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In 1820 Scotsman Gregor MacGregor went peddling in the heavenly land of "Poyais" in Europe and collected a fortune from well-meaning expats. Only: There was no alluring Poyais at all. This fear of being the victim of mockery and laughter was also what made gold- maker Franz Tausend famous in the Weimar republic. He earned millions through the transformation of crude metal into precious gold. A hocus-pocus, which his casualties were only too happy to believe. And the bluff by Hungarian Victor Lustig is also worthy of a film: in 1925 Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower to a Parisian scrap dealer. The fraud was so embarrassing to his victims, that no one reported him.