"A fool and his money are easy to part." ( or something
similar) P. T. Barnum

"There's a sucker born every minute." a banker and competitor
of P. T. Barnum
named David Hannum, owner of the Cardiff Giant (which later
turned out to be a hoax).

http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/barnum/

And the internet didn't even exist in those years, 1890s

{;-) GC