Speaker 1: What a tangle web we have created with the brave
Speaker 1: new world of computing.
Speaker 2: And the thing is it prays on people's ego. You
Speaker 2: don't want them coming back at you. If they're smart,
Speaker 2: they can ruin you. Yes, if they get a vindictive
Speaker 2: sort of streak on. Jenny just walked up beside me
Speaker 2: with her iPad and pointed it. Yes, pointed at the
Speaker 2: screen podcast scam. Oh, I see, and then there it is.
Speaker 2: Then we opened it. After it, John, we opened it.
Speaker 2: He followed the exact script, even down to the feet.
Speaker 1: I'm Andrew Rule. This is life and Crimes. It's many
Speaker 1: a long day since we had as a guest here
Speaker 1: my old mate Marty Fields. Now Marty Fields is known
Speaker 1: to most of our listeners as a very funny man.
Speaker 1: He has been the length and breadth of the wide
Speaker 1: Brown and Land, entertaining people for far too long, probably Marty,
Speaker 1: but you come here today not really to crack jokes
Speaker 1: so much as warners about a very sophisticated scam that
Speaker 1: almost got under your guard.
Speaker 2: It certainly did.
Speaker 1: And how did this happen? Marty? What what went on? Well?
Speaker 2: Look, you and I we've both been around a bit,
Speaker 2: and you know we know we know you well. You know,
Speaker 2: we know how to spot a wood duck. We also
Speaker 2: know how to spot someone who's trying to have a
Speaker 2: bit of a end of us.
Speaker 1: They're known as the black duck.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, I wonder what kind of duck they were. Anyhow,
Speaker 2: I got a very innocuous email from a guy saying,
Speaker 2: we're very impressed with you, know what you've achieved with
Speaker 2: your career. We run a podcast in the United States.
Speaker 2: This lady is called Kendrew G and they represent themselves
Speaker 2: as Kendrew G Management. Now I didn't know Kendrad jiguse
Speaker 2: I don't really listen to any podcasts except yours and mine,
Speaker 2: so I didn't know who she was. But apparently she's
Speaker 2: she's quite a big deal, and this sploke represented her
Speaker 2: and he said please feel free to google it, and
Speaker 2: I did so, and my wife, who's also not a deal,
Speaker 2: she looked up. She seems real. It has a podcast
Speaker 2: goes out Saturday night out of la And I said, okay,
Speaker 2: fair enough. Anyway, right back, Yes, that'd be interesting. He
Speaker 2: wants to talk to me, that's his thing. He wants
Speaker 2: to just chat with me about going on the podcast
Speaker 2: for an.
Speaker 1: Hour So this person that is in touch purports to
Speaker 1: be the management of Kendred j correct. It says I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you Marty in Australia about yes stuff.
Speaker 2: And the platform he wants to use is some sort
Speaker 2: of Facebook face to face video platform. I'm not particularly
Speaker 2: familiar with it. I've got a Facebook page which has
Speaker 2: got probably maybe I guess around three hundred thousand people
Speaker 2: who follow. It's just jokes and just you know, occasionally
Speaker 2: I'll say something deep, but that's really very rare, and
Speaker 2: I thought, well, that's nice. He's noticed me. So my
Speaker 2: ego has been given a bit of a pom, which
Speaker 2: is lovely. And you know, I have been at this
Speaker 2: caper a fair while, so I'm thinking, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 2: this is the sort of thing that you occasionally get
Speaker 2: notsed for out of your own domain. That'll be all right.
Speaker 2: So they offered a three thousand dollars US fee for
Speaker 2: an hour.
Speaker 1: And how did that strike you average?
Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, that seems to be like that that would
Speaker 2: fall into a gig fee for me. I have to
Speaker 2: go around the corner, and when you're doing it on
Speaker 2: your machine at home, you don't have to go anywhere, so.
Speaker 1: That strikes you. It just fits very neatly. Yes, And
Speaker 1: they may well have known that that's right.
Speaker 2: They clearly had sort of done this before. And that's
Speaker 2: what I thought at the time. They've hit the right
Speaker 2: mark because I'm not the first person that they've used
Speaker 2: for this podcast, not thinking that it's a learned experience
Speaker 2: from trying to give you a bit of a twist. Anyway,
Speaker 2: So we back and forward a bit and I try
Speaker 2: to explain to him that my Facebook doesn't work like that.
Speaker 2: It's just a page, it's not a friend's Facebook thing.
Speaker 2: Can we do it on Zoom? Can we do it
Speaker 2: on meetings? Can we do it on another platform? No? No,
Speaker 2: and no. I said, look, I've tried to do this before,
Speaker 2: set up you face to face things on Facebook. It
Speaker 2: doesn't work. He said, I can talk you through it.
Speaker 2: I said, okay, fair enough. He said, let's have a
Speaker 2: Zoom meeting on Friday morning and we'll go through it.
Speaker 2: And I said, yeah, okay, cool. So we did that.
Speaker 2: He said it'll be nine am Melbourne time and I said, okay, cool.
Speaker 2: You just so you know that's five hours behind LA time.
Speaker 2: He said, yes, I know, yes, I know. This is
Speaker 2: not speaking this is all writing, so at the moment
Speaker 2: I can't hear his language or his talk or his
Speaker 2: it's all words. And he says okay. And then I'm
Speaker 2: in front of the screen at nine am. No him,
Speaker 2: no zoom, no let into the meeting. Nothing. So I
Speaker 2: email him saying I'm here. What's going on? He said,
Speaker 2: I got the times wrong. It's ten am. Sorry, that's
Speaker 2: that's three pm LA time. And I said, okay, cool.
Speaker 2: So I come back at ten am and we have
Speaker 2: a chat. He can see me. I can't see him.
Speaker 2: All I can see is the graphic of the show
Speaker 2: at Kendred g Management. So I can't see him, but
Speaker 2: I can hear him. He's got a South African accent,
Speaker 2: not not broad, not anything, so he not really Plenty
Speaker 2: of South Africans go to America.
Speaker 1: LA's full of people from somewhere else.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, Andrew. And I said to him, look,
Speaker 2: I don't know how to do this. He said, that's fine,
Speaker 2: I'll talk you through it better. Still, why don't we
Speaker 2: just Are you in front of your computer? I said, no,
Speaker 2: I'm in front of the iPad. He said, we'll go upstairs.
Speaker 2: Get in front of your computer, all right, now click
Speaker 2: on your Facebook icon and it comes up and he says, okay,
Speaker 2: now you see down the side, and I said, no,
Speaker 2: it's not like that. It's not set up like you're
Speaker 2: explaining it. He said, but let me do it for you.
Speaker 2: Just punch this code into your computer and I can
Speaker 2: operate it and get it up for you. Bang alarm bell.
Speaker 2: Because we're all told never give control to your computer
Speaker 2: to anybody else in the whole wide world unless there's
Speaker 2: somebody you're paying two hundred dollars an hour to fix
Speaker 2: your computer from, you know, one of those tech y
Speaker 2: So then said to him, just in past, I said,
Speaker 2: this will take a minute. Gen Z is pricked up
Speaker 2: because she can hear it. Now. I'm up next to
Speaker 2: her office, and that's my wife, and.
Speaker 1: She's the sort of clever one of the yeah, well
Speaker 1: you look at it and beautiful.
Speaker 2: She only staying at arms because it's easier than kissing
Speaker 2: me goodbye. And she says, who's that and I said
Speaker 2: it's the guy from LA and she said, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: And he said, so, how's it been going over there?
Speaker 2: And I said, great, a pity about what's going on
Speaker 2: with you guys over there? With the fires that come
Speaker 2: back and he said, what fires.
Speaker 1: Oh that is so interesting. And so this has happened
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the big fires. Yes, in La. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's on front of mine for everybody. Yes there, and
Speaker 1: you've mentioned it. Yes, and no they're there. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The Robbert's red glare not there.
Speaker 1: Oh dear.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So now I'm very cautious and I'm saying, look,
Speaker 2: I might get someone here to work it out for
Speaker 2: me and then you can get back to me. And
Speaker 2: he said you need to do it now. We need
Speaker 2: to do it now, and then you know, you can
Speaker 2: pick an urger. And I said, no, no, I let
Speaker 2: me get this right over here, because I get it
Speaker 2: right for you. I can get it right for everybody,
Speaker 2: so it'd be great. So you're actually helping me. So
Speaker 2: I'm not making the bloke dirty. I'm just still playing
Speaker 2: the wood duck right, perfect, right, Because if you get
Speaker 2: them filthy, they don't want to come You don't want
Speaker 2: them coming back at you. If they're smart, they can
Speaker 2: ruin you, yes, if they get a vindictive sort of
Speaker 2: streak on you, So you've got to keep nice. Yeah,
Speaker 2: But I patted him down. He said, Okay, I'll get
Speaker 2: back in touch. With you very soon. So, as it
Speaker 2: turns out, today Andrew I got a WhatsApp message from
Speaker 2: him saying, we spoke the other day. I want to
Speaker 2: keep talking and see if we can make this work.
Speaker 2: How did you go with your tech guy? Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: I see, And so having decided that he is, you know,
Speaker 1: a shank and you know this for sure? Now, yes,
Speaker 1: and we'll go into that, what is your what's going
Speaker 1: to be your reaction to sort of stay nice but
Speaker 1: rebuff him?
Speaker 2: I know, radio silence?
Speaker 1: Now, radio silence?
Speaker 2: Yeah, radio silence. They'll get sick of man, go on
Speaker 2: to someone else.
Speaker 1: To go back in the story a little bit. What
Speaker 1: was your reaction then, once you twigged that you know
Speaker 1: he's a shonk and you've realized that you are not
Speaker 1: a wood duck. You on the ball, and you thought,
Speaker 1: what'll I do next? Up to research this? What did
Speaker 1: you find out?
Speaker 2: I didn't have to do anything, because Jenny just walked
Speaker 2: up beside me with her iPad and pointed it should yes,
Speaker 2: pointed at the screen podcast scam, I see, and then
Speaker 2: there it is. Then we opened it. After he'd gone
Speaker 2: we opened it. He followed the exact script even down
Speaker 2: to the fee.
Speaker 1: The fee, even the exact fee.
Speaker 2: The whole thing. So it's a podcast scam. And so
Speaker 2: then you say to yourself what do they get out
Speaker 2: of it? Like you understand that if someone's trying to
Speaker 2: scam you out of a million dollars, they're trying to
Speaker 2: get a million dollars. Yeah, what do they get out
Speaker 2: of this?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Well, apparently what they do if you have enough followers,
Speaker 2: it's worthwhile for them to take over your page.
Speaker 1: Did you fall into a band of targets?
Speaker 2: Exactly?
Speaker 1: You're that relatively rare creature that has a lot of.
Speaker 2: Followers, yes, right, and then they impersonate you, yes, by
Speaker 2: getting inside your Facebook thing?
Speaker 1: And what damage could they do then, Mark.
Speaker 2: Well, then they lock you out for stars.
Speaker 1: Oh that's not good.
Speaker 2: No, So you've got no control. All the people that
Speaker 2: you would be telling hey, this is a scam. You
Speaker 2: can't tell because they're the people who are still looking
Speaker 2: at your page thinking it's you.
Speaker 1: They're they're driving your car, that's right, wearing your hat exactly,
Speaker 1: speeding through yes, stop signs.
Speaker 2: Yes, waving, and styling's see no it's not. So. He
Speaker 2: then monetizes putting on things on my page that he
Speaker 2: reaps the money from. Then he starts to try and
Speaker 2: sell them fake donations and fake everything, which of course
Speaker 2: completely ruins my reputation. Yes, business wise, commercially, entertainment all gone.
Speaker 2: And also you've lost all your followers.
Speaker 1: So of course it's not the worst thing that could happen. No,
Speaker 1: but it's pretty catastrophic in a commercial sense. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it's not brain cancer, that's right, but it's not nice,
Speaker 1: that's right. And the thing is, this is not the
Speaker 1: first time it's happened to me about God. Fifteen years ago,
Speaker 1: in a much less sophisticated world, a guy emailed me saying,
Speaker 1: I am the pastor at Devon, our lady of the
Speaker 1: Twisted Sancho Church or whatever in Devon in the old Country.
Speaker 2: Yes, Devon, which I thought at the time was a
Speaker 2: kind of chopped lunch meat. But it turns out it's
Speaker 2: a joint. It's a joint, and it sounds like a city,
Speaker 2: doesn't it. They all sound like cities. And he said,
Speaker 2: we want you to come and performed at our winter
Speaker 2: Solstice celebrations on you know, Jed December, the whatever, and
Speaker 2: to be marvelous, and we're going to pay you twenty
Speaker 2: thousand pounds.
Speaker 1: And again you thought it was twenty thousand pounds sound
Speaker 1: a bit rich to you.
Speaker 2: Well, it's it's an overseas trip. It's a long time
Speaker 2: like that'd be my conference fee, going.
Speaker 1: Okay, content for five wasn't so it wasn't mad.
Speaker 2: No, it wasn't mad. It was high as high.
Speaker 1: But not mad.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: So you're still on the hook. Then, yeah, you go,
Speaker 1: this is free, this is great, this is a second honeymoon.
Speaker 2: So I send in my bio and things and he goes, yes,
Speaker 2: I know who you are. You know, we've got people
Speaker 2: here from Australia that want to see you. You know,
Speaker 2: that's why we get it's why you and you know,
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. And I said, okay, fantastic. He said,
Speaker 2: Now all we need to do is get your visa
Speaker 2: organized to come over bang visa because we've just come
Speaker 2: back from the United States. I'm very skilled, and who
Speaker 2: needed a visa to go where. Besides that time, Jenny,
Speaker 2: my wife, was managing professional golfers and the majority of
Speaker 2: her job was involved in getting the mental inos countries.
Speaker 1: And you knew she knew. Both of you knew. No
Speaker 1: visa for the UK.
Speaker 2: No, no visa for the U. And he said, just
Speaker 2: send us a copy of your passport. That's all they wanted.
Speaker 1: That's all they wanted.
Speaker 2: All that nonsense was just so. I rang the pastor
Speaker 2: at Devon, the Swiss. Yes, that's right, I found the
Speaker 2: church and I rang him. Oh God, not another one,
Speaker 2: for goodness, a scam boy. Hundreds of these dumb calls
Speaker 2: a week. I can't take it anymore, you know. So,
Speaker 2: poor bugger. He's over there, you know, and they're using
Speaker 2: it accent. Thank you. You're using him as the white
Speaker 2: ball bouncing around on the rule up whell He an
Speaker 2: absolute passenger in this scam, same as me. His reputation
Speaker 2: is being slowly ruined.
Speaker 1: That is this one? So all they really want? Of course,
Speaker 1: I just want to get your details and then they
Speaker 1: can do bad things with your passport exactly. They can
Speaker 1: well tell me what they might do with your past.
Speaker 2: Well, they can get a credit card, they can get
Speaker 2: a driver's.
Speaker 1: License, false ID, that's right, build a false.
Speaker 2: Get alone in your name at the bank for five
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars for a property, all that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Oh goodness, gracious mate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're really bad.
Speaker 1: What a tangle web we have created with the brave
Speaker 1: new world of computing.
Speaker 2: And the thing is it praise on people's ego. It
Speaker 2: does praise on people's need to want to help. That's
Speaker 2: another kind of scam where that you know, they pretend
Speaker 2: you're you're getting a phone call from your daughter on
Speaker 2: a number you don't know, and it's just a text
Speaker 2: saying Dad, I've lost my phone and it has my
Speaker 2: credit card in it. Can you please just send some
Speaker 2: money to the ATM, the A and Z in South
Speaker 2: Melbourne or something and give me the code and I'll
Speaker 2: go and get it out right.
Speaker 1: And sometimes they pick up. If they send one hundred
Speaker 1: of those, they might get one live one.
Speaker 2: It's all lines in the water. That was the theory
Speaker 2: behind the Nigerian prince.
Speaker 1: I think it's ridiculous. But one one little old lady
Speaker 1: with cataract, that's it.
Speaker 2: They press a button on a computer. They can send
Speaker 2: a million emails in a second. Yes, so if only
Speaker 2: one of them comes back, that's a decent day's work,
Speaker 2: if you you know. And just as it's quiet tip,
Speaker 2: if you didn't know anything about global politics, you're never
Speaker 2: going to get an email from a Nigerian prince. Because
Speaker 2: it's a presidential democracy. They only have a royal family.
Speaker 1: Haven't had one since the last one was eaten in
Speaker 1: about sixteen fifth.
Speaker 2: Correct, delicious, I believe, but not around, Yes, exactly. Insert
Speaker 2: forty three funny missionary jokes here. I'll leave that for
Speaker 2: another time.
Speaker 1: So are there funny missionary jokes? Oh?
Speaker 2: Hysterical?
Speaker 1: Yeah, to do with missionary positions?
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, but this is a family show.
Speaker 1: So you don't work blue? Did your dad work blue?
Speaker 2: Not much? No, it never swore never.
Speaker 1: We're referring, of course, to the late great Murrayfield. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one of the icons of my childhood. When my grandmother
Speaker 1: turned on the telly in the bush in the plan
Speaker 1: way back in the old black and white days.
Speaker 2: There he was on Belbert, he certainly was. He was
Speaker 2: on Belbert, he was on homicide, he was on skyways,
Speaker 2: he was on flying doctors with mum. He did all
Speaker 2: sorts of things like that. Anyway, Also, imagine how many
Speaker 2: people would have tried to target him with his profile,
Speaker 2: but fortunately he never got.
Speaker 1: Fun Fortunately he was no longer with us before he could.
Speaker 2: Be targeting exactly. It was an old Carnie as well.
Speaker 2: He would have picked up on it. The other reason
Speaker 2: that people get done also, and it's unfortunate, is because
Speaker 2: of greed.
Speaker 1: So you're saying that beautiful alloy, that mix of ego
Speaker 1: and greed is the perfecto. And we've all got it.
Speaker 1: We've all got ego, we've all got greed. Absolutely at
Speaker 1: some level.
Speaker 2: You know, why get five percent on your money when
Speaker 2: with a better offer, with a little bit more risk,
Speaker 2: you can get twelve percent on your money or fifteen percent. Yes,
Speaker 2: So it's never you going to quintupple your money. It's
Speaker 2: always why get five percent? We can give you eleven percent.
Speaker 2: And then they just doctor up a page that looks
Speaker 2: like AMP, or looks like CBA, looks like anything. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and they can get you in again all lines in
Speaker 2: the water. The more people yeah they can get to,
Speaker 2: the more chances they are.
Speaker 1: I have to say that after we had a phone
Speaker 1: conversation the other day, I started to scroll through the
Speaker 1: computer looking for this and for this very interesting stories
Speaker 1: to do with this game. It goes back away, but
Speaker 1: despite the fact that it's been exposed, it keeps cropping
Speaker 1: up because it's such a plausible thing that they find
Speaker 1: someone like in the entertainment business like yourself or someone
Speaker 1: like that who's got a lot of followers, who is
Speaker 1: in the gig economy. They do gigs and they haggle
Speaker 1: over prices and the perfect target. Absolutely, because you are
Speaker 1: dealing with managers and management and booking agents and promoters
Speaker 1: every week, haven't you.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Now, normally we would just pass this on to
Speaker 2: our agents, but as it turned out, it was in
Speaker 2: the middle of January, offices are closed, so every little
Speaker 2: element it ticked every box. It's very clever, you know.
Speaker 2: And I admired that, like I got done in Rome.
Speaker 2: Heaven we all I got done in Rome in nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety seven.
Speaker 1: Could you just clarify that please.
Speaker 2: I got out of the train at the Century Terminy
Speaker 2: station in fresh off the plane from Australia, Yes, and
Speaker 2: wheeled most suitcases to my hotel room. And then I
Speaker 2: had to go for a walk because there wasn't enough
Speaker 2: room in the room for me and the cases at
Speaker 2: the same time. Small put the key in the front
Speaker 2: door and broke the back windows. A small room. I
Speaker 2: rang room services. I could just send me a room.
Speaker 2: It's small like anyway, So I'm going for a walk.
Speaker 2: And I walked back past the station and some guy
Speaker 2: walks up to me, blonde hair, Swedish accent. He says, hey,
Speaker 2: how are you And I said yeah, good. He said
Speaker 2: you're just visiting. I said yeah, I just got here,
Speaker 2: you know, and you just want to have a chat.
Speaker 2: You don't know anybody in the joint. And he says,
Speaker 2: do you want some drugs? And I said, nah, I'm
Speaker 2: all right. And he said I got, I got, I
Speaker 2: got some weed. It's nothing, you know, it's just some hash.
Speaker 2: It's really good stuff. I said no, no, I'm fine and said,
Speaker 2: oh okay, and bang a car pulls up right beside us,
Speaker 2: and two blokes get out. And I had done my
Speaker 2: research and apparently in Italy, the less you look like
Speaker 2: a copper, the more likely it is you are a copper.
Speaker 1: I see.
Speaker 2: The least powerful police have the most magnificent uniforms, all right,
Speaker 2: the parking office unbelievable, Mussolini, unbelievable, right up to the
Speaker 2: real detectives, who just looked like tent warms Colombo.
Speaker 1: Terrible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, shock it. So they tumble out of this car,
Speaker 2: these two guys. One grabs him, one grabs me right,
Speaker 2: and they put him in front of so I can
Speaker 2: see him over the shoulder of the dude that's talking
Speaker 2: to me, and he starts talking to me in it
Speaker 2: and I said, no, no English inglis. He said, okay,
Speaker 2: did he offer to sell you drugs? And I said,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't want to give the bloke up.
Speaker 2: And I said, and I wasn't listening. He said he
Speaker 2: sells drogs. I said does he? He said yeah, did
Speaker 2: he try and sell your drugs? I said no. He said,
Speaker 2: can I search you? And I said what for? And
Speaker 2: he said I'm going to search you? And so I
Speaker 2: said all right, and I just put my hands up
Speaker 2: and he just gave me a bit of a frisk.
Speaker 2: If I had had drugs, he wouldn't found him anyway,
Speaker 2: you know. And I can see the bloke over his
Speaker 2: shoulder putting that blonde die in their car, right, So
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, okay, they've got him. And now the second
Speaker 2: guy comes over to me and he said, has he
Speaker 2: got drugs? You know they took obviously that's what they
Speaker 2: were saying to each other in Italian. And I said no.
Speaker 2: He said, you just get here and I said yeah.
Speaker 2: I said, welcome to early It's nice. Have you got
Speaker 2: money on you. I said, yeah, I do. He said, well,
Speaker 2: where do you keep it? And I said, it's just
Speaker 2: in my pocket at the moment I brought out and
Speaker 2: I just had six hundred thousand lira, which was six
Speaker 2: hundred bucks. And I said this, and he said, I
Speaker 2: don't carry it like that. You need to put it
Speaker 2: in your little waistband thing. So he opened up my waistband,
Speaker 2: you know, my thing, and he shoved it in there, right,
Speaker 2: and then he closed the zip and he said, that's
Speaker 2: where you want to keep it, and I said, okay,
Speaker 2: thank you. He said, don't put it in your pockets
Speaker 2: are very dangerous. Enjoy your time, and really into the car.
Speaker 2: They sped off. Two hours later, after seeing my nineteenth
Speaker 2: museum and twenty fourth overpriced clothing shop, I went to
Speaker 2: have some lunch. I opened up my little thing. There's
Speaker 2: my ward of money with one hundred thousand ra on
Speaker 2: the outside and inside tens.
Speaker 1: Oh lovely. He'd just done the he'd.
Speaker 2: Done the most magnificent palms. So instead of getting filthy
Speaker 2: because it was six hundred so I'd lost five hundred dollars, right,
Speaker 2: But instead of I just leant back in the back
Speaker 2: of my chair, sipped macafe laty and said, well, that
Speaker 2: was beautiful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just.
Speaker 2: Felt like that the Sting should be playing in the
Speaker 2: background because it's the start of the sting. It's absolutely, yes,
Speaker 2: beautiful bit of con how Luther does it and how
Speaker 2: Luther does it. Yeah, it's just a wonderful thing and
Speaker 2: it's real.
Speaker 1: Without doubt, one of the most entertaining books and films
Speaker 1: and bit of ragged on music.
Speaker 2: Yes, wonderful. I played it all as a kid on
Speaker 2: the piano. There's all those tunes, the Scott Joplin stuff. Wonderful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's nothing you can't do. I don't know about
Speaker 1: that now, Marty, I think we should talk about what
Speaker 1: people should do if they've been scammed.
Speaker 2: Well, what would you do?
Speaker 1: I'd panic, I'd swear, I'd sit down, I'd make a
Speaker 1: cup of tea and then I'd think. Now I'd start
Speaker 1: I think it through and come down a bit. But
Speaker 1: it will take me a while to sort of settle.
Speaker 2: Well, the first thing you should do is contact scam Watch,
Speaker 2: Is that right? Yeah, the government website. All you have
Speaker 2: to do is Google. I think I have been scammed.
Speaker 2: What do I do if I've been scammed? It will
Speaker 2: send you straight to that government. Make sure it's the
Speaker 2: right one there, otherwise you could get done there too,
Speaker 2: and fill out the forms they ask for any photographic evidence,
Speaker 2: anything you can give them. That's going to help them
Speaker 2: because it's a collective knowledge database that they've got, and
Speaker 2: then they can release information on the net saying watch
Speaker 2: out for the podcast scam, watch out for the you know,
Speaker 2: the devon priest thing all that poor bugger still feel bad.
Speaker 1: He died from that accent.
Speaker 2: He was that old, had a signed copy of the Bible.
Speaker 2: Old the dead sea was just getting sick anyway, he
Speaker 2: is a target for us today. But that is a
Speaker 2: sad thing for him. But what you need to do,
Speaker 2: get on to scam Watch. They'll take all your details.
Speaker 2: They'll also give you an idea of what to do.
Speaker 2: First thing you should do is try and close off
Speaker 2: the conduit of funds, if there is such a thing.
Speaker 2: If that's what they're doing, so directly contact your bank,
Speaker 2: Directly contact your credit card, thing all that. See what's
Speaker 2: happened and see if you have actually lost anything. If not,
Speaker 2: bang pulled the roll door down, change passwords, change this,
Speaker 2: change that, make yourself immune again.
Speaker 1: Tell me this to go back to your case. Had
Speaker 1: it been three weeks later and your agent was around,
Speaker 1: would they have got to your agent and could they
Speaker 1: have got any sense from the agent. Could they scam
Speaker 1: the agent?
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have thought.
Speaker 1: So I'm not trying to think this through. I can't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't think that fast.
Speaker 2: I think yeah. I think that they get around the
Speaker 2: agent by saying it's not a huge amount of money. Okay,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, because occasionally my agency pretty
Speaker 2: cool that sort of stuff. You know, there's little things
Speaker 2: that it's more work to them that it's worth and
Speaker 2: if I'm happy, just like it's just a podcast sitting
Speaker 2: at home at the piano, right, Oh, okay, I don't
Speaker 2: have to do anything. They don't have to do anything.
Speaker 2: I would put the money back through my agency so
Speaker 2: they can cop a whack out of it, but I'd
Speaker 2: organize it's simply just to make it easier, right Anyway.
Speaker 2: The funny thing I saw on the scam Watch thing
Speaker 2: was be careful of companies that now contact you offering
Speaker 2: to help get your money back, because a lot of
Speaker 2: them can be scams as well. Now, I want to
Speaker 2: know how they get that that If you know what I.
Speaker 1: Mean that they already know that someone's a target of
Speaker 1: a scam. Yes, that is a very good point.
Speaker 2: It is very good, isn't it.
Speaker 1: It's a left hand doing following the right hand. Yes.
Speaker 2: If they have no luck with you, they might put
Speaker 2: you in the follow up in two weeks. Oh, pile,
Speaker 2: he's wonder welcome. This is scam Watch contacting you. Thank
Speaker 2: you for contacting us.
Speaker 1: Is there anything quite as efficient as corruption and criminality?
Speaker 2: Apparently not.
Speaker 1: It's so good. They work around the clock. Yes, and
Speaker 1: nothing's too hard for them.
Speaker 2: And when AI gets going, forget about it, because what
Speaker 2: you're going to be able to see is me calling
Speaker 2: you on a video phone saying, Andrew, I need a grant.
Speaker 2: I've got the fourth leg of the quaditya. It's an
Speaker 2: absolute matza, but I can't quite get the funds up.
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah. And you're seeing my face but no,
Speaker 2: I'm an absolute computer generated image. Oh my goodness, it's
Speaker 2: all coming.
Speaker 1: That's not going to be good for some people.
Speaker 2: No, it's not going to be good for anybody. Really.
Speaker 2: I think AI will be the end of the world.
Speaker 2: That that's another story.
Speaker 1: It could be. It might infect all sorts of things.
Speaker 2: Anyway, let's not leave it or no, no, if people
Speaker 2: want to follow me, yes, just go to Facebook. Just
Speaker 2: don't go to normal Facebook. Go to Facebook pages, Facebook pages. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's or just google Marty Field's comedian, Marty Field's comedian
Speaker 2: and you'll see my beautiful face there.
Speaker 1: And is it an old fighter?
Speaker 2: No, it's so mean. I know I'm not that good looking. Well,
Speaker 2: I've never been good looking, Andrew neither of No mate.
Speaker 2: When I was a kid, what happened? My parents put
Speaker 2: me in an ugly baby competition? They said, sorry, no professionals.
Speaker 1: Oh that'sble now. I know we've been through this before.
Speaker 1: But some of our listeners, there are many more of
Speaker 1: them now, and some of them won't know the story
Speaker 1: about your late mother, val who passed away down and
Speaker 1: I'm going to say Port Melbourne, but Albert Park it's
Speaker 1: close to Port Melbourne. And of course she came from
Speaker 1: an era back in the vaudeville days and all the
Speaker 1: rest of where she knew a lot of scaley wags
Speaker 1: and scoundrels as your dad did in the nicest possible way.
Speaker 1: And what did you find when you were cleaning out
Speaker 1: your mother's nice little house.
Speaker 2: Four guns? Four four guns?
Speaker 1: Is that all he was? I thought there were fourteen
Speaker 1: four and.
Speaker 2: I sent you pictures of them. And the curtains were
Speaker 2: weighed down with bullets. Not those slugs that you see
Speaker 2: in normal old curtains. These were bullets. That's where they'd
Speaker 2: put them down the curtain.
Speaker 1: Is that a fact? And so she had now just
Speaker 1: run through this for benefit of our listens, listen to
Speaker 1: the no, no, no, this it live. This the bedside
Speaker 1: draw table.
Speaker 2: There was a handgun on the bedside draw There was
Speaker 2: there was a rifle under the floor. There was a
Speaker 2: rifle behind the wardrobe, and there was a sawn off
Speaker 2: in the back shed which I had been using to
Speaker 2: put what was long sort of garden stakes in because
Speaker 2: all I could see were the two holes coming out.
Speaker 1: Just popped them in there. Yeah, well, I'm glad it
Speaker 1: wasn't loaded and cocked.
Speaker 2: Because no, so they would shot, wouldn't guy, rocket wouldn't
Speaker 2: be good, very bad.
Speaker 1: You formed the belief I think that after a particular
Speaker 1: the incident in the neighborhood where Chap was shot dead,
Speaker 1: that maybe one of the scally wags or scoundrels came
Speaker 1: around and popped out a rifle in my father's boot,
Speaker 1: your father's boot, the Kings would the Premier, the Gold Premier, sorry,
Speaker 1: the gold. Dad drove around with it for six weeks
Speaker 1: and then the bloke.
Speaker 2: Came and got it back and that was yeah, And
Speaker 2: that was who was that chap? That might have been
Speaker 2: Mark Brandon Reid. Really, yes, that was my understand that's
Speaker 2: what Dad told me. I'm not sure if they's accurate.
Speaker 2: I don't think Dad knew who that guy was. A
Speaker 2: young fella, heavily set, short dark hair. Oh well, but
Speaker 2: probably might not have been. I think Dad might have
Speaker 2: made a false connection there. But I definitely know that
Speaker 2: it was the gun that was involved in a matter
Speaker 2: at the Druids Hotel.
Speaker 1: I see that is so interesting.
Speaker 2: But I don't know why the Texan anyway of.
Speaker 1: The Texan was involved. Well, the Texan got locked up
Speaker 1: for it, yes, and he was clearly you know, close by.
Speaker 2: But Dad knew all the p and D so did I.
Speaker 2: At the Council Club, that was fun.
Speaker 1: That was great, good audiences.
Speaker 2: With fabulous big tippers, laughers. Big tippers love to sing along,
Speaker 2: fight like forty men, all of them. It was always
Speaker 2: a stink.
Speaker 1: But it was.
Speaker 2: There were funny fights, not normal sort of like you
Speaker 2: see now, terrible shocking things to look at. These were hilarious,
Speaker 2: like they were all having a blue one night outside
Speaker 2: Her Majesty's hotel in Paran, all these old knock about
Speaker 2: gangsters having the biggest stink of all time. And one
Speaker 2: of them said, I've just done me gold tooth. It's
Speaker 2: gone somewhere. They all stopped, and they stopped, and they're
Speaker 2: all looking on the ground. Come over here. It's not
Speaker 2: over there, I know, but the light's better over here,
Speaker 2: you know. And they found it, got it banged straight
Speaker 2: back in into it we go again.
Speaker 1: That's true story. Yeah, they're a bit different. They from
Speaker 1: the fellows that we've seen mowed down Sam the Punisher,
Speaker 1: who they don't look for gold teeth.
Speaker 2: No, they wouldn't have to look too far in that circumstance.
Speaker 1: I should.
Speaker 2: No, I don't like to see anybody, you know, getting
Speaker 2: hurt and stuff. But it's a real lived by the
Speaker 2: sword prophecy, isn't it. And just before we wrap up,
Speaker 2: because I've got a a you know, you've got places
Speaker 2: to go, I've got things to do, and there's something
Speaker 2: in the boot not getting any fresher anyway.
Speaker 1: Not a body. It might be a body, but not
Speaker 1: a human.
Speaker 2: No, you've got to I'm done with.
Speaker 1: It might be just a choke.
Speaker 2: Look, honestly, if my grandfather knew how little we spent
Speaker 2: on his funeral, he'd be rolling over in the garage now.
Speaker 2: So something I just wanted to point out. Often you'll
Speaker 2: get an email from your bank, or from a building society,
Speaker 2: or from Visa or American Express or something like that,
Speaker 2: or very very commonly from PayPal or a mob like that.
Speaker 2: You might be involved. You might have an account with
Speaker 2: PayPal or something like that. It will say, we just
Speaker 2: are doing a quick security check. We suggest it's time
Speaker 2: to change your password. Blah blah blah. If you see
Speaker 2: a link in the email, never ever ever click that link,
Speaker 2: because that immediately says that it's a scam. No building society,
Speaker 2: no bank, No.
Speaker 1: Send a link.
Speaker 2: They would never send a link. They would always say,
Speaker 2: please log into your PayPal account, or please log into
Speaker 2: your bank account, please contact your branch. No link, no link,
Speaker 2: Never click on any email link ever. Ever. That's exactly it.
Speaker 2: When in doubt, do nothing.
Speaker 1: I ignore stuff, and I think, well, one day I
Speaker 1: noticed there was a small problem. I didn't register a
Speaker 1: car for nine months and my brother in law was
Speaker 1: driving it and got pulled up and that was a
Speaker 1: little bit sad. But anyway, the fine was only the
Speaker 1: same amount as I'd saved in registration. Oh perfect. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that's another story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that's that's very good. Now, don't ever do that.
Speaker 2: That's really important. And that's that's very very common way
Speaker 2: that they get you, because the way they can mock
Speaker 2: things up now to look exactly like a cormal thing
Speaker 2: is incredible.
Speaker 1: Of course they can. And we I mean we open computers,
Speaker 1: we look at the page. How can you pick one?
Speaker 2: And you're on the phone all the time? Your phone's
Speaker 2: got emails and you sit there. You're boring, you know,
Speaker 2: and so you jump on your phone and you're not
Speaker 2: looking too closely either. And some of these links you
Speaker 2: only need to bump on with your thumb and suddenly
Speaker 2: you're you're in there, and you still think you're on
Speaker 2: the same page.
Speaker 1: And again they've sent out five thousand of them. They
Speaker 1: only need five to be live.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. So, for example, your bank often sends
Speaker 2: out online statements. That's fine, but it always says like
Speaker 2: I'm with the Commonwealth.
Speaker 1: It says me too.
Speaker 2: Well, they would say, log into your net.
Speaker 1: Common would like to sponsor our show. Here.
Speaker 2: I see why they wouldn't you to run around with
Speaker 2: their jump around?
Speaker 1: Do you think if they're having a sort of a
Speaker 1: Christmas party or something like guests.
Speaker 2: To come along you and I, what do you think
Speaker 2: to loose pages from the Book of fun?
Speaker 1: We will be loose? Is the right word. Now. When
Speaker 1: we started this conversation, Mardy, it started out as saying
Speaker 1: that you got something from somebody who purported to be
Speaker 1: the management of one Kendred g That's right.
Speaker 2: Now. She definitely is not involved. There's absolutely no way
Speaker 2: that she proper. She is a real proper person with
Speaker 2: a real propper probably very interesting podcast. I could listen
Speaker 2: to it. But it's it's clever because all they had
Speaker 2: to do was say, you know, set up an email
Speaker 2: address kendreg Management at gmail dot com. You can set
Speaker 2: up anything at gmail dot com. Yeah, at hotmail or whatever.
Speaker 1: And when you clicked on the computer and looked at it,
Speaker 1: there's the logo on the screen.
Speaker 2: Which they've just copied off her web easy. It's so easy.
Speaker 1: It's that simple.
Speaker 2: With it and the thing is, it's how really good
Speaker 2: magicians work. You think no one would go to that
Speaker 2: amount of trouble to make that work. So my brain
Speaker 2: is going to eliminate that possibility of how they did it. Yes,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to look for the most obvious ways
Speaker 2: that they could have done it. Yes, that's how the
Speaker 2: great magicians work. They do things that are so clever
Speaker 2: and intrinsic and time consuming. Thing you couldn't possibly have
Speaker 2: set up a radio controlled thing in your pocket that
Speaker 2: is sending a signal to a light at the back
Speaker 2: of the room that is flashing so the guy can
Speaker 2: see how many somethings there are that would have taken
Speaker 2: so much time, and you wouldn't have set it up
Speaker 2: in every theater that you're doing on the tour.
Speaker 1: But yes, they do, Yes, okay, ye, these are the
Speaker 1: magicians of the scamming age.
Speaker 2: They are, they are, and they are to be applauded.
Speaker 2: If you can remain impervious to them, sit back and
Speaker 2: watch the show. It's entertaining. And speaking of entertaining, I'll
Speaker 2: leave you with this. There are some fantastic things on Instagram.
Speaker 2: By the way, you can follow me on Instagram too,
Speaker 2: that's always fun. There's people getting scammers angry, so they
Speaker 2: film themselves talking to the scammer in Indonesia or some
Speaker 2: wonderful it's so funny, and they screaming at them. No,
Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure what you're telling me to do.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I drive them crazy. It's so entertaining. So if you
Speaker 2: can find some of them, they're a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I have a relative who sometimes finds scammers. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of low level scammers. They offer something for sale
Speaker 1: and you ring up, you know, and I want to
Speaker 1: buy your car yea. And of course anybody who's really
Speaker 1: selling a caravan or a horse slade for a couch,
Speaker 1: they're very inclined to want to sell it. So if
Speaker 1: you say I'm going to come around with my trailer
Speaker 1: and pick it up and buy you, the real ones
Speaker 1: are going to go, yeah, beauty, you know, I'll see
Speaker 1: you in an hour. But these ones go, oh no, no, mate,
Speaker 1: I've got a babysitting the kids. No, no, I've got
Speaker 1: concert tickets tonight. That's right, and all this. And my
Speaker 1: cousin what he does sometimes is ring them up and
Speaker 1: badge of them, say I can get around there. I've
Speaker 1: got cash and know them all. It's good, good, good,
Speaker 1: very funny. And on that note, we are going to
Speaker 1: think Marty Fields for making the time to come all
Speaker 1: the way from where he lives in another postcode almost
Speaker 1: and took to us here at Harold's Son headquarters to
Speaker 1: Life and Crimes. Your life. You've known a lot of
Speaker 1: crimes along the way, but you've never committed any or
Speaker 1: not many.
Speaker 2: I've never been caught, never convicted.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Life and Crimes is a Sunday Herald
Speaker 1: Sun production for True Crime Australia. Our producer is Johnty Burton.
Speaker 1: For my columns, features and more, go to haroldsun dot
Speaker 1: com dot au, forward slash Andrew rule one word. For
Speaker 1: advertising inquiries, go to news podcasts sold atnews dot com
Speaker 1: dot au. That is all one word news podcast's soul.
Speaker 1: And if you want further information about this episode, links
Speaker 1: are in the description.