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Free Scams & Impostors quiz: 50 trivia questions and answers — famous con artists. Easy to hard, with explained answers. No sign-up.
Start this quiz →🖨️ Printable version (20 questions + answers)
From legendary impostors to everyday scams, this quiz tells the story of the art of deception. Laughing at history's boldest cons is also a way to learn how to spot the ones now targeting our phones and bank accounts.
This quiz currently has 50 questions, ranging from easy to hard, available in French, English and Spanish when the Spanish translation is available.
Warm up before the quiz with these 10 trivia questions and their explained answers: click a question to reveal the answer.
Answer: SMS or mobile messaging. The word combines SMS and phishing. The message often creates urgency around a parcel, fine, bank or blocked account and includes a link.
Answer: Codes are easy to send and hard to recover. Scammers like gift cards because victims can send the code immediately and the value is then difficult to recover.
Answer: An intense relationship followed by requests for money. The scammer builds trust, sometimes for weeks or months, then invents a medical emergency, travel problem or financial crisis.
Answer: Recruitment as a money mule. The supposed employee is used to transfer fraud proceeds. A very easy, highly paid job centered on your bank account is a bad sign.
Answer: To reduce the victim's time to think. 'Act within 10 minutes', 'account blocked', 'last chance': urgency pushes people to click or pay before checking calmly.
Answer: Artur Alves Reis. Alves Reis forged documents supposedly issued by the Bank of Portugal and obtained legitimately printed notes that had been fraudulently ordered. The printing was genuine; the authorization was not.
Answer: Han van Meegeren. Han van Meegeren created paintings in a style attributed to Vermeer and fooled experts and collectors. His case became one of the most famous episodes in art forgery history.
Answer: Grand Duchess Anastasia. Anna Anderson claimed to be Anastasia Romanov. DNA tests performed after her death showed that she was not Tsar Nicholas II's daughter.
Answer: Rabbits. In 1726 Mary Toft claimed to give birth to rabbits. The case attracted doctors and the royal court before the hoax was exposed. Even medicine can be fooled when spectacle takes over.
Answer: Marie Antoinette. Jeanne de La Motte made people believe that Marie Antoinette secretly wanted to buy the necklace. The queen had not ordered it, yet the scandal further damaged her reputation.
40 more questions are waiting for you in the quiz!