We often hear the term Ponzi scheme without knowing exactly where it comes from. A Ponzi scheme - named after the man who invented it in 1920s Boston - is a financial arrangement that attracts customers whose investments are used to pay the originators and first members, thus creating a fraudulent cycle. As long as subscriptions increase, the deception is covered up, but as soon as the income from the new victims is not enough to pay back the clients, the system collapses...

This is not a story about a salesman on the sly. In the 1920s, Victor Lustig really wanted to sell THE Eiffel Tower. Born in 1890 in Central Europe to a bourgeois family, the young man was a brilliant schoolboy, spoke several languages, but he gradually turned to crime and scams, especially involving card games. In 1920, he left to conquer the United States where he pretended to be an accountant. Among other things, he managed to swindle Al Capone by selling him a fake money printing machine...

The history of art has known many stories of forgers, and even today some manage to deceive techniques of authentication. Some of them say their best accomplice is art dealers greed, more than their credulity. Where is the line between imitation and counterfeit ? Between the real and the fake ? Is the signature the main element of a painting ? Doesn't the fact that many forgers can deceive experts say something about their talent, or even their genius ? Among the list of the most famous swindlers, let's take a look at one of the most recent and impressive : Wolfgang Beltracchi.

The principle is simple: contact large fortunes with a patriotic streak, public figures and businessmen, and ask them for a favor: the French state cannot publicly pay ransoms for French hostages, they need these benefactors to finance such operations, for which they would be reimbursed later. To gain the victims' trust, the impostors make video calls, where one of them wearing a silicone mask pretends to be the Defense Minister...

It is often said that money attracts money. Anna Delvey is certainly convinced of this. A Russian-German heiress and successful fashion industry professionnal, Delvey is making a name for herself in New York's upper crust. There's no better way to win over the city's rich than to look as rich as they are. The problem is it's all a facade : her real name is Anna Sorokin, she has no money to speak of, and her lifestyle is based entirely on the credulity of her social circle...

You may know the term tipster from the world of sports betting. It refers to a sort of adviser, who will give tips to gamblers. Thomas Boursin, at just 18 years old, launches his own Facebook page in 2014, to give advice on sports betting...

His name may ring a bell, perhaps you've heard about the man who bought the last album of the famous rap group Wu Tang Clan, published in a single copy at auction. Who, on the sidelines of the 2016 US presidential election, offered $5,000 in rewards to whoever would bring him a lock of Hillary Clinton's hair. But when, in 2015, he was named the most hated personality in America, it was for a much more important matter...

Born into a modest family in the Bronx, Jordan Belfort grew up in Queens with dreams of becoming rich. When he was told in dental school that the golden age of the profession was over, he left the school to work in finance. It was the late 80's, and the Wall Street jungle was in its full glory...