The Biggest Cheater In History- Part One

Do you know who McGregor was? No? Not many people know about this strange man who is considered as one of the biggest cheaters in the whole history.

Officially, he was a great merchant, but he also was skillful in telling stories that was all fake. He was a master of the lies. Because of this, it is not surprising that many people actually believed his story.

McGregor was a great merchant, and given the psychological foundations of art fraud, it is not surprising that many people actually believed in his story.

In October 1822, Gregory McGregor, from small town in Scotland announced that he was not the son of the local wealthy banker, but also it is not only the son of a local banker, but the prince of some area which is located on the banks of the Black River, in the area of the today’ Honduras.

The country, slightly larger than whole Wales, was so fruitful that locals were able to harvest corn three times a year. The water was so clean and clear that it was capable to extinguish and the greatest thirst, and the river was full of gold. Trees were full in juicy fruits, and the forest was also full with wild animals. His story, full of the exotic, heavenly pictures of life in distant areas, was completely the opposite of the dreary, rainy rocky reality in Scotland. This is a very important aspect of every fraud.

What he lacked in this rich area were investors and settlers willing to develop and utilize its resources. At that time, investment in Central and South America were becoming increasingly popular, and this story sounded as a particularly attractive offer.

Would you bite on this fraud? As we said in the beginning, McGregor was a great merchant, and he was very skillful in making people to believe everything he said. And probably the most important thing here is that almost all people in Scotland (probably everywhere in the world) dreamed about such country. This is the reason why his plan was so successful.

The masters of deception have understood long time ago that persuasion has to answer two very important aspects of human motivation: incentive, which will force them to do something and a feeling that prevents this desire. Social psychologists from the University of Arkansas formalized this idea when they appointed two different tactics of persuasion.