Scams Schemes Scumbags: A Light-Hearted Look At Con Artists Through The Ages

by Pat Silver-Lasky, Peter Betts, Peeby (Illustrations)

Would you buy a box that printed money, or accept an unseen acre of land because it was being given away? Would you turn down a quick buck for something just a smidge outside the law––or refuse that super-sized TV because it fell off the back of a truck? Since civilization first spilled a trickle of coins through man’s fingers and placed a value on objects, rapacious rogues have been eager to pick a pocket through swindles, tricks and cons––and for every conman there’s a sucker ready to buy into that ‘sure thing’.
$cam$ $cheme$ $cumbag$ dishes the dirt on some of the biggest fraudsters in history who offered a shortcut to riches. You’ll meet the inventive Rhodocanakis who created his ancestors’ past––and thereby, his own future. Profligate Madame Thérèse who made millions with only one brick. The Red Baron who took 14 years to prove he owned 17,000 square miles of Arizona and died a pauper. And Bernie Madoff who ran the biggest Ponzi scheme ever. Avarice was at the beginning of their alphabet. You’ll laugh at the suckers’ mistakes––but are you about to be the next eager victim?
For these stories we have dipped into the bubbling cauldron of histories of the great prevaricators, scam artists and grifters of the past and present. There are so many more that it would fill a second book. So look for it soon.
Pat Silver-Lasky & Peter Betts.

ebook

First published September 2, 2012

About the author

Pat wrote as a team with her late husband, Hollywood screen writer and author, the late Jesse L. Lasky, Jr., son of the film pioneer. Together they wrote four books including best seller, The Offer, 8 films, nearly 100 TV scripts. Born in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., Pat wasted 4½ years at University of Washington, Stanford University and Reed College - where she produced and directed their first play.
Pat lived in London since the 1960’s and has duel citizenship. She lectured on script writing at several Universities, was Script Consultant and guest lecturer at the London Film School for eight years and her book, Screenwriting For The 21st Century was published in the UK in March, 2004. Her latest thriller novel, Ride The Tiger is out now in all ebook formats and paperback at Amazon.
Pat now lives in Orange County with her husband painter/cartoonist, Peter Betts with whom she wrote $cam$ Scheme$ $cumbag$.

Reviews

[Pat - Silver-Lasky · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.0 out of 5 stars October 18, 2012
By
Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Scams Schemes Scumbags (Paperback)
Pat Silver-Lasky and her husband Peter Betts teamed with cartoonist Peeby to produce one of the more entertaining books of the year. SCAMS SCHEMES SCUMBAGS is both entertaining and intelligent. Much research went into this book that uncovers stories about shysters, schemers, grifters, scam artists, hoaxers, fraudsters, rogues, and criminal operators from the past and from the present and present each person they write about in a brief story that stands on its own.
Opening the book with an hilarious chapter on the original `Don't look a gift horse in the mouth' they rehash the story of the Trojan Horse debacle, march on through the history of the Red Baron's swindle of the US Government for a substantial parcel of Arizona, to the shenanigans of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst and his Yellow Journalism to an in depth discussion of the original Ponzi scheme.
Here are tales of swindles, Richard Nixon and Watergate, PT Barnum and his believe-it-or-not freaks, the 1991 Brussels marathon cheating by Abbes Tehami, fake maps, fake paintings, smarmy séances for gullible wannabe believers, embezzlers, the schemes of Armand Hammer, insurance schemes, Victor Lustig who `sold options' for scrap metal to buyers who believed his story that the Eiffel Tower was being dismantled, to credit card frauds, John Zachary DeLorean and his disaster of a car, televangelists who bilk believers for billions, to eBay frauds to Bernie Madoff.
Readers will become more cognizant of how to avoid being taken by such hucksters but there is so much humor in the way these accounts are written that even those who have been victims of people and companies like these or burned in investment frauds etc. will have to laugh on every page. The scattered cartoons help keep the information light. This is an informative and very entertaining book. Grady Harp, October 12. 2012.
In accordance with the FTC regulations, I am disclosing that I received this book free from the author/publisher in return for an honest review.