Speaker 1: It's late October now in twenty twenty three in New
Speaker 1: York City. It's a cool sixty five degrees outside, just
Speaker 1: past six pm, and thirty nine year old Charlotte Coals
Speaker 1: is nervously standing in front of her Brooklyn apartment building.
Speaker 1: She looks like she's seen a ghost, and she's clutching
Speaker 1: a shoe box containing fifty thousand dollars in cash, her cash,
Speaker 1: her entire life savings she had just come from her
Speaker 1: bank after withdrawing it all. When all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: a man in a white Mercedes suv pulls up and
Speaker 1: Charlotte places that shoe box with her life savings in it,
Speaker 1: on the back seat of that Mercedes and slams the
Speaker 1: door shut and watches as it drives away. At this
Speaker 1: very moment, even though Charlotte Coles is an Ivy League
Speaker 1: educated financial journalist for the New York Times and New
Speaker 1: York Magazine, she has no idea that she has just
Speaker 1: fallen for an elaborate confidence trick, orchestrated by a team
Speaker 1: of sophisticated con artists working in unison with surgical precision
Speaker 1: to scam her. How did these people, these scammers infiltrate
Speaker 1: her life to begin with, And what could they have
Speaker 1: possibly said and done to convince Charlotte Coles to fork
Speaker 1: over her entire life savings behind her husband's back Listen,
Speaker 1: I know you think there's just no way that you'd
Speaker 1: ever hand a stranger all the money in your bank account.
Speaker 1: And I know you think Charlotte Coles must be a
Speaker 1: gullible idiot for doing that. But a similar thing happened
Speaker 1: to me. I got conned out of close to one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars and I managed to turn the tables
Speaker 1: and put my con artist in jail. And I've since
Speaker 1: investigated hundreds and hundreds of concases and scams and wrote
Speaker 1: a book, Anatomy of a Con Artist, about the psychology
Speaker 1: of how these elaborate scams work and how these mfforts
Speaker 1: know the exact way to hack your brain to get
Speaker 1: you to do what they want. You think you'd never
Speaker 1: fall for a scam like this, Well, that belief actually
Speaker 1: makes you so much more likely to. In each episode
Speaker 1: of Hardcore Con, I'm not just going to tell you
Speaker 1: a crazy con story. I'm also going to pull the
Speaker 1: curtain back and expose the dark psychology and the mental
Speaker 1: tricks these scammers use to manipulate you while at the
Speaker 1: same time making you completely unaware that you're being manipulated.
Speaker 1: Because the the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was
Speaker 1: convincing the world he didn't exist. Then that's the reason
Speaker 1: you won't know you're getting scammed until it's all over.
Speaker 1: That's what happened to me, and that's what's happening to
Speaker 1: Charlotte Cole's right now. And my sole mission in life
Speaker 1: until the day I die is to make sure it
Speaker 1: never happens to you or anyone you care about. I'm
Speaker 1: Jonathan Walton and this is Hardcore Con Episode one, the
Speaker 1: Shoe Box. If you like this episode, you'll find more
Speaker 1: episodes of Hardcore Con at my new home at Jonathan
Speaker 1: Walton Media. Just tap that magnifying glass on your podcast
Speaker 1: app and search Jonathan Walton Media to listen to all
Speaker 1: my new shows Cocaine Air, The Quarterback and The Con Artist,
Speaker 1: The Handyman of West Texas and this one Hardcore Con.
Speaker 1: Back to episode one now about Charlotte Coles losing her
Speaker 1: life savings to a team of sophisticated con artists who
Speaker 1: are ganging up to scam her.
Speaker 2: Long time.
Speaker 1: Twenty years earlier, in two thousand and three, a nineteen
Speaker 1: year old Charlotte Coles is sitting on the campus of
Speaker 1: Columbia University outside Lerner Hall. She's a creative writing major,
Speaker 1: and as she opens a bag of potato chips and
Speaker 1: pops a couple into her mouth, the news of the day,
Speaker 1: spreading all over campus, is about a con artist named
Speaker 1: Christophe Rocincourt, a Frenchman.
Speaker 2: Who claimed to be a member of the wealthy Rockefeller
Speaker 2: family in order to con the rich and famous out
Speaker 2: of one point two million dollars.
Speaker 1: And at this point in charlott life, she's a teenager
Speaker 1: and elaborate con stories like this are just something she
Speaker 1: sees on the news or in Hollywood movies, like the
Speaker 1: usual Suspects.
Speaker 3: You think youth kaisa, I don't know verbal kaisus sos
Speaker 3: is a shield like you said a spook story.
Speaker 1: The idea that Charlotte Coles would one day fall hook
Speaker 1: line and sinker for an elaborate Cohn herself and lose
Speaker 1: her entire life savings in one fell swoop is just
Speaker 1: so far removed from her realm of thinking at this point,
Speaker 1: and that's the problem. Lord Flynn Gold Michael Aesop Smith,
Speaker 1: Adam David Ryback, Charlotte Carla Coles. Charlotte graduates from Columbia
Speaker 1: University in two thousand and seven with a bachelor's degree
Speaker 1: in English Language Literature and Letters. A year later, she
Speaker 1: lends a pivotal job as an assistant editor at The
Speaker 1: New York Sun, and over the next decade, Charlotte's career
Speaker 1: in journalism takes off, and she quickly moves up writing
Speaker 1: for Harper's Bazaar, New York Magazine, and The New York Times.
Speaker 1: And by the time Charlotte is introduced to that motley
Speaker 1: crew of con artists who'd go on to scam her
Speaker 1: out of fifty thousand dollars, she's freelancing for both The
Speaker 1: New York Times and New York Magazine as a financial columnist.
Speaker 1: It's Halloween now, October thirty, first, twenty twenty three in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: just past noon, and some of the neighborhood kids are
Speaker 1: getting a jump on their trick or treating. Charlotte's working
Speaker 1: from home, trying to finish her latest piece for New
Speaker 1: York Magazine while her two year old son is playing
Speaker 1: in the next room. At around twelve thirty pm, Charlotte's
Speaker 1: phone rings. She glances down at her caller ID. It's
Speaker 1: Amazon calling. Immediately, Charlotte thinks maybe this is about a
Speaker 1: grocery order or a package she's been waiting on, so
Speaker 1: she answers.
Speaker 4: Hello, Am I speaking to Charlotte Coles.
Speaker 1: Now, if you've ever spoken to Amazon over the phone,
Speaker 1: then you know they employ call centers in India and
Speaker 1: other far flunk places to handle their customer service calls.
Speaker 1: So Charlotte thinks nothing of the woman on the phone
Speaker 1: with the thick accent, and she confirms that yes, she is.
Speaker 1: In fact. Charlotte colls and politely asks what the purpose
Speaker 1: of the phone call is.
Speaker 4: I'm calling from Amazon Customer Service to verify some unusual
Speaker 4: activity on your account. This call is being recorded for
Speaker 4: quality assurance.
Speaker 1: Right off the bat, this call seems legit. After all,
Speaker 1: it's being recorded, right and remember it came up as
Speaker 1: Amazon on Charlotte's caller ID. But it most certainly is
Speaker 1: not Amazon at all, just a clever scammer who knows
Speaker 1: how to spoof phone numbers. Word, do the wise, never
Speaker 1: trust your caller ID.
Speaker 4: We wanted to confirm a few recent charges totaling eight
Speaker 4: thousand dollars for a MacBook Pro and an ibag.
Speaker 1: Charlotte immediately gets scared because those are not her charges.
Speaker 1: She didn't buy a MacBook Pro and an iPad. Could
Speaker 1: someone have hacked her Amazon account? And here's where the
Speaker 1: manipulation starts. Con Artists don't actually outsmart you. They're not
Speaker 1: smarter than you. Con Artists outfeel you, and then they
Speaker 1: weaponize your feelings against you. They make you emotional, which
Speaker 1: gets you to bypass your intellect altogether, and that's how
Speaker 1: they manipulate you. Right now, Charlotte's scared, and that fear
Speaker 1: is a powerful feeling, and it's only going to grow
Speaker 1: and get her to do all kinds of things she
Speaker 1: would never do in her right mind, especially after this
Speaker 1: fake Amazon customer service rep tells her it.
Speaker 4: Appears you've been the victim of identity theft. Someone has
Speaker 4: used your credentials to open an Amazon business account in
Speaker 4: your name and is making purchases as we speak.
Speaker 1: Charlotte is now in full freak out mode. And then suddenly,
Speaker 1: this con artist on the phone, posing as an Amazon
Speaker 1: rep does what all con artists do to firmly establish
Speaker 1: a stranglehold in their victims' lives. They offer to help,
Speaker 1: and right now Charlotte feels like she can use all
Speaker 1: the help she can get, which is exactly how the
Speaker 1: con artist wants her to feel. The rep tells her
Speaker 1: that Amazon has been experiencing a sudden deluge of identity
Speaker 1: theft cases just like hers, and that they're working with
Speaker 1: investigators right now from the Federal Trade Commission the FTC
Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. And that at the end of
Speaker 1: this phone call, Charlotte can either call and report this
Speaker 1: to the FTC herself, which will take god knows how
Speaker 1: long to get one of these FTC agents on the phone,
Speaker 1: or if Charlotte prefers, the Amazon customer service rep can
Speaker 1: transfer her to an FTC investigator they're working with right now,
Speaker 1: which sounds great to a scared and now desperate for
Speaker 1: help Charlotte Coles. Remember, con artists don't outsmart you, They
Speaker 1: outfeel you, and at this very moment, Charlotte's feelings are
Speaker 1: being played like a violin concerto by a con artist virtuoso.
Speaker 1: She didn't stand a chance. You're listening to my new
Speaker 1: series Hardcore con for more episodes like the one explaining
Speaker 1: how falling in love with a con artist is what
Speaker 1: actually killed Hollywood actress Britney Murphy. Search Jonathan Walton Media
Speaker 1: on whatever podcast platform you're listening on. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to hardcore con. Charlotte Coles just got transferred
Speaker 1: to a legit sounding FTC agent over the phone. She
Speaker 1: has no idea she's falling victim to an elaborate scam.
Speaker 2: Hi, Charlotte, this is Agent Calvin Mitchell with the Federal
Speaker 2: Trade Commission. I've been in touch with Amazon. I'm looking
Speaker 2: into your case right now.
Speaker 1: Agent Mitchell immediately gives Charlotte his badge number and a
Speaker 1: phone number she can call him back on in case
Speaker 1: they get disconnected, and that phone number has a two
Speaker 1: to two area code, which is in fact a Washington
Speaker 1: DC number. And then he actually tells Charlotte the last
Speaker 1: four digits of her social Security number, just to confirm
Speaker 1: he has to write Charlotte Coles on the phone. At
Speaker 1: this point, it's obvious to Charlotte that Agent Mitchell has
Speaker 1: all her information social security number included on his computer
Speaker 1: screen in his office down there at the Federal Trade
Speaker 1: Commission in Washington, DC. And the idea that this is
Speaker 1: all an elaborate ruse never even occurs to Charlotte, I mean,
Speaker 1: why would it. But here's the thing. All of our
Speaker 1: social security numbers and all of our personal information is
Speaker 1: out there on the dark web right now, and professional
Speaker 1: scammers buy and sell bundles of this information to each
Speaker 1: other in order to scam us. You might be wondering,
Speaker 1: how on earth do scammers in say India or Nigeria
Speaker 1: or China get their hands on your social Security number? Well,
Speaker 1: the answer is simple data breaches.
Speaker 2: Word of a massive data breach for AT and.
Speaker 1: T, lots and lots of data breaches.
Speaker 5: That cyber attack on JP Morgan Chase Tonight's Flagstar is
Speaker 5: warning customers their personal information, including social security numbers, may
Speaker 5: have been stolen in a ransomware breach crime.
Speaker 1: Of our times. So the fact that this scammer on
Speaker 1: the phone with Charlotte, who's posing as an agent for
Speaker 1: the Federal Trade Commission in DC, has her social Security
Speaker 1: number and all her personal information on his computer screen
Speaker 1: goes a long way in making him seem legitimate to Charlotte.
Speaker 1: And then this agent Mitchell, tells her.
Speaker 2: Your personal information is linked to a case that we've
Speaker 2: been working on for a while now, and it's quite serious.
Speaker 1: According to Agent Mitchell, the people that stole Charlotte's identity
Speaker 1: belong to a sophisticated crime syndicate who in a very
Speaker 1: short amount of time managed to open twenty two bank
Speaker 1: accounts in Charlotte's name in multiple states and then used
Speaker 1: those various bank accounts to launder more than three million
Speaker 1: dollars that they quickly wired two other banks overseas. Charlotte
Speaker 1: suddenly feels all the blood drain out of her face.
Speaker 1: Agent Mitchell then texts her a picture of a woman's
Speaker 1: driver's license, a woman by the name of Stella Kwan.
Speaker 2: Do you know this woman? Have you ever seen this
Speaker 2: woman before? If you know her, you better tell me
Speaker 2: the truth, because if I find out later you're lying
Speaker 2: to me, you will be in so much more trouble.
Speaker 2: I can assure you.
Speaker 1: Agent Mitchell tells Charlotte that the driver's license for this woman,
Speaker 1: Stella Quang, was found in a rental car that had
Speaker 1: been abandoned near the Texas Southern border, and that that
Speaker 1: car was rented in Charlotte's name, and police later find
Speaker 1: drugs and blood in the trunk evidence of foul play,
Speaker 1: and when they execute a search at the rental car company,
Speaker 1: they find reams of bank statements also in charlott Its name,
Speaker 1: with her social Security number attached, and Charlotte nearly faints
Speaker 1: when Agent Mitchell reveals.
Speaker 2: There actually have been arrest warrants issued in your name
Speaker 2: in Texas and in Maryland, and you're facing multiple felony
Speaker 2: charges for cybercrimes, money laundering, and drug trafficking.
Speaker 1: Now, there are two very powerful scamming techniques that I
Speaker 1: write about in Anatomy of a con Artist that are
Speaker 1: being used on Charlotte very successfully here. Number one, stories
Speaker 1: from far away places, the overseas bank accounts, the southern border,
Speaker 1: rental car, the blood, the drugs, the felonies in Texas
Speaker 1: and Maryland. Human nature is unreliable and easily influenced. That's
Speaker 1: why advertising is a billion dollar industry is blowing again.
Speaker 1: And why when someone tells you these kinds of stories
Speaker 1: from far away places, they're hard to prove false off
Speaker 1: the top of your head. And the minute you can't
Speaker 1: prove something is false the way the human brain works,
Speaker 1: you are that much more likely to just accept it
Speaker 1: as true. The other psychological trick the scammers are employing here,
Speaker 1: using all those exquisite details in their stories from far
Speaker 1: away places. Tons of minute details have a tendency to
Speaker 1: immediately convince someone that what they're hearing is true, Otherwise
Speaker 1: there wouldn't be so many details. Add to that. At
Speaker 1: this point, Charlotte is scared, terrified actually, and she believes
Speaker 1: this FTC agent in DC on the phone with her
Speaker 1: is trying to help, so she is that much more
Speaker 1: primed to just accept whatever he says as true. From
Speaker 1: this point on, as Charlotte is talking to Agent Mitchell,
Speaker 1: she texts her husband telling him that someone has stolen
Speaker 1: her identity, and suddenly Agent Mitchell, sensing Charlotte is distracted,
Speaker 1: commands her full attention by asking.
Speaker 2: Have you recently used public WiFi anywhere? A coffee shop
Speaker 2: or an airport or any place like that.
Speaker 1: Charlotte did, in fact use public WiFi recently at the airport,
Speaker 1: and she feels really stupid now for doing it, as
Speaker 1: she tells Agent Mitchell, and Agent Mitchell, seizing on a
Speaker 1: sudden opportunity to make Charlotte blame herself for what's happening,
Speaker 1: piles on telling her that her recent public WiFi use
Speaker 1: at the airport is the reason this crime syndicate was
Speaker 1: able to hack into her phone and into her life
Speaker 1: and is now using her identity to commit all these
Speaker 1: crimes all over the country. And he says they're probably
Speaker 1: monitoring her phone right now, so she shouldn't be calling
Speaker 1: or texting anyone about anything, especially about this current FTC
Speaker 1: fraud investigation into her case. Panicking now, Charlotte quickly deletes
Speaker 1: the text she just sent to her husband, even though
Speaker 1: he already saw it, and she agrees not to call
Speaker 1: or text anyone else about this open FTC investigation. Agent
Speaker 1: Mitchell then tells Charlotte.
Speaker 2: We've been working with the CIA on this case for
Speaker 2: the past few months. If it's okay with you, I'd
Speaker 2: like to transfer you to the agent in charge.
Speaker 1: So now Charlotte is being transferred to a third person,
Speaker 1: which just makes this scam feel even more credible. And
Speaker 1: then to really juice up the credibility here, this third person,
Speaker 1: this CIA agent, speaks with a British accent.
Speaker 3: Charlotte, I'm special Agent Michael Serana. I'm pleased to finally
Speaker 3: be talking to you. We've been working on your case
Speaker 3: for the past six months.
Speaker 1: Agent Serrano gives Charlotte his badge number, and later, to
Speaker 1: assuage any concern she has, he texts her a picture
Speaker 1: of his ID and tells Charlotte from this point on
Speaker 1: she's not to talk about this case, this open investigation
Speaker 1: to anyone, including her husband. Charlotte box and tells Agent
Speaker 1: Serrano that her husband can be trusted. He's a good man,
Speaker 1: honest and hard working, and Agent Serrano firmly reminds her,
Speaker 1: you are.
Speaker 3: Being investigated for major federal crimes. By keeping your husband
Speaker 3: out of this, you are protecting him.
Speaker 1: So Charlotte reluctantly agrees not to tell her husband anything
Speaker 1: until the investigation is over, and Agient Serrano explains that
Speaker 1: with Charlotte's help, the CIA wants to catch the perpetrators
Speaker 1: in the act, and to do that, they need to
Speaker 1: deactivate her Social Security number and freeze all her bank accounts,
Speaker 1: the fraudulent ones and the real ones, because in the
Speaker 1: eyes of the law, he says, there is no difference.
Speaker 1: Charlotte asks, how would she be able to pay her
Speaker 1: bills if her bank account is frozen? And now we
Speaker 1: get to the meat of the con Agent Serrano offers
Speaker 1: to help Charlotte. Are you sensing a theme here? He says,
Speaker 1: he can hold off on freezing her bank accounts to
Speaker 1: give her enough time to withdraw all her money that
Speaker 1: she can then use to live on until she's issued
Speaker 1: a new Social Security number and would be able to
Speaker 1: open up a new bank account at that point, completely
Speaker 1: separate and independent from the fraudulent bank accounts that that
Speaker 1: crime syndicate opened in her name with her old social
Speaker 1: Security number, and Agent Serrano again implores Charlotte not to
Speaker 1: breathe a word about this investigation to anyone.
Speaker 3: You need to go to the bank and get that
Speaker 3: cash out now. You cannot tell them what it is for.
Speaker 3: In one of my last cases, the identity fee for
Speaker 3: someone who worked at the bank.
Speaker 1: Shockingly, this actually rings true to Charlotte because she's been
Speaker 1: working as a financial journalist for the past ten years
Speaker 1: in New York City, and she knows for a fact
Speaker 1: that half of all bank fraud cases are perpetrated by
Speaker 1: someone on the inside, by someone who actually works at
Speaker 1: the bank. You're listening to my new series Hardcore con
Speaker 1: for more episodes like the one explaining how a fifty
Speaker 1: four year old man hides the corpse of his dead
Speaker 1: mother and dresses up like her to collect her pension
Speaker 1: checks for years. Search Jonathan Walton Media on whatever podcast
Speaker 1: platform you're listening on. Search Jonathan Walton Media. We'll be
Speaker 1: right back. Welcome back to hardcore con Charlotte Coles is
Speaker 1: one hundred percent certain she's on the phone with a
Speaker 1: bona fide CIA agent who is right now in the
Speaker 1: process of convincing her to go to her bank and
Speaker 1: secure all her money. So Charlotte leaves her apartment and
Speaker 1: walks to her bank. She keeps CIA agent Michael Serrano
Speaker 1: on the phone with her, how can you help me?
Speaker 1: And she agrees not to mention the real reason she's
Speaker 1: withdrawing fifty thousand dollars from her savings account. As she's
Speaker 1: withdrawing fifty thousand dollars from her savings account, which is
Speaker 1: all the money she had in there to begin with.
Speaker 1: Now you have to understand Charlotte's mental state at this point.
Speaker 1: She's in fighter flight mode. Her stress hormones and cortisol
Speaker 1: levels are through the roof. She's desperate, and she's not
Speaker 1: in her right mind at all. She's also petrified, and
Speaker 1: the only lifeline she feels she has right now is
Speaker 1: that CIA agent Michael Serrano. So she's doing exactly what
Speaker 1: he tells her to do. As Charlotte is walking home
Speaker 1: from the bank with fifty thousand dollars in hundreds in
Speaker 1: her purse, she's still on the phone with Agent Serrano.
Speaker 1: It's Halloween and costume trick or treaters are scurrying everywhere,
Speaker 1: when all of a sudden, Charlotte notices a man in
Speaker 1: a hoodie and sunglasses who appears to be following her
Speaker 1: block after block after block, and when she mentions this
Speaker 1: man to Agent Serrano, he says it's probably a member
Speaker 1: of that crime syndicate and that they're onto her now.
Speaker 1: They know that she knows about them, and they're following her. Well,
Speaker 1: Charlotte freaks out and starts running far ahead and ducks
Speaker 1: into a nearby parking garage and loses the guy that
Speaker 1: was following her. The truth of the matter is no
Speaker 1: one was actually following her, but in Charlotte's frazzled and
Speaker 1: fearful state of mind, everything just feels like an imminent threat.
Speaker 1: Everything feels like an emergency, and the scammer posing as
Speaker 1: a CIA agent on the phone with her just keeps
Speaker 1: stoking the flames of her fears. Charlotte gets back home
Speaker 1: and she's shaking. Now. Her adrenaline is pumping, but she's
Speaker 1: unsure what to do next. Asient Sarah tells her.
Speaker 3: Tonight, we will closed down your social Security number and
Speaker 3: you will lose access to your bank accounts. Tomorrow, you
Speaker 3: need to go to the Social Security office and get
Speaker 3: a new social Security number. Will secure this money for
Speaker 3: you in a government locker and hand deliver a treasury
Speaker 3: check for the same amount. You can cash the check
Speaker 3: and use it for your expenses until the investigation is over.
Speaker 1: Charlotte asks why she can't just hang on to the
Speaker 1: cash she just withdrew from her bank account. It's her cash,
Speaker 1: after all, why can't she keep it? Agent Serrano explains
Speaker 1: to her that all of.
Speaker 3: Your assets under your current identity are part of the investigation.
Speaker 3: You are being charged with money laundering. If we secure
Speaker 3: this cash and then issue you a government check under
Speaker 3: your new social Security number, then that will be considered
Speaker 3: clean money.
Speaker 1: At this point, Charlotte is falling victim to a psychological
Speaker 1: phenomenon called sunk cost fallacy. It's the reason we all
Speaker 1: continue to watch a bad movie until the end, and
Speaker 1: the reason gamblers will lose everything in a casino before
Speaker 1: they walk away. Charlotte has been on the phone now
Speaker 1: for five hours, and she's believed so many lies and
Speaker 1: so many dramatic stories up until this point. So one
Speaker 1: more lie, one more story, was that much easier to accept,
Speaker 1: and so she did. That's sunk cost fallacy. Agent Serrano
Speaker 1: tells her to put the fifty thousand dollars in cash
Speaker 1: in a box. Charlotte digs around in her closet and
Speaker 1: finds a colorful shoebox and she sticks the cash in it,
Speaker 1: and she labels that shoebox with her name and the
Speaker 1: CIA case number Agent Serrano had given her. Yep, there
Speaker 1: was a case number, and Charlotte is then instructed to
Speaker 1: hand the box to an undercover CIA agent who will
Speaker 1: be driving by in a white Mercedes Suv. Very shortly.
Speaker 1: Agent Serrano warns Charlotte that she is in fact being
Speaker 1: watched by members of that crime syndicate who stole her identity,
Speaker 1: and this cash handoff needs to fly under the radar
Speaker 1: as not to expose that CIA agent's cover. She's told
Speaker 1: to put the box on the back seat of that
Speaker 1: Mercedes Suv, making the exchange look like she's selling something
Speaker 1: and the buyer came to pick it up. And here's
Speaker 1: the craziest part of this whole story. As Charlotte is
Speaker 1: walking out of her apartment colorful shoe box with fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in hand, her telephone pressed to her ear
Speaker 1: talking to Agent Serrano, Charlotte's husband is actually walking in
Speaker 1: and passes her in the hallway. Hi, honey, where are
Speaker 1: you going? Remember? Agent Serrano urged Charlotte not to involve
Speaker 1: her husband for his own safety, so Charlotte pretends everything's okay.
Speaker 1: She says she has to meet a guy downstairs to
Speaker 1: clear up the identity theft thing she had texted him
Speaker 1: about earlier in the day. He accepts that explanation, and
Speaker 1: Charlotte blows right by him and keeps walking. Charlotte is
Speaker 1: now standing outside her apartment building, looking up and down
Speaker 1: the street as rush hour traffic drives by. Minutes later,
Speaker 1: that white Mercedes suv pulls up. It's got tinted windows
Speaker 1: and Charlotte can't see the driver. She opens the back
Speaker 1: passenger door, puts her colorful shoe box on the back seat,
Speaker 1: and slams the door shut, and that undercover CIA agent
Speaker 1: drives away with Charlotte's fifty thousand dollars. Agent Serrano is
Speaker 1: still on the phone with her at this point, telling
Speaker 1: her what an amazing job she did, and he texts
Speaker 1: her a picture of what looks like a government issued
Speaker 1: check for fifty thousand dollars in her name that she'll
Speaker 1: be receiving tomorrow. It's Halloween now, so Charlotte takes her
Speaker 1: young son trick or treating and pretends everything's fine, But
Speaker 1: deep down, the thought of putting that shoe box with
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars in the back seat of that Mercedes
Speaker 1: is gnawing at her, and when she gets home that evening,
Speaker 1: she starts to play the conversation she had that day
Speaker 1: over and over in her head with the Amazon operator.
Speaker 4: It be as you've been the victim of identity test with.
Speaker 1: That Federal Trade Commission investigator.
Speaker 2: I've been in touch with Amazon. I'm looking into your
Speaker 2: case right now.
Speaker 1: And with the CIA agent, you are.
Speaker 3: Being investigated from major federal crimes.
Speaker 1: It suddenly dawns on Charlotte Cole's in her own kaiser
Speaker 1: SoSE moment that she's been scammed. She collapses on the
Speaker 1: floor of her bedroom in tears, Charlotte reports everything to
Speaker 1: police and even writes a piece about her experience for
Speaker 1: New York Magazine. But those scammers have yet to be caught,
Speaker 1: and most likely Charlotte will never see that fifty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars ever again. There are a few things I want
Speaker 1: to point out here as a victim of a scam
Speaker 1: who got justice. And this may surprise you to learn,
Speaker 1: but authorities do not prioritize scams as a crime. They
Speaker 1: almost don't care. In fact, nine out of every ten times,
Speaker 1: when you go to the police or the sheriff's office
Speaker 1: to follow a report that you were scammed, they will
Speaker 1: not take a report. They will actually turn you away,
Speaker 1: telling you it's not a crime because you willingly gave
Speaker 1: the scammer your money and that what you need to
Speaker 1: do now is hire a lawyer and go after the
Speaker 1: scammer in civil court. But they're wrong. Police turn me
Speaker 1: away too when I lost nearly one hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: to a sophisticated scammer. But I figured out a trick
Speaker 1: to change their minds and push back and get a
Speaker 1: criminal investigation started. It's actually a bunch of tricks. I
Speaker 1: have a whole in my book teaching people how to
Speaker 1: pitch con cases to police to get them assigned to
Speaker 1: an investigator. The other thing that bugs me about the
Speaker 1: Charlotte Coles case here is if police really wanted to,
Speaker 1: they could have caught these scammers the very next day.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about it. New York City has traffic
Speaker 1: cameras on every street corner. Not to mention, everyone and
Speaker 1: their mother has a ring camera or something similar. Police
Speaker 1: could have easily used all those cameras and figured out
Speaker 1: where that white Mercedes suv went the same effing day
Speaker 1: if they wanted to, and they could have gotten Charlotte's
Speaker 1: money back and arrested the scammers. But scams, in my experience,
Speaker 1: are not a priority for them at all period. The
Speaker 1: other thing that's abundantly clear to me in this case
Speaker 1: is there are probably thousands of Charlotte Coles who fallen
Speaker 1: victim to the same exact scam all over the country.
Speaker 1: But after investigating connartists cases for the past nine years,
Speaker 1: I can tell you the vast majority of victims do
Speaker 1: not go to police. In fact, upwards of ninety percent
Speaker 1: of them never tell anyone they were scammed. Their shame
Speaker 1: and embarrassment stifles them. And I know for a fact
Speaker 1: the team of con artists who scammed Charlotte Coles probably
Speaker 1: scammed thousands of others. Look At how well rehearsed they were.
Speaker 1: Look At how elaborate and fleshed out and flawless their
Speaker 1: A story was, and their B story and their C story.
Speaker 1: These scammers, the woman playing the Amazon rep and the
Speaker 1: two men playing the FTC and CIA agents respectively, and
Speaker 1: that fourth guy in the Mercedes SUV picking up the money,
Speaker 1: they're a team. They're a well oiled machine who, have
Speaker 1: no doubt, been working on this same scam, perfecting it
Speaker 1: for years. And to put a finer point on things,
Speaker 1: they didn't just know Charlotte Cole's social Security number. They
Speaker 1: knew her husband's name, her son's name. They knew her
Speaker 1: two year old son was in the next room playing
Speaker 1: before Charlotte even revealed to them she had a son.
Speaker 1: They knew her family's names and addresses too. That's why
Speaker 1: Charlotte believed these people were legit CIA and FTC agents,
Speaker 1: and why she believed those criminals who stole her identity
Speaker 1: were surveiling her apartment. And that's why Charlotte thought she
Speaker 1: was in real danger and that fear response hijacked her
Speaker 1: brain and took over and that's why she got scammed.
Speaker 1: And if that fear response ever takes over your brain,
Speaker 1: you'll get scammed too. My deep and profound admiration and
Speaker 1: appreciation for Charlotte Coles for coming forward and putting the
Speaker 1: scam on everyone's radar. Charlotte, you will never know how
Speaker 1: many people you saved this exact scam by speaking out.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You can find Charlotte's powerful essay in New
Speaker 1: York Magazine titled The Day I put fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in a shoe box and handed it to a stranger.
Speaker 1: For more episodes of Hardcore con like the one revealing
Speaker 1: the real cause of Hollywood actress Britney Murphy's death, head
Speaker 1: on over to my new home at Jonathan Walton Media.
Speaker 1: Just click that search box on your podcast app and
Speaker 1: type Jonathan Walton Media. There you'll find my new podcast
Speaker 1: feed with all my new shows, including Hardcore con Cocaine Air,
Speaker 1: The Quarterback and The Con Artist, and The Handyman of
Speaker 1: West Texas, which right now is being adapted to the
Speaker 1: big screen. And you won't believe who's being tapped to
Speaker 1: play Mickey the Handyman of West Texas. I almost can't
Speaker 1: believe it myself. Just type Jonathan Walton Media wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts, and come along on this fascinated journey
Speaker 1: with me. Hardcore con was created, written, and hosted by me,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Media Executive producer Evan Goldstein.
Speaker 1: All sound design was done by Jimmy o'holligan. My book,
Speaker 1: Anatomy of a con Artist, The Fourteen Red Flags to
Speaker 1: Spot Scammers, Grifters and Thieves is available everywhere. Books are
Speaker 1: sold in print and in audio, so it's like a podcast,
Speaker 1: and both print and audio are also available for free
Speaker 1: at most public libraries throughout the country and on the
Speaker 1: Libby app. And if you've got a story you think
Speaker 1: deserves its own podcast, pitch it to me at Jonathan
Speaker 1: Walton dot com.