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>> What is the longest you've faked something?
>> Oh man, I've faked having laryngitis
in third grade for like four days.
>> Did you really?
>> Yeah because we we're singing a stupid song
and I didn't want to sing it in music class.
>> I faked having one arm for like an evening
because the babysitter showed up,
I had a big baggy, shirt and the point is I got bored
and like anyway, I've got two arms.
[laughs]
>> Oh by the way, what?
I'm going to convince the babysitter I'm an amputee.
>> It could have been congenital, I mean.
All right, we're going to talk about
four people who took faking it way too far.
This is from an article at themodernrogue.com
by Eamon Lahiri and our first one is somebody who--
>> Took control of US intelligence agencies
from his bedroom in the UK.
[keyboard keys clicking]
>> Basically picked up the phone with a straight face
said, "Yes, it's me, the hello the leader of the CIA.
"Please restore my account."
And then they're like beep bop boop,
guess what he has access to?
>> And you know what was even more exciting
was his name was Kane Gamble.
That was this kid's name, 15 years old.
>> It sounds awesome until you realize he looks like
evil Peter Parker from the third Spider-Man movie.
>> Oh god, he does.
>> Doesn't he?
>> He's got the coolest name though!
"I'm Kane Gamble."
And then you see him and he's got the hair here.
[Brian laughs]
But yeah through social engineering
he was able to get access to some of the most powerful
people in the United States intelligence department.
>> And this is one of those things where
once you have access to certain levels of information,
it becomes very, I don't want say easy,
it becomes easier to act as though that's definitely you
because you know things that you're not supposed to know.
>> Yeah, and like so many cons,
the hallmark of them is confidence, right?
>> Yes, yes, yes and we'll talk more about this in a bit,
but basically the guy didn't
even do anything interesting with it.
He took control of people's computers
and downloaded a bunch of pornography to them,
mocked them on Twitter, did a bunch of teenager crap.
>> Yeah, he posted their personal information online
and stuff like that.
I'm sorry, but if you've got people thinking
you're the head of the CIA, I've got a list.
>> Yeah, I know you do.
>> It's like...
[keyboard keys clicking]
>> All right, so let's talk about Anthony Gignac,
I think I'm saying it right.
>> Gig, Gignac?
>> Gi-whatever, if I'm saying it wrong,
screw him he's a piece of garbage anyway.
He comes from Columbia by way of Florida
and pretended to be a Saudi prince.
>> Yeah, if there's somebody I'm going to impersonate,
it's not going to be the Saudis because I have a feeling
those guys are really good about keeping grudges, so.
>> This dude did everything from
faking diplomatic plates driving around,
constantly talking about the wrath of his father
if anybody crossed him.
Basically walked around like a spoiled brat
and everyone was like, "Well, what can you do?
"He's a prince."
>> He ended up taking out loans,
renting out penthouse apartments,
getting credit cards with crazy debt limits.
All of it, like you said, was him saying,
"If you don't give this to me,
"my father is going to be very furious."
>> We as human beings tend to be more afraid of bad things
than excited about opportunities.
and a lot of confidence games are all about
how you're going to get rich,
but in this case, he was just straight-up
the fear of God put into them basically.
>> That's interesting because you're right,
it is a completely different approach.
It's not baiting someone with
changing their fortunes for the better,
it's the stick instead of the carrot.
>> Eventually, the law caught up with him,
but only after he scammed eight million dollars
from 26 people and I'm going to go out on a limb here
and say, my guess is that wasn't the complete list.
>> Oh my god, just having the testicular fortitude
to pull something like that off.
[keyboard keys clicking]
>> So, speaking of pure confidence, this guy Marc Dreier,
he kind of reminds me a little bit of Frank Abagnale,
but with like 10% as awesome.
>> He was a Manhattan attorney
who started impersonating other people
of wealth and privilege and utilizing their networks
to make himself even richer.
>> Yeah, but it wasn't like he was a master of disguise,
he would just walk into any high-rise building,
march into the conference room,
announce himself as the guy who owns this building
or is in charge of this business or whatever,
and everybody is like, "Well, he's got a suit
"and those big bushy eyebrows,
"I assume that he must be in charge."
>> And it's what you've talked about before
the trappings of authority,
he definitely had if he's walking in there
with this suit, like you said, so they thought,
"Oh yes, he is the person who's supposed to be here."
And he was telling them that he was the CEO,
that he was their boss, people who should know.
>> To put it in perspective,
there's a number of things in my stage magic show
that people ask how it's done
and I say, "Well, how would you do it?"
And then they give some ridiculously simple method
and then there's a pause and they say,
"But that would be dumb."
And whenever they say the words "But that would be dumb,"
they are always a hundred percent right on how I did that.
So, in other words, this dude walks in
it's like, well I mean, I suppose he could be a total fraud
just in a nice suit walking around,
talking as if he owns the place, but that'd be dumb.
And guess what?
That's exactly what it was.
>> Yeah, he perpetrated all sorts of fraud
and his own knowledge of the
legal and financial documents of these companies.
He was spoofing these documents,
he was a forging IOUs, corporate letterhead,
fabricating entire audits,
he stole hundreds of million dollars
from 40 different investment firms.
>> To realize just how big this guy was thinking,
by the time that he was arrested,
he had 250 attorneys on his side
and my guess is an awful lot of them believed him.
>> I'm going to guess that this guy didn't serve a day and jail.
>> Please tell me he did.
I want to believe in justice.
Oh, good news, he got 150 years.
>> Oh wow, okay.
I thought with that many lawyers and that much money,
they would have been like, "You."
>> The Houdini of impersonation.
By the way this article that I'm looking at now
comes from The Sydney Morning Herald, their URL is S-M-H.
ShakeMyHead.com.au. [laughs]
[keyboard keys clicking]
All right, so this last one is pure poetic justice.
Walk me through this.
>> Okay so, a guy named Zheng in China some time ago
got into an argument with an in-law
and ended up murdering the guy.
>> I assume he got arrested, went to jail,
and the rest writes itself.
>> Nope, he ran off to some remote province
and pretended to be mute for 12 years.
Why?
So he wouldn't rat on himself.
[Brian laughs]
So he wouldn't create any inconsistencies in his story,
so he said I'm just not going to talk for 12 years.
>> This is like that meme.
It's like like can't contradict your story, bro.
But here's the best part of this
is after not using his voice for, how many years?
15 years? >> 12 years.
>> 12 years.
>> You would think, okay maybe I'm just going to
talk to myself in the closet
when nobody's listening or watching.
No, he just doesn't talk for 12 years.
>> After all this, number one,
he does not get away with it, he does go to jail,
but also not using his voice for that long,
he lost his voice.
>> Yes. >> How great is that?
>> They ultimately caught him after 12 years
and so, when he finally tried to speak,
he realized he couldn't
because his vocal cords had atrophied.
>> New meme: can't defend yourself without a voice, bro.
>> Poetic justice.
>> Oh, that's amazing.
Congratulations, Zheng, you probably don't have internet.
[Jason laughs]
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[digital scanner]
So, check out our articles on themodernrogue.com.
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