The man who conned the world.
I've watched enough episodes of 'Hustle' to realise that although a well though out con may appear full-proof, chances are it will never be able to happen in real life. This rather comforting view was quickly destroyed yesterday after finding out that Jim McCormick was facing charges for fraud after making over £50 million by selling 'bomb detectors'.
For those unaware of the story, 57 year old Jim somehow came across a little novelty golf ball finder, which looks like this.
For those unaware of the story, 57 year old Jim somehow came across a little novelty golf ball finder, which looks like this.
The product doesn't actually do anything, it's purely a cheap plastic novelty item.
However, somehow Jim saw opportunity to pull off one of the best modern day cons. Based purely on the golf ball finder, he created his 'ADE' (advanced detection equipment). It is basically just the golf ball finder with his logo.
In my opinion, I think it's a pretty clever scam, and it was clearly a successful one (until last week of course). The problem I have with the whole scenario is how nobody realised it was fake. I mean, I'm no genius on how military products are bought, but I would assume that at some point in time, somebody would have taken one apart and realised that it was just a bit of plastic.
Unfortunately it gets worse, much worse. Not only was this detector able to locate bombs, it could be used for drugs and other illegal objects. Despite this clearly sounding too good to be true, the way that it was sold was much much worse.
The little 'credit cards' in the lid of the case are the key to this ridiculous con. The idea is that you simply swipe the desired credit card and the device will find whatever object that credit card represents, so there will be a bomb credit card, a drugs credit card etc.
Surely this would warrant somebody to stand up and say ''how the bloody hell does that work?" and then quickly realising that it doesn't detect anything.
The fact that all around the world soldiers have been using these devices, often with peoples lives at stake, is outrageous, and one that has made a laughing stock of a lot of people.