Acharlatan (also called aswindler ormountebank) is a person practicingquackery or a similarconfidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages throughpretense ordeception. One example of a charlatan appears in theCanterbury Tales story "The Pardoner's Tale," with the Pardoner who tricks sinners into buying fake religious relics. Synonyms forcharlatan includeshyster,quack, orfaker.Quack is a reference toquackery or the practice of dubious medicine, including the sale ofsnake oil, or a person who does not have medical training who purports to provide medical services.
The English word comes from Frenchcharlatan, a seller of medicines who might advertise his presence with music and an outdoor stage show. The best known of the Parisian charlatans wasTabarin, whose skits andfarces – which were influenced bycommedia dell'arte – inspired the 17th century playwrightMolière. The word is also similar to Spanishcharlatán, an indiscreetly talkative person, achatterbox. Etymologists tracecharlatan ultimately from Italian, either fromciarlare,[1] to chatter or prattle; orCerretano, a resident ofCerreto, a village inUmbria, known for its quacks in the 16th century,[2] or a mixture of both.
A distinction is drawn between the charlatan and other kinds of confidence tricksters. The charlatan is usually asalesperson of a certain service or product, who has no personal relationship with his "marks" (customers or clients), and avoids elaboratehoaxes or roleplaying con-games. Rather, the person called a charlatan is being accused of resorting to quackery,pseudoscience, or other knowingly employed bogus means of impressing people in order toswindle victims by selling them worthlessnostrums and similar goods or services that willnot deliver on the promises made for them. One example of a charlatan is a 19th-centurymedicine show operator, who has long since left town by the time the people who bought his "snake oil" or similarly named "cure-all" tonic realize that it was a scam. A misdirection by a charlatan is a confuddle, a dropper is a leader of a group of conmen, and hangmen are conmen that present false checks. A gaff means to trick or con and a mugu is a victim of a rigged game.
In reported spiritual communications, a charlatan is a person who fakes evidence that a spirit is "making contact" with the medium and seekers. Notable people who have successfully debunked the claims of purported supernatural mediums include magician/scientific skepticJames Randi, Brazilian writerMonteiro Lobato and magicianHarry Houdini.
Amy Bock, a 19th-20th century New Zealand con artist who began by committing a series of petty scams, such as taking watches for "repair" and then claiming to have lost them, making purchases under her employer or acquaintance's name without permission, and claiming to sell tickets to concerts or events--and eventually became notorious for defrauding families and individuals on a larger scale, throughcross-dressing, presenting as a wealthy man, and courting and marrying a wealthy young woman in an elaborate scheme to gain money and evade debts.[4][5]
John R. Brinkley, the "goat-gland doctor" who implanted goat glands as a means of curing male impotence, helped pioneer both American and Mexican radio broadcasting, and twice ran unsuccessfully for governor ofKansas.
Alfredo Bowman, who claimed to cure all disease with herbs and a unique vegan, alkaline diet.
Mary Carleton, a 17th-century English socialite and fraudster, written about by her contemporarySamuel Pepys, who used a number of false identities, particularly that of a supposed "German princess," to marry and defraud upper-class men.[6][7]
Elizabeth Holmes, 20th century conwoman who defrauded investors and misled US government regulators by falsely claiming her health technology company,Theranos, had invented a new blood-testing method.[8]
Gustavus Katterfelto, an 18th century Prussianconjurer who used a solar microscope which he claimed could detect disease.[9]
Bernie Madoff, a 20th-century American stockbroker who ran the world's largestPonzi scheme, defrauding investors out of $18 billion.[11]
Elisha Perkins, an 18th-century American inventor of his own quack therapy that utilized "tractors".[12]
John Henry Pinkard, 19th-20th century Roanoke, Virginia, businessman and purveyor of quack medicines.
Charles Ponzi, 19th-20th century Italian scammer for whom the "Ponzi scheme" is named, a scam that relies on a pyramid of investors who contribute money to a fraudulent programme, typically where money from later investors is used to pay unusually high returns to earlier investors, thus allowing and promoting the growth of the scheme.
Gert Postel, a 20th-century German fraud who feigned experience in the field of psychiatry and became a senior physician, despite having no training.
Grigori Rasputin, a 19th-20th century self-proclaimed holy man and healer who gained considerable influence on the family ofTsar Nicholas II and was involved in the political turmoil on the brink of theRussian Revolution.
^Nash, Jay Robert (2004).The Great Pictorial History of World Crime, Volume 2. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 364.ISBN1-928831-20-6. "Gustavus Katterfelto launched a successful medical swindle. Passing himself off as a worldly philosopher and scientist, Katterfelto swindled Londoners with his sleight of hand tricks and medicine show for nearly three years. In 1872, he claimed to have invented the Solar Microscope, which he used to detect a deadly plague similar to the Black Death."
^Partnoy, Frank (2010).The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals. PublicAffairs.ISBN978-1586488123.
Brock, Pope. (2009).Charlatan: The Fraudulent Life of John Brinkley. Phoenix.ISBN978-0753825716
Humbertclaude, Éric.Récréations de Hultazob Paris: L'Harmattan 2010,ISBN978-2-296-12546-9 (sur Melech August Hultazob, médecin-charlatan des Lumières Allemandes assassiné en 1743)
Riordan, Timothy B. (2009).Prince of Quacks: The Notorious Life of Dr. Francis Tumblety, Charlatan and Jack the Ripper Suspect. McFarland.ISBN978-0786444335
Porter, Roy. (2003).Quacks: Fakers and Charlatans in Medicine. NPI Media Group.ISBN978-0752425900
Stratmann, Linda. (2010).Fraudsters and Charlatans: A Peek at some of History's Greatest Rogues. The History Press.ISBN978-0752457109
The dictionary definition ofcharlatan at Wiktionary