(Mental Floss) -- Investigators are trying to figure out whether the financial fraud allegedly perpetrated by Bernard L. Madoff was, in fact, the largest Ponzi scheme in history. The alleged scam, which cost investors $50 billion, sounds like a classic Ponzi racket. The New York home of Bernard Madoff, who's accused in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. But what is a Ponzi scheme? And why does it bear this name? First, you need to know a little bit about its namesake, Charles Ponzi. Anyone can work a simple swindle, but you have to be a special kind of con man to have your name become synonymous with "fraud." Ponzi pulled it off, though. After arriving in the U.S. from Italy in 1903, Ponzi knocked around in a variety of unskilled jobs that usually ended when he got into trouble for theft or cheating customers.Charles Ponzi was a real person who swindled investors in a postal scamPonzi pocketed millions and enjoyed life but a publisher was suspiciousWall Street Journal's Clarence Barron printed front page story slamming PonziPonzi served time, was deported and died in 1949 -- buried in a pauper's grave
Since there were only 27,000 postal reply coupons circulating in the world, _'s story didn't check out.