Scams, Scandals, and Skulduggery: A Selection of the World's Most Outrageous Frauds

The World's Most Outrageous Scams #1

by Andreas Schroeder

Since 1998, Andreas Schroeder has been a regular contributor to CBC-Radio’s “Basic Black,” entertaining listeners with outrageous – and always very funny – tales of daring scams and rip-offs. In Scams, Scandals, and Skulduggery he has collected seventeen of the stories that received the greatest listener response when they were broadcast – what he calls a kind of “Best of Basic Black Scams, Volume 1.”

Stories

Running Away with Mona : How a canny forger and his partner pre-sold six copies of the Mona Lisa to wealthy and secretive collectors – and then arranged the theft of the original to cover their tracks.

For Export Only : How an enterprising cattle breeder “exported” ten cows from Southern to Northern Ireland a thousand times.

The Flea That Roared : How the Grand Principality of Outer Baldonia (off the coast of Nova Scotia) declared war on the U.S.S.R.

The Great Purolator Paper Caper : How a “gang that couldn’t shoot straight” nevertheless managed to pull off the largest single heist of cash in American history.

These tales, and many others, told in Andreas Schroeder’s mischievously deadpan and subversively gleeful style, are sure to delight his many fans and make fans of new readers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Crime, History

248 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 1996

About the author

As the “resident Scam-meister” on the popular CBC Radio show Basic Black, Andreas Schroeder spent twelve years reporting on ingenious frauds, swindles, and hoaxes that have been committed around the world. Though the radio show ended in 2002, Andreas’s fascination with the subject continued, culminating in the publication of Scams! (2004), stories of some of history’s greatest tricksters.

Aside from having had one of the world’s all-time greatest job titles, Andreas has been an avid reader all his life and a writer for most of it. Born to a German-speaking Mennonite family who emigrated from Poland to Canada in 1951 (when he was five), he lived for 10 years on a farm in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, where he avoided farm chores whenever possible in order to spend his time reading. As a boy he wrote poetry and short stories in both German and English. A move to Vancouver when he was 15 introduced him to his own brand of paradise: libraries (free books!), bookstores on every corner, and a burgeoning population of fellow writers. He has never looked back.

Andreas and his wife, Sharon, lived for many years on a mountaintop in Mission City, near the B.C.–Washington State border, in a round four-story tower they built themselves. Today they live by the ocean on the Sunshine Coast with their daughter, Vanessa. Another daughter, Sabrina, travels the world as a composer. True to the West Coast ethos, Andreas enjoys motorcycling, paragliding, and skiing—when he’s not reading or writing, which he is most of the time.

Andreas Schroeder has published more than 20 books. Scams!, part of Annick Press’s True Stories from the Edge series, is his first book for young adults. Thieves! (2005) features ten enduring stories about the cunning plans and daring capers of thieving criminals.

Reviews

[Bill Kempthorne]

For those that miss the CBC feature about fraudsters and scam artists, this book fills in for a partial replay of all those snippets on Basic Black. From famous to the lessor known the 17 short stories in this collection were thoroughly entertaining.

[Kate]

Short stories, quick read.

[Rich]

A great collection of interesting and hilarious historical stories. Andreas Schroeder does a great job bringing them alive!

[Siggie]

It was a fun read . . . The sheer audacity of some of these people was amazing.