0:00 In May of 1925, a con man named Victor Lustig successfully sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal.0:07 And here I thought the pig that nearly started a war, which we talked about last week, was the height of historical absurdity.0:16 A pig is one thing.0:18 A 300-meter-tall iron lattice tower is another.0:21 It is.0:22 Lustig was a career criminal, but this was his masterpiece.0:26 He was in Paris and read a small newspaper article about how the Eiffel Tower, which was only meant to be temporary, was falling into disrepair and costing the city a fortune.0:40 And a lightbulb went on.0:42 A very bright one.0:43 He forged official government stationery and invited the five biggest scrap metal dealers in Paris to a confidential meeting at the Hôtel de Crillon, one of the most luxurious hotels in the city.0:58 So he establishes credibility immediately.1:01 The location itself is part of the con.1:04 Exactly.1:04 He presents himself as a Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs.1:11 He tells them the government has made a secret decision.1:15 The upkeep is too much.1:17 The political debate is too fierce.1:20 They are going to demolish the Eiffel Tower.1:23 And sell it for its 7,000 tons of metal.1:26 Right.1:27 He tells them the deal has to be kept absolutely secret to avoid public outcry.1:33 He’s offering them a chance to bid on a historic, and very profitable, contract.1:39 He even takes them on an inspection tour of the tower in a rented limousine.1:45 He’s playing the part completely.1:47 During the bidding process, he identifies his perfect mark.1:52 A man named André Poisson.1:54 Poisson was newer to the Parisian business scene, a bit insecure, and desperate to make a name for himself.2:02 He was the most eager.2:03 The most likely to overlook inconsistencies because he wanted the deal to be real.2:10 Lustig noticed that.2:11 But he also sensed Poisson was a little suspicious.2:15 So Lustig made his final move.2:17 He arranged a second private meeting and confessed that, as a simple government minister, his salary wasn't quite enough to support his lifestyle.2:28 Ah.2:29 He’s asking for a bribe.2:30 Mm-hm.2:31 And for Poisson, that sealed it.2:33 This is how corrupt government deals actually worked, he thought.2:38 The request for a bribe made the whole thing feel authentic.2:43 Wow.2:43 So the final lock on the con wasn't the official documents or the fancy hotel.2:49 It was a request for a backroom payment.2:52 It was.2:53 Poisson paid the substantial bribe, and then he paid the full price for the rights to the scrap metal.3:00 Lustig took the money, got on a train to Vienna, and vanished.3:05 Now, here’s the part that elevates this from a simple fraud to a legendary one.3:11 Lustig watched the Parisian newspapers from Vienna, waiting for the story of his incredible scam to break.3:19 And?3:19 Nothing.3:20 Not a word.3:21 André Poisson was so completely humiliated that he never told the police.3:26 He just… absorbed the loss.3:28 He was too embarrassed to admit he’d been fooled into buying the Eiffel Tower.3:34 That’s almost as incredible as the con itself.3:38 It is.3:38 And because it was never reported, Victor Lustig decided the idea was too good to only use once.3:46 No.3:46 He didn’t.3:47 He did.3:47 About a month later, he returned to Paris and tried the exact same scheme with a new group of scrap dealers.3:55 That is just… audacious.3:57 What happened the second time?3:59 This time, one of the dealers got suspicious and went to the police before any money changed hands.4:07 Lustig caught wind of it and had to flee the country.4:11 So he was never actually brought to justice for selling the tower.4:16 Never.4:16 He was eventually arrested ten years later, in 1935, in the United States.4:22 But it was for counterfeiting.4:24 He had created such a sophisticated dollar-printing operation that the Secret Service considered him one of their greatest adversaries.4:35 He died in Alcatraz in 1947.4:37 You know, the pattern is familiar.4:39 It’s just social engineering.4:41 He created a pretext that people wanted to believe because of greed or ambition.4:48 It’s not about the tower, it’s about exploiting human nature.4:52 Completely.4:53 Lustig himself had what he called the "Ten Commandments for a Con Man." And one of them was, "Never look bored." He understood that the product he was really selling, in every single scam, was confidence.
