Recent graduate Whitney Kirkpatrick is starting her career as a nurse when she meets Gregory Thomas, young and driven, and already the CEO of an oil company. His Southern charm, ambition and lavish lifestyle win over Whitney, her friends and her family. Then strange things begin to happen: large withdrawals from her bank account, calls from creditors late at night and pieces of Gregory’s story not adding up.
When her parents begin to show signs of memory decline, Kay Bransford steps in to help manage their finances. She quickly discovers a caregiver’s nightmare: An abundance of questionable charities have homed in on her generous parents. Angered that her parents are being targeted because of their cognitive challenges, Kay creates a system to help other caregivers protect their loved ones. CharityWatch director Laurie Styron shares advice on how to be cautious while still being generous.
Dave Lieber is intrigued when he receives an invitation to attend a real estate seminar hosted by Tarek and Christina of hit HGTV show Flip or Flop. The event is packed with fans and hopeful real estate flippers, but instead of meeting their favorite stars, attendees sit through a pitch for get-rich-quick seminars costing thousands. Dave, a journalist for the Dallas Morning News , is so shocked at what he sees, he investigates further, uncovering a slew of unethical practices by Zurixx LLC, the ...
When Isabella realizes the man she loved is a fraud, she turns her heartbreak into a determination for justice. Working with local law enforcement and the FBI, Isabella uncovers information linking her case to a large organized crime syndicate. Her tenacity pays off when Robert Asante and accomplices are arrested and charged with stealing millions of dollars. Isabella now has the strength to share what she’s learned and helps other victims of romance scams
When 70-year-old widow Isabella finally tries online dating, she’s quickly swept off her feet by a handsome man named Michael who’s been hired by General Petraeus for an important mission in Afghanistan. When his luggage is lost, including a vital piece of equipment, Isabella steps in to help, lending Michael more than $17,000 to replace it. Thanks to her, the mission is a great success and there is a reward — of gold bars. Though Isabella pays more than $100,000 to a company, neither Michael no...
In this 100th episode, host Bob Sullivan revisits some of the most popular episodes and welcomes special guest Amy Nofziger, AARP’s director of victim support . Bob and Amy hear from listeners who have used what they’ve learned to avoid becoming victims and offer tips for protecting yourself from scammers. They also discuss why it’s so important to change the narrative of victim blaming....
In this bonus episode, Bob Sullivan and his team of scam busters discuss the business of scams with Brett Johnson, also known as “The Original Internet Godfather.” Johnson walks viewers through why scammers want gift cards, the potential dangers of cryptocurrency and how you can best protect yourself against swindlers.
When Charlotte Robinette receives a phone call from kidnappers demanding a ransom for her daughter Kristen, her daughter’s voice on the phone convinces her that the situation is dire. Over the next four grueling days, the kidnappers wear Charlotte down, keeping her on the phone, sending her all over Phoenix and having her wire money to Mexico. Finally, she’s instructed to travel with the remaining cash to a small town across the border, where she’s told she can rescue her daughter. Little does s...
After anxiously waiting for her fiancé, Tony, to arrive at the airport, Kate Kleinert is shocked when she receives a call from his attorney, who says that Tony has been arrested on a drug charge. He tells Kate that he’ll need $20,000 to bail Tony out of jail. Out of money and insisting that she be allowed to visit the man she expects to marry, Kate begins to suspect something is off, especially when Tony makes odd requests for more payments. Brokenhearted, Kate leans on her sisters and finds the...
Eleven years after losing the love of her life, 68-year-old widow Kate Kleinert receives a friend request online from Tony, a handsome surgeon working in Iraq for the United Nations. After accepting his request, she gets caught up in a whirlwind romance, and they quickly fall in love. A few months later, Tony asks to borrow money, initially for help with his daughter’s expenses. She sends him money via gift cards and continues to do so whenever he asks, even though his attempts to pay her back b...
As 72-year-old Steve Steele is released from jail, not only can he hardly stand or walk, but he is worried about how he will recover the property stolen by Elizabeth, the caregiver who worked for him. That’s where Steve’s attorney, Brent Smith, comes in, waging what becomes a nearly two-year battle.
After 72-year-old Steve Steele’s life partner passes away, his housekeeper, Elizabeth, offers to work as his caregiver. Over time, Elizabeth takes over Steve’s finances, even persuading him to deed her his homes. It all comes to a head one Christmas Eve, when Elizabeth accuses Steve, who can hardly stand or walk, of assault and the police cart him off to jail for months. When the public defender’s investigator meets Steve, though, she quickly senses this is elder abuse. The judge agrees and rele...
Rookie FBI agent Mike meets 80-year-old Alan, who has sent $600,000 to “friends” he met online. Typically, international scammers are notoriously hard to prosecute. After hearing that Alan visited the scammers in the Middle East and Africa, though, Mike senses a unique opportunity to lure the con artists to the United States. The pair devise a scheme so that the swindlers can be arrested and convicted of their crimes.
After 80-year-old Alan returns from a trip to the Middle East and Africa, where he visited new “friends” he made online, his wife grows suspicious that he’s involved in a scam and contacts the FBI. That’s when rookie FBI agent Mike gets involved. Over the next nine months, Alan becomes Mike’s informant as they work to prosecute scammers who aren’t even on American soil.
In the middle of the night, Jeremy Vincent is awakened by a call from his mother’s number. When he answers, he’s shocked to hear a man’s voice on the other end threatening to harm his mother — who lives thousands of miles away in rural Missouri — if Jeremy doesn’t send money. After an agonizing back-and-forth exchange, Jeremy panics and hangs up, calling 911 despite the callers’ warnings. Officers are sent to the home of his mother, where, luckily, they find her safe and well. It is a virtual ki...
When Melany Robinson discovers that she has breast cancer in July of 2020, she decides she needs to plan something positive to look forward to in 2021 — a much needed vacation. After scouring the internet, she finds the perfect home on Craigslist in her favorite place, Park City, Utah. But six months and almost $20,000 later, Melany discovers that her dream rental is part of an elaborate scam.
When Judy gets a call from a man claiming to be a police officer who says a car registered to her was found full of drugs, she’s skeptical. Before Judy can hang up, though, the man discloses the Social Security number used to purchase the vehicle—her full Social Security number. Shocked, and convinced he’s telling the truth, Judy follows the man’s detailed instructions. She leaves her house immediately, speaks to no one, and obeys his command to stay on the phone. With hours passing, $15,000 mis...
In this 2020 archive episode, Annie believes she's found the perfect online friend, but in reality, she’s being lured into an elaborate romance scam.
In the UK an IT professional who goes by the alias Jim Browning is battling cyber scams. Fed up with robocalls disrupting his day , Jim decides to fight back. As con artists try to scam him, Jim uses his professional training to reverse engineer his way into th e ir computers . With the ability to see everything on these computers , Jim works to thwart their operations and save potential victims....
In this 2019 episode, curious about the barrage of robocalls he himself receives, journalist Alex Palmer decides to look into how robocalls work and why they’ve become so popular. Alex discovers the case of a set of illegal robocalls that temporarily stalled a Virginia-based paging provider, disrupting the ability of hospitals to get in touch with emergency services personnel. As a result, local doctors, nurses, EMTs and firefighters were at risk of missing critical pages. Due to the resulting p...
In part 2, Gerard Puana stands accused of stealing the mailbox of his niece, the deputy city prosecutor, Katherine Kealoha. Surprisingly, this strange crime will lay bare that Katherine’s luxurious lifestyle is fueled by a reverse mortgage on her grandmother’s home, and that her husband, Louis, is using his power as police chief to cover up the crime.
Katherine and Louis Kealoha report that their mailbox has been stolen, a strange occurrence in the upscale Honolulu neighborhood of Kahala. Even stranger is that Katherine claims that her uncle Gerard Puana is the mailbox thief, an accusation he vehemently denies. When the case goes to court, though, the Kealohas’ secrets are exposed, revealing a terrible case of family financial fraud.
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 ...
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.
