He sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap — twice. The first victim was too embarrassed to call the police, so Lustig came back and did it again.
Victor Lustig was an Austrian-born con artist who spoke five languages and spent decades running elaborate scams across Europe and America. His most brazen scheme was so outrageous that even after it worked, the victim was too ashamed to report him — which only encouraged Lustig to try again.
In 1925, Lustig read a newspaper article about the Eiffel Tower's expensive maintenance problems and had an idea. He forged official government stationery, posed as a Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, and invited six scrap metal dealers to a secret hotel meeting to discuss selling the tower.
Lustig told the dealers the French government needed to quietly dismantle the Eiffel Tower because the city couldn't afford upkeep — but the sale had to stay secret to avoid public uproar. He presented each dealer as a personally vetted 'honest businessman.' He even played the role of a corrupt official seeking a bribe, which paradoxically made the whole thing seem more authentic.
His chosen mark was André Poisson, an insecure businessman desperate to establish himself in Parisian high society. Poisson paid around 70,000 francs — approximately $70,000 equivalent — in bribes and fees. When he discovered the deception, he was so humiliated he never went to the police. Not a single newspaper picked up the story.
Emboldened by his victim's silence, Lustig returned to Paris just weeks later and ran the exact same con on an entirely new group of scrap metal dealers. This time police were tipped off, and Lustig barely escaped to the United States before being caught.
Beyond the Eiffel Tower, Lustig's signature trick was the 'Rumanian Box' — a mahogany box that supposedly duplicated banknotes. He'd load it with a real bill, have a mark wait six hours as the machine 'worked,' then produce a perfectly authentic copy (pre-loaded). After the mark paid a fortune for the machine, they'd discover it only produced blank paper.
Lustig once sold a Rumanian Box to a Texas sheriff. When the furious lawman tracked him down in Chicago, Lustig calmly convinced him he was operating the machine wrong — then gave him counterfeit cash as compensation to smooth things over.
In an extraordinarily nervy move, Lustig once approached Al Capone with a fake investment scheme, borrowed $50,000, sat on it for two months in a safe deposit box, then returned it untouched claiming the deal had fallen through. Capone, impressed by this display of honesty, gave him $5,000 just to help him get back on his feet.
Lustig's downfall came from a jealous mistress: after learning he'd taken up with a younger woman, she tipped off federal agents. Arrested in 1935 for counterfeiting, he managed to escape from a Manhattan detention facility using a rope he'd fashioned — but was recaptured in Pittsburgh 27 days later.
Lustig died in prison in 1947. His death certificate listed his occupation as 'apprentice salesman and counterfeiter.' He left behind his famous 'Ten Commandments for Con Men,' which began with: be a patient listener, never look bored, and let your importance become quietly obvious.