Scams

Personal Protection

The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy: Practical Tips for Staying Safe Online
by Violet Blue

Investigative journalist discusses the hidden dangers in social media, dating websites, and apps that predators use to target women. Demonstrates how to protect yourself from identity theft and online stalkers, how to create safe profiles and block trackers, and more. Some strong language. For senior high and older readers. 2015.
“Discusses how to protect personal information from online privacy violations. Covers how to set and store secure passwords, monitor online visibility, safely use social media and apps, and create online profiles. Contains emergency instructions for those who have been hacked or had their identity, phone, or laptop stolen.” — Provided by publisher. 2015.
Download DB83712

Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet—And Why We’re Following
by Gabrielle Bluestone

“From former Vice journalist and executive producer of hit Netflix documentary Fyre comes an eye-opening look at the con artists, grifters and snake oil salesmen of the digital age—and why we can’t stop falling for them. We live in an age where scams are the new normal. A charismatic entrepreneur sells thousands of tickets to a festival that never happened. Respected investors pour millions into a start-up centered around fake blood tests. Reviewers and celebrities flock to London’s top-rated restaurant that’s little more than a backyard shed. These unsettling stories of today’s viral grifters have risen to fame and hit the front-page headlines, yet the curious conundrum remains: Why do these scams happen? Drawing from scientific research, marketing campaigns, and exclusive documents and interviews, former Vice reporter Gabrielle Bluestone delves into the irresistible hype that fuels our social media ecosystem, whether it’s from the trusted influencers that peddled Fyre or the consumer reviews that sold Juicero. A cultural examination that is as revelatory as it is relevant, Hype pulls back the curtain on the manipulation game behind the never-ending scam season—and how we as consumers can stop getting played.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.
Download DB108525

Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable, and What We Can Do about It
by Marc Goodman

Goodman, a futurist for the FBI and cybercrime consultant, describes the state of computer systems and security in the early twenty-first century, also looking at everyday, seemingly non-computerized items such as cars and homes. Details ways people can protect themselves from crimes committed through computers. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2015.
“Marc Goodman takes listeners deep into the digital underground to expose the alarming ways criminals, corporations, and even countries are using new and emerging technologies, and how this makes everyone more vulnerable than ever imagined.” — Provided by publisher. 2015.
Download DB80890

Identity Theft: A Victim’s Search for Justice
by Deborah E. Joyce

Author recounts her experiences as a blind person dealing with identity theft; the ways the situation affected her and the services she could access, particularly health care services; and her work to restore what was stolen from her. Provides resources for those who also experience identity theft. 2020.
“I am a blind identity theft victim. During my quest for justice, I found a severe lack of information available to victims of identity theft. My book, Identity Theft: A Victims Search for Justice, is a guide for victims as well as the general population, showing how to avoid becoming cheated in the first place. The book contains information from dozens of sources. These sources include approximately 18 books, multiple articles, and an extensive review of my state’s penal code as well as the federal laws related to identity theft. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the U.S., however, New York treats cybercrime as a civil offense, not a criminal one. I worked with the New York State Assembly and Senate drafting legislation to make cybercrime a felony. I outline my concurrent vision loss while highlighting this oversight in the New York Penal Code. People need to know they aren’t protected. This memoir brings to light cracks in outdated identity theft laws, showcasing an urgent need for change. The author outlines steps we may take to protect ourselves from identity theft in these turbulent times.” — Provided by publisher. 2020.
Download DB103152

The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time
by Maria Konnikova

Psychologist and author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes (DB76198) looks at con artists—from small-time swindlers to Ponzi-scheme runners like Bernie Madoff. Explores what makes them successful, what all cons share in common, and why we fall for cons. Some strong language. Commercial audiobook. 2016.
“‘It’s a startling and disconcerting read that should make you think twice every time a friend of a friend offers you the opportunity of a lifetime...If you liked Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink (DB60186), you’ll love this lucid and revelatory look into our oh-so-susceptible selves.’—Erik Larson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dead Wake (DB80936) and bestselling author of Devil in the White City (DB55748). From the New York Times bestselling author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, a compelling investigation into the minds, motives, and methods of con artists—and the people who fall for their cons over and over again While cheats and swindlers may be a dime a dozen, true conmen—the Bernie Madoffs, the Jim Bakkers, the Lance Armstrongs—are elegant, outsized personalities, artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. How do they do it? Why are they successful? and what keeps us falling for it, over and over again? These are the questions that journalist and psychologist Maria Konnikova tackles in her mesmerizing new book. from multimillion-dollar Ponzi schemes to small-time frauds, Konnikova pulls together a selection of fascinating stories to demonstrate what all cons share in common, drawing on scientific, dramatic, and psychological perspectives. insightful and gripping, the book brings readers into the world of the con, examining the relationship between artist and victim. The Confidence Game asks not only why we believe con artists, but also examines the very act of believing and how our sense of truth can be manipulated by those around us.” — Provided by publisher. 2016.
Download DB83434

Real Food Fake Food: Why You Don‘t Know What You‘re Eating & What You Can Do about It
by Larry Olmsted

Journalist expands on a column he wrote for Forbes in 2012, in which he explored the sale of beef in the United States that purported to be Kobe, a well-known Japanese delicacy. Discusses difference between “real“ and “fake“ food, trademark names, the food industry, and more. 2016.
“You‘ve seen the headlines: Parmesan cheese made from wood pulp. Lobster rolls containing no lobster at all. Extra-virgin olive oil that isn‘t. Fake foods are in our supermarkets, our restaurants, and our kitchen cabinets. Award-winning food journalist and travel writer Larry Olmstead exposes this pervasive and dangerous fraud perpetrated on unsuspecting Americans. … But Olmsted does more than show us what foods to avoid. A bona fide gourmand, he travels to the sources of the real stuff, to help us recognize what to look for, eat, and savor.” — Provided by publisher. 2016.
Download DB86220

Case Histories

Catch Me If You Can: The Amazing True Story of the Youngest and Most Daring Con Man in the History of Fun and Profit
by Frank W. Abagnale, Jr., with Stan Redding

Lighthearted autobiography of a high-school dropout from the Bronx who became a master counterfeiter and a millionaire by the age of twenty-one. Describes his successful impersonations throughout the 1960s of an airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, and a college professor, before being apprehended. Some strong language. 1980.
Download DB55517

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
by John Carreyrou

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist recounts his investigation into Silicon Valley startup company Theranos, which claimed its new machine would speed up and simplify blood testing. Describes interviews with insiders, research into the technology, threats he received as he uncovered fraud after fraud, and Theranos’s eventual collapse. Strong language. 2018.
“In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: the technology didn’t work. For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, FDA officials, and her own employees. When the author, working at The Wall Street Journal, got a tip from a former Theranos employee and started asking questions, both the author and the newspaper were threatened with lawsuits. Undaunted, the paper ran the first of dozens of Theranos articles in late 2015. By early 2017, the company’s value was zero and Holmes faced potential legal action from the government and her investors. The biggest corporate fraud since Enron is a cautionary tale set amid the bold promises and gold-rush frenzy of Silicon Valley.” — Provided by publisher. 2018.
Download BR23378
Download BRG04278
Download DB91456

Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger
by Lee Israel

Former best-selling biographer describes the astonishing caper she carried on for almost two years in the early ‘90s. Desperate to hold on to her studio, she forged and sold more than three hundred letters by such literary notables as Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, and Noël Coward. Movie tie-in. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2008.
“The author describes how, for nearly two years, she successfully executed a remarkable forgery caper in which she used her talent as a researcher and celebrity biographer to forge more than three hundred letters by literary notables.” — Provided by publisher. 2008.
Download DB94139

God Wants You to Roll: The $21 Million “Miracle Cars” Scam—How Two Boys Fleeced America’s Churchgoers
by John Phillips III

Recounts the scheme of nineteen-year-old California security guards Robert Gomez and James Nichols, con artists who claimed to be heirs to millions and sold nonexistent automobiles to church congregations. Describes how they laundered money through casinos and led investors on for years until their 2003 conviction. Strong language. 2005.
Download DB62807

The Mark Inside: A Perfect Swindle, a Cunning Revenge, and a Small History of the Big Con
by Amy Reading

A narrative history of con artistry in America that documents the early twentieth-century efforts of J. Frank Norfleet to track down a gang of confidence men who swindled him out of everything he had. Contains some strong language and some violence. 2012.
Download DBC04848

The Professor and the Parson: A Story of Desire, Deceit and Defrocking
by Adam Sisman

Recounting of the life of Robert Parkin Peters, who eventually was defrocked as a minister and was a plagiarist, conman, and bigamist. Discusses his relationship with historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. Peters first contacted Trevor-Roper in 1958, claiming to be persecuted by the Bishop of Oxford. 2019.
“One day in November 1958, the celebrated historian Hugh Trevor-Roper received a curious letter. It was an appeal for help, written on behalf of a student at Magdalen College, with the unlikely claim that he was being persecuted by the Bishop of Oxford. Curiosity piqued, Trevor-Roper agreed to a meeting. It was to be his first encounter with Robert Parkin Peters: plagiarist, bigamist, fraudulent priest and imposter extraordinaire. The professor and the parson traces the strange career of one of Britain’s most eccentric criminals. Motivated not by money but by a desire for prestige, Peters lied, stole and cheated his way to academic positions and religious posts from Cambridge to New York, Singapore and South Africa. Frequently deported, and even more frequently discovered, his trail of destruction included seven marriages (three of which were bigamous), an investigation by the FBI and a disastrous appearance on the British quiz show Mastermind. Based on Trevor-Roper’s own detailed ‘file on Peters’, The Professor and the Parson is a witty and charming account of eccentricity, extraordinary narcissism and a life as wild and unlikely as any in fiction.” — Provided by publisher. 2019.
Download DB101618

My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress
by Rachel DeLoache Williams

Former Vanity Fair staffer recounts her friendship with Anna Sorokin, also known as Anna Delvey, who was convicted of fraud in 2019 and is the subject of the 2022 miniseries Inventing Anna. Topics include how she met Anna, her own experience of being defrauded, and dealing with the aftermath. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.
“How does it feel to be betrayed by your closest friend? A close friend who turns out to be the most prolific grifter in New York City ... This is the true story of Anna Delvey, the fake heiress whose dizzying deceit and elaborate con-artistry deceived the Soho hipster scene before her ruse was finally and dramatically exposed. After meeting through mutual friends, the ‘Russian heiress’ Anna Delvey and Rachel DeLoache Williams soon became inseparable. Theirs was an intoxicating world of endless excess: high dining, personal trainer sessions, a luxury holiday ... and Anna footed almost every bill. But after Anna’s debit card was declined in a Moroccan medina whilst on holiday in a five-star luxury resort, Rachel began to suspect that her increasingly mysterious friend was not all she seemed. This is the incredible story of how Anna Sorokin conned the high-rollers of the NYC social scene and convinced her close friend of an entirely concocted fantasy, the product of falsified bank documents, bad cheques and carefully edited online photos. Written by Rachel DeLoache Williams, the Vanity Fair photography editor who believed Anna’s lies before helping the police to track her down (fittingly, deciphering Anna’s location using Instagram), this is Catch Me If You Can with Instagram filters. Between Anna, Fyre Festival’s Billy McFarland (Anna even tried to scam Billy) and Elizabeth Holmes, whose start-up app duped the high and mighty of Silicon Valley, this is the year of the scammer. Anna stood a high-profile trial in New York that has been followed voraciously by the media. She was found guilty of theft of services and grand larceny, facing up to 15 years in prison.” — Provided by publisher. 2019.
Download DB107432

Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World
by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope

Journalists chronicle the creation and looting of a state fund in Malaysia. They detail the life of Jho Low, who is believed to be the primary beneficiary of the scheme, his relationship with the Malaysian prime minister, and the lax oversight of the fund. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2018.
“Two Pulitzer–finalist Wall Street Journal reporters document the true story of how a young social climber orchestrated one of history’s biggest financial heists, exposing the secret nexus of elite wealth, banking, Hollywood and politics.” — Provided by publisher. 2018.
Download DB92411

Ponzi Schemes

How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud
by Ken Fisher with Lara Hoffmans

Forbes columnist offers advice to help both novice and sophisticated investors avoid Ponzi-like schemes such as that of Bernie Madoff and other con artists. Lists five red flags to watch out for while exercising due diligence on companies and brokers. Provides brief biographies of famous market speculators. Bestseller. 2009.
Download DB69641

Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing
by Robert L. Fitzpatrick

Expert consultant on cases involving pyramid schemes presents his analysis of the multi-level marketing industry. Breaks down various elements of what distinguishes business as multi-level marketing from direct selling, the psychological tactics used to recruit people into multi-level marketing structures, and the political lobbying efforts of the industry. 2020.
“Ponzinomics by Robert L. FitzPatrick is the first comprehensive account of how ‘multi-level marketing‘ was created in America, escaped criminal and civil prosecution and spread all over the world. It is the first book to fully explain how the legitimate business of ‘direct selling’ was turned into pyramid recruiting. Ponzinomics dissects the elements that distinguish ‘multi-level marketing’ from legitimate sales, and reveals how a ‘business’ could become a delusional belief. Ponzinomics reveals how multi-level marketing helped to lay a foundation on Main Street for the presidency of Donald Trump with a program of pervasive deception, financial self-destruction, authoritarian leader-worship and economic make-believe. Ponzinomics is a discomforting look at the threads of American culture, business and politics that were woven into what has become the largest scam on Main Street.” — Amazon. 2020.
Download DB104973

No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller
by Harry Markopolos

Markopolos, an analyst at a Boston equity firm, tells how he tried to duplicate Bernie Madoff’s purported financial strategy and concluded that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme. Describes his efforts to alert the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2005 and relates their failure to act. Strong language. Commercial audiobook. 2010.
Download DB70810

Madoff: Corruption, Deceit, and the Making of the World’s Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme
by Peter Sander

Highlights the crimes of New York financier Bernard “Bernie” Madoff. Traces Madoff’s career and business practices that netted him fifty billion dollars until his 2008 arrest. Exposes the bilking of individuals and many Jewish charities and the red flags allegedly ignored by the Securities and Exchange Commission. 2009.
Download DB68890

Art Fraud

The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries In the Art World
by Anthony M. Amore

Head of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presents eleven cases of art fraud. Discusses the individuals involved, their motives, the methods used to perpetuate the fraud, and the ways the crimes were uncovered. 2015.
“Art scams are today so numerous that the specter of a lawsuit arising from a mistaken attribution has scared a number of experts away from the business of authentication, and with good reason. Art scams are increasingly convincing and involve incredible sums of money. The cons perpetrated by unscrupulous art dealers and their accomplices are proportionately elaborate. The Art of the Con tells the stories of some of history’s most notorious yet untold cons. They involve stolen art hidden for decades; elaborate ruses that involve the Nazis and allegedly plundered art; the theft of a conceptual prototype from a well-known artist by his assistant to be used later to create copies; the use of online and television auction sites to scam buyers out of millions; and other confidence scams incredible not only for their boldness but more so because they actually worked. Using interviews and newly released court documents, The Art of the Con will also take the reader into the investigations that led to the capture of the con men, who oftentimes return back to the world of crime. For some, it’s an irresistible urge because their innocent dupes all share something in common: they want to believe.” — Provided by publisher. 2015.
Download DB83425

The Art of Forgery: The Minds, Motives and Methods of Master Forgers
by Noah Charney

History of art forgery, from the first known art-specific intellectual property suit in 1506 to notorious cases from the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Discusses methods of creating forgeries, detection of forgeries, and the thin difference between copies, fakes, and forgeries. 2015.
“The Art of Forgery: Case Studies in Deception explores the stories, dramas and human intrigues surrounding the world’s most famous forgeries—investigating the motivations of the artists and criminals who have faked great works of art, and in doing so conned the public and the art establishment alike.” — Provided by publisher. 2015.
Download DB88732

Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger
by Ken Perenyi

Memoir of a man who claims to have spent thirty years forging art masterpieces. Discusses becoming involved in a local art scene as a teenager in the 1960s, his development as an art forger, and the work he did. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2012.
“Ten years after the case was closed by the FBI, an artist with an uncanny ability to mimic the work of the old masters confesses and describes his thirty-year career as a professional art forger.” — Provided by publisher. 2012.
Download DB93863

Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art
by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo

Reporters recount an art scam begun in 1986 by self-described British nuclear physicist John Drewe, who paid unemployed artist John Myatt to create dozens of inauthentic masterpieces. Details Drewe’s construction of forged records to document the works’ provenance, the investigation by Scotland Yard’s Art Squad, and the ensuing trial. 2009.
Download DB72577

Anthologies

The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York
by Matthew Goodman

Chronicles the events of August 1835 when the tabloid newspaper the New York Sun published a series of articles declaring that the moon was inhabited by unicorns, beavers, and man-bats. Details the hoax’s worldwide popularity and the rise of the Sun as the most-read newspaper in the world. 2008.
Download DB77126

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks
by Patrick Radden Keefe

“Patrick Radden Keefe has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously-reported, hypnotically-engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. Rogues brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker. As Keefe says in his preface ‘They reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial.’ Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist, spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain, chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international black market arms merchant, and profiles a passionate death penalty attorney who represents the ‘worst of the worst,’ among other bravura works of literary journalism. The appearance of his byline in The New Yorker is always an event, and collected here for the first time readers can see his work forms an always enthralling but deeply human portrait of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up against them.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2022.
Download DB108725

Scams! Ten Stories That Explore Some of the Most Outrageous Swindlers and Tricksters of All Time
by Andreas Schroeder

Ten true tales of outrageous trickery. includes how a group of Germans perpetrated one of the biggest, most sophisticated banknote counterfeiting schemes ever seen; how the world was fooled for nearly a decade when a “lost tribe” was discovered in the Philippines; and how Donald Crowhurst almost won the first round-the-world yacht race without ever leaving the Atlantic Ocean. Some descriptions of violence. For junior and senior high school readers. Winner of the 2005 Red Maple Award. 2004. Marrakesh title. 2004.
Download DBG03124