
Of course, today’s fraudsters traffic in much larger prizes than mere timepieces—in fact, a handful have stolen sums totaling in the billions of dollars. From the first-ever catfish in history to the guys who put on the Fyre Festival, here are some of the biggest scammers of all time.Getty ImagesMost pop-culture fanatics know Lou Pearlman as the mastermind behind the ‘90s boy bands NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. But behind the music, he was a total con artist. Trading off his massive success in the recording industry, Pearlman raised $300 million from investors for an enterprise he called TransContinental, an umbrella corporation that supposedly included an airline, a travel agency and a film and music studio. He ran this “Ponzi scheme” for 20 years, paying earlier investors’ dividends with money brought in from newer marks. He was finally arrested in 2007 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. When Perlman died in 2016, NSYNC’s Lance Bass told 20/20/, "You feel happy that no one else is going to be affected by him, and then you feel guilty because you feel that way. You loved him, you hated him, there are so many things that come out with Lou Pearlman."
