The Interestingness of Scams

This week I started watching Fyre, the Netflix documentary about the fraudulent Fyre Festival orchestrated by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule. It’s a strange movie to watch. Some parts feel very scripted, and at times the interviewees feel a little bit, well, cast. The story itself, though, is incredibly compelling: Billy McFarland managed to scam rich people into buying very expensive tickets to a music festival that didn’t quite happen.

I have always been fascinated with scams, cons, and heists. My friends and I will watch Ocean’s Eleven every couple years and it brings into focus…