swindlers and swindling

When Chrysalis Moffat and her brother Eddie inherit a mansion on the coast of California, Eddie comes up with a plan to fleece their neighbors by starting a fraudulent Tibetan School of Miracles, and it soon becomes more successful than they ever imagined.

Presents a comprehensive collection of true stories involving some of the world's most famous forgeries, scams, and fakes including the alleged "Hitler diaries," art forgeries, and much more.

Nine-year-old Pete and eleven-year-old Penny Pizzarelli help their friends, toy shop owners Rupert and Eliott Jest, solve puzzles as part of a contest at the annual toy fair, but someone is trying to stop them.

Ivy and Ray accompany their parents on a trip to the Florida Everglades in order to find their only living relative, a distant cousin who, according to their great-grandfather's memoirs, absconded with a valuable, if unspecified, item.

The blatant acts of a lady swindler posing as Nancy Drew arouse the suspicion of friends and local police against the real Nancy.

Brother and Sister Bear and several other cubs are suspicious when Ralph Ripoff becomes involved in efforts to raise money to build a new wing for the local hospital.

After her father, brother, and sister are killed in a plane crash, twelve-year-old Daralynn's life in tiny Digginsville, Missouri, proceeds as her mother turns angry and embittered, her grandmother becomes senile, and her flamboyant aunt continues to run the Summer Sunset Retirement Home for Distinguished Gentlemen, while being courted by the owner of the town's new crematorium.

When she is implicated in a scam, Bernie loses her private school scholarship but spends the summer using her knowledge of magic and sleight-of-hand to earn the tuition money and get revenge.

Ten-year-old Bobbie Jo and mean Clara Jean are disappointed when they discover that the fabulous F. Bam Morrison, a supposed advance man for the circus, is really a crook who has pulled a scam on the entire town, but the girls save the day when they work together to plan their own celebration.

Provides details of some of the biggest swindles in history, illustrated with comic-style illustrations, including the "War of the Worlds" broadcast, the discovery of two supposedly new Shakespeare plays, and the discovery of a tribe of Stone Age cave-dwellers in the Philippines.