The portable money-printing machine only worked for 12 hours after it had been paid for
Victor Lustig began his career of swindling people by selling a portable money-printing machine.
This ingenious invention took six hours to copy a US$100 note. But the machine only worked for 12 hours after it had been paid for. It would produce two banknotes before churning out blank paper. The 'inventor' was nowhere to be found.
Lustig's most brilliant scam came to him one day in Paris. He read in a newspaper that the city was having problems finding the money to maintain the Eiffel Tower (above). Lustig's scheme was simple but brilliant. The master trickster invited a group of scrap-metal dealers to a meeting. He introduced himself as a government official and offered his guests the chance to buy the Eiffel Tower as scrap metal. One dealer jumped at the chance to buy such a huge quantity of metal and gave Lustig the price he was asking.
The unfortunate victim was so humiliated when he found out he had been tricked that he didn't inform the police and Lustig got away with the scam.
Lustig was eventually arrested in America for fraud and died in prison. He will be forever remembered as 'the man who sold the Eiffel Tower'.