The Perfect Scam

Believing he has won a multimillion-dollar lottery prize, Paul heads to the airport to claim his winnings. When he returns empty-handed, his son Brad learns that his father has wired $50,000 in prize fees to criminals outside the country. Despite Brad’s efforts to convince his father of the scam, Paul remains optimistic the prize money is still coming and sends even more money, nearly $150,000. Desperate, Brad enlists the help of a police detective and becomes conservator of his parents’ finances. But to Brad’s dismay, this is only the beginning.

Recently widowed, Janet has dedicated her life to helping others. When a friend tells her about a charity serving disabled veterans, she is eager to do what she can. The founder, John Paul Hope, is disabled and ill with terminal cancer. Together, they come up with a plan: Janet will give John Paul three acres of the land on her ranch on which he will build tiny homes for veterans in need. After the deed is signed, she realizes he has actually taken 30 acres! Janet comes to the terrible realization that John Paul Hope is not who he says he is. 

After building up his side business and Instagram following over a few years, Tim takes the leap to run his business full time. When he sees a testimonial video from an Instagram friend boasting of her successful cryptocurrency investment, he decides to make a small investment with extra cash from his booming sales. He is, in turn, asked to make his own testimonial. Before he knows what has happened, his account has been hijacked and a hacker is using the video to steal money from his friends.

The Perfect Scam returns February 11th with more shocking tales of fraud and deceit. Host Bob Sullivan, along with fraud experts, helps equip listeners with the tools to protect themselves against scams.

In the 2019 episode, the FBI is on to Farid Fata, an oncology doctor in Michigan who has been administering unnecessary cancer treatments in order to steal $34 million from Medicare. George, the practice’s office manager, has gathered enough evidence to bring the case to the authorities. It lands of the desk of Agent Drake during his first week with the FBI’s health care fraud team. Investigators are disgusted by what they find and work to bring Fata to justice.

In this 2019 episode, when oncologist Soe Maunglay moves to Michigan, he’s excited to join Farid Fata’s practice. But Fata’s controlling and odd ways make him question his decision to take the job. When Maunglay looks into a patient’s records, he’s shocked at what he finds: Fata is giving chemotherapy and other treatments to patients who don’t need it, some of whom don’t have cancer at all. His motive? Stealing money from Medicare.

In this 2019 episode, a bustling oncology practice in Michigan is hiding something sinister. Patients come to Farid Fata at their most vulnerable, after they’ve been diagnosed with cancer or to receive the life-altering diagnosis. But when Angela, an oncology nurse, arrives at one of Fata’s well-regarded clinics for an interview, she finds that nothing is as it seems. Horrified by what she sees, she reports the doctor for committing an unthinkable form of Medicare fraud.

When 96-year-old Mary steps off the plane in California for a vacation with her sisters, her niece can tell that something isn’t right. Her normally vibrant aunt looks tired and frazzled. But the truth is even wilder than she thinks: Aunt Mary believes she’s in the midst of an elaborate operation working with a government agent to catch the criminals who have stolen her identity.

In this 2019 episode, journalist Alex Palmer tells the story of his great-granduncle, colorful conman John Duval Gluck, who created the Santa Claus Association. Before Gluck started his charity, letters from New York City children to Santa were destroyed, unopened, by the U.S. Post Office. Gluck saw an opportunity and created the Santa Claus Association in 1913. The organization claimed to use the donations it collected to answer children’s letters to Santa and deliver them Christmas gifts. For a time, the charity did just that. For 15 years money and gifts flowed to the association, and Gluck became a Jazz Age celebrity. But efforts to crack down on corruption in New York ultimately resulted in the uncovering of irregularities that would lead to the charity’s downfall. 

When Shirley Gibson learns that her property in Miami’s historic West Grove neighborhood has been sold by someone using a forged deed, she is determined to fight. Working together with journalist Phil Prazen and lawyer David Winker, they uncover an elaborate real estate scam targeting dozens of elderly property owners in this historically Black neighborhood. Law enforcement is soon on the trail of the criminals, but will Shirley get her land back?