Can you spot a con artist?

Who is the con artist?

There is no definitive "look" of a con artist. They may dress well and look professional. They may seem as comfortable to you as a neighbor on your street, the owner of a local business you frequent, a relative - someone you trust.

Take a look at these con artists. Some of them are real con artists, and some of them are not. Guess which ones you think are the con artists, then click on the picture to see if you’re right.

You're right! C. Wesley Rhodes, Jr. West Linn. This financial adviser misappropriated approximately $16 million in investor funds to purchase collector cards, art, and a lavish lifestyle. To further his scheme, he created and distributed fictitious account statements that purportedly represented actual stocks held in his clients' accounts. He pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of money laundering and received a 10-year federal prison sentence in February 2009. Click here to close	You're right! Stacey Lynne Smith Yachats. Along with her husband, she raised more than $1 million from approximately 27 investors who purchased stock and notes from their two companies. The Smiths invested most of the money they raised in two speculative companies that never turned a profit. They diverted more than $200,000 of the investor funds to their personal use, including a Hawaiian trip, Cartier jewelry, and day-today living expenses. At the time, neither the Smiths nor their companies were licensed to sell securities, and the investments they sold were not registered. In May 2007, Smith was given 30 days home confinement, five years of supervised probation, and 320 hours of community service. As part of their sentences, the Smiths were ordered to pay about $600,000 in victim restitution. Click here to close	You're right! Michael Wayne Smith Yachats. Michael Smith was sentenced in May 2007 to a 57-month state prison sentence after pleading guilty to racketeering, theft and aggravated theft. He and his wife, Stacey Lynne Smith, raised more than $1 million from about 27 investors and diverted more than $200,000 for their own use including a trip to Hawaii, Cartier jewelry and day-to-day living expenses. The funds they raised were invested in two speculative companies that never turned a profit. Neither of the Smiths were licensed to sell securities nor were the securities registered. Click here to close	You're right! Jeffrey Louis Moore Oregon City. Moore was an insurance agent who, along with his longtime partner, Edward Michael Johnson of Milwaukie, took money from family members, longtime friends, employees - anyone who trusted them - to invest in a number of "opportunities" including an invention that could turn water into electricity and an overseas business that could double their money in a year. Investors' money was actually spent on a Lexus for Johnson, a Rose Garden suite for Moore, and payments to earlier investors - a characteristic Ponzi scheme. He served a two-year state prison sentence and is now under two years of post-prison supervision. He was required to sell his home in order to pay $310,000 in restitution for bilking his investors. Click here to close	You're right! Phyllis Rich Bend. Along with her husband, Michael Rich, she convinced more than 250 people to invest nearly $20 million in trust deeds ostensibly secured by properties in Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Hawaii. They used the money to purchase a corporate jet and exotic vacations. She pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud and one tax charge in 2006. She served about 2-1/2 years of a 51-month federal prison sentence and is responsible for paying more than $23 million in restitution. Click here to close	You're right! Yongsu Meade Beaverton. She took in approximately $2 million from at least 20 investors purportedly to trade in foreign currencies in the international foreign exchange market. Meade led her investors to believe that she was generating positive monthly returns trading foreign currencies, but in a typical Ponzi scheme, the “profits” returned to investors were usually other investors’ money. When Meade did trade in the foreign currency market, she lost significant amounts of investors’ money. In September 2009 she pleaded guilty to aggravated theft and for selling unregistered securities and was sentenced to 57 months in state prison and was ordered to pay more than $644,000 in restitution. Due to the statute of limitations, the state was only able to prosecute Meade for defrauding four investors. Click here to close	You're right! Matthew Opperman Sandy. In a scheme that lasted nearly four years, Opperman sold $555,000 worth of securities to Oregon investors that represented interests in high-end cattle and bucking bulls and their progeny. Opperman wasn’t licensed to sell the investments, nor were the securities registered as required by Oregon law. As part of the fraud, he altered registration paperwork connected to the bulls so investors were unaware they were investing in the same animals that were offered and sold to others. Opperman was sentenced to 60 months in state prison after pleading guilty to racketeering, first-degree forgery and securities fraud. He also was ordered to pay more than $400,000 in restitution. Click here to close
You're right! Michael Rich Bend. Convinced more than 250 people to invest nearly $20 million in trust deeds ostensibly secured by properties in Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Hawaii. He and his wife used the money to purchase a corporate jet and exotic vacations. Rich was convicted of securities fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice and tax fraud, and sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison in April 2008; he died two months later. Click here to close	You're right! Corey Pritchett Portland. This self-described pastor used various real estate-based scams to bilk victims, mostly low-income people out of at least $43,000. He was convicted in two Portland-area counties for theft, securities and real estate fraud and sentenced in 2008. Pritchett is currently serving a 13-year sentence in state prison and was ordered to pay restitution to each victim totaling more than $78,000. Click here to close	You're right! James C. Nistler Medford. Operated a complex real estate Ponzi scheme to defraud investors. Nistler, once a high-ranking U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development official in the late 1980s, took in $1.2 million from investors to build houses on the proposed Tennessee Acres housing development, but actually spent less than $400,000 on the project. Nistler was unlicensed and the securities he sold were unregistered. About a dozen investors, mostly elderly, lost more than $800,000. He was convicted of racketeering, securities fraud, and aggravated theft in the first degree and was sentenced to a 19-month suspended sentence in state prison; his case is under appeal. Click here to close	You're right! Edward Michael Johnson Milwaukie. Johnson and his business partner, Jeffrey Louis Moore, took money from family members, longtime friends, employees – anyone who trusted them – to invest in a number of “opportunities” including an invention that could turn water into electricity and an overseas business that could double their money in a year. Investors’ money was actually spent on a Lexus for Johnson, a Rose Garden suite for Moore, and payments to earlier investors – a characteristic of a Ponzi scheme. Johnson was sentenced in April 2008 to three years probation. He was required to sell his home in order to pay $200,000 in restitution. He died in August 2010. Click here to close	Oops! Try again. He is not a con artist. We’re just using him to show you that scammers can look like everyday people. Click here to close	You're right! Dennis Thaut Marcola. This financial adviser obtained almost $4 million from his clients but used it for his own personal expenses and to make monthly payments to his investors. Many of his clients were retirees who lost most, if not all, of their nest eggs. Taut was sentenced to 15 years in state prison in June 2009 after pleading guilty to 17 counts of aggravated first degree theft. Click here to close	You're right! Gilbert Pugliano Medford. Convinced friends and family members to invest in a land development project located in Montana. Pugliano told his investors they would see returns on their money invested once the land – belonging to Native Indian tribes – was developed. The problem is that it is illegal to purchase such land for development. Once Pugliano realized this, he did not pay back his investors. Instead he used their retirement funds to buy expensive cars and take luxury vacations. Pugliano was sentenced to 33 months in state prison on multiple counts of racketeering, first-degree theft, and securities fraud. He also received three years probation and will be ordered to pay yet-to-be determined restitution to his victims. Click here to close

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C. Wesley Rhodes, Jr.

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Stacey Lynne Smith

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Michael Wayne Smith

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Jeffrey Louis Moore

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Phyllis Rich

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Yongsu Meade

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Matthew Opperman

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Michael Rich

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Corey Pritchett

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James C. Nistler

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Edward Michael Johnson

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Dennis Thaut

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Gilbert Pugliano