REPLAY: Time travelers are scamming thousands

[00:00:00] If anyone out there wants to become a famous time traveler like I did, I would recommend not doing it. I come to you today from another time. A familiar time. A time you and I experienced in different ways.

[00:00:26] But it was unmistakably real. I come from the past. No matter when you're listening, I've already recorded this program to be released at a future time of my choosing. It would be impossible to return from the future to schedule this show, and I'll explain why in a moment. But that hasn't stopped scammers from pretending to be time travelers from the future, and cashing in on people's willingness to believe those fairy tales.

[00:00:58] Today we're talking about time travel scams that are likely to have a bright future ahead of them. We know we can change the speed that time passes, although only slightly. Einstein taught us that, but passing time and time travel are different. We've all come from a past, so it's clear that

[00:01:27] the journey forward is relatively simple. It's theoretically possible to go into the future, but from a practical standpoint, don't bet the rent on actually doing it. One theory involves the curve of space-time and whether one could walk in a circle around the curve and return to where you began.

[00:01:48] I'm leaving that theory to the science podcasters. Another thought is that you'd have to know and control the position of every particle in the universe, and be able to manipulate them. Since we can't know anything about those future particles, we're powerless.

[00:02:13] The same idea is why going backwards is not an option. York would change the future by changing the past. We just can't know or manipulate all those particles. When it comes to time travel, we're screwed. But scammers aren't. Let's begin with John Titor, or as he was known on some online bulletin boards as Time Traveler underscore zero.

[00:02:38] He used both pseudonyms and claimed to be from 2036. He first surfaced in 2000 and continued to post online through 2001. He predicted horrible catastrophes in the near future, including a nuclear war. He said there would be a civil war and a brief but terrible World War III around 2015. Titor said he was part of a government time travel program.

[00:03:04] He was sent back in time to acquire an IBM 5100 computer, which was needed to debug legacy programs from his time. There are all kinds of reasons this should have set off warning bells. Programs from 1975 wouldn't likely run on processors built in 2000. Plus it says that society in 2036 must have had pretty crappy IT people who couldn't realize that they needed to update their code to contemporary languages.

[00:03:32] Still, there were suckers willing to buy the tale. So who was John Titor, or Time Traveler underscore zero? No one knows for sure, or at least they haven't told but they know. Perhaps in 2036 we'll find out. If the wars don't get us first. But what if a real time traveler showed up? No, no, no, no, no, no! How would we know for sure if they are telling the truth?

[00:04:02] For that we turn to Bill Nye, the science guy who comments on Titor's shenanigans. There is a very reasonable theory that you could build a time machine in which you go faster or close to the speed of light. Of course that would kill you because you'd be accelerated in these very small radii and at very high speeds and you'd fly apart. But that aside, you can only go back in time to when the machine was built. It's just a complication.

[00:04:28] The other thing is when people make these extraordinary claims, there's generally a way to prove them false, to prove them wrong. And this guy took the trouble to only go to 2036, see if he can tell you who won the Super Bowl. And the other big thing I always ask those guys, why isn't he rich? Couldn't he have invested in certain stocks?

[00:04:51] Couldn't he have seen certain eventualities, outcomes with the stock market, with certain manufacturers, be it the Tesla Automobile Corporation, for example, or the Department of Defense in the United States coming up with some fabulous new invention? Wouldn't he have invested in certain farmland in the right part of the world to be especially productive? And so on and so on. So I really encourage you to look into this guy's claims.

[00:05:20] Now, in what we call skepticism or skeptical thought, and you also, it's a very popular phrase right now, critical thinking, critical thinking skill. We evaluate claims. We look to see if a claim is true or false. You look at a specific thing this guy says that happens in the future and see if it really happens.

[00:05:46] In general, when people make those claims, you know, I'm 60 years old. 60 years old now. I've been through a lot of claims of the end of the world. A lot of people who said they're from the future. And it's really easy to meet people who say they're from the past. That they were in some extraordinary war in ancient Greece. Or that they were, I know a woman who believed or seemed to believe that she was killed in a car wreck in the 1920s.

[00:06:15] And she used to be this beautiful woman who dressed in flapper clothes, if you know these, that era. Very distinctive style of dress. And she really believes that until you start asking her questions about who was president. How much money did she have in the bank? What was the price of a gallon of gas? And so on. They don't really know. These things are easily researched. And so I think if you look into this guy's claims, each claim, you'll be able to debunk them. We can all have a good laugh about Titor.

[00:06:45] That is, unless you believed his BS and made financial bets on the truth of his statements. Titor appeared on the factually challenged Art Bell radio show. But he wouldn't be the only one to make time travel claims on Bell's airwaves. In 1996, the New York Times reported on Mike Markham from St. Joseph, Missouri. Markham said he was building a time machine that employed 168 electromagnets.

[00:07:12] Later that year, he disappeared, leaving the St. Joseph News Press to report that he'd been evicted from his apartment for transporting a cat a block away. Markham resurfaced later, saying, quote, The cat deal just ain't true. He added that he plans to test the time machine soon, once he solves the sticky problem of controlling when and where it sends him. He told the newspaper that, right now, this would only make a good garbage disposal.

[00:07:41] A hat tip to the news press for not letting facts get in the way of a good story. Next, you need to hear about Apex TV. Apex is a YouTube channel that characterizes itself as, quote, A group of inclusive, open-minded individuals seeking to share the stories that don't get told. We want to build a community for people to feel safe about telling their stories, without being judged, and without pushing our own thoughts.

[00:08:09] We feel there's too much judging in today's world, so we want to let people tell their stories, and let the public decide for themselves. End quote. Apex TV claims to have more than one million followers. It's a rich environment for time travelers. Travelers like Gerald Gardner. My name, Gerald Gardner. And I am the story to tell you.

[00:08:36] Now that's the original audio I captured from a video of what appeared to be a very old man. And that's after I cleaned it up. It's not listenable. So I transcribed the text and put it through a computer voice so you could hear it more clearly. I moved up the ranks, and ten years later, in the year 1988, I was selected as the best candidate for an experimental technology. They had not tested it before on a human being and I was to be the first one.

[00:09:06] I began training, doing a series of tests, and soon came the date of the final test to send a human being to the future and back successfully. If they could do this, they would have great power over society, and they knew that they must perfect this technology before any other country does. In 1998 it was determined that I was to be sent to the year 2300. I was to be paid on gross sum of 2.3 million pounds.

[00:09:33] I accepted this as it is more money than I could ever imagine before, and I knew it could help my family greatly. I'm telling you or details that I have not even disclosed even to my closest family members. And what I'm telling you is true. I understand people who don't believe what I'm telling you, but I can assure you that what I'm telling you is true. When a con artist tells you you can trust them because their story is true, you know it's time to step away. No, run away.

[00:10:03] But Gardner had more to share, starting with his awakening in the future to the vision of cities floating in the sky, able to move wherever they wanted. There was essentially no government. Each city was independently operated. There were no officials. The cities were governed by a computer. I asked many questions about this computer, and I asked if they could malfunction. They told me that there was no chance of any malfunction.

[00:10:32] This computer was much larger and much more advanced earning could possibly be and in the future. The computer set guidelines. If these guidelines were broken they would be escorted to the computer that governed the city. If deemed guilty, they would be sent temporarily to a camp in which they would fulfill basic community functions. If the violation of the civil guidelines were deemed as severe, they would be escorted to a meeting with main computer which would give them one more chance.

[00:11:01] If the computer deemed them to not be redeemable, their consciousness would be uploaded to a computer in which they would live out their lives. After spending three years in the future, it was time for him to go back home and back to his original time. I would have stayed longer if I could, but I got sent back and I reported my findings to the British government. I wish I could go back, but I can't. Sorry to everyone that I lied to.

[00:11:29] I've reached a place in my life where you deserve to know the truth. Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Apex TV knew a good thing when it saw it. And that brings us to Noah. Noah the time traveler made frequent appearances on Apex. He appeared with a pixelated face and a voice changer. He made several predictions, including one that Donald Trump would be elected for a second term. Discuss among yourselves whether that was true or not.

[00:11:59] Noah said extraterrestrials would visit Earth in 2028. And that Yolanda Renee King, the granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., will become president of the United States. She is supposedly elected at the age of 21. He mentions nothing of the constitutional amendment that would be needed for that to happen. On his next-to-last video, Noah unmasked his face. And promised in his next video he disclosed his true identity.

[00:12:27] If it's to be believed, his name is Dennis Bell. Early on in my life, I always wanted to be famous. And when the Noah character took off, it was a chance for me to actually become famous. Even when my face was blurred, I still felt that I was important. And this is the first time in my life that I've actually felt like this. That I fit in. And it's hard for me to end this, but I want to start a new chapter in my life.

[00:12:55] For anybody who believed I was a real time traveler, I'm sorry. I honestly meant to never hurt anyone. What started out as a social experiment became something part of my life. This is a chapter of my life that I want to close. I'm sorry for wasting anybody's time. At the very least, I hope that some of you got some entertainment out of me being a time traveler. So basically, Apex TV started to realize that I wasn't telling the truth.

[00:13:24] And I started to get angry because they were taking away my only chance to become famous. And more than anyone, I want to apologize to Apex TV. It was never my intention to manipulate you, but I just wanted to become famous. But the guy wasn't done yet. But what was really weird about my predictions is that some of them were actually becoming true. And if time travel doesn't get released in 2028, I wouldn't even be surprised.

[00:13:50] I know this may seem cocky, but for some reason, my predictions have actually became true. I began to have visions in my dreams, and that's what led me to make these predictions. I recently had a dream that the existence of aliens will be released to the public in the next few years. And if this actually happens, I'm documenting it here with this video so you can actually see. He did leave us with some words of advice.

[00:14:15] If anyone out there wants to become a famous time traveler like I did, I would recommend not doing it. Even though it was fun for a little bit, there's a lot of people out there trying to find out who I really was. There's a lot of crazy people out there, and I don't recommend faking being a time traveler. So now that you guys know the truth, I hope that you can forgive me, and I'll see you guys next time. Next time, instead of a time traveler, perhaps he'll revisit us as a space traveler from a distant galaxy.

[00:14:44] Greetings, Earthlings. Take me to your leader. To wrap things up, I have the story of a Swedish man who, in 2006, said he'd been accidentally transported to 2046 when attempting to fix the sink in his kitchen. In the future, he met a man who was himself at about 70 years old. They made a short video of him together, smiling and hugging and showing the tattoo they had on their right arms.

[00:15:12] The public had a good laugh at the scam, which was pulled off by a life insurance company. Scams and Cons is an independent production, so if you enjoy the podcast, please help us by telling your friends and encouraging them to listen. Scams and Cons is available wherever podcasts are found, and at scamsandcons.com. Thanks for listening.