Scams & Cons
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© 2024 Scams & Cons
Description
Scammers don't steal your money, they create a world where it makes perfect sense to hand your cash over to them. Three-card-monte, the longest running show on Broadway, seems easy. You're watching the tosser and you always see the queen. What you don't see is a group of shills working you into the gate where you'll lose everything you have.
Sometimes a large sum of money is accidentally sent to you and the sender asks for the additional cash to be sent back. In the meantime, they empty your bank account.
We'll tell you all about the scams, how they work and why people fall for them. Don't become a sucker. Listen in.
96 Episodes
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Woman told she is on "secret probation" loses hundreds of thousands of dollars, 60 Minutes Australia asks if Belle Gibson is a liar and Canadian police bust an international scam ring.
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What's the difference between a hoax and a scam? Are they the same thing? In this episode, we take a crack at the answer -- unless this whole program is a hoax.
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A woman falling down escalator marks return of pigeon scam, members of British Parliament get caught in a honey trap and a Pennsylvania man loses $165,000 to romance scammer. Hear these stories and much more at ScamsAndCons.com or wherever you get podcasts.
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An Uber driver was killed while delivering a package for a scammer and a Canadian scammer in jail for a $175 million e-mail fraud in the U.S. while a man cons people into letting him use their phones, then drains their bank account.
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A woman scammed by promise of free home make-over, a scammer tries to hoodwink Drew Barrymore's guests and an Alabama woman has admitted to faking her own disappearance after earlier claiming she had been kidnapped.
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When you write a check, you expect it to be secure, after all, you did write it in ink.
That means bupkus unless you used a secure check and security pen. These days, scammers can use household chemicals to eliminate what you have written and fill in the blanks with whatever they want to whomever they want. They will even trace your signature so the banks won't notice.
In this episode, we'll tell you about the rising crime of check washing and how you can protect yourself from it.
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An East Tennessee woman stops a scam by people posing as a representatives of Publishers Clearing House and a Wisconsin woman must pay taxes on $200,000 she lost to a scammer. A federal law once protected such victims from taxes. The law was cut.
We also tell the story of a Toronto man who encountered a scammer that left him physically broken and unable to walk.
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Identity theft was once fairly easy. Watch someone's mailbox for a credit card offer, then send it in with a new address; discover something like your Social Security number, then route that money to their bank account. There were lots of ways.
But now there's a new one -- a fabricated synthetic identity. It's you without really being you. It can take your money in a quick hit or drain your money slowly.
In this episode, we'll tell you how it's done and what -- if anything -- you can do about it.
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In separate incidents, a man and a woman are arrested for romance scams. A boy in Taiwan agrees to have both legs amputated to gain insurance money and a woman who wanted a puppy pays the money, only to be told it's a scam.
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It sounds exotic to fake your death, then just walk away, expect it almost never works. One woman was found in her home closet. Another was found by just pinging her phone.
Then there is the woman who researched how to fake her death and took it so far as to hold her own death certificate in her hands.
There are many ways to fake your death, but we don't advise that you try them ... unless your willing to sacrifice your own body.
Frank Ahern
Books by Frank Ahern
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News: A Nebraska woman is conned out of a gold bar and a woman buys the wrong kind of gift card, frustrating a scammer, but still losing her money
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t would seem if federal and state governments wanted you to disappear for your safety, it would be an easy thing to do. They can create all the documents you need, give you some money to get started and grease the wheels needed to get a new job.
If only that were the case. Being uprooted is just as difficult -- if not more so -- than taking a powder on your own.
In this episode, you'll hear from some people who were scooped up in the night to disappear and you'll hear from the people who created the federal program.
If you're thinking the best way to disappear is to catch someone committing a crime so you'll get protection, you may want to think again.
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Woman recovers $147k from scammer and a man tries to own the New York Hotel
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The theme of this series has been the long con of vanishing. Instead of a scammer targeting you, you are the one scamming everyone else. To be successful, you must do this the rest of your life, making it possibly the longest con of all.
Maureen is the victim of this con. Her husband went missing and while she verified he was still alive, she doesn't know why he left -- or even if he is still alive.
In this episode, you'll hear her tragic story and her best guess on what really happened, although she'll unlikely to never know for sure.
National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
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Scams & Cons News for March 21, 2024
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Once you've decided to vanish, the question is: where do you go?
In this episode we explore those possibilities and what you need to keep in mind when choosing a place.
The odds are you'll end up somewhere that's not familiar and among people you don't know. That loneliness is one of the main reasons that a vanishing con fails. We'll tell you how people cope with that ... and sometimes it just means living on the street.
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Scams & Cons News for March 7, 2024
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The longest con of all may be vanishing -- leaving the place you know, going somewhere unfamiliar and never having contact with anyone or anything from your past life.
In this episode, we tell you how to go missing and avoid those who will be looking for you.
Private Investigative Services
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Scams & Cons News for February 15, 2024
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A good scam creates a reality where the mark thinks it makes perfect sense to go along with the con. A great con is when everyone else is fooled and you are the only one to know the truth.
The next few episodes are about the longest con of all -- vanishing. These are people who voluntarily disappear. It does not include those who are running for the law or legal obligations. It doesn't include those in witness protection programs. It's about people who want to abandon one life and start again.
The mark is everyone in the world, because to be successful, you must never be heard from again.
In this episode we talk about why someone would want to disappear and in future episodes, we'll tell you how it is done.
Lastly, you'll hear from a woman whose husband vanished and she never saw him again -- even when they were granted a divorce.
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