The Perfect Scam

In this bonus episode, fraud expert Frank Abagnale joins us to use Google’s autocomplete function to ask some of the internet’s most burning questions, such as How do you spot a scam on Facebook marketplace? What are scammers doing with gift cards? And… Did Frank really escape from a plane?

Five days after her husband’s funeral, Janet gets a call. The woman on the line claims to be from the state retirement system calling about a $50,000 life insurance policy belonging to Janet’s husband. But there’s an issue: A few late payments mean that the system can’t pay out the policy unless Janet comes up with $4,450 to pay the overdue balance.

After being a widow for almost a decade, Debbie tells her kids that she’s interested in looking for love again. She finds a match on a dating site, so when another man she chats with while playing an online game expresses interest in her, she tells him she has a boyfriend. Little does Debbie know, both men are scammers, and it will take her family’s best efforts to pull her out of their web. 

What do you do when you learn your parent is wrapped up in a scam? Christine’s mother is a giving, caring woman who never raised her voice in anger throughout Christine’s childhood. But when her mother starts online dating, her personality changes. Now she’s up at all hours of the night texting with a man she’s never met. She’s dismissive and easily angers if family members question the relationship. When her mother begins giving this new online boyfriend her hard-earned money, Christine really starts worrying, and with good reason. Christine’s mom, it turns out, is addicted to her online relationships forged with multiple scam artists. Across the country, another family deals with a similar issue.

Every year mortgage closing scams cost homebuyers millions of dollars and, tragically, sometimes even their homes. These scams aren’t new, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a rise in this type of fraud. We hear from Paul, who moved back to his hometown to care for his mother but finds that his life savings and his new home are in jeopardy because of a scam. We speak with experts and victims about how these schemes work, who’s operating them, and what to look out for.

Credit card con artist Lisa Reid’s methods are sophisticated, creative and callous. After gaining credit card information from the wealthy seniors she targets, Lisa goes on lavish shopping sprees at high-end retailers, leaving her victims with bills of hundreds of thousands of dollars. But when one of her victims teams up with the FBI, this credit card con queen is finally brought to justice. 

Danny searches for a new four-legged best friend after his beloved Weimaraner dies of cancer. Alison looks for a second Maine coon to keep her current cat company after a difficult move. Both families find themselves caught in the web of online con artists riding the rising wave of pandemic demand for pets.

Even though they live in different states Larry Davis, 74, regularly speaks to and visits his 85-year-old stepmother, Kise, so he is stunned when her neighbor calls to inform him that someone came and took her away. Determined to help his stepmother, Larry embarks on a long legal battle to bring Kise home.

Reality TV producer Johnathan Walton discovers that his neighbor and best friend, Mair Symth, is not who she claims to be. Not only is Mair lying about having a multimillion-dollar inheritance, she’s using these lies to extract money from Johnathan. As her web of lies unravels, Johnathan discovers Mair’s other victims and makes it his mission to stop his former best friend from hurting anyone else.

Reality TV producer Johnathan Walton has worked on shows like American Ninja Warrior and Shark Tank. But for Walton, the most vicious shark he ever encounters comes in the form of a new neighbor, Mair Smyth. Claiming to be Irish royalty, Smyth says she is battling her family for a $25 million inheritance. The two develop a friendship, until Walton discovers his new best friend is an international con artist who’s stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from multiple people, including him.