Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of Scam Factory early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Imagine. A new side hustle has just landed in your lap. Like literally landed in your lap. All you had to do was respond to a random Facebook post and boom.
Hi, I'm Luna from Hotel Hub. Our recruitment team sent us your application. Are you looking for an online booking assistant job? Luna gets you set up in the company's WhatsApp group called Deal Smashers. with a dollar sign eyes emoji and its tongue sticking out. The gig is super easy. Review a few hotels and make a couple hundred bucks. Now that you've gone through the training, I'll start assigning your reviews so you can get started.
Plus, Luna seems really nice. You can add my personal WhatsApp. We can chat there. Her picture on WhatsApp shows a pretty smiling woman who looks very approachable. She sends you photos of her dog, her meals. Shares tidbits about her day. Asks how you're doing. Have you eaten yet? I just sat down to eat lunch. You come to like Luna, to trust her. She uses a lot of emojis. She really likes the smiling one.
With the blushing cheeks. Good morning. Are you starting your work day? I just got to the office. But you're definitely paying attention to the wrong things about Luna. You're really easy to talk to. Because with her... Nothing about your chats are casual. I'm so happy we're co-workers. It's all part of a plan. The truth is... There is no Luna. I got all the photos on Instagram. There's just a man on the other side of the world using stolen Instagram photos to make you believe Luna's real.
A man armed with a fake profile and a script with exactly what to say to earn your trust. To butter you up. So that you'll eventually give him your own money. You're being fattened. like a pig before the slaughter. But while your new job is going to cost you hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars, this man's job might just cost him his life.
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Treatments will only be prescribed if deemed appropriate by a qualified healthcare professional following a consultation. I'm Afua Hirsch. I'm Peter Frankopan. And in our podcast, Legacy, we explore the lives of some of the biggest characters in history. This season, we're talking about the singer and songwriter John Lennon. His band, The Beatles, smashed musical conventions.
caused hysterical adulation and are still the biggest selling band of all time. But that adoration obscured a complex and combustible character. He might have been singing Give Peace a Chance, but his personal life was often far... So who was the man behind the round glasses and how does his legacy hold up today? What about you, Aphrod? What's going to ring your bell about John Lennon? Is it the man, the music? There is something about the iconography of Lennon. He's got such mystique.
around him. And I cannot wait to dig in and separate facts and fiction and find out who he really was. And of course, he started the Russian Revolution in 1917. Oh no, that's a different Lenin altogether. Follow Legacy now from wherever you get your podcasts. And binge entire seasons early and ad-free on Wondery+. From Wondery, I'm Denise Chan. And this... is scam factory.
One of my first jobs right out of college was doing sales. And man, it was stressful. I had to cold call hundreds of strangers a week to pitch them something they'd never heard of before. And there was the added pressure of closing the sale because part of my pay was from commission. No quota, no pay. I had to learn quick. Luckily, the formula to selling is actually quite simple.
You start by casting a wide net. It's a numbers game. The goal is just to tell as many people as possible about your offer and see what bites. After you get the right person on the phone and deliver your memorized pitch, you hit the next stage. objection handling. You'll get some variation of the question. Is this product too good to be true? What's the catch? Is it worth the money? Now here is where the very good salespeople rise above the others.
How you address those concerns will determine whether the person on the other line will choose to trust you. If they trust you, you've already closed the sale. And that's the formula. You pitch. You handle objections. And you make promises earnestly. Which isn't unlike the formula to scamming. A scam artist does all those same things. But the difference, and it's a big one, is that those earnest promises...
are false. But it makes you think, if you can turn a regular person like me into a salesperson, with a little bit of training and a script, couldn't you just as easily turn them into a scam artist? Most people don't want a scam. But what if they didn't have a choice? This is Episode 1, Shoot to Kill. It was a beautiful, warm Sunday, and the atmosphere was atmosphering. It was only November, but the Christmas spirit was in full force at a mall in Metropolitan Manila in the Philippines.
Cheerful shoppers took pictures in front of a gigantic orange Christmas tree sculpture. A woman in her late 30s with buzzed hair and sunglasses walked past the tree. She stepped into an upscale modern Filipino restaurant. It's a fancy place, all right? She looked sharp. She was dressed in a men's white t-shirt tucked into gray slacks. And she was here to learn more about a job.
It's just going to be like a simple launch, like beat and greet, and we have a chance to talk and ask questions for this employer. I'm going to call her Charlie. It's not a real name, like almost everyone in this story. Their names have been changed for reasons that will become obvious. Anyway, Charlie and her girlfriend were here with Charlie's youngest brother, Max, because he was very interested in a new job opportunity abroad.
I was like, OK, can I join? Because I was very curious what's going on, what he's into. Max was in his late 20s now with young kids of his own. But to Charlie, he was still her kid brother. I am the eldest. I am always the one who takes care of everything because my parents are already old.
They always say ate because when you say the word ate, that's what we call the older sister. So everyone's like, ate, can you help me on this? Ate, can you help me on that? So I am really eager to know everything. Charlie knew that Max was worried about money. He was making about $250 a month giving rides to people in their family van. But after the pandemic, business had fallen off. And nowadays, the rising price of gas meant, when Max did get a booking?
Sometimes he wouldn't even make a profit off it. So Charlie understood why Max was interested in this job in Thailand. He'd said it was some sort of online casino gig. And more importantly, it paid about $1,000 per month. He just wanted to have a good future for his kids. Charlie had never heard of this company. But she knew working outside of the country could be sketchy.
I wanted to make sure first that they will be going in a legitimate company. As Max and the group made small talk, Charlie kept her eye on the entrance. So I was in a... But the man who walked in wasn't that. He was somewhere in late 30s. Not very tall guy. Curly hair. He was wearing shorts, t-shirts, like a body bag. They call it a body bag. Body bag. Like a fanny pack. And then slippers. The guy with the fanny pack and slippers sat down. He looked Chinese.
His first words were, why did you not order yet? And then he started calling the waiter and then distributing the menus to the people. And then he said, order what you want to eat and I'll pay for it. He was like, very generous. The man introduced himself. We'll call him Dev. Dev was friendly, chill even. You will not feel intimidated at him even though he is like the quote-unquote employer. He was cool. He sounds so nice.
Dev got down to business. He reiterated the basics of the job. Thailand, online casino, $1,000 a month. And he just said that everything will be for free. accommodations and food would be provided, and that they'd be staying at a job campus that had everything they needed. Workers wouldn't even have to leave. As the others around the table piled pieces of pork and fish onto their plates,
Charlie kept focused on Dev, asking question after question. The thing is, this is going to be about my brother. That's why I kept on asking questions. She asked Dev about visas, work permits, and how they get employees out of the country. She asked whether they were licensed and even the logistics of travel. He was very, very, very friendly. Like he was ready to tell everything or answer every damn question that I throw at him.
And when Charlie asked Dev about whether it was actually safe, he said 100% safe. He looks very soon here. He's talking like eye to eye. He's having an eye to eye contact. After that lunch, Dev even offered Charlie a free plane ticket to go see for herself. She flew to Bangkok and traveled to the place where Max would be working. After three days checking things out, she felt reassured.
She flew home and told Max the place was cool. If he wanted to take the job, it seemed safe to do so. Because I already have an idea. If shit happened, I know where to find you. A week later, Mac sat in the back of an SUV on his way to his new job. He had finally landed in Bangkok. He was 1,400 miles away from home, with the South China Sea between him and his family for the next year.
But his journey was only just getting started. Beside him sat a woman who was also from the Philippines, heading to the same area. Max, as you'll hear, is a pretty matter-of-fact kind of guy. He doesn't elaborate much on details. Max just isn't a man of many words. And so he sat largely in silence in the back of the SUV.
The driver turned onto the highway, and Max looked out his window watching the crowded cityscape outside. Colorful billboards with Thai advertisements hung in front of buildings. Street vendors lined the sidewalk. Motorbikes darted between cars. An hour passed. Then another. They had left the city far behind. And now all Max could see were trees and the occasional gas station and roadside vendor.
They tried to ask the driver where they were going, how much longer it would take. But the driver just responded with no English and kept driving. How far was this campus exactly? The sun had set, and beside him, his travel companion looked antsy. The driver had turned off the big highway, and now they were driving up a mountain. The place is so dark.
The car swayed from side to side as the driver zigzagged on the windy road. The two of them held on to whatever they could grab to steady themselves. Outside, Max could see they were surrounded by trees in the middle of a forest. He looked at his phone. It had been five hours since they'd started driving. There was no cell service. Max's companion was getting worried, and he tried to comfort her. He told her, don't worry, I'm here. But even Max was getting a little anxious.
At 11 p.m. that night, seven hours after they left the airport, the driver turned down an unmarked road and slowed to a stop in front of a hotel. As the two of them got out of the car, It was eerily dark and quiet outside. A wooden sign with the name of the hotel in Thai was nestled between two trees. Other than a few houses on the road, it was mostly farmland.
Someone told them, go inside and rest. They'd continue in the morning. Wait, they still weren't there? Max and the woman stepped into their hotel and slept for just a couple hours. By 5 a.m. the next morning, they were back on the road. 25 to 30 minutes of off-road driving. The whole car shook as it sped along an unpaved path.
When the car parked, Max and the woman were met by some local men. They gestured to follow them. They walked down a dirt path covered in shrubs to the edge of a muddy river. The small metal boat that could fit maybe five people waited for them at the shore. This was the way to the office? Max and his companion were told to climb in and keep quiet. Neither of them knew what was going on.
but they obeyed. A couple minutes later, the boat made its way to the other side. The local men told them to grab their luggage and help them to climb a steep hill up from the riverbank. As soon as they got to the top of the hill, that's when they saw the men with guns. The men in military uniforms told them to get into their pickup truck.
Another 20 minutes later, the truck drove down an unmarked road alongside a tall cement wall with barbed wire at the top. It looked like a prison. The car slowed down when it reached a gate. Men wearing sarongs with guns slung over their shoulders stood by a hut manning the entrance. They waved the car through. Max peered out the window. Suddenly...
the large patches of farmland were gone. Rows of tall buildings with manicured bushes and trees surrounded him. Expensive German cars were parked right on the street. It was... Like he'd entered a mini pop-up city. Lines of Chinese restaurants, boutique shops selling clothing, stores selling electronic gadgets, basketball courts, a hospital, grocery store.
bars, even a casino. His driver dropped him off and a guide came to greet him. The guide brought him to the store to purchase a mattress and pillow. Then they walked over to the employee canteen to get him sorted with a meal card. After the quick tour, Max's guide brought him back to a block of identical four-story buildings. The rows of boxers, t-shirts, and pants hanging off each balcony were a dead giveaway that these were the dorms.
His guide showed Max to his room and said he'd be back to bring him to the office at 5 p.m. when his shift started. Max took a look around. He could see a balcony and four bunk beds. It looked decent. Max walked over to his bed and set his things down quietly. His new roommates were asleep, even though it was the middle of the day. Like Max, they were working the night shift. He'd meet them later. For now...
He was glad to finally rest after the long journey here. At 5 p.m., Max walked into his new office. It was huge. Hundreds of people were sitting in rows and rows of desks, typing away on computers and smartphones. It looked like a typical call center. Max's team leader took him over to his team section. Max counted 14 co-workers staring blankly at their screens. They were all too busy working to talk. It was awkward, like how first days at work usually are.
Max sat down at his new desk and was given some training materials. He was told to read the script. There would be a test. Max did what he was told, watching his co-workers screen so he could follow what they were doing. But he was starting to get confused. The training material had nothing to do with online gambling. He looked around. No one had a slot machine or blackjack or anything that looked like gambling on their screens.
And the script on his screen was all about recruiting people for a new part-time gig. They were offering people jobs to review hotels. Finally, one of his co-workers looked up from their screen. I asked them what they are doing actually. Max told her that his sister had toured this company before. He was supposed to be working for an online gambling company. He asked his co-worker, where's the gambling? How could this be? He then asked his co-worker what exactly were they doing then?
Our job will be a scammer? Max went up to his team leader. He told him this couldn't be right. This wasn't what he had signed up for. His team leader told him this was his job now. And he should be careful. Because if he tried to escape this place, and someone caught him... It's a shoot to kill order. It's a shoot to kill order. Injustice, Killer Privilege is a new podcast available exclusively on Wondery Plus. It follows Katia Faber's fight for justice after her son, Alex Morgan.
was savagely killed by an ultra-rich socialite. Katia spent years working as a barrister in some of London's most shocking criminal cases before her son was killed. Yet the truth about what happened to him... turned out to be more extraordinary than any case she'd ever dealt with before. This is a story about the psychology of wealth, a mother's love.
and the terrifying consequences that can play out when the 1% stand accused of homicide. Listen to Injustice, Killer Privilege, exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Hello, I'm Matt Ford. And I'm Alice Levine. And we're the hosts of British Scandal, the wondering podcast that brings you the murkiest stories ever to take place.
on these odd little isles. And boy, oh boy, our next series is going to blow your mind. What happens when a rebellious English woman of unimaginable means meets a handsome, mustachioed Irish nationalist? I'm guessing it's a Molotov cocktail of scandal. You're always right, Matt. We're unravelling the wild story of Rose Dugdale, an upper-class English heiress who chucked it all away. to join the IRA. This is the IRA heiress. We've got robberies, hijacks, bombings...
and one of the most audacious art heists in British history. What drives a woman with the world at her feet to turn her back on it all and dedicate her life to ending British rule in Northern Ireland? Find out by following British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts. and binge entire seasons early and ad-free on Wondery+. I'm Indra Varma, and in the latest season of The Spy Who...
We open the file on the spies who invaded suburbia. The illegals weren't just blending in. They were the embodiment of the American dream. Nine to five jobs, dropping the kids off at soccer practice, and just the right amount of charm to slide into the orbits of the powerful.
But behind closed doors, they were Russian operatives, meticulously crafting coded messages and feeding Moscow everything it needed to stay one step ahead of the US. When a powerful mole reveals the names and locations of the undercover spies, the FBI finds itself walking a tightrope. Protect its most crucial informant whilst avoiding a catastrophic diplomatic firestorm.
Follow the Spy Who on the Wondery app or wherever you listen to podcasts. Or you can binge the full season of The Spies Who Invaded Suburbia early and ad-free with Wondery+. Charlie was working away in her office, which was really a room on the first floor of her family's home in the Philippines. The room had Wi-Fi and clean white walls.
perfect for Charlie to snap photos of thrifted clothes and post them to her online shop. It was the middle of the night, which was normal for her. She was a night owl. The items that I'm selling there are used clothes, so I have to make them look nice on the pictures. As she hung the wrinkled shirts on hangers and tried to smooth them out, her phone buzzed. It was Max. He messaged me that.
This is wrong. Max told her about the scamming. Max confirmed that it was not the job that they promised us. It was different. I was like, oh shit. And it wasn't just the job that was different. He asked the guy, how about the pay? The guy answered, what did I told you? They said $1,000. The guy laughed at him, like really hard. And then he said, you really got scammed.
It's only $300. So I was like, fuck. Where the hell did she just send her brother? I asked him to describe me the place. So he described the gate and the area. He sent some clips. of the buildings this is not the place that i went this is not the place that i visited she took a deep breath i tried to calm down as soon as i panicked
I cannot think properly anymore. So I made a strong decision that calm down, calm down, we will figure out everything. Once she got her own emotions in check, she texted Max back. I told him just to relax. So I just asked him to lay along. Just calm down. Lay along. Lay along. She told me, okay, listen, what they want you to do for now, just don't complain. Don't complain.
because Max was not in a safe place. Whatever they asked him to do, just do it for now. She would figure it out. But Charlie would soon find out it was even worse than she thought. Max wasn't in Thailand. He was actually in Myanmar. That little river with the little boat was a border. The men with sarongs and rifles, they were Burmese. Not Thai. Fuck. There's no law in that place. Myanmar was in the middle of a violent civil war. Some areas were controlled by the military.
Other areas were controlled by different rebel groups. And some areas were completely lawless. No government. No law enforcement. No one to help you. No one can get in there. It's like... If they killed him, we will not be able to find his body. If they do something bad to him, I don't think we can get him alive.
Max stood outside the office and took another drag of his cigarette. They were only allowed a few minutes a day to get outside for some fresh air. So he savored it, even if it was hot and sticky. As he stared off into space, grateful for a break, he saw someone approaching him with a giant smile spread across her face. She's very excited. Her eyes twinkled from beneath a pair of clear framed glasses.
and her short blonde hair bounced around her face. She introduced herself as Jane and asked to bum a cigarette. She's so happy. Oh, at last I can smoke Marlboro Blue. At last, a Marlboro Blue. She grabbed a smoke and explained that she arrived at the compound a few days earlier. Like Max, she was from the Philippines, and she was promised the moon.
$1,000 and free accommodation, free food, free of everything. Jane was told she'd be working for Amazon. Of course, Jane soon learned her recruiters did not work for Amazon. And nor did she. She'd be scamming. I refuse. I refuse to do it. And that is the time that they threat me. Just stay here and warn. Remember, we control this land.
We can kill anyone here. Jane didn't feel like she had much of a choice. I do not want to make my family worry. My plan is just to work, to finish the contract and leave that place. After that day, the two spent a lot of time together, since they worked for the same company. Their shift would start in the evening, which would be morning time for their customers over in the UK.
They would wake up at 3 p.m., have breakfast, then head upstairs to their office. First stop, their boss's desk, where they dropped off their phones. That is the time the boss will check our phones. They're going to check if we are doing something bad or something inappropriate. They're checking if we are trying to contact people outside. Max learned very quickly that whatever he sent to Charlie, he had to delete immediately.
They were constantly being monitored. There is a 24-7 CCTV in all the corners of the floor. Under the watchful eye of security cameras, the two of them sat down at their desks and pulled up their scripts. A word doc. with line after line of text messages and screenshots of sample conversations. The work was pretty self-explanatory. Pick up one of their many work iPhones, start chatting, and don't go off script.
It would always start off the same. Jane reached out with her opening line to some random person in the UK. If I were, say, one of Jane's targets in the UK, I'd get a message, out of the blue, not from Jane, but from one of her characters. Actually, most of our characters are females. The name of my character is Sheena Lucas.
Shayna would introduce herself as the HR manager for a hotel company on the search for part-time remote workers. I would then naturally ask her how she got my contact information. Your contact was provided by the Robert Hall Recruitment Agency. So every time the customer asks a question, we already have an answer. Oh, a recruiting agency recommended me? Honestly, I'm flattered. Tell me more. What's the job? What's the pay? A couple hundred dollars for a few hours of work? That sounds sweet.
Shayna would explain that all I'd have to do was rate and review hotels and earn commission for each review. Easy. I'd go through a quick one-hour training. Then Shayna would show me how to set up an account for my earnings. a crypto account that would link directly to my personal bank account. Then she would start assigning me hotels to review. But after working through a dozen or so reviews, racking up commissions,
my earnings would suddenly drop. I would freak out. Because what the fuck happened to all my commissions? Why do I now see a negative number in my account? A bonus? And Shayna would tell me, oh no, don't worry. This is a good thing. You can make even more money by booking hotels too.
Giving 5 to 10 percent commission. The hotel is willing to pay a big commission if I complete the booking because it makes the online reviews more legitimate. So all you need to do is, for the meantime, you need to deposit. Shaina tells me to just pay the negative amount displayed on the screen with my own money. That is one of the hardest part because I know most of the people will not believe it.
The trick is how are you going to convince the customer on putting money? How are you going to approach the customer to make them believe that everything there is true? At this point, I have doubts. I've never heard of something like this. So I'd ask Shaina, are you sure I need to put my own money in? Are you sure I'll get my money back? My approach, I do not want to convince the customer. I'm just saying, I'm just telling the customer.
Okay, if you don't want to do it, just leave it. Wait, wait, wait, wait. If I don't do it, what would happen to all the money I'd already earned? I've already raided a dozen hotels. If you don't want to continue, so you just leave it there. She's like, pay for the hotel booking, don't pay for the hotel booking. It's up to you. But hey, you'd be leaving money on the table if you quit now. Ugh, I'm conflicted. I don't want to lose the money I made raiding these hotels.
That's my money. I did the work. I asked Shayna again. Are you sure I'm going to make the money back? That is a time. That is a catch. That's a time that you're going to do the customer. Of course. Once you complete the reservation in your account, you might earn $150, $200. I assure you that. I am giving you my full assurance. With Shaina's full assurance, I decide to go for it. I complete the booking. And just like Shayna said, I get that extra 10% commission.
And I can transfer that money to my bank account, like, right away. And, of course, the customer will be happy. And you're going to be happy also. You're going to congratulate the customer. If you're going to do this every day, you'll return money. That worked out. Shayna pulled through. The next day, I'd start work again, leaving those reviews while sitting on the couch. But after a few more reviews, that negative number would appear again. I'd be told I have to pay for another booking.
Only this time, it was even more expensive. I'd ask Shana, wait, if I deposit this higher amount for this new booking, Would that mean I'd get a higher commission? Of course. All the money that you're going to deposit here will be doubled once you withdraw. By this point, I trust Shaina. If she says do it, I do it. And eventually...
I'd see the negative number again. But now, it's so high, I can't pay it with my own money. I'd tell Shana, I don't know what to do. I don't have enough money to unlock my earnings. that you are there to help him anytime he wants. How much did you have there? Say I need $500, but I can only afford to pay $300. Okay, can you deposit your $300? And I promise that I can help you to clear the other $200. Wow. Shayna was offering to help me pay the deposit out of her own pocket.
just so I can unlock my earnings. The customer will be happy. The customer will think that you are there to help, that he will be able to get his money back. But that would never happen. Eventually, when any of Jane's customers tried to get their money out, they couldn't. We call it killing. That is the killing day of the customer. The killing day.
See, Jane was trained to build trust with her customers, to encourage them to add more and more money. It was all by design. Like pigs before the slaughter, she would fatten them up. Until the customer had no more money to give. Until it was time for the kill. Of course, I'm not proud. I feel embarrassed to myself. Especially...
when Jane had customers who really trusted her, sometimes for months. I feel so sad to her because she keeps on finding money. She borrowed money from her friends, from her roommates, from her boss. just to invest because she believes that she will be able to get all the money that she invested. Telling me, at the end of the month, I'm gonna get my salary and I'm gonna deposit again. Please wait for me.
And even though Jane wanted so badly to tip her customers off. Our desktops are all monitored by our boss and leaders. I cannot reply. I cannot respond to her that I feel so sorry also that I scam her. If the boss or the leader will see it, my God, I'm going to receive a big punishment. But there'd be punishment too if she didn't scam. Every day we have $25,000 target. $25,000 divided to 13 people. Every agent should have at least $2,000 every day. Our leader...
keeps on pressuring us. You need to find sales, you need to get sales, you need to work hard, you need to double your work. Sometimes we are working 14, 15 or 16 hours a day. If they're still not meeting quota? The first punishment is you're not allowed to eat in the whole day. Second punishment is you need to pay. And after that is the time that you're going to receive physical punishment. A physical punishment.
like a beating. So Jane just tried her best, seven days a week, with maybe one day of rest a month. I'm scared and sad because I need to do this job. Because I do not have options. Jane did what she needed to. But she was also pretty good at all of this. And she brought in more and more money. $10,000, $20,000, $30,000.
The biggest sales that I contributed to the company is $50,000 in one month. Max, on the other hand, scraped by, hitting just the minimum to avoid punishment. I didn't have the luck to get the big customer. His biggest scam was about $12,000. But even as they slowly got used to it, the guilt weighed on them. Max would spend his time between shifts trying to get his mind off the job. Drink a beer or two.
call his girlfriend, try to erase his day. He didn't want to do any of this. But to survive, he had to do what they told him. And all he could do was hope. that Charlie would find a way to get him out soon. I always tell her that I want to go out of this place. Help me get out of this place. But Charlie was already 10 steps ahead of him. From the moment she'd heard Max was in trouble, she knew she was responsible. I screwed up. Why did I allow him to go there? I was blaming myself.
It's me who created the mess. Charlie had created this mess, and she knew she had to find a way to clean it up. So I have to do everything, whatever it takes. I just had to get him out of that place. Factories were created for peak optimization, to scale the output of our labor to its maximum and beyond. We've gone from working alone to working in small groups to mega factories of workers, laboring day and night to build or package or assemble an incredible volume of product.
amounts that just a generation or two ago would have been unthinkable. And in a similar way, scamming has also transformed. From a single scam artist targeting small groups, to something much bigger in scale. Now, there are scam factories whose output is astronomical, whose revenue rivals some of the biggest companies on the planet. And these factories?
are built on the backs of regular people. Regular people who have been armed with a script, a formula that teaches them to persuade others into terrible situations. Regular people who get pretty good at scamming. Because the formula works. Because human beings are, by and large, wired to give trust and to earn trust. And once they have someone's trust, they can do almost anything. And they will, in order to survive. Until they can find a way out of this hell. This season on Scam Factory.
I'm scared. My hand is trembling. They are beating us, hitting us with everything. We are just bluffing. We are serious. That's the point. You're all fake. If you don't want to cooperate with me, I will be forced to investigate you. I need to be smart. I will be playing chess with the devil. He told me that it was killing him day by day.
We just have to play his game. I messaged my family that this will be my last message. He told me that. Do you think that you are so powerful that you can get these people out? He can do anything he wants to me. Just give me back to my two brothers. Follow Scam Factory on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. If you have a tip about a story you think we should investigate, please write to us at wondery.com slash tips. From Wondery, this is episode one of six of Scam Factory, a story about a brother, his sister, and the big business of lies.
Scam Factory is written, reported, and hosted by me, Denise Chan. Our story editor is Lou Okowski. Senior producer is Claire Chambers. Associate producer is Evangeline Barras. Reporting by Wijitra Duongdi. Additional reporting by John Vic Mateo. Additional production assistance from Emily Locke, Malachi Wade, and Mariah Dennis. Audio assistance by Daniel William Gonzalez. Sound design and mixing by Jamie Cooper. Sound supervisor is Marcelino Villapondo. Original score by Tangeline Bolton.
Music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Frieson Sync. Senior managing producer is Lata Pandya. Managing producer is Heather Baloga. Senior development editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Fact Checking by Jacqueline Colletti. Executive Producers are Julia Lowry Henderson, George Lavender, Marshall Louie, and Jen Sargent for Wondery. I'm John Robbins and joining me on How Do You Coke this week is Sophie Willam. I remember reading all this stuff and thinking there's no way I'm going to be okay.
Look at this. I'm a mess. I'm not what I thought I was. I thought I was going to be this success. And actually here I'm being told I'm not going to be that. So that's How Do You Cope with me, John Robbins. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.