Editing Victor Lustig (section)

==Rumanian Box scam==
One of Lustig's most notable scams was known as the "money box" or "Rumanian Box".<ref name=Maurer/>{{rp|414–7}} It involved selling unsuspecting [[Confidence trick#Terminology|marks]] a machine that could duplicate any currency that was inserted into it. The only catch being that the device needed six hours to print a copy. The machine was actually a specially designed mahogany box, roughly the size of a steamer trunk. The box featured two small slots to take in the money and the printing paper. It also held a fake mechanism with dummy levers.

Lustig would demonstrate the machine by asking the mark for a specific bill (e.g. $100). He would insert it and the blank paper, then wait with the mark for the machine to work. Lustig had already stocked the machine with a genuine bill to match the one the mark inserted. When the planted bill was produced, Lustig would take the mark to a bank to authenticate the note. Once the mark was convinced, Lustig would sell the money box for an exorbitant sum.<ref name= "Lus Bio" /><ref name="Smoothest"/><ref name="Lus Pois" />

Lustig once sold a money box to a [[Texas]] sheriff for thousands of dollars. Upon realizing he had been tricked, the sheriff pursued Lustig to [[Chicago]]. The cornered Lustig conned the sheriff into believing that he was not operating the device correctly. Lustig gave him a large sum of cash as compensation, but the bills were [[counterfeit currency|counterfeit]]. This counterfeiting would eventually lead to Lustig's arrest by American law enforcement officers.<ref name="Smoothest"/>