About
I’ve always
said that radio was the most fun you can have with your clothes on. I began a
40-year journalism career in radio and in retirement, I’m coming back to it as
a podcaster.
This is my
second podcast – the first was halted by Covid. I chose this one because I’ve
always been a fan of caper and heist films and I liked the idea of going behind
the scenes to learn how they are pulled off in real life.
Take
Three-Card-Monte. It appears that the game is being run by one person, but
there are shills planted in the crowd to steer the sucker up to the table. Go
back to Season One and listen to how it’s done.
In our
episodes, you’ll also note that I call people “suckers.” They really are
victims, but I try to keep the language true to how con artists describe their
craft.
In Season Five,
we have an episode about how con artists justify their crimes. It’s an
interesting look into how con artists think.
It’s
important to understand that scammers aren’t thieves. They don’t break into
your house and steal your TV. They create a world around a mark that makes it
seem perfectly reasonable to hand your cash or personal information over to a
scammer. How else could a con artist get someone to pay $5 to a stranger just so
they can return your gas hose to the pump? The scammer will use the opportunity
to fill up their crew’s cars on the suckers bill? How can people not see a scam
coming?
And don’t
forget what I think is the most heinous of all crimes – romance scams. At a
weak point in their lives, some people come to believe that a stranger they
have never met is deeply in love with them, then send them tens of thousands of
dollars to help them out of a jam.
Scams and
Cons are crimes of social engineering. Listen in as we tell you how scams are
run and why people fall for them.

Recent Episodes
Scammers are pretending to be exorcists
Tell me what's on your mind. If you bought tickets to a pop-up taco museum restaurant in San Antonio, you got scammed. If someone wants to hook you up with a priest who does exorcisms, beware. But we ...
Scamming for hotel rooms with roaches and used condoms
Tell me what's on your mind. More than 60 hotels are conned by a man who dirtied rooms with roaches and condoms, and scammers are showing up at people’s doors to collect money they say they are owed. ...
How to stay safe from nearly all scams
Tell me what's on your mind. We're all vulnerable to scams, but we don't have to be willing victims. Today I'm doing something I should have done a long time ago -- tell you just what to do to thwart ...
Reviews
What the people say about us
Big Fan
Really informative. Anyone can get scammed. Don’t let it be you.
Great find
Discovered this through another show on Killer Podcasts. It lived up to the hype! Big gram of the over Jim gives about the political/legal impact or the details of how a scam is pulled off.
Great Podcast! Highly entertaining
Thank you for providing the education and entertainment to the Apple Podcasts!