12 Unbelievable Stories of Scams and Schemes

Inside the strange, predatory, and lucrative world of psychics who have successfully scammed customers out of their life savings, and the private investigator who’s trying to put a stop to it.

Investors all over the world fell for the schemes of the man who called himself Khalid bin al-Saud. But the truth turned out to be more incredible than the lie.

While searching for the person who grifted me in Chicago, I discovered just how easy it is for users of the short-term rental platform to get exploited.

Fraudsters see opportunities to target us in these uncertain times. Here are their most popular schemes and how we can protect ourselves.

The story of New York City’s most notorious faux heiress-turned-inmate, Anna Delvey, and the wild antics that won her intrigue—and tens of thousands of dollars.

Are con artists clinical psychopaths—or are they just slightly more devious versions of our more conniving selves?

The pink princess philodendron is the ultimate Instagram plant, with three-digit price tags to match. The following it cultivated was also ripe for deception.

The son of a bank robber and sibling of a psychopath explains how he found his own calling scamming a litany of unsuspecting suckers.

Frisland never existed, but for centuries, people wanted to believe that it did.

People and businesses routinely use five techniques to get us to do what they want. Here’s how to recognize them.

That old adage that you can be anything you want? Well, Jeremy Wilson has lived it for years, crisscrossing the country and inventing new identities. A war hero, an MIT grad, a Hollywood journalist, an IRA operative—Jeremy has claimed to be all those things and more. And oh, what a mess he’s made.

Nicolas DeMeyer was a scammer. Or a hero for the age of inequality. Or a young man haunted by the death of a dear friend. Or all of these things.