4 ms·

I always thought stories like "Clark Rockefeller" [0] or Frank Abagnale (of Catch Me If You Can) would become more or less extinct in the era of Internet and Go

by danso 8y ago

I always thought stories like "Clark Rockefeller" [0] or Frank Abagnale (of Catch Me If You Can) would become more or less extinct in the era of Internet and Google. Maybe such scams have become easier to perpetuate, whatwith the ability to fake your lifestyle and credentials with social media (and eBay, apparently). [0] https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2009/01/fake_rockefeller200901 https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2009/01/fake_rockefeller200...

0x4f3759df 8y ago
Christophe Rocancourt is also an interesting con artist. There's a great show on available on Amazon Prime called Vanity Fair Confidential where I learned about him.
tzs 8y ago
> Maybe such scams have become easier to perpetuate, whatwith the ability to fake your lifestyle and credentials with social media (and eBay, apparently) If you make your fake name distinct enough, you could also get legitimate sounding domains and put up articles about yourself, and they will show up on the front page of a search on your name. Barney on "How I Met Your Mother" did this: http://www.lorenzovonmatterhorn.com/ http://www.lorenzovonmatterhorn.com/ http://bigbusinessjournal.com/ http://bigbusinessjournal.com/ http://www.balloonexplorersclub.com/ http://www.balloonexplorersclub.com/ http://www.extremitiesquarterly.com/ http://www.extremitiesquarterly.com/ Of course, he also did social media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenzovonmatterhorn/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenzovonmatterhorn/ I had not realized that LinkedIn allowed fake people. In this case, not only is it a fake person, it is a fake person made up by a fictional person! And that fictional person is also on LinkedIn [1], which is also something I didn't realize they allowed, but looking around I see a lot of fictional characters, such as Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler from "Big Bang Theory", Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane from "Iron Man", and most of the staff of Dunder Mifflin. Anyway, you could do the fake article thing before the net, but it took some real effort. There was a con man in the late 19th century who pulled an investment scam in a western town. He told people to check out the stories written about his company in leading financial publications from back east. Of course no one in the town personally subscribed, so they had to go to the town library, and there they found there were indeed positive articles about him, and of course those were fake issues he had printed that added articles about him to the real issues. A nice touch was that on the way out of town with his victims money, he stopped by the library and replaced the modified magazines with the originals. [1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/barneystinson/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/barneystinson/
- natecavanaugh 8y ago
  I believe that Frank Abagnale has pretty much said it would probably get easier. I think it was on the special features section of the Catch Me If You Can DVD, but I also found an interview with him saying essentially the same thing [0] "What I did almost 50 years ago is now 4,000 times easier to do than when I did it. Technology breeds crime, always has and always will." All of our technology encodes our own biases and weaknesses, and chances are, it's the area we are most blind too. And we tend to trust our technology as we grow dependent on it. The genius of people like Frank Abagnale, or the people behind Stuxtnet as a different example is an ability to see these weak spots, and the blatant moxie it takes to exploit it. It's kinda scary to think about the power people like that have, honestly. [0] http://www.futureofbusinessandtech.com/education-and-careers/catching-up-with-frank-abagnale-technology-breeds-crime http://www.futureofbusinessandtech.com/education-and-careers...
- rasz 8y ago
  http://innovationcorps.org/ http://innovationcorps.org/ http://integrativesystems.org/ http://integrativesystems.org/ http://innovationdemandsfreedom.com/ http://innovationdemandsfreedom.com/ http://systemshealth.com/ http://systemshealth.com/ http://www.inventorofemail.com/ http://www.inventorofemail.com/ http://www.historyofemail.com/ http://www.historyofemail.com/

by danso 8y ago

0x4f3759df 8y ago

Christophe Rocancourt is also an interesting con artist. There's a great show on available on Amazon Prime called Vanity Fair Confidential where I learned about him.

tzs 8y ago

> Maybe such scams have become easier to perpetuate, whatwith the ability to fake your lifestyle and credentials with social media (and eBay, apparently) If you make your fake name distinct enough, you could also get legitimate sounding domains and put up articles about yourself, and they will show up on the front page of a search on your name. Barney on "How I Met Your Mother" did this: http://www.lorenzovonmatterhorn.com/ http://www.lorenzovonmatterhorn.com/ http://bigbusinessjournal.com/ http://bigbusinessjournal.com/ http://www.balloonexplorersclub.com/ http://www.balloonexplorersclub.com/ http://www.extremitiesquarterly.com/ http://www.extremitiesquarterly.com/ Of course, he also did social media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenzovonmatterhorn/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenzovonmatterhorn/ I had not realized that LinkedIn allowed fake people. In this case, not only is it a fake person, it is a fake person made up by a fictional person! And that fictional person is also on LinkedIn [1], which is also something I didn't realize they allowed, but looking around I see a lot of fictional characters, such as Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler from "Big Bang Theory", Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane from "Iron Man", and most of the staff of Dunder Mifflin. Anyway, you could do the fake article thing before the net, but it took some real effort. There was a con man in the late 19th century who pulled an investment scam in a western town. He told people to check out the stories written about his company in leading financial publications from back east. Of course no one in the town personally subscribed, so they had to go to the town library, and there they found there were indeed positive articles about him, and of course those were fake issues he had printed that added articles about him to the real issues. A nice touch was that on the way out of town with his victims money, he stopped by the library and replaced the modified magazines with the originals. [1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/barneystinson/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/barneystinson/

natecavanaugh 8y ago
I believe that Frank Abagnale has pretty much said it would probably get easier. I think it was on the special features section of the Catch Me If You Can DVD, but I also found an interview with him saying essentially the same thing [0] "What I did almost 50 years ago is now 4,000 times easier to do than when I did it. Technology breeds crime, always has and always will." All of our technology encodes our own biases and weaknesses, and chances are, it's the area we are most blind too. And we tend to trust our technology as we grow dependent on it. The genius of people like Frank Abagnale, or the people behind Stuxtnet as a different example is an ability to see these weak spots, and the blatant moxie it takes to exploit it. It's kinda scary to think about the power people like that have, honestly. [0] http://www.futureofbusinessandtech.com/education-and-careers/catching-up-with-frank-abagnale-technology-breeds-crime http://www.futureofbusinessandtech.com/education-and-careers...
rasz 8y ago
http://innovationcorps.org/ http://innovationcorps.org/ http://integrativesystems.org/ http://integrativesystems.org/ http://innovationdemandsfreedom.com/ http://innovationdemandsfreedom.com/ http://systemshealth.com/ http://systemshealth.com/ http://www.inventorofemail.com/ http://www.inventorofemail.com/ http://www.historyofemail.com/ http://www.historyofemail.com/