The Perfect Scam

In the charming small town of Hamilton, New York, home of Colgate University, Burt Marshall is a well-known figure. He prepares taxes and sells insurance to many residents, sponsors local youth sports teams, and is frequently seen riding his bicycle on Main Street. When clients visit Burt's office, a sign on the wall offers an enticing deal: Invest with him and earn 8% return. Nearly 1,000 people...

In this 2024 episode, Daniel no longer lives in his hometown of Fairfield, Connecticut, but he still owns a plot of land that was essentially his childhood backyard. When he returns to visit a sick friend, he is shocked to find that a developer has cleared the trees and is halfway through building a luxury home on his property. But how could something like this happen when the land was never up fo...

On Gale's 70 th birthday, she is just finishing her shift at work and looking forward to a special dinner with her husband, when the celebration is suddenly cut short. Among the birthday messages she has received is a frightening voicemail from the "Maricopa County Sheriff's Office." When she returns the call, an "officer" informs her that she has failed to appear for a grand jury and must now pay...

Daniel is a New Orleans firefighter starting a second career as a realtor. Before he even gets his first listing, he discovers that someone has   stolen   his identity and is setting up dozens of property showings. Meanwhile, hopeful renters are paying the impostor thousands of dollars in application fees and first-month deposits. Daniel is in a race against time to regain control of his identity...

Larry and Barbara have issues with their Amazon account, so they welcome a call from "Amazon" customer service. They learn that their personal information has been compromised and used in a money-laundering scheme.   To help the government with a supposed investigation, they transfer their savings via   crypto kiosks, cash handoffs and gold purchases, believing the money will be returned once arre...

In this 2023 episode, Penny takes an online training course in social media marketing, hoping to build her hobby into a business. After this initial small investment, she is flooded with calls from companies selling different website services. They promise big returns, but her investment of more than $30,000 with multiple companies doesn't lead to a single sale. Penny reports the scam, but it's no...

David is a seasoned traveler who has visited over 30 countries. He and his wife are looking forward to a trip to Budapest when he receives an email from Lufthansa about a scheduling change. Hoping to rebook their connecting flight and having no luck with the email link, David searches for a customer service number and calls it. This "Lufthansa" helps him rebook the trip on a more complicated route...

Writing is Barbara's retirement hobby and her passion. She has several self-published books, but she dreams of her stories reaching a wider audience. So when a company called PageTurner contacts her with exciting plans for her books, she is thrilled. The company is eager to develop artwork and promotional strategies, although each new step comes with another fee for Barbara to pay. The costs are c...

A late-night call from their son Brian has Barry and Joan concerned. Brian sounds panicked and says he urgently needs $280,000.   They do not have that kind of money available, and Barry, a trained counselor,   immediately senses that something is wrong. Brian   then reveals   how   an online romance   evolved into a crypto investment opportunity, and   how he now believes he must pay taxes to acc...

In Part 2 of this 2023 episode, criminals are running the grandparent scam all over the San Diego area. Often crimes like this go unsolved, but FBI agent Brady Finta and his law enforcement partners believe this situation is unique. There is a video and an eyewitness. Arresting the messenger who took Susan's $9,000 might just bring down an entire criminal operation. But investigators must proceed...

In this 2023 episode, when Susan gets a frantic call from her "grandson" saying he's been in a terrible accident, she doesn't waste any time. She rushes to get him the $9,000 he requested for legal fees, but as soon as she hands the money to the courier, the phone line goes dead. She knows instantly that it was a scam. Similar crimes are popping up all over her area, and the stack of case files is...

Eunice, a busy mom of four, discovers what appears to be the perfect work-from-home job opportunity with flexible hours and the chance to make some extra income for her family. She must make a small initial investment, but soon the job is paying off. Her husband, Daniel, researches the company and is convinced enough to join as well. Excited by their success and believing they're getting in on the...

Linda Coble is retired from a storied career as Hawaii's first female news anchor, but she stays active in her community through charity work. So when she receives a phone call informing her that she has won a $5 million prize from Publishers Clearing House, she immediately starts dreaming of the good she can do with the money. Coble is told she must make tax payments in order to release the prize...

After a long day as a school bus driver, Nate checks his voicemail and finds a message from "AT&T" offering a discounted rate and a new phone. He has been a loyal customer and is looking for ways to lower his expenses, so he calls them back. The agent already knows all of Nate's information and walks him through the process of picking out his new phone on the AT&T app. When the phone arrives, Nate...

In part 2, nearly a decade after Pat received the first phone call from a woman believing to be in a relationship with him, he continues to receive regular cards, gifts, calls and visits from scam victims. Criminals have hijacked the pilot's identity to facilitate hundreds of romance scams, turning Pat's life upside down in the process. Around this time, a police detective in South Carolina begins...

When Pam decides it's time to find love again, she signs up for a dating site and soon meets "Pat." He's charming and very kind; they hit it off right away. "Pat" works overseas and can't tell Pam much about his high-security job, but when he needs help getting back into the country, she lends him $20,000. This all sounds very suspicious to Pam's son-in-law, who does some digging and tracks down a...

Beloved Vermont children's entertainer-turned-filmmaker Mac Parker has been raising funds for his film Birth of Innocence for nearly a decade. The film has yet to be completed, and what investors were promised — a three-year, $1 million project — has ballooned in both time and cost. When the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation steps in to investigate irregularities in Mac's fundraising prac...

Malcom "Mac" Parker aspires to be a filmmaker. In Vermont, Mac is known as a beloved children's entertainer, appearing on public television and performing around the state. Mac is so well respected in his community that when he begins to raise funds for his film Birth of Innocence , investors are quick to jump on board. His promises of high returns and a chance to be a part of the film industry sw...

Bill and Allison are devoted to their dogs, so when they discover their 11-year-old beagle mix Archer missing one evening, they are distraught. They spend hours searching the neighborhood and start putting out alerts online, including their contact information and photos of Archer. Then a late-night call comes in from someone claiming to be from a veterinarian's office. Archer has been hit by a ca...

After escaping the Palisades fire in January of 2025, Ellen doesn't know if she and her husband Steve will have a home to return to. Miraculously, their house is still standing, but it needs extensive cleaning and repairs. They move into an apartment and begin working with insurance and contractors. In March, Steve is diagnosed with cancer and passes away just a few months later. Displaced, stress...

Fed up with the rising cost of electricity, Steve shops around and switches to a new provider in his Boston neighborhood. The process is simple, and Steve thinks the matter is settled until a week later, when he receives a call from his previous provider claiming he is in danger of having his electricity cut off. Steve initially dismisses it as a scam, but the caller seems to know all about his re...

Jeanette moves back to Vermont, expecting a peaceful retirement in a beloved community, but a tech support scam upends her life. She reaches out to her local police, who advise her to report the incident to the FBI. Now faced with an empty bank account, Jeanette starts making drastic changes to her lifestyle. She unplugs appliances to save on electricity and sets her thermostat to 58 degrees throu...

In this bonus episode, Bob meets some Fraud Fighters working to make their Nebraska community a little bit safer from scammers. When Omaha passes a city ordinance requiring all crypto kiosks to display a scam warning, local law enforcement teams up with AARP volunteers to ensure that every kiosk in the county has the necessary sticker. Along the way, they hear fraud stories and learn how looking o...

Dr. Maurice Sholas, a pediatric rehabilitation specialist based in New Orleans, discovers that his likeness is being used in an ad when a friend sends him a TikTok clip that looks convincingly like him. It's an AI-generated version of him selling vitamin supplements, something he has never done. Feeling violated, Sholas must now defend his reputation, and attempt to protect potential victims from...

After taking a break from her tech career to care for her aging mother, Dawn is reentering the workforce in her mid-50s, and she isn't having much luck. She takes a chance on an offer for a new kind of job at "Facebook." Guided by a "mentor" through an onboarding process, she learns that her new role involves placing Facebook ads as part of an AI testing initiative. Dawn will have a digital wallet...