Our long national nightmare is over: The Wal-Mart gift card thief is behind bars.

Timothy Truong was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for a gift card scheme that spanned more than a decade, according to the Sacramento Bee.
 
Truong stole gift cards, copied their electronic data, manufactured duplicate cards, and returned the cards to the store. A computer database would alert Truong when the legitimate cards had been activated, and he would then swoop in and use his duplicate cards on merchandise before customers had a chance to use theirs.

Truong ran this scam at Lowe's, Borders, and Safeway, but was apprehended two years ago at a California Wal-Mart.









At the time he'd already been convicted of gift card hijackings in Nevada, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Utah, for incidents dating back to 1992. He was also facing charges in New Jersey.

Security personnel recognized Truong when he arrived at the Yuba City Wal-Mart, and called police. Truong escaped to his SUV and a chase ensued, but Truong eventually crashed his vehicle into two other cars. He then fled to another store, where he punched a customer, but was eventually subdued and arrested. He has been in jail ever since.

In Truong's SUV, police found more than 3,800 gift cards, two laptop computers and an electronic card reader, a card printer, acetone, maps marked with locations of Wal-Mart, Lowe's and Borders stores, 4,000 gift card numbers, and recently purchased merchandise.

The Modern Con Man: How to Get Something for Nothing
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Louis H. "The Fixer" Blonger, who would become one of the leaders of the longest running confidence rings in the American West, started his life on May 13, 1849 in Swanton, Vermont. When the boy was just five, the family moved to the lead mining village of Shullsburg, Wisconsin. When the Civil War  broke out "Lou” was just 15, but enlisted in the Union Army. He soon found himself playing a musical instrument called a fife, helping to keep the marching pace of the soldiers. A Fifer was a common job of those boys who were too young to fight.

After the war, the fast-talking Lou joined up with his older brother Sam and the pair moved westward, hoping to make their fortunes in the many mining camps of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. For the next two decades they moved from camp to camp taking various jobs working in saloons and mines, while doing a little prospecting, plenty of gambling, and practicing a number of con games in cities across the West -- from Deadwood, South Dakota; to Silver City, New Mexico; to San Francisco, California.

During their vast travels, they reportedly met many of the more famous Old West personalities such as Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, and the Earp brothers. For a short time the Lou and Sam even served as lawmen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they were said to have provided protection for Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp after their infamous Earp Vendetta Ride.

By the 1880’s the brothers had settled in Denver, Colorado, where they were running a saloon on Larimer Street and later on Stout Street. By the 1890’s, the Blonger Brothers had become wealthy men from investments in mining claims and profits from their popular Denver saloons, which catered to gamblers and also provided "painted ladies” for their customers. They had also pocketed a significant amount of money from their various games of fraud and graft practiced on many a hapless miner.

While in Denver, they practiced their cons widely, competing heavily with the already established Soapy Smith Gang. Eventually they took over control as the king-pins of the Denver underworld and when Soapy Smith moved on in 1896, they consolidated the city’s competing gangs of confidence men into a single organization.

Operating their "business” as a "big store" con, or fake betting house, central facilities were established complete with betting windows, chalkboards for race results, and ticker-tape machines. Here, the gang members would convince unsuspecting customers to put up large sums of cash in order to secure delivery of promised stock profits or winning bets on horse races. It was this practice that is portrayed in the movie, The Sting.  Additionally, Lou had a number of men working for him that profited as pickpockets, shell-game experts, and a number of other small time con games. Lou's operation was so tight, that no one was able to operate in the city without gaining his permission and "donating” a share of their proceeds.

Continuing to wield their power, the Blonger Brothers influenced elections and political appointments in  order to protect their racket and shield their gang members from prosecution.

In 1904, a man named Adolph W. "Kid” Duff became Blonger's second-in-command. Duff was an experienced hand, having long been a member of several other Colorado gangs and well known as a gambler, opium dealer and pickpocket. Together, the pair increased the profits of the "organization.”

By 1920, Lou Blonger had grown so powerful that many said he "owned” the city of Denver and was, by that time, able to fix any arrest with a phone call and was making thousands of illegal dollars a year in his extensive confidence games. Lou even had a private telephone line in his office which ran directly to the chief of police.

Though his success went on for decades, it would finally end in 1922 when District Attorney Philip S. Van Cise circumvented the corrupt Denver politicians and established his own "secret force” of local citizens. Funded by private donations, Van Cise’s men were able to arrest 33 confidence men, including Louis Blonger and "Kid” Duff.   

A highly publicized trial followed, where Louis Blonger and many of the other gang members were convicted and sentenced to prison at Cañon City, Colorado. Both Lou Blonger and "Kid” Duff received sentences for 7 to 10 years. Just five months after going to prison, Blonger died on April 20, 1924 at the age of 74. Duff, in the meantime, was out on bond pending another court case and committed suicide.  Lou’s older brother Sam had died some ten years earlier.



Burials in Colorado: Burials in Fairmount Cemetery (Denver, Colorado), Lou Blonger, Ray Bridwell White, William Byers, Henry White Warren
The Fixer
The Fixer and Other Stories
The Fixer - Series One - 2-DVD Set ( The Fixer - Entire Series 1 ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]

Jean Henri Latude, often called Danry or Masers de Latude (23 March 1725 – 1 January 1805) was famous both as a prisoner of the Bastille and for his escapes therefrom.

He was born at Montagnac in Gascony. He received a military education and went to Paris in 1748 to study mathematics. He led a dissipated life and endeavoured to curry favor with the marquise de Pompadour by secretly sending her a box of poison and then informing her of the supposed plot against her life. The ruse was discovered, and Mme de Pompadour, not appreciating the humour of the situation, had Latude put in the Bastille on 1 May 1749.

He was later transferred to Vincennes, whence he escaped in 1750. Retaken and reimprisoned in the Bastille, he made a second brief escape in 1756. He was transferred to Vincennes in 1764, and the next year made a third escape and was a third time recaptured. He was put in a madhouse by Malesherbes in 1775, and discharged in 1777 on condition that he should retire to his native town.

He remained in Paris and was again imprisoned. A certain Mme Legros became interested in him through chance reading of one of his memoirs, and, by a vigorous agitation in his behalf, secured his definite release in 1784. He exploited his long captivity with considerable ability, posing as a brave officer, a son of the marquis de la Tude, and a victim of Pompadour's intrigues. He was extolled and pensioned during the Revolution, and in 1793 the convention compelled the heirs of Mme de Pompadour to pay him 60,000 francs damages. He died in obscurity at Paris in 1805.

The principal work of Latude is the account of his imprisonment, written in collaboration with an advocate named Thiry, and entitled "Le Despotisme dévoilé, ou Mémoires de Henri Masers de la Tude, détenu pendant trente-cinq ans dans les diverses prisons d'état" (Amsterdam, 1787, ed. Paris, 1889). An English translation of a portion was published in 1787. The work is full of lies and misrepresentations, but had great vogue at the time of the French Revolution. Latude also wrote essays on all sorts of subjects.

Jean-Henri Masers de Latude (1725-1805), ou, Le fou de la liberte: Enquete historique et psychologique (French Edition)
Jean-Henri Chevalier de Latude, 1789 Giclee Poster Print by Antoine Vestier, 18x24
Der Enthüllte Despotismus Der Französischen Regierung, Oder, Merkwürdige Geschichte Des Herrn Von Latüde: Während Seiner Unverdienten 35 Jährigen Gefangenschaft ... Staatsgefängnissen (German Edition)
The Life of Henri Masers De Latude, Who Was Imprisoned Thirty-five Years. To which is added some account of the Bastille.

• Gregor MacGregor (1786–1845) – Scottish con man who tried to attract investment and settlers for a non-existent country of Poyais
• Jean Henri Latude (1725–1805) - French confidence man and possible lunatic who, famously, extorted money from the Madame de Pompadour and endured thirty-five years of confinement, in the Bastille and at Vincennes, for his efforts

Born or active in the 19th century

• Lou Blonger (1849–1924) – organized massive ring of con men in Denver in early 1900s
• Helga de la Brache (1817-1885)
• Horace de Vere Cole (1881–1936)
• Canada Bill Jones – riverboat gambler and card sharp
• Victor Lustig (1890–1947) – born in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) and known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower"
• George C. Parker (1870–1936) — U.S. con man who sold New York monuments to tourists
• Charles Ponzi (1882–1949) – "Ponzi scheme" is a "get rich fast" fraud named after him
• Death Valley Scotty (1872–1954) prospector, performer, and con man, famous for gold mining scams and the mansion in Death Valley known as Scotty's Castle.
• Soapy Smith (1860–1898) — confidence gang boss, who operated in Denver, Colorado; Creede, Colorado; and Skagway, Alaska
• William Thompson (active in 1840–1849) – U.S. criminal whose deceptions caused the term confidence man to be coined
• Joseph Weil (1875–1976) – one of the most famous American con men of his era
• Cassie Chadwick (1857–1907) — defrauded several U.S. banks out of millions of dollars by claiming to be an illegitimate daughter and heiress of Andrew Carnegie.

Born or active in the 20th century

• Bernie Cornfeld (1927–1995) – ran the Investors Overseas Service, alleged to be a Ponzi scheme
• Richard Eaton (1937–1979) - con artist, saloon owner, and general manager of Moo Moo Vedda's dress factory and an associate of the Lucchese crime family.
• David Hampton (1964–2003) - Inspiration for the play and film Six Degrees of Separation
• Konrad Kujau (1938–2000) - German forger of the supposed Hitler Diaries
• Eduardo de Valfierno – Argentine con man who allegedly masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911

Living people

• Frank Abagnale (1948) — U.S. cheque forger and impostor; his autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, was made into a movi^e
• Peter Foster (1962) — Australian conman with convictions and imprisonment on three continents for fraud and money laundering, known for the Bai Lin slimming tea scam and involvement in property transactions with Cherie Blair.
• Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (1961) — Bavarian-born con artist who, for nearly two decades, claimed to be a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family.
• Robert Hendy-Freegard (1971) — Briton who kidnapped people by impersonating an MI5 agent and conned them out of money.
• James Arthur Hogue (1959) — U.S. impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan
• Clifford Irving (1930) — U.S. writer, best known for a false "authorized autobiography" of Howard Hughes.
• Samuel Israel III (1959) — Ran the former fraudulent Bayou Hedge Fund Group; faked suicide.
• Bon Levi (1943) — Aka Ron the Con and Ronald Frederick. Arguably Australia's most notorious conman who tricked Australian and U.S. citizens into investing in scam franchise businesses. He has been jailed both in Australia and the United States.
• Bernard Lawrence Madoff (1938) — American former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market who admitted running a world-record $65 billion Ponzi scheme. Headed the hedge fund Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC until his arrest in 2008. In March 2009 he pled guilty to 11 federal crimes.
• Matt the Knife (1981) — American-born card cheat and pickpocket who bilked corporations, casinos, and at least one Mafia crime family.
• Barry Minkow (1967) — American entrepreneur. His company, ZZZZ Best, cost investors an estimated $100 million before he served seven years in prison for fraud and other offenses.
• Semion Mogilevich (1946) — is a billionaire organized crime boss and a global con artist believed by European and United States federal law enforcement agencies to be the "boss of bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world.
• Lou Pearlman (1954) — U.S. businessman and manager of boy bands, sentenced to 25 years for operating a Ponzi investment scheme
• Casey Serin (1982) — Self-confessed mortgage fraudster who became the "poster child" of the housing bubble.
• Solomon Dwek (c.1973) Syrian-Jewish Orthodox rabbi and real estate investor from Deal, New Jersey who pleaded guilty to a $50,000,000 bank fraud involving PNC Bank.
• Michael Sabo (1945) Best known for his history as a check, stocks and bonds forger. He became notorious in the 1960s and throughout the 1990s as a "Great Impostor", and was featured on national TV, had over 100 aliases, and earned millions.
• Peter Popoff - German-born American con man who takes in money by promising wealth and other benefits to be sent by God.

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You Can't Cheat an Honest Man: How Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Frauds Work...And Why They're More Common Than Ever
Need and Greed: The True Story of the Largest Ponzi Scheme in American History
The Hit Charade: Lou Pearlman, Boy Bands, and the Biggest Ponzi Scheme in U.S. History