9. A Career Criminal Systematically Cataloged the Scam
In the television series Dexter, a serial killer works for the Miami police department. The people that he works for aren’t aware that he works nights as a vigilante, killing people who prey upon innocent victims before butchering them and dumping their bodies into the ocean. He uses his own criminal mind as a serial killer to help solve mysteries that no one else might be able to answer. He had a lot in common with Eugene Francois Vidocq, someone who used the knowledge and understanding from his criminal past to become the world’s first private investigator.
To avoid serving a lengthy prison term, Vidocq offered to work for the criminal department in Paris. He argued that he had renounced his illegal ways and possessed unique expertise that he could put to good use. The authorities agreed, and he went on to make an important discovery: a persistent scam in which someone would ask for some money up front with the promise of massive rewards down the line. Vidocq found out that this type of fraud went at least as far back as the French Revolution. He was the first person to catalog this kind of scam systematically.