Showing titles in Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions

WHITE HORSE II continues to investigate deep into the dark matter of the Oscar behind the Great Pretender. In this narrative the authors provide additional detail of Nick van der Leek's "secret meeting" with the prosecution, and additional information released after the fact. The authors also deconstruct the ITV Interview, and unsurprisingly, uncover some peculiarities not only in Oscar's additional narrative [his third version now] but in the documentary itself. Besides following a money trail, the authors present an even more horrifying backstory to never-before seen crime footage of ...

They thought it could never happen to them, until $275,784 vanished in seconds. When veteran real estate expert Kevin Tacher discovered a seller never received their closing funds, it kicked off a nightmare of digital deception, sleepless nights, and a race against time to recover what was lost. What unfolded was more than just wire fraud—it was a wake-up call for an entire industry. In this gripping, real-life account, Kevin pulls back the curtain on how cybercriminals infiltrated a trusted closing process and nearly destroyed everything. From frantic phone calls to the FBI and Secret ...

From an award-winning New York Times investigative reporter comes a gripping account of one of the most captivating and bizarre tales in the history of the FBI and corporate America. It was one of the FBI's biggest secrets: Mark Whitacre, a senior executive at Archer Daniels Midland--America's...

Dominque Dunne appeared in several films and television series from 1979 to 1982, but was best known for portraying the oldest daughter in the 1982 horror film Poltergeist. She seemed destined for stardom until tragedy struck on October 30, 1982. Dominique was strangled by her ex-boyfriend, John Thomas Sweeney, in the driveway of her West Hollywood home and went into a coma. She never regained consciousness and died five days later. This is her story.

From Benjamin Franklin's newspaper hoax that faked the death of his rival to Abbie Hoffman's attempt to levitate the Pentagon - pranksters, hoaxers, and con artists have caused confusion, disorder, and laughter in Western society for centuries. Profiling the most notorious mischief-makers from the 1600s to the present day, Pranksters explores how "pranks" are part of a long tradition of speaking truth to power and social critique.

In 2011, two years after the launch of Bitcoin, its pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, quietly departed the scene. Many thought Satoshi was gone for good, but in 2016, he returned, telling a shocking story: far from leaving on his terms, he had been forced out, and now he was back to reclaim what was rightfully his.

Organ donation is so common and regulated, it’s specified on your driver’s license.

Sono criminali che non cercano violenza o sangue, ma il cui ingegno straordinario sa infliggere colpi magistrali al patrimonio e al nostro orgoglio. In Il potere dell'inganno, Carlo Lucarelli e Massimo Picozzi vi condurranno attraverso le menti più brillanti e tortuose della storia del crimine: da chi ha venduto due volte la Torre Eiffel a chi ha ingannato i nazisti con falsi Vermeer, da ladre di diamanti che hanno operato per sei decenni a falsari diventati eroi nazionali. Venti storie avvincenti che esplorano il lato oscuro del genio umano, dove l'inganno diventa arte.

The stakes are high for one of the world's most powerful corporations. With hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts at risk, an international conglomerate and its team of lawyers pursue an eighteen-year-old college student who creates the code that could bring it all down. Crimson Code is the true story of University of Alabama student Desmond Jackson, an ambitious cybersecurity expert and entrepreneur. This is Desmond's first-person account of his stunning tale that reveals legal and political corruption and one young man's determination to prove his innocence.

Napoleon famously observed that "history is a set of lies agreed upon", and Edward Steers Jr. investigates six of the most amazing frauds ever to gain wide acceptance in this engrossing book. The controversies that Steers presents show that there are two major factors involved in the success of a hoax or forgery - greed and the desire to believe.

How many resources were used in the Chris Watts case? Why was so much effort expended to prosecute a case, only for the case to be closed and the file stuffed away in a drawer? TWO FACE EPILOGUE is the 9th and final narrative in the TWO FACE series. In the quest to put the last remaining loose ends to rest, more staggering and disconcerting insights emerge from the murk.

On the 24th of February 1994, police knocked on the door of an aging house in the English town of Gloucester. They'd come to serve a search warrant in the case of a missing girl - the daughter of the house's inhabitants. What they uncovered would shock the world: decades of child abuse, an underground torture chamber, and a burial ground containing the bodies of the spent victims of the torture - including that of the missing daughter.

Late one afternoon in the winter of 2003, art critic Richard Dorment answered a telephone call from a stranger. The caller was Joe Simon, an American film producer and art collector. He was ringing at the suggestion of David Hockney, his neighbor in Malibu. A committee of experts called the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board had declared the two Warhols in his collection to be fake. He wanted to know why and thought Dorment could help.

The art world is one of the most secretive of global businesses, and the list of its crimes runs long and deep. Today, with prices in the hundreds of millions for individual artworks, and billionaires' collections among the most conspicuous and liquid of their assets, crime is more rampant than ever in this largely unregulated universe. Increased prices and globalization have introduced new levels of fraud and malfeasance into the art world—everything from "artnapping," in which an artwork is held hostage and only returned for a ransom, to forgery and tax fraud.

True Crime maestros Nick van der Leek and Lisa Wilson have had repeated requests from their fans to write about O.J. “The Juice” Simpson. For some time the authors themselves felt all there is to know about the trial, the “Dream Team” and the luckless prosecutors was already out there. But with O.J. himself up for parole in 2017, and with a ground-breaking new true crime TV anthology doing the rounds, van der Leek and Wilson have finally turned their scalpels and surgical analysis to THIS trial. They’ve since admitted to being astounded at the audacities and mendacities buried ...

A Nuclear Bomb Vanished Into the Ice—and the World Was Never Told the Truth In the frozen darkness of the Arctic Circle, a U.S. bomber fell from the sky carrying the power to end civilization. What followed was not just a military accident, but a global secret buried beneath ice, silence, and Cold War fear. Lost pulls readers into a moment when one catastrophic failure brought humanity terrifyingly close to irreversible disaster—and when governments decided some truths were too dangerous to release. Written with the pacing of a high-stakes thriller and the rigor of investigative ...

The sequin star trilogy interrogates the sixteen years of ‘post-truth’ surrounding the unsolved JonBenét Ramsey case. The first narrative spans nine lawsuits, two books, John Ramsey’s first political campaign and the circumstances surrounding Patsy’s death – all during the first six years after the Grand Jury trial was railroaded. It also interrogates the psychological fabric holding these “sequins” together. Besides testing aspects from the original timeline, the sequin star narrative examines the arch account of the Ramsey case; that treatise of ‘post-truth’ penned by ...

What triggers activate an all-out rage that leads people to commit mass murder? What is the motive behind some of the most shocking killing sprees in US history? Enter the chilling and murderous mind of a spree killer to find out. In Volume 4 of True Crime Stories, prepare for crimes like never before, as we examine what makes people snap and commit gruesome, calculated, and disturbing crimes that will have you questioning about humanity.

This True Crime collection features twelve chilling tales from the last half-century, satisfying the curiosity of those drawn to the darker side of reality. While not for the faint of heart, this book appeals to listeners seeking more than mere sensationalism. Whether you're driven by a thirst for justice, a fascination with criminal psychology, or an interest in investigative techniques, these meticulously researched cases offer a window into the complexities of real-world crime.

This audiobook explains the scientific tools and techniques that revealed the century's biggest food fraud scams. It looks in detail at the biggest scams in recent times; drawing on the lead author's extensive experience at the forefront of the fight against these fraudsters, it goes on to explore the arms race between scientists and adulterers as better techniques for detection spur more creative and sophisticated means of adulteration.