Biographies About
Con Artists & Scammers

From charismatic grifters to financial fraudsters and predatory pretenders,
these are some of the wildest cons in true crime history.

The King of Con is the true story about a streetwise Jersey boy who talked his way to the top and became richer and more successful than his wildest dreams. It offers an unforgettable look into the life of a man who became hooked on living life to thrilling and dangerous excess....

The astonishing true story of Anna Delvey, a young con artist posing as a German heiress in New York City - as told by the former Vanity Fair photo editor who got seduced by her friendship and then scammed out of more than $62,000....

"I saw his face." Deborah Hall's words launched the destiny of two men from very different worlds. Ron Hall was an international art dealer with upscale tastes; Denver Moore was a homeless drifter with a dangerous past. Millions have read about their unlikely bond....

After bursting onto the scene in 2002, Rudy Kurniawan quickly became the leading purveyor of rare wines to the American elite....

A thrilling true crime caper, bursting with colorful characters and awash in '70s glamour, that spotlights the FBI's first white-collar undercover sting....

In 1988 a troubled young man and his flamboyant mother were arrested for murdering a wealthy widow in her New York City mansion....

In 1919, Texas rancher J. Frank Norfleet lost everything he had in a stock market swindle.

Now a number-one international best seller, Billion Dollar Whale is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly), revealing how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history....

Born into one of America's most illustrious trading families, Sam Israel was determined to strike out on his own....

When Candice Curry was a little girl, she put her hand in her father's back pocket so that she wouldn't get lost in large crowds. Little did she know that he was plying his trade: conning people....

In August 1999, Scott Smith enrolled in Bible College with aspirations to become a minister for Jesus...Wait! That's not actually true. He only attended for the girls....

To find out how the greatest financial fraud in history imploded, journalist Steve Fishman tracks down the victims, the federal investigators, the accomplices, and the mastermind, Bernie Madoff himself....

Who is Bernie Madoff, and how did he pull off the biggest Ponzi scheme in history? Find out....

The definitive volume on Enron's amazing rise and scandalous fall, from an award-winning team of Fortune investigative reporters....

The story of how a math genius named Tom Hayes, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system ignited one of the greatest financial scandals in history....

In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device....

Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break-in artist in history....

Now a major motion picture starring Melissa McCarthy - Lee Israel’s hilarious and shocking memoir of the almost two years when she forged and sold more than 300 letters by such literary notables as Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward....