(upbeat funky music)
- Ever since governments took
over printing paper money,
it's gotten exponentially more difficult
to be a counterfeiter, but over the years,
some truly great
counterfeiters have emerged.
Here's a rogue's gallery
of some of the best.
Not only was Stephen Burroughs
a great counterfeiter,
he was also a great
all-around flim-flam man,
and it turns out in the end,
a pretty great human being.
Back when Stephen
Burroughs was a little kid
in 18th century New England,
he once stole a bunch of watermelons,
hid them, then went and
joined the search party
that was on the hunt for the thief.
Later on, as he grew older,
he once led a congregation as
a preacher for several years,
all the while passing counterfeit
money of his own making.
In the end though, he became known for
using the wealth he accumulated
to do things like build libraries,
which makes him a pretty awesome person.
What do you get when you take the man
who's credited with creating
the knockoff perfume industry
and pair him with a master counterfeiter?
Well, you get Britain's Lavender Hill Mob,
which, over the course of its lifetime,
is credited with making an estimated
50 million pounds sterling
worth of fake currency.
Scotland Yard finally
launched Operation Mermaid
to break up the gang,
which was so successful
the Bank of England had to
change its 20 pound note
to make it more secure.
The Nazis? Yea, it's true.
Under Operation Bernhard,
the Nazis scoured their
concentration camps
to find prisoners who had
experience as printers,
and under threat of even worse internment,
put them to work
creating fake American
and British currency.
The whole plan was to
release so much fake money
on the British and American markets
that it would set off massive inflation
and set the war efforts
back in both countries.
Charles Ulrich was one of the
most successful counterfeiters
in 19th century America.
He's credited with making
an estimated $80,000
worth of fake money,
worth about 1.4 million US dollars today.
Ulrich also had a penchant
for escaping jail.
He once got away from hot pursuit
by steering a small boat
right along Niagara Falls.
His women were his undoing though.
His girlfriend, mistress, and wife
all took issue with his idea
of all of them living one
roof and turned him in.
You've probably already
heard of Frank Abagnale.
They made a movie out of his
book, "Catch Me if You Can,"
starring Leo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.
The cool thing is it's almost all true.
Not only was Abagnale
a great counterfeiter,
he was also extremely daring.
Once when Abagnale was in a building
that was surrounded by the FBI,
he came out posing as a federal agent
and instructed the real federal agents
to go ahead on in, that Abagnale
had already fled the scene.
If you want to know even more,
check out How Stuff Works article,
"Five Successful Counterfeiters,"
and don't forget to subscribe
to our YouTube channel
for even more cool videos.
What do you get when you take the man
who's credited with
What do you get when you take the man
who's credited with creating, sorry sorry.
This one's tough.
And instructed the real federal agents
to go ahead on inside,
that Abagnale had already fre, fle, shhh.
