Editing Charlatan

{{short description|Person engaging in deceptive practices}}
{{Other uses}}
{{redirect|Swindler}}

[[File:Bemberg Fondation Toulouse - Le Charlatan - Pietro Longhi - Inv 1029.jpg|thumb|[[Pietro Longhi]]: ''The Charlatan'', 1757]]

A '''charlatan''' (also called a '''swindler''' or '''mountebank''') is a person practicing [[quackery]] or a similar [[confidence trick]] in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through [[false pretenses|pretense]] or [[deception]]. One example of a charlatan appears in the ''[[The Canterbury Tales|Canterbury Tales]]'' story "[[The Pardoner's Tale]]," with the Pardoner who tricks sinners into buying fake religious relics. Synonyms for ''charlatan'' include ''[[shyster]]'', ''quack'', or ''faker''. ''Quack'' is a reference to ''[[quackery]]'' or the practice of dubious medicine, including the sale of [[snake oil]], or a person who does not have medical training who purports to provide medical services.

==Etymology==
The English word comes from French ''{{Wikt-lang|fr|charlatan}},'' a seller of medicines who might advertise his presence with music and an outdoor stage show. The best known of the Parisian charlatans was [[Tabarin]], whose skits and [[farce]]s – which were influenced by ''[[commedia dell'arte]]'' – inspired the 17th century playwright [[Molière]]. The word is also similar to Spanish ''{{Wikt-lang|es|charlatán}}'', an indiscreetly talkative person, a ''chatterbox''. Etymologists trace ''charlatan'' ultimately from Italian, either from ''{{Wikt-lang|it|ciarlare}}'',<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Charlatan|volume=5|page=891}}</ref> to chatter or prattle; or ''Cerretano'', a resident of [[Cerreto di Spoleto|Cerreto]], a village in [[Umbria]], known for its quacks in the 16th century,<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/charlatan Charlatan.] Dictionary.com</ref> or a mixture of both.

==Usage ==
[[File:The_Pardoner_-_Ellesmere_Chaucer.jpg|thumb|The Pardoner, from the [[Ellesmere Chaucer]]]]
A distinction is drawn between the charlatan and other kinds of confidence tricksters. The charlatan is usually a [[sales]]person of a certain service or product, who has no personal relationship with his "marks" (customers or clients), and avoids elaborate [[hoax]]es or roleplaying con-games. Rather, the person called a charlatan is being accused of resorting to quackery, [[pseudoscience]], or other knowingly employed bogus means of impressing people in order to [[Fraud|swindle]] victims by selling them worthless [[patent medicine|nostrums]] and similar goods or services that will [[False advertising|not deliver on the promises made for them]]. One example of a charlatan is a 19th-century [[medicine show]] operator, who has long since left town by the time the people who bought his "snake oil" or similarly named "cure-all" tonic realize that it was a scam. A misdirection by a charlatan is a confuddle, a dropper is a leader of a group of conmen, and hangmen are conmen that present false checks. A gaff means to trick or con and a mugu is a victim of a rigged game.

In reported spiritual communications, a charlatan is a person who fakes evidence that a spirit is "making contact" with the medium and seekers. Notable people who have successfully debunked the claims of purported supernatural mediums include magician/scientific skeptic [[James Randi]], Brazilian writer [[Monteiro Lobato]] and magician [[Harry Houdini]].

== 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]].

== See also ==
* [[Cerreto di Spoleto]]
* [[Confidence trick]]
* [[Fraud]]
* [[Impostor]]
* [[Poseur]]
* [[Pseudoscience]]
* [[Quackery]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Brock, Pope. (2009). ''Charlatan: The Fraudulent Life of John Brinkley''. Phoenix. {{ISBN|978-0753825716}} 
* [[Éric Humbertclaude|Humbertclaude, Éric]]. ''Récréations de Hultazob'' Paris: L'Harmattan 2010, {{ISBN|978-2-296-12546-9}} (sur Melech August Hultazob, médecin-charlatan des Lumières Allemandes assassiné en 1743)
* Riordan, Timothy B. (2009). ''Prince of Quacks: The Notorious Life of Dr. Francis Tumblety, Charlatan and Jack the Ripper Suspect''. McFarland. {{ISBN|978-0786444335}}
* Porter, Roy. (2003). ''Quacks: Fakers and Charlatans in Medicine''. NPI Media Group. {{ISBN|978-0752425900}}
*Stratmann, Linda. (2010). ''Fraudsters and Charlatans: A Peek at some of History's Greatest Rogues''. The History Press. {{ISBN|978-0752457109}}

==External links==
* {{wiktionary-inline}}

{{pseudoscience}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Deception]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]