Chameleon

A network of animal shelters in Uganda started posting heartbreaking videos of starving, mutilated dogs on social media, begging for donations from animal lovers. But as a group of women around the world began comparing notes, they uncovered something much darker: a sprawling scam operation where animals were being tortured for clicks, sympathy and cash. And they started fighting back. Follow Nico...

In 2009, Vincent Richardson walked into a Chicago police station and reported for duty. No one noticed he wasn’t actually a cop. No one noticed he was 14 years old. This is the story of the teenager who fooled the system time after time. Was it a prank? A cry for help? Or something else entirely? Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Launching November 13th wherever you get y...

When Heidi Cloud was twelve years old, she became the first child in America to be sent to jail for refusing a court-ordered visit with her father. As she grew up, Heidi came to understand that the real danger had been much closer to home. Her mother spent decades pulling everyone around her into a relentless world of conspiracy. Then she disappeared. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media an...

Heidi Cloud's childhood never stood a chance of being normal. A mother with a warped way of seeing the world keeps the family on the run and embroiled in an impossible custody battle with a historic and horrific conclusion. How does Heidi begin to untangle the truth when her own mother is as manipulative as she is convincing. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow Chame...

He rode a mobility scooter through Central Park with a parrot on his shoulder. He also helped pull off one of the biggest financial scams in sports history. This is Chuck Blazer, the flamboyant soccer bureaucrat turned FBI informant whose corruption helped reveal criminal activity at FIFA — the organization responsible for world soccer, including the World Cup — from the inside.  Chameleon is a pr...

When Clayton Echard’s season of The Bachelor ended, he thought the public humiliation was behind him. Then a woman he barely knew claimed she was carrying his twins — something which, according to Clayton, was impossible. As the story exploded online sleuths begins pulling at loose threads. What they uncovered led to allegations of deception, forgery, and a pattern stretching back years. Listen to...

A swashbuckling South African expat, Benjamin Mauerberger, rose up as a boiler-room stock hustler in Southeast Asia, then reappeared years later with a diplomatic passport and extraordinary wealth. When reporters start pulling at threads, they uncover an entirely new identity: this stock scammer seems to now be a key player in the industrial “pig butchering” scam economy. How does a small-time con...

Join your Chameleon host Josh Dean and his partner in (dumb) crime, comedian Rory Scovel, as they dive into the incredible story of a shady Swami who scammed Newark, New Jersey into adopting the Hindu city of Kailasa as a “sister city.” The problem: Kailasa doesn’t exist. And the swami behind it? A notorious scammer who’s on the run from various charges, some of them very serious. “Very embarrassi...

Fyre Festival was sold as the most exclusive party on earth — a luxury music festival in the Bahamas for influencers, celebrities, and the ultra-wealthy. It became one of the most shared disasters of the social-media era, but by the time the truth had emerged, thousands of people had already bought into the dream. And if the organizer was right, could be persuaded to do so again. And again. And ag...

The story of a mild-mannered guy who charmed his way into the lives—and bank accounts—of women on two continents by posing as a wealthy heir with big crypto dreams. But Ken’s real talent isn’t getting your money — it’s disappearing before anyone can prove what he’s done. To listen to Natalie and Abukar’s podcast: Catch Me If You Ken Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follo...

A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder should have been a footnote—a guy who raced once, finished 24th, and faded away. But in early 2026, Ryan Wedding resurfaces as a fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, accused of running a sprawling cocaine network and ordering hits across borders. How did a middle-class kid from a ski family end up here? Ready Alyssa and Tisha’s reporting on Wedding for ESPN...

As a lonely, grieving teenager in the early days of the internet, Celeste Mott is drawn into a secretive message board called "The Looking Glass": a place where self-proclaimed vampires demand total belief, reward devotion, and punish doubt. What begins as fantasy soon becomes something much more dangerous: a closed world built on manipulation, hierarchy, and psychological control. Years later, Ce...

Gay Talese thought he’d landed a once-in-a-lifetime story every journalist dreams about: a motel owner who built a hidden viewing platform so he could watch guests in their most private moments and kept meticulous “research” notes for decades. But when Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi starts pulling at the threads, the story begins to unravel into something messy. A source who can’t stop exagge...

The unsettling story of Leslie Wexner—the Midwestern retail billionaire who built Victoria’s Secret, then gave Jeffrey Epstein extraordinary access to his money and credibility. But how much did he know? Listen to Vanessa and Justine’s podcast Fallen Angel Read Gabriel Sherman’s Vanity Fair article on Epstein and Wexner. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow Chameleon...

The rise and spectacular fall of Eddie Antar, the electronics mogul behind the Crazy Eddie brand. Who scammed his way from the streets of Brooklyn to Wall Street and then vanished without a trace. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chameleonpod Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection...

Shortly after Christmas, Sharon gets a terrifying call. A stranger tells her the pelvic mesh inside her body has been recalled. It's a “ticking time bomb," and she needs emergency surgery to remove it. So Sharon flies to Florida. What she’s walking into is a scam embedded in America’s mass tort machine: stolen medical data, a call center, and huge profits powered by the pain of women like Sharon....

For 563 days, Harry believed the love of his life was dying of stage-four cancer. Then Rachel’s husband called, and everything Harry thought he knew collapsed. A pattern emerges, revealing a woman he no longer recognizes and a trail of emotional wreckage stretching back decades. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chameleonpod Hosted by Simple...

In 2001, Harry meets Rachel in Houston. And so begins a complicated and uncertain kind of love story. An on-again, off-again connection that would stretch across two decades of tragedies, lucky breaks, and relentless second chances. Sometimes the hardest lies to see are the ones you want to believe the most... Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow Chameleon on Instagra...

Syed Arbab looked like the next financial prodigy—a frat house day trader who turned beer-soaked bravado into a successful hedge fund. Except that wasn't exactly the whole truth. When the SEC came knocking, Syed doubled down, lied, and kept going. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chameleonpod Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pc...

She thought she'd met the real deal: a decorated Navy officer, stationed at the Pentagon, opening hospitals in war zones. But what begins as a whirlwind romance slowly unravels into a portrait of compulsive deception. In the aftermath, this seasoned journalist is determined to get to the bottom of not just how and why her partner lied, but why she believed him. Chameleon is a production of Campsid...

Michael was 16, lonely, and stuck in a small Southern town when he met someone called Dennis on a vampire-themed online message board. What began as a thrilling, romantic connection soon spiraled into something darker. We follow Michael’s journey as he tries to make sense of the many layers of deception two decades later. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow Chameleon...

When an Arizona reporter starts looking into a flurry of closures at country music-themed restaurants, he thinks it’s just another boring business story. But he uncovers a collapsing franchise empire and millions in fraud, all linked to a mysterious character with mob connections living a double life. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chamel...

What's it like to have your image used as the bait in thousands of online romance scams? This is what happened to Janessa Brazil—whose image has been hijacked and used to con hundreds, maybe thousands, of lonely people out of hard-earned cash. This is a story of love, lies, and the faces behind a billion-dollar catfishing industry. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow...

They were a hot new band and storming up the charts. But something seemed off about Velvet Sundown. Was this the work of AI? When someone behind the band came out denying it, this looked like mystery solved. But this was only the beginning of an internet hoax with many layers. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chameleonpod Hosted by Simpleca...

When one tech founder tweets a warning about a seemingly prolific engineer named Soham Parekh, it sets off an avalanche. Turns out, Soham has been hired and paid by dozens of start-ups, sometimes working at several at once. He dazzled founders with coding tests, then vanished into a fog of excuses. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chameleon...