The Yellow Kid was an infamous "con man" in the United States earlier in this century. He sold talking dogs that couldn't. He apparently tried selling the Brooklyn Bridge and Cook County Hospital to unsuspecting buyers.
One of his most memorable scams was rigging up an abandoned bank, staffing it with local pool hall characters, and filling money sacks with slugs. He then brought in a businessman from out of town and got him to invest.
The key to his "success" was fraud. He perverted truth in order to get people to surrender what rightfully belonged to them. He created a world that didn't exist, and in that misconceived setting he was able to accomplish his larceny fairly easily.
