THE MAN WHO SOLD THE EIFFEL TOWER.

THE MAN WHO SOLD THE EIFFEL TOWER. I posted recently about confidence men who use empty offices. Years ago, I read about a legendary French confidence man whose great coup had been to sell the Eiffel Tower. In fact he sold it to more than one purchaser. His targeted customers were scrap metal dealers in the Paris area. He found an empty office in the appropriate government building and met there several times with each of his targets, explaining that the Eiffel Tower was going to have to come down because of structural flaws and asking them to bid on the scrap value. Of course they were going to be given an advantage in the purchasing process. His master stroke was to ask for a bribe, which convinced his marks that he really was a government official.