Trouble in River City

James Ellingson scams Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht out of millions with a sequence of improvised ploys that can only be described as scam jazz. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht paints a tunnel on the side of a cliff and a scammer goes right through it like the Roadrunner. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Charles regales Hesse and Riley with tales of trickery in 18th Century London, straight from the pages of a tome entitled "The New Cheats of London Exposed, or, The Frauds and Tricks of the Town Laid Open to Both Sexes Being a Warning Piece Against the Iniquitous Practices of That Metropolis." This episode instructs about the following malicious sorts of people: —Hangers-On —Gossips Subscribe to T...

Riley tells the tale of the fabulist British politician Jeffrey Archer and his fragrant wife. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Dan reflects on his time working in scammy call centers in Montreal. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Charles rounds up stories about scammers hitting the DNC, RNC, and political campaigns, plus a Nigerian prince who scammed the Nigerian government. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Jim Waterson returns to the show to discuss the time he confronted illegal ice cream vendors on Westminster Bridge by pulling up with his own "completely legal" ice cream van handing out desserts for free. Read London Centric . Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Hesse tells Charles the story of Twenty-One, a quiz show that sullied the sterling reputation of television with a rigging scandal. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

This time in 17th Century Chinese swindles: a fox that steals your yang essence, swindling the salt commissioner while disguised as daoists, and the origin of the common phrase "shut up about him!" Remember, you can't snatch the pearl from under the dragon's neck unless you plumb the depths of the pool. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Charles tells the story of Turkish wunderkind Mehmet Aydın, who pivoted from rapping to Ponzi scheming via a Farmville knockoff. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

The gang opens a dot-com-era time capsule: the 2000 Ben Younger film Boiler Room. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Dan shares the story of Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II, the king of the frontier conmen. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Hesse concludes the story of how Magic Alex ensorcelled those inimitable lads famed for walking across London's Abbey Road Street. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Hesse tells the story of Magic Alex, a dubious engineer that ensorcelled a wily band of Liverpudlian moptop Scousers known only as The Beatles. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Riley tells the story of teen millionaire Barry Minkow, who made his fortune by running a carpet cleaning business and did not do any fraud of any kind. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Devin O'Shea joins Hesse and Dan for a freewheeling episode covering book-tour life, harassment by Veiled Prophet thugs, an AI scam afflicting a band and its fans, and Herman Melville's The Confidence Man. Buy Devin's book "The Veiled Prophet" . Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Using the 17th Century Chinese text The Book of Swindles as our guide, we intend to inform listeners of strategies to avoid falling victim to common deceptions. This episode covers the following real-life situations: —Stealing silk with a decoy horse —Chen Quan scams his way into the arms of a famous courtesan —Using broom handles to play a joke on sedan bearers Subscribe to Trouble in River City...

Riley unspools an elaborate telemarketing scam that begins in the Monégasque Community and ends in Dnipro. Plus an update on the BC ostrich farm. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Hesse forces Charles and Dan to watch the 2013 blockbuster film Now You See Me. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

John Semley discusses his Wired article about GLP-1 telehealth scams. Read John's article for WIRED . Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Charles tells the story of a phony Chinese bank that went to great lengths to set up a believable brick-and-mortar location. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Riley tells the story of a hands-on salad oil swindle (and explains what salad oil is). Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Hesse chronicles the rise and fall of the Magic the Gathering / Bitcoin site Mt. Gox. Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Nate Bethea joins us to explore the large-scale fraud and graft that took place during the American occupation of Afghanistan. Listen to Nate's album . Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .

Riley explores the latest A.I.-powered™ scams targeting self-published authors. Buy "Alex Branson's The Money Wars" . Subscribe to Trouble in River City on Patreon . Join our Discord server .