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Sure, some con men are just too good with their schemes. However, some scams (like the ones below) were so obvious that only an idiot would have fallen for them. And guess what? Several did and ended up paying the price for their gullibility.
10 Hongcheng Magic Liquid In the 1980s, Chinese man Wang Hongcheng claimed that he had invented a magic liquid that turned ordinary water into gasoline. He was just an amateur chemist with no advanced education, but that didn’t stop numerous government agencies (including the military) from believing his claims.
By the 1990s, Wang had pilfered about $37 million in government funds to support his supposed research. After a series of investigations by scientists, Wang also found himself on the receiving end of government ire after he failed to produce the desired product. A court found him guilty of fraud and gave him a 10-year prison sentence in 1998.