Victor Lustig: The Greatest Fraudster Who “Sold” the Eiffel Tower

Victor Lustig, a notorious con artist, successfully tricked people into “selling” the Eiffel Tower in 1925. He convinced scrap metal dealers that the French government was secretly planning to dismantle the iconic landmark, allowing him to defraud multiple victims of large sums of money.

Setup: Lustig read a newspaper report stating that the Eiffel Tower had become extremely expensive to maintain and might eventually be sold for scrap metal.

The Plan: Posing as a high-ranking government official, he invited leading scrap metal dealers to a secret meeting at the prestigious Hôtel de Crillon in Paris. He made them swear complete secrecy and claimed that the government was forced to sell the Eiffel Tower due to financial difficulties.

The Scam: He convinced a businessman named André Poisson to pay a hefty bribe and an initial installment of the “purchase price” in exchange for exclusive rights to the iron.

Escape: Immediately after receiving the money, Lustig fled to Vienna with his accomplice. Surprisingly, when the victim realized he had been scammed, he was too embarrassed to report it to the police. This allowed Lustig to successfully repeat the same scam again shortly after.

Report Sabih Salik