Editing Charlatan (section)

== Infamous individuals==
<!--PLEASE avoid adding the names of living persons to this list (UNLESS they have already been sentenced for their crimes, like Bernard Madoff), as they are potentially libelous and will be removed. All names should also have a reference confirming the claims.-->
* [[Albert Abrams]], the advocate of [[radionics]] and other similar [[electrical quackery]] who was active in the early twentieth century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://skepdic.com/radionics.html|title=Radionics|website=Skeptics Dictionary}}</ref>
* [[Amy Bock]], a 19th-20th century New Zealand con artist who began by committing a series of petty scams, such as taking watches for "repair" and then claiming to have lost them, making purchases under her employer or acquaintance's name without permission, and claiming to sell tickets to concerts or events--and eventually became notorious for defrauding families and individuals on a larger scale, through [[cross-dressing]], presenting as a wealthy man, and courting and marrying a wealthy young woman in an elaborate scheme to gain money and evade debts.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mary |first1=Johanna |title=Amy Bock and the Western Tradition of Passing Women |journal=New Zealand Studies |date=1995 |volume=5 |issue=3 |url=https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/jnzs/article/view/466 |access-date=31 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Coleman |first1=Jenny |title=Mad or Bad? The Life and Exploits of Amy Bock |date=2010 |publisher=Otago University Press |location=Dunedin |isbn=978-0-947522-18-6}}</ref>
* [[John R. Brinkley]], the "goat-gland doctor" who implanted goat glands as a means of curing male impotence, helped pioneer both American and Mexican radio broadcasting, and twice ran unsuccessfully for governor of [[Kansas]].
* [[Alfredo Bowman]], who claimed to cure all disease with herbs and a unique vegan, alkaline diet.
* [[Alessandro Cagliostro]], (real name Giuseppe Balsamo) who claimed to be a [[count]].
* [[Mary Carleton]], a 17th-century English socialite and fraudster, written about by her contemporary [[Samuel Pepys]], who used a number of false identities, particularly that of a supposed "German princess," to marry and defraud upper-class men.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Carleton, Mary |first=Jennett |last=Humphreys|volume=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1=Bernbaum|first1=Ernest |last2=Levis|first2=Howard C. |author3=Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection (Library of Congress) | date= 1914 | title=The Mary Carleton narratives, 1663-1673, a missing chapter in the history of the English novel. | publisher=Cambridge, Harvard University Press; [etc., etc.] | url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/public/gdcmassbookdig/marycarletonnarr00bern/marycarletonnarr00bern.pdf}}</ref>
* [[Billie Sol Estes]], a famous 20th-century Texas conman.
* [[Elizabeth Holmes]], 20th century conwoman who defrauded investors and misled US government regulators by falsely claiming her health technology company, [[Theranos]], had invented a new blood-testing method.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Paul |first=Kari |date=27 April 2023 |title=Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes again delays start of 11-year prison term {{!}} Theranos {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/26/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-prison-sentence-delayed |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=The Guardian}}</ref>
* [[Gustavus Katterfelto]], an 18th century Prussian [[Magic (illusion)|conjurer]] who used a solar microscope which he claimed could detect disease.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nash|first=Jay Robert|year=2004|title=The Great Pictorial History of World Crime, Volume 2|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=364|isbn=1-928831-20-6}} "Gustavus Katterfelto launched a successful medical swindle. Passing himself off as a worldly philosopher and scientist, Katterfelto swindled Londoners with his sleight of hand tricks and medicine show for nearly three years. In 1872, he claimed to have invented the Solar Microscope, which he used to detect a deadly plague similar to the Black Death."</ref>
* [[Ivar Kreuger]], the Swedish "Match King", who ran a worldwide [[Ponzi scheme]] in the 1920s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Partnoy|first=Frank|year=2010|title=The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=978-1586488123}}</ref>
* [[Bernard Madoff]], a 20th-century American stockbroker who ran the world's largest [[Ponzi scheme]], defrauding investors out of $18 billion.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Creswell|first1=Julie|first2=Landon Jr.|last2=Thomas|date=January 24, 2009|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/business/25bernie.html|title= The Talented Mr. Madoff|website=[[The New York Times]]|location=New York|access-date=June 27, 2020}}</ref>
* [[Elisha Perkins]], an 18th-century American inventor of his own quack therapy that utilized "tractors".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Quen|first=Jacques M.|year=1963|title=Elisha Perkins, Physician, Nostrum-Vendor, or Charlatan?|journal=[[Bulletin of the History of Medicine]]|volume=37|issue=37|pages=159–166|pmid=13972718}}</ref>
* [[John Henry Pinkard]], 19th-20th century Roanoke, Virginia, businessman and purveyor of quack medicines.
* [[Charles Ponzi]], 19th-20th century Italian scammer for whom the "[[Ponzi scheme]]" is named, a scam that relies on a pyramid of investors who contribute money to a fraudulent programme, typically where money from later investors is used to pay unusually high returns to earlier investors, thus allowing and promoting the growth of the scheme.
* [[Gert Postel]], a 20th-century German fraud who feigned experience in the field of psychiatry and became a senior physician, despite having no training.
* [[Grigori Rasputin]], a 19th-20th century self-proclaimed holy man and healer who gained considerable influence on the family of [[Tsar Nicholas II]] and was involved in the political turmoil on the brink of the [[Russian Revolution]].