." "It was the perfect storm." "There was just one problem with this car of the future." "It was all a giant lemon-shaped lie." "But before I tell you why... here's Kari's final contender." "Let me take you back." "Paris in the roaring '20s." "We're talking about the Paris of Cocteau, Hemingway, Breton, Picasso." "And the greatest artist of all," "Count Victor Lustig." "Con artist, that is." "Lustig's masterwork?" "Selling one of the most iconic structures... twice." "In 1925, Lustig's catching up on the news and he notices an article about the rising costs of maintaining the Eiffel Tower." "The tower had been built 35 years before, but many Parisians considered it a costly eyesore." "And it's hard to believe now, but some even advocated for its demolition." "Lustig sniffs an opportunity." "He has a forger create fake government stationary, then sends letters out to six big scrap-metal dealers, inviting them to a meeting at one of the city's grandest hotels." "They all turn up to be greeted by Lustig, posing as the deputy director general of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs." "Bonjour." "He gives them the pitch." "The maintenance is way too expensive, and the tower's gonna be scrapped." ""And sold to the highest bidder."" "But importantly, to avoid public outcry, they have to keep it a secret." "[shushing]" "All the while, Lustig has his eye on the dealer he thinks is the most vulnerable:" "Andre Poisson." "Or in English, Andrew Fish." "He's desperate for acceptance into the Parisian business big leagues." "Fish nibbles the bait, but he's hesitant." "He's suspicious that something's just not quite right." "Lustig tells Fish he's only a poor government official who's looking to supplement his income." "In other words, he wants a bribe." ""Ah." "Okay, I get it."" "Ironically, it's this corrupt request that convinces Fish he must be a real politician," "So, he hands over the money and wins the bid." "Fish is told he can now buy the Eiffel Tower." "Hurrah!" "KARI:" "He's delighted." "And including the bribe, he hands out almost a million dollars in today's money." "A fake bill of sale exchanges hands and Lustig promptly skips town." "Now, can you imagine that moment when he realizes he's been scammed?" "He has all his workers out there, they start dismantling the Eiffel Tower, and the authorities come by." ""Uh, what are you doing?"" "[Kari chuckles]" "He was way too embarrassed to actually report Lustig to the authorities." "So, this is where it nails it for me that Lustig is the con artist of con artists." "He realizes he got away with it... so one month later, he comes back and does it all again." "Bonjour." "Lustig is considered one of the smoothest con artists of all time." "After he finished in Paris, he moved on to America and even conned Al Capone." "Al Capone?" "You have to be brave to con Al Capone." "All right, well, how much money did this Eiffel Tower job give him?" "In today's money, he sold the tower for a million dollars." "Just the first time he sold it." "Okay." "So, how long of a period did he do the scam?" "He did the scam for two months before he moved on to America." "In fact, he kept scamming for another ten years before he got caught counterfeiting and sent to Alcatraz." "Your scam'll take a hit, it's not original." "George Parker, in the 1900s, actually sold the Brooklyn Bridge many times." "Maybe that's where he got his idea." "Everyone's talking about the Dale." "GRANT:" "When we left Liz Carmichael back in 1975..." "We've got up-front orders of $2 million." "GRANT: she was raking in a fortune on the promise of a revolutionary new car." "And that's just the tip of the iceberg." "Investors lined up for a piece of the action." "You're gonna need over 100 dealerships." "With its groundbreaking fuel efficiency, space-age technology, and bargain-basement price," "Liz was about to save America from the oil crisis and change the face of motoring." "We hope there will be a quarter million Dales on the road by 1978." "But hang on a minute." "Most people have never even heard of the Dale." "Doesn't that seem a little odd?" "Well, it turns out the Dale wasn't all it was cracked up to be." "The Dale at the Petersen Museum... does not run." "The thing is held together with wood screws... probably some Elmer's glue." "Elmer's glue?" "You're kidding me." "I've heard rumors it was powered by a BMW motorcycle engine... it was powered by a lawn mower engine." "You know, you look at this" " At this car and it's such a piece of garbage." "This can't have been powered by much." "But from a distance, it looked good." "You remember that prototype on display in the 20th Century Motor Car Company showroom?" "And that one at the LA Auto Show?" "TV ANNOUCER: ...the Dale..." "GRANT:" "And the one that was the big prize on The Price Is Right?" "Well, here's the thing:" "Those three cars constitute the sum total of all Dales ever built." "And to use Liz's words, that's just the tip of the iceberg." "Because only one of those even came close to working." "The only "operational Dale" that was ever built, the chassis was made of wood, the body was theoretically made of Rigidex, which Liz described as a rocket structural resin, pound for pound 10 or 20 times stronger than steel." "This was all a bunch of nonsense." "It was a fiberglass body on a wooden chassis." "The front wheels didn't even steer together." "That was the degree that she fooled people." "She was able to do it with a car like that." "GRANT:" "Liz was a con woman through and through." "In a previous life, she'd been a con man." "Jerry Dean Michael was wanted for counterfeiting." "By the time she started the Dale scam, she'd already been on the run from the law for 15 years." "Okay." "So, let me get this straight." "There's a woman who was born a man is now selling a three-wheeled car" "with a wooden chassis and crappy engine." "[Grant] That's right." "And all that other BS about getting 70 miles per gallon, and all the other incredible selling points:" "Total fiction." "How long did she pull this off?" "GRANT:" "Nine months, but then that's when things really started going south." "[indistinct chatter]" "MAN:" "Let me get my money." "That's all I want." "GRANT:" "Before the end of the year, buyers and investors began to suspect they'd been had." "We got swindled." "That's what..." "I think what happened to the whole deal." "GRANT:" "Liz claimed to have 100 workers on a production line in Burbank." "But when investigators took a look for themselves... no factory, no car." "Liz was selling an illusion." "It's a sham." "It all began to unravel at about the same time." "AGENT:" "We're investigators with the California Securities Commission." "LESLIE:" "People that had been buying dealer franchises weren't seeing their cars." "Take these detectives to my office, please." "And a lot of the people that worked for Liz weren't seeing paychecks." "Offer them coffee." "Everybody got mad at her all at once." "She blew town... really, really quickly." "GRANT:" "She fled to Texas, but eventually the law caught up with her in, believe it or not, a town called Dale." "She was convicted of fraud, sent to prison and died in 2004." "And as for the car's creator, Dale Clifft, he barely saw a dime." "Poor Dale Clifft, he didn't get much out of it." "I think he netted about a thousand dollars, and he passed away very shortly after that." "Most accounts estimate Liz's take at about $2 million." "How long did it all last?" "Well, the Dale scam was over in just nine months." "As for originality, even though the car didn't move... the scam itself should be pretty hard to beat." "You know, I know it was made of wood, but it looked like a real car to me." "You would have bought one." "I mean, as far as weird '70s cars go, it looks legit." "All right, why don't we average all three criteria and see who the winner is?" "TORY:" "Where you find greed... [in Italian accent] You're gonna make so much money!" "TORY: ingenuity and gullibility, you'll find a scam." "We've scored them against the criteria:" "Value in today's money, duration of the scam and originality." "And here's how they rank:" "At number six, the Swiss Gigolo." "He managed to swindle $10 million, but as far as originality..." "So sweet." "this scam artist got one out of ten." "Number five, the Eiffel Tower." "He was able to make a million dollars in today's money, but the scam only lasted two months." "At number four, the rainmaker." "[thunder rumbling]" "Hatfield scammed from town to town for 25 years." "But that's a lot of time and effort to only make around 250 grand." "Coming in at third, the Dale." "The whole thing is held together with wood screws, probably Elmer's glue." "Pulling off a scam like that for nine months is impressive and scored high for originality." "Number two..." "Place your bets." "The Cutter Gang." "They came up with a new way to fool casino security." "We have a situation at Table 1." "It gets a nine out of ten for originality." "And they cashed in a total of about $50 million." "And our number one scam artist:" "Charles Ponzi, who made a cool $220 million." "And his smooth-talking..." "You're gonna tell all your friends and your mama." "money-making scheme gets a ten out of ten for originality." "Plus it's still in use to this day." "So, that's how our six scam artists stacked up." "Ponzi." "You know, when you think about it, the first three scams are the only three that are completely original." "And Ponzi in particular, most successful financial scam of all time." "No wonder they still use the name." "♪ [Ending music playing] ♪"