281. Fraudulence (See also Forgery, Hoax.)

1. Cagliostro lecherous peasant posing as count. [Ital. Hist.: Espy, 335]
2. Confidence Man, the an imposter who gulls passengers on a Mississippi steamboat. [Am. Lit.: Melville The Confidence Man in Magill III, 221]
3. Duke and the King, the a pair of charlatans exposed by Huckleberry Finn. [Am. Lit.: Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn ]
4. Gantry, Elmer personifies hypocrisy and corruption in America’s religious practices. [Am. Lit.: Elmer Gantry ]
5. Inspector General, The pretending to be a government inspector, Khlestakov takes bribes and woos the mayor’s wife and daughter. [Russ. Lit.: The Inspector General ]
6. Krull, Felix lives a double life, passing himself off under various identities. [Ger. Lit.: Mann The Confessions of Felix Krull in Magill III, 218]
7. Medium, The Menotti opera about a fraudulent medium haunted by her own hoax. [Am. Opera: Benét, 653]
8. Mississippi Bubble, the land speculation scam; ultimately back-fired on creators. [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 326]
9. Pathelin, Master small-town lawyer cheats his draper, who cheats a shepherd, who hires Pathelin and then cheats him out of his fee. [Fr. Drama: Haydn & Fuller, 466]
10. Peters, Jeff made a career out of schemes for bamboozling the public. [Am. Lit.: O. Henry “The Gentle Grafter”]
11. Sabbatai Zevi false messiah, head of Kabbalic movement in mid-1600s. [Jew. Hist.: Wigoder, 544]
12. Schicchi, Gianni effects a fraudulent will on the pretence that he is the testator. [Ital. Hist. and Opera: Gianni Schicchi in Collier’s ]
13. Sludge, Mr. medium pretends to greater powers and deceives many people. [Br. Lit.: Browning Dramatis Personae in Magill IV, 250]
14. Tchitchikov attempts to make a fortune by buying up land-lords’ titles to dead serfs in order to mortgage them for capital. [Russ. Lit.: Gogol Dead Souls ]
15. Tichborne case false claimant to the Tichborne baronetcy sentenced to fourteen years’ imprisonment. [Br. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 898]
16. wooden nickel cheap counterfeits circulating in 1850s America. [Am. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 1164]
17. wooden nutmeg sold by dishonest Connecticut peddlers as real thing. [Am. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 1164]