Elizabeth Holmes and other scammers who inspired TV series

It's always fascinating to retrace how a fraudster was able to fool so many people with so much success. It is no wonder, then, that streaming platforms have been making films and series about the most famous scammers. This photo gallery gives some examples and tells the story behind them. Check it out!

When personal ambition is everything, even the health of thousands of people can be put to the test. 'The Dropout' tells the story of Elizabeth Holmes, a university student who founds the company Theranos and challenges the conventions of medicine. She promises the possibility of performing medical tests at home by drawing just one drop of blood. 

Based on the true story of Elizabeth Holmes, the limited series reveals how the college dropout managed to attract billions of dollars in investments with a false promise. In the photo is actress Amanda Seyfried who won a Primetime Emmy for playing Elizabeth Holmes.

After years of spending millions, the Theranos hoax was discovered. Investigators and investors realized that none of the Theranos equipment was working well and that all funding had been based on a false promise. In 2022, Holmes was found guilty of fraud by a California court.

In this photo, the real Elizabeth Holmes.

This series arrived on Netflix in early February 2022 and was an absolute success. It tells the true story of the fake socialite Anna Sorokin, commonly known as Anna Delvey.

In the photo, actress Julia Garner plays the fraudster.

Considered one of the biggest scammers of the century, Anna Sorokin (photo) pretended to be a German heiress and managed to get New York socialites to pay for her dinners, hotels, and a fake art gallery project with millions of dollars.

Anna Sorokin was charged with fraud, served a sentence in a New York jail, and is currently fighting deportation from the United States. Her visa to the country is no longer valid, but she insists on staying in the city where she once was a star.

A documentary rather than a drama series, 'The Tinder Swindler' tells the stories of the victims of Simon Leviev. This man has been accused of deceiving women by posing as a diamond tycoon on Tinder.

Behind his charm and ostentatious luxury, the victims eventually discovered a pyramid scheme that allowed Leviev to extract absurd amounts of money from them and still remain a free man.

'Dirty John' is another series that serves as a warning to people looking for love on the internet.

Based on real events, 'Dirty John' tells the story of Debra Newell, who, after a few failed relationships, tries to find new love on dating sites.

In the photo, Connie Britton and Eric Bana as the protagonists.

In one of the sites, Debra meets John Meehan, an apparently successful anesthesiologist with whom she marries after two months. What she doesn't know is that her husband has a hidden past and that she is not safe with him.

In the photo, Debra and John in real life.

Right at the beginning of this documentary, viewers are faced with a moving account of the children of a woman who is said to have disappeared after embarking on a relationship with a man named Dave.

Over the course of three episodes of ' The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman,' it is revealed that the man is a fake. He kidnapped and extorted money from victims in an unbelievable way: he pretended to be a British spy who'd been sent to protect them.

Scammers often spare no effort to achieve fortune and power. They may even teach others how to apply the blows.

'Generation Hustle' is a documentary series, divided into 10 parts, that addresses a net of fraudsters and shows how far young people can go to reach the level of wealth and power that they desire.

This documentary series tells the story of the LuLaRoe brand, a marketing company that went viral. It promised young mothers they could get rich by working from home.

The founders of LuLaRoe set up a billion-dollar pyramid scheme and recruited an army of resellers to market their wares, which were always full of flaws and increasingly outlandish.

This documentary series tells the story of Uncle Jerry, a criminal genius, who, from 1989 to 2001, swindled thousands of dollars by defrauding McDonald's Monopoly promotional game.

The scheme consisted of stealing valuable cards from the game, selecting the winners manually, deceiving the authorities and sharing the prizes illegally.

Patricia Arquette plays Dee Dee Blanchard, a mother going around asking for help in raising and supporting her daughter, a supposedly disabled and sick child with asthma and leukemia. In the end, it all turns out to be a fraud.

The girl, Gypsy Rose Blanchard (photographed here in real life with her mother Dee Dee), was not sick at all. Her mother forced her to play along so that they could get money and perks from local and national organizations, family, and friends.

The story between Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee ended rather badly. You can see it both in the drama series 'The Act' and in the documentary 'Mommy Dead and Dearest.'

This documentary tells the story of Marcelo Nascimento, a man who gained fame for assuming different identities and defrauding people wherever he went.

Whether he posed as a pilot or as the guitarist of the band 'Engenheiros do Hawaii,' for Marcelo, there was no limit to what he could invent. His use of identities was always adapted to the needs of the situation.

Nascimento's most famous performance was the time when he pretended to be the son of the owner of Gol, one of the largest aviation companies in Brazil. He even granted an interview to the TV program 'Amaury Júnior.'

Marcelo's story was also turned into a movie: 'Vips'. Starring Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, it was the big winner of the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival in 2010.