Gregor McGregor's Poyais scam
If you thought scams were a modern thing, then you have never heard of Gregor McGregor's Poyais.
The Scottish born soldier and adventurer returned to Britain in 1821 with a plan where he claimed that he had been made Cacique (ke' sēk) or Chief of a country named Poyais by the King of Honduras. He described Poyais as a beautiful land settled by ex-British soldiers who fought in the war for Venezuelan independence. The rivers of Poyais are full of gold!
Gregor had faked everything about Poyais! He made fake illustration of the scenery, wrote fake government documents, set prices for land, designed coat of arms, printed fake money, designed a flag and military uniforms and to top it off, he composed fake Poyain ballads and had them sung in the streets of London!
The work paid off as Gregor sold land to hundreds of gullible buyers, got a £2000 loan and traded Poyain bonds that would be worth billions in today's money when adjusted to inflation. McGregor even convinced seven ships worth of people to settle the land while he stayed at home.
When 250 people who bought the land went to Honduras, the whole region was an inhospitable untamed jungle! It took 6 months for those who managed to survive that long to be told by someone from British Honduras that they had been duped. Even the King of Honduras wasn't happy with the scammed settlers! Today, after many events in Honduras history, the region that Gregor McGregor called Poyais is still uninhabited wilderness.
Upon hearing about the disgruntled settlers returning home, Gregor McGregor fled to France but the press was hounding him down like hunting dogs chasing a fox. Despite placing the blame on his associates, Gregor was taken into custody by the French government and even in jail, Gregor's attempts to escape the charges were fruitless as they involved his beloved make believe Poyais, this time involving immunity as Ambassador. After hiring lawyer and having a court case, Gregor was declared not guilty and any blame was placed on his managers which resulted in Gregor going back to his Poyais scam. When a second wave of pressure to arrest him began mounting, Gregor fled to Venezuela where he died in 1845.