He sold the Eiffel Tower 'Twice': The man who conned the world

In the year, 1890 on the 4th of January, Mr and Mrs Lustig were so happy to have their first son. They called him, Victor. To them, they felt like the luckiest parents in the world. The sun was shining and the day looked fruitful and promising. But a few years later, things began to change, as the couple were in a dier financial state. They could barely even afford to put food on the table for breakfast or buy clothes for their child.

A time came when things the couple became so frustrated that they sent victor away to live with some relatives. But to Victor, the relatives were like demons in old people's clothing,

so he became frustrated and depressed. But eventually, when he was 12 years old, he decided that it was best for him to just run away. He then began to live on the cruel streets of various European cities, where he had to result to pickpocket and begging to survive. One day Victor was looking for what to eat in the dumpster of a fancy Restaurant which was built for the Elite of society,

then suddenly something cut his eye. This is what would change his life forever.

A couple had ordered so many fancy and tasty dishes, but to Victor's anger and disappointment, they didn't even touch anyone. Instead the skipped to the Sex part and went off to a nearby bedroom.

Looking at the expensive and delicious dishes on the table, Victor felt something begin to change in him. He felt that, this rich people are so stupid enough to just waste food anyhow while he was out here looking for what to eat in the Dumpsters. At that moment, all he felt for these rich people was only contempt. "Since they don't value their money so much, then i'll just have to scam them out of it and spend it for them" He said to himself. Over the years, he bagn to hone his skills and master the art of perfect theft, scam, and deceit. When Victor was 19, he had already perfected everything in the book. He has learnt more that 6 languages. Although, he dropped out of school, he was still a very smart kid and always kin to learn. He had already been arrested multiple times for theft and robbery. By the time he got out of jail, he decided to move to America, because he felt like America was the land of opportunities for a resourceful man like him to explore. On his way to America by ship, Victor met a beautiful lady and began to flirt with her with his smooth-talking skills.

But, unfortunately for him, he was flirting with another man's girl. The boyfriend got so mad to the extent that he threatened Victor with a knife and accidently gave him a long lasting scar which he brags today as a badge of honour.

But, he just got it from an angry boyfriend.

When he got to America, he was like a completely different person. The way he dressed, the way he spoke and carried himself was a far cry from the poor homeless boy who used to beg on the streets. To everyone, he was a rich man who had come from another country.

Of course, he was planning to scam people with this new but fake identity. During his stay in New york, he had met a beautiful woman whom he fell in love with. Even though she knew that he only earned his money from scamming people, she didn't care, she loved him anyways.

One day victor was in his hideout when a stroke of genius hit him. He thought, if he could fabricate a fake machine and tell people that it could create identical dollar bills, it would be a good idea. He called the box- 'The Magic Money machine'.

But he knew that no one would fall for this stupid trick except he proved it. So, he had many of the boxes made, and he took huge loans from the bank. Then he learnt how to counterfeit numbers on currency,

and walah! He was ready to get to work. Therefore, he set out looking for the right idiot to start with. Eventually, he found a wealthy business man whom he pretended to accidentally bump into and find his wallet by chance, but really, he just stole the man's wallet. So the man thought, he was good and honest citizen. Victor then used that moment to strike up a conversation and talk about his magic money box. He intentionally made it look like he was reluctant to talk about it, which made the wealthy business man more curious.

Victor then agreed and took the man to his hotel room where they tested the box. He put a hundred dollar bill in it and lied that it would only take 6 hours before the clone was ready. And the wealthy idiot went along with his nonsense. In the meantime, they played cards, chatted, smoked, drank just to pass the time. And after the 6 hours was up, they went back to the 'magic money machine' to reap their reward. And it worked, there was another identical dollar just like the one he put in the machine with the same serial numbers.

The wealthy idiot was ecstatic. But, unknown to him, Victor had just put the second identical dollar which he used his counterfeiting skills to change the numbers to match the wealthy idiot's dollar bill in the Machine, while the wealthy idiot was distracted. Of course, the wealthy idiot had doubts, do they took the bills to a bank to check if it was a real currency or a fake, and the bank manager tested the money and it was an authentic bill.

But here is the interesting part, while they were chatting during the 6 hours wait, Victor dropped some hints that needed cash urgently because he was sick and tired of having to wait for 6 hours before the machine does its thing. So the wealthy idiot came up with an idea, that maybe he could buy the machine from Victor, and this tactic worked like a charm. Victor sold the Machine using this same tactic around the country to wealthy business men, gamblers who win big and rich young fools. The 6 hours lie gave him time to escape, and by the time his victims found out it was a fake, He was long gone. What a sneaky con-man!

The Victims couldn't do anything about it, son they just had to accept that they had been ripped off. But unfortunately for Victor, he had also scammed a wealthy woman named Billie Mae Scheible. She didn't want to accept her fate so she tracked Victor down and eventually found him in a hotel room of another city. But surprisingly, she had no hatred towards him, only admiration. Eventually they fell in love. Victor dumped his girlfriend and rode into the sunset with Billie, but the would later burn Victor.

A few years later, Victor was walking on the streets in another city. He grabbed a coffee, bought a news paper and sat on a near by bench.

What he saw on the newspapers almost made him to choke on his coffee. A genius plan was forming in his head. This would later go on to be the deadliest heist Victor had ever done. On the newspaper, he saw that the masses were complaining about the Eiffel tower and that it was getting rusty. The irons were getting too old and it could collapse at anytime. The wheels in Victor's head were spinning so fast, that he had to buy two more coffees. He then called all his contacts on board for the heist of the century.

Firstly, he changed his identity so he'd now be a civil servant for the government.

Then he met with some wealthy contractors and claimed that he had a secret information that the government didn't want to disclose, but that he had picked the contractors exclusively.

And finally, he booked a private hotel room exclusively for the meeting. Among the contractors were Victor's accomplices who posed as investors to make the other ignorant contractors feel safe. When the meeting began, Victor emphasized that the government was planning to sell the Eiffel tower, due to its decaying state now. He made his speech sound convincing and professional. Of course he knew that not everyone would believe this nonsense, but Victor had a target. He looks for someone who was insecure and desperate to climb the ladder to the upper echelon of society. And he found the perfect target - André poisson, a French man.

After the meeting had ended, Victor had a private discussion with André. He made himself look like a corrupt a government worker who always accepts bribe to help their clients get a good deal. And surprisingly, it worked. André gave Victor a large sum of money, while expecting to get the tower. But unfortunately, a few days later, he discovered that he had been doped and that the government wasn't planning such. And this time, he didn't call the police on Victor because, he knew that if this got into the newspapers, he would be so embarrassed. To Victor's luck, he had gone to another city long ago and when he didn't see the news on the papers, he laughed maniacally. This one big scam gave him a huge confidence boost.

However, when Lustig attempted to con another group of dealers and had managed to find a mark among them willing to buy the Eiffel Tower, the police were informed about the scam and he fled to the U.S. to evade arrest.

When the Great Depression hit, Lustig concocted a risky scam aimed at Al Capone- a notorious and dangerous mob star,

knowing that he faced certain death if his mark realized he was being conned. For Lustig, the scam was not a straight-out con, but one designed to get his target to part with a relatively small amount of cash. Lustig asked Capone to invest $50,000 in a crooked scheme, then kept the money given to him in a safe deposit box for two months before returning it, claiming the deal had fallen through. Capone got the impression that he was dealing with a ' good and honest' man. At this point, Lustig told Capone that the failure of the deal meant he had lost all means of supporting himself. He then convinced Capone to give him $5,000 ($1,000, according to other sources) to "tide him over". But, 'This was his plan all along'.

In 1930, Lustig went into a partnership with two men from Nebraska—pharmacist William Watts and chemist Tom Shaw—to conduct a large scale counterfeiting operation. Watts and Shaw engraved the plates that would be used to print the counterfeit dollar bills, while Lustig organised a ring of couriers to distribute the forgeries, ensuring that they were kept in the dark regarding the production of the counterfeits. The operation managed to inject thousands of dollars of counterfeit money (nicknamed "Lustig money") to the U.S. economy each month for the next five years, though the increasing amount entering circulation eventually drew the attention of federal agents. This almost destroyed the entire economy of America.

5 years later, Victor's mistress, Billie Mae, learned that he was betraying her for a younger woman,

she decided to take revenge and placed an anonymous phone call to the federal authorities.

On 10 May 1935, Lustig was arrested in New York and charged with counterfeiting. Although he openly admitted to his partners' involvement in the operation, he himself feigned ignorance in the matter. However, Lustig's refusal to disclose information on a key found in his possession proved to be his undoing, as it was later found to open a locker in the Times Square subway station containing $51,000 in counterfeit bills and the plates with which they had been printed.

The day before the trial, Victor managed to break out from the federal prison. He used bedsheet and tied them to a knot then he threw it out the window and used it as a tope to climb down.

He made his escape look like his was just a window man who cleans windows.

And, his plan worked. He escaped from federal detention. But 27 days later, they tracked him down and caught him in another one of his hideouts. Lustig pleaded guilty at his trial and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison on Alcatraz Island, California for his original charge, with a further five years for his prison escape.

On 9 March 1947, Lustig contracted pneumonia and died two days later at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. On his death certificate his occupation was listed as 'apprentice salesman'.

This is the life story of a Con- artist who had changed his name so many times, that the name 'Victor Lustig' might even be a fake. Wait, EVEN HIS STORY MIGHT BE FAKE.