I really enjoyed reading this book. The book is divided by subject. Each type of crime has a general description as well as specific case studies. There is a lot of information included here. I found the first chapter on cash to be a little dry. The other chapters on Art, Cons and Prehistory were more interesting. My favorite chapter was Paper. The cases included are from all of the world and time periods. There are also lots of photographs to accompany the text. Some of the cases were familiar to me but I also learned a lot. Fans of True Crime will enjoy this book.

This was a very interesting book. It had me so engrossed that I read it all in one sitting. If you thought you knew a lit about Scams and forgeries like me you will be very wrong and rather shocked at some of these. This book really didn't leave no stone unturned. It covered so many different types of forgery that I learnt so much from reading it which is something I really love. It was great that it told the stories of the individuals who were committing this crimes. I was so fascinating and shocked reading this book it was definitely a page turner that kept my interest until the very end. I especially loved the story about the lady who lived her whole extravagant life from other friends money.

The book is split into chapters looking at each type of fraud. It was interesting learning about the history of fake money and the development of security features to combat this. The book was very well wrote and flowed so well. The layout was a great mix of pictures and text which gave that extra dimension to the reading experience. I can't recommend this book enough. If you love true crime books or want to learn more about this dark side fraud then you should definitely read this book. I'm sure you will love it just as much as I did. I bet this author could write a book about each type of fraud. I actually wish he would now as this book was so well researched and so very interesting. 

So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for creating such a fascinating read that I just couldn't put down. I will definitely be looking out for more great books from this author. 

The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog yesterday https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/fakes-scams-and-forgeries-by-brian-innes-chris-mcnab-amber-books-5-stars either under my name or ladyreading365

Thank you Netgalley and Amber Books for access to this arc.



For as long as historical annals have been kept, they have recorded the frauds and fakes that have been imposed upon innocent dupes. Perhaps the earliest Christian story of all is that which tells of the deception that Jacob practiced on his unsuspecting father Abraham, pretending to be his brother Esau; and today the theft of identity is reported to be the most rapidly spreading crime. And throughout the ages works of art and literature, coinage, and documents of all kinds have been forged for profit, personal status – and even out of pure mischief. Fakes, Scams and Forgeries details many of the most notorious acts of forgery, fraud and fakery that have taken place over the centuries, describing how they were perpetrated, their acceptance by those who considered themselves experts, and how – often after many years – they were eventually detected. As well as providing entertaining and in-depth profiles of famous forgers and legendary frauds, the text deals with the many modern scientific techniques that have been developed for the examination of suspect materials.

Review

This book details both what is often faked and why. Profit isn’t always the only reason as some forgers want the thrill or vindication of “putting one over on the experts.” As interesting as what techniques are used to expose fakes are those used by forgers to create their forgeries.

Nations spend considerable time and effort staying ahead of counterfeiters but talented and obsessive counterfeiters can still manage to fool even the experts as did one British man whose work was declared by a US Treasury agent to be the best forgeries he’d ever seen.

The forgery of a Gauguin midlevel painting was discovered when the original and the forgery went up for auction at the exact same time. Oops. During the investigation, it was discovered that the man who owned the original had had a series of forgeries done of original works he owned, the provenance had been used to authenticate the forgeries and he had made a tidy profit. One early 20th century forger had to admit to what he did in order to avoid being convicted as a wartime collaborator with the Nazis.

Diaries and biographies of famous people have been faked from Jack the Ripper, Hitler, and Howard Hughes. In the 1980s, a rare documents dealer hoaxed the Mormon Church with several letters, among other things, in a case that ended with two murders and the forger’s imprisonment for life. Piltdown Man and the Cardiff Giant were concoctions created to be prehistorical hoaxes. Billions of dollars have been and continue to be bilked from people due to computer spam, “Hello, I’m from the IRS” phone calls, and dubious matchmaking sites for people who are “looking for love.”

From a Kaiser’s grandson, to a Czar’s son, to a lost Russian Grand Duchess, impersonating royalty was popular. Pretending to be a wealthy high society heiress served Anna Sorokin well … for a while. There are instances of religious fakes such as the Shroud of Turin and when medical cures are longed for, there will be someone trying to pitch their new “cure all” invention.

Fakes, scams and forgeries have been with us for thousands of years and there doesn’t appear to be any slow down in them. The book covers a wide range of people’s attempts to dupe, con, and exploit others, is filled with photographs, and can be dipped into at whatever point interests a reader. B

Reader, beware, this is not a light, entertaining overview. I picked it up because of its back cover copy and reviews anticipating an overview of fakes, forgeries and scams with a thread throughout, a logical order. What I got was a very detailed analysis of key cases, down to the ink so to speak. It was far more than I was looking for. The book felt disorganized to me but a number of reviews from passionate followers of this topic loved it so I presume I am the wrong audience for it. If you are looking for deeply-researched and highly illustrative, this may be the one for you. It is easy to follow with succinct writing and covers a huge number of the aforementioned. It’s a three out of five on the enJOYment scale for me.

This is a great book. I am really into scams etc and this covered some great topics including money and art. It's clear that a lot of research has been undertaken, and the author has put a lot of time and effort into the book. There are pictures that go with the information so there is a better understanding of what you are reading. Well formatted and in easy sections.

This book seems to put a lot on its own shoulders – to give the history and science of forgeries, fakery and fraudulent ‘discoveries’, and to be highly pictorial at the same time. But it just about manages it. We start with how coins and banknotes have been forged throughout history, and what has happened to the people involved with the trade. It’s obvious from the start we get a slightly ungainly, higgledy-piggledy look at the subject matter, from one historical case of forgery to the metallic science of coins and banknote production, to another case, to a further relevant bit of background, and so on. This is copied through the rest of the volume, in the subjects of art forgery, where it’s patently obvious a lot of twentieth century art would have been a lot harder to fake if it had been any good (Rothko, for one, alongside Picasso and copious others’ habits of knocking up an instant sketch and getting to name their price for it). Third is literary forgery, from people pretending to have new works of Shakespeare to the classic instances of Hitler diaries. But we also learn the way to beat a polygraph lie detector test is to be genuinely anxious you’re missing an international flight (and let’s face it, with people like whole-life-faker Frank Abagnale acting as a jet pilot, flying is always going to make you twitchy).

For me it got less interesting with the criminals and shysters and conmen it closes with, but medical charlatans ranging from Biden’s support of Theranos to the WHO gonks who need to retake their GCSEs if they believe in the power of facial nappies to prevent virus spread, all show how vital the protection we have against the wool being pulled over our eyes actually is. A very pleasant time spent with the unreal, this will turn your attention to subjects you didn’t ever expect to be reading about, so deserves a strong four stars.

I haven’t been this excited when reading a book since I started reading Alexander Dumas True Crime books. I hadn’t heard of any of these stories, all the fakes, forgers and con artist had my True Crime loving heart singing! This is a book I highly recommend and thoroughly enjoyed. I received this book from Net Galley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

In Brian Innes' usual gripping style, this book recounts all manner of fakery from art, medicine, currency, archival materials and more. This is an updated edition of a book originally published in 2005 and while I cannot comment on the differences between the editions, the book certainly felt fresh and treated even forgeries I was already familiar with in a fascinating way. Due to the number of cases in the book they cannot be discussed at length, which is okay, although in my own area of interest (art) I can't help but wish he had delved into some of the weirder philosophical problems proposed by forged art.