Throughout history there have been hundreds of imposters. People who have posed as those who were not to, in the vast majority of cases, get rich. Below we have selected the most famous imposters in history .
Cassie Chadwick
A Canadian woman who adopted this name to defraud several US banks in the 19th century, claiming to be an illegitimate daughter and heir to Andrew Carnegie . He managed to swindle tycoons, bankers, and even his own sister.
Enric Marco
Enric Marco claimed to be a Holocaust survivor , but in 2005 the historian Benito Bermejo warned of the deception, and he was forced to confess. Enric Marco took advantage of the coincidence of initials to say that he was a survivor of the Flossenburg concentration camp, and was even President of the Amicale de Mauthausen in Spain.
Ferdinand Demara
Also known as ‘The Great Imposter’ , he was a man who posed as many people throughout his life: surgeon, monk, prison officer … It is said that he had an outstanding IQ and was dedicated to impersonating others.
One of the best known episodes of his life took place in 1953, during the Korean War . He had enlisted under the name of Joseph Cyr, a surgeon he had met at Harvard in the Canadian Navy. When he was transferred to serve, he had to tend to 16 seriously injured soldiers. Thanks to his incredible memory, he was able to memorize the instructions from a surgical manual. He managed to save everyone’s life.
Paco Sanz
This is one of the most famous imposters in recent history. Paco Sanz claimed to be a patient who suffered from Cowden syndrome and had more than 2,000 tumors spread throughout his body . He recorded videos in which he asked for money to pay for his treatment and medicines.
It was an individual who began to investigate the network created by Paco Sanz and, after reporting him, the agents discovered that he had raised 250,000 euros , which was spent on trips and cruises, among other luxuries.
Frank Abagnale
And finally, Frank Abagnale, an American businessman. During the 60’s he dedicated himself to forging checks . In just five years, he worked with eight different identities and passed fake checks valued at $ 2.5 million in 26 countries around the world. The movie ‘Catch me if you can’ is inspired by his life.
