5 arnaques absolument historiques

Scamming has no age and crosses all civilizations, from ancient legends to modern societies.

• Loki in Scandinavian mythology • Nanabozo in Native American culture • The Devil in Christian tradition • Ulysses in the Iliad and Odyssey

A universal character who deceives the world sometimes for good, but mostly for harm.

Exploration of five of history's greatest scams, presented as a top 5 countdown.

In 1431, Joan of Arc is burned alive by the English in Rouen. Her body is burned twice more before being thrown into the Seine.

• On May 20, 1436, an armed woman presents herself as "the Maid Jeanne" in Metz • She claims to have escaped the stake • Two of Joan of Arc's brothers recognize her • A knight from Charles VII's coronation confirms her identity

• Jeanne receives gifts: horse, greaves, sword, presents from inhabitants • She marries Robert des Armoises and becomes Jeanne des Armoises • In Orléans in 1439, she receives 210 pounds of tournois and wine • She flees before King Charles VII's arrival

In the Middle Ages, without civil registries or identity documents, simple testimony suffices. A vague resemblance and a few years elapsed enable identity substitution.

• Jeanne de la Motte: an adventurer under 30 years old • The Cardinal de Rohan: extremely wealthy, proud, and frustrated • Marie-Antoinette: cold toward the cardinal

• Jeanne claims to be the queen's confidante • She forges letters from Marie-Antoinette to the cardinal • She recruits a prostitute resembling the queen for a nocturnal meeting at Versailles • The cardinal believes he is returning to favor and agrees to advance money

A necklace of 674 diamonds commissioned by Louis XV for Pompadour, valued at 1.6 million pounds—a fortune for a bankrupt kingdom.

• The necklace is sent to London and dismantled • Jeanne de la Motte is sentenced to life • On May 30, 1786, she is branded with the letter V for thief • She escapes and takes refuge in London, but dies defenestrated in 1791

In 1791, the Chappe brothers invent a communication network using semaphores—towers with articulated arms allowing transmission of 196 different symbols across hundreds of kilometers.

• First Paris-Lille line in 1794: a message in half an hour • 25 times faster than horseback • Called 18th-century broadband • By 1824, opened to private operators for financial transactions

François and Joseph Blanc, two speculators from Bordeaux, bribe Chappe operators. An intentional error in the Paris message provides half an hour's advantage to buy or sell before Bordeaux market alignment.

• Two years of successful fraud before exposure • Arrested when a accomplice reveals the scheme • Convicted only of corruption of officials • Light fine because no law yet governed communication networks

• Denis Vrain-Lucas: 54-year-old forger working for the Letellier firm • Michel Chasles: celebrated 77-year-old mathematician, historical document collector • Lustful for archives, Chasles becomes the perfect target

Vrain-Lucas claims to possess archives from the fictional Bois-Jourdain family. He progressively sells thousands of forged documents—letters from historical figures like Racine, Molière, Montaigne—in medieval French.

• 8 years of fraudulent commerce • 27,345 documents sold • 140,000 Germinal francs spent (600,000–700,000 euros today) • Forgeries attributed to 660 great figures from Antiquity to Enlightenment

• 1867: a forged letter from Blaise Pascal to Isaac Newton claiming Pascal discovered gravity causes a diplomatic incident • In court, experts dismantle the documents in seconds • Vrain-Lucas sentenced to two years imprisonment and 500 francs fine • Chasles withdraws from public life, humiliated by scandal

Victor Lustig is born in 1890 in Austria-Hungary into an affluent bourgeois family. Charismatic, polyglot, and deceitful, he becomes a professional gambler on transatlantic ships before World War I.

• After World War I, he settles in the United States • Turns to fixed betting and counterfeiting • According to legend, he swindles Al Capone by selling a fake counterfeit machine for 50,000 dollars • Returns to Europe in the early 1920s for the Roaring Twenties

• In 1925, Lustig reads that the Eiffel Tower may be sold to reduce maintenance costs • He sends a fake letter on Ministry of Posts letterhead to the five largest Paris scrap dealers • He invites them to lunch at the Ritz to negotiate purchase of 7,300 tons of metal

• Lustig identifies André Poisson as his target: a social climber seeking recognition • He offers a bribe to dispel doubts • Poisson transfers an advance of 100,000 francs in cash • Lustig flees to Austria; Poisson is too ashamed to file a complaint • Lustig attempts the trick a second time but fails; he goes into permanent exile

Historical scams inspire a mix of admiration for the ingenuity and audacity of scammers, and a chill at their immorality.

• Exploitation of human nature and desires • Methodical and patient approach • Adaptation to historical and technological contexts • Exceptional audacity and lack of scruples

These scammers succeed by understanding their era deeply and identifying the needs or weaknesses of their targets—from recognition to prestige to desire for authenticity.

These stories continue to fascinate because they reveal human constants: credulity, ambition, dishonesty, and ingenuity that span the centuries.