http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/americas-shrewdest-con-man-the-christian-kid/ar-BBlNawI?ocid=iehp
The way William Elmer Mead figured it, no man would be stupid enough to believe he could buy a major league baseball park.
But a few might think they could lease one.
In 1910, Mead came up with a fail-proof, scorcher of a con, using the end of the world as his bait. That year, the tail of Halley’s comet was expected to sweep over Earth. Some predicted it would be a catastrophic event; others just wanted to say they were looking at the sky for an astronomical milestone. Either way, it was all anyone was talking about.
There's been plenty caught over the years. Unfortunately now days most scams have been legalized to the extent that nobody seems to know what's legal and what's not, but the scams and grifters keep getting richer.