This book tells about the world's largest scams and swindlers. The tulip fever in Holland, the South Sea Company in Great Britain, the construction of the Panama Canal - scams that affected the economies of entire countries and thousands of people, as well as the tricks of charlatans and doctors as old as time. Harmless and funny newspaper ducks are discussed in the first part of the book. In the second and third parts we are talking about people whose sophisticated mind, combined with a thirst for profit and natural artistry, pushed them to the most unimaginable enterprises. These are “hunters of bold calculations”, romantics - not so much swindlers as adventurers - and “business people”, children of our pragmatic age. The book is based on articles by famous journalists from the Kommersant Publishing House, published in the STORY section of the Kommersant magazine money.” This book, written in a lively and vivid language, will be useful to specialists and interesting to a wide range of readers.