10 unbelievable cons from around the world

You might think you’d never fall for a ridiculous con, but don’t be so sure. From a man who tried to sell the Eiffel Tower (piece by piece) to two young girls who passed off doctored photos of fairies in their garden as real, these 10 stories are some of the most incredible cons and hoaxes ever. Let’s find out how each one unfolded and see whether we might have fallen for it.

We wouldn’t even think that the Eiffel Tower could be sold, but Victor Lustig had a wild scheme in mind. Amazingly, in 1925, he convinced a group of French scrap-metal dealers that the landmark would be dismantled.

Posing as a French government official in Paris, he smooth-talked the group into believing it was going to be taken apart because the upkeep costs were too high, and that he could sell them its valuable metal, pocketing a massive amount of cash before fleeing.

Say you’re watching British TV and suddenly see on the BBC a Swiss family harvesting spaghetti from trees; would you question it or want to find out more?

This happened in 1957, when the BBC aired this playful April Fools’ segment. Some viewers even called to ask how to grow their own, and in response, the BBC famously told callers to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

Jerry Jacobson, a former police officer, worked for Simon Marketing as a security consultant and was trusted to place rare winning pieces into game packets (envelopes) for the McDonald’s Monopoly Promotion.

But instead, he ended up stealing those winning envelopes for himself, secretly distributing them to people (including mobsters and psychics) who paid him a cut. The scheme was exposed after an informant contacted the FBI in 2001, and investigators discovered that several supposed winners were connected to Jacobson. The shocking scandal was the subject of McMillions (2000), a popular, acclaimed docu-series on HBO.

Imagine seeing "official" photographs of fairies in the newspaper. This happened in 1917, when two English cousins, 16-year-old Elsie Wright and 10-year-old Frances Giffiths, photographed paper cut-out fairies by a stream so their parents would stop doubting their claims of seeing magical creatures.

The photos were so convincing that they sparked a worldwide debate that lasted for decades. The images even fooled the Sherlock Holmes’ creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, before the women confessed to the prank nearly 70 years later, in 1983.

Beginning in the 1970s, a man named Frank Abagnale Jr. claimed that he faked a Columbia University medical degree to work as a Georgia hospital supervisor, passed the Louisiana bar exam after faking a Harvard law degree, and printed fake payroll checks, cashing $2.5 million across 26 countries. However, many of these claims have since been disputed.

Based on Abagnale Jr.’s memoir, the story inspired 2002’s Catch Me If You Can, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio_,_ about a young man who allegedly posed as all sorts of professions before being captured in France in 1969. He was later released from federal prison on the condition that he assist the government with fraud-related work.

During the 2010s, Anna Delvey, born Anna Sorokin, lived in luxury boutique hotels, wore designer clothes, and tipped staff $100 in cash. She even forged bank statements to apply for a $22 million loan for a private arts club foundation, but it was all a lie.

To keep up that lifestyle, she convinced New York’s wealthy and fashionable that she was a German heiress with millions in a €60 million trust fund in Europe, a story that later turned into the Netflix series Inventing Anna. Ultimately, she charmed the richest into paying her way and kept her lies going until the police arrested her in Malibu, California, in 2017.

Picture sitting at home or in your car when you suddenly hear a radio broadcast about an alien invasion. This is exactly what happened to millions of listeners in 1938 when Orson Welles delivered one of the most unforgettable radio dramatizations of all time.

It became infamous for supposedly causing widespread panic, although this wasn’t an intentional con. Instead, listeners panicked when they tuned in late and missed the opening disclaimer, mistaking the realistic simulated news bulletins about a Martian invasion for an actual news event. However, historians have questioned how widespread the distress truly was.

On April 13, 1844, Gothic literary legend Edgar Allan Poe published a story in the New York paper The Sun, claiming that a European aeronaut, Monck Mason, and others had crossed the Atlantic in a gas balloon in just 75 hours. Readers initially believed the account was real, and crowds swarmed the publication office for copies of the historic breakthrough —until it was exposed as a complete fabrication, with a retraction published on April 15.

The subject of two documentaries, the Fyre Festival scam of April 2017 is a true story about a luxury music festival in the Bahamas promoted by celebrities and influencers that turned into a disaster. When guests arrived, they found that the promised paradise actually included disaster-relief tents, cheese sandwiches, and inadequate infrastructure. Billy McFarland, one of the organizers alongside rapper Ja Rule, was later sentenced to six years in prison for wire fraud

A supposed 10-foot-tall petrified man was "discovered" on a New York farm in 1869, attracting crowds and proving surprisingly profitable before being exposed as a fake.

Conceived by cigar maker George Hull to question biblical literalism, the statue was secretly carved, aged with acid, and buried. Thousands paid to see it before the creator confessed the truth. Today, the original Cardiff Giant remains on display at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

Made in USA

10 American bands & musicians that became icons

Before the Internet blew up, they had already conquered the world. These artists didn’t just make music; they rewrote culture. Elvis, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and more changed the music scene around the globe, becoming before-and-after sensations in entertainment history. Discover 10 Americans who not only made us sing and dance, but changed the way we experience music forever.

Elvis Presley, A.K.A The King of Rock and Roll, was an iconic American singer and songwriter. Born in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Elvis grew up surrounded by music from the American South. This later influenced his style and turned him into a revolutionary artist who blended rock with gospel, country music, and R&B, giving rise to a new style known as rockabilly.

Not only that, his story represented the birth of modern global stardom. His career began in 1954, before influencers and algorithms. During that time, he became the first international star, having sold over a billion records globally, thanks to the combination of his talent, good looks, and charisma.

Bob Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, was a legendary American singer, songwriter, poet, and cultural star. His talent was so impactful that he was the first and only musician to have ever won the Nobel Prize in literature, cited for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.

During the 1960s, Dylan revolutionized songwriting by introducing poetic, intellectual, and socially charged issues into his songs. He also shocked many when he began incorporating electronic instruments, forever changing the landscape of traditional rock and roll.

Bruce Springsteen, also known as The Boss, was born in 1949 in Freehold, New Jersey, and became a ground-breaking American singer, songwriter, and rock star. He was raised in a working-class family, which led him to develop a blend of cinematic narratives about ordinary day-to-day Americans, with roaring rock and roll soundtracks.

More specifically, his mother was known for being the breadwinner of the household, while his father struggled to maintain a job and with depression. Against all odds, in 1975, he skyrocketed to fame with his landmark album Born to Run.

With over 140 million records sold throughout his career, 20 Grammy awards, and an Oscar, this mythical performer has impacted the lives of many and influenced the music industry like very few others.

Also known as The King of Pop, Michael Jackson remains one of the most successful entertainers of all time, known for his incredible abilities in singing, songwriting, and dancing.

He is greatly admired for transforming popular music, shattering social barriers, and elevating music videos into cinematic art, with complex production and incredible choreographies; like ‘Thriller’, which is also the best-selling album in the history of the world.

Jackson was born in 1958 in Gary, Indiana, in a strict, working-class African-American family with strong roots tied to the industrial Midwest. He began his artistic career at the young age of five as the lead singer of The Jackson 5, alongside his siblings.

She is the undisputed Queen of Pop. Born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, she later became the best-selling female artist in the world, with over 305 million albums sold worldwide.

She brought all sorts of taboo subjects into mainstream media and developed a continuous chameleon-like image, refusing to be stuck in one specific look; she consistently evolved into different looks and sounds, turning reinvention into a form of personal super-power.

Brian Wilson is known as the main creative mastermind behind The Beach Boys. Famously known for being afraid of the ocean and rarely going to the beach, Wilson co-created The California Myth, painting a vibrant picture of Southern California and co-crafting with his cousin, Mike Love, the West Coast Sunny Utopia, which coincided with its tourism boom in the 1960s.

He was also a vocal and sound genius, dedicating hours to teaching his cousins complex harmonic music. Pet Sounds is considered a revolutionary rock album, released in 1966, cited by Paul McCartney as an inspiration for The Beatles.

Formed in 1987 by Kurt Cobain (lead vocals & guitar) and Krist Novoselic (bass), with Dave Grohl (drums), Nirvana became an iconic American band. Their unique sound, characterized as raw and grunge, led to punk rock reaching the mainstream music scene.

Kurt Cobain had a crucial role in all this as he was the frontman, lead singer, songwriter, and main architect of the ensemble. Not only that, but he came from a small town called Aberdeen in Washington, where he felt alienated and often alone, heavily influencing his worldview and music. In 1991, the song Smells Like Teen Spirit was released and managed to knock off Michael Jacon from the top of the charts!

Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas, in 1932. Just like Elvis, he rose to fame later on with Sun Records in Memphis, universally known as The Man in Black. This is because when country music was strongly associated with stars and rhinestones, Cash wore all black in protest of the poor, the prisoners, and the outlaws.

His authenticity and cultural impact turned him into a towering American singer and songwriter who blended myth with genuine rebellion, alongside his deep bass-baritone voice, with which he unapologetically advocated for those forgotten in society.

Although he never served hard prison time, he was arrested a few times for substance abuse problems, amongst other issues, magnifying his renegade persona.

Aretha Franklin, the irreplaceable Queen of Soul, was born in 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee. She is a legendary American singer, especially known for her unparalleled vocal power and her emotional intensity, as well as her commitment and impact on giving a voice to African American and women's rights movements of the 1960s.

In 1987, she made history by becoming the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, having had incredibly successful hits such as (You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman, Think, and I Never Loved a Man (the way I love you).

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1958, the musical mastermind, multi-instrumentalist, and cultural icon, Prince Rogers Nelson, was born. Some referred to him as The One Band Man, since on many of his seminal records, such as Purple Rain, he wrote, arranged, produced, and performed every single instrument himself.

In parallel to his mysterious persona and incredible talent, he had an impeccable work ethic, which led him to pioneer what then became known as the Minneapolis Sound, while having written some of the most famous songs ever, including Nothing Compares 2 U (Sinead O’Connor) and Manic Monday (The Bangles).