Hoaxes and Scams: A Compendium of Deceptions, Ruses and Swindles

Tells the stories of quack cures, confidence men, automobile repair scams, practical jokes, imposters, swindlers, fraudulent scientific research, phony mediums, and newspaper hoaxes

Sifakis is responsible for numerous books on crime, eccentrics, assassinations, and gambling. Calling this volume "an alphabetical grab bag," he concentrates on hoaxes and scams. There is some overlap with his other works. At least 55 of the more than 700 entries in Hoaxes appeared in his Encyclopedia of American Crime (Facts On File, 1981).

In this latest work, the reader will find entries on medical quackery, art forgeries, and such famous fakes as Big Foot, Piltdown Man, and the Tasaday Tribe. Entries on con men have descriptions of how they scam their "mooches" or "marks." Everyday swindles, such as 50 automobile ploys by repair shops and service stations and such computer viruses as Michelangelo, are found next to Gulf War scams and real estate swindles. Sifakis has excluded subjects that might prove controversial. There is no mention of UFOs or such religious figures as the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

Entries are arranged alphabetically in natural phrases such as Kangaroo Monster Who Terrorized Tennessee. Occasionally there are see references from natural-language subject entries to perpetrators, for instance, "Ancient Coin Forgery--see Becker, Carl Wilhelm." There are two indexes, one for personalities and one for subjects, but most people will use this book for browsing. A selected bibliography contains only those works that contain stories the author claims to have verified independently. Black-and-white illustrations add interest.

Nonreference works in this vein are M. Allen Henderson's Rip-Offs, Cons, and Swindles (Paladin, 1986), which draws from news accounts of contemporary scams, and Jay Robert Nash's Hustlers and Con Men (Evans, 1976). This type of work is full of good-natured flimflam and avuncular advice on how to avoid scams. Hoaxes and Scams will provide many hours of entertainment in public libraries.