"The Perfect Scam" is AARP’s new weekly podcast profiling America’s biggest scam stories. Hosted by Will Johnson, former Discovery Channel podcast host/producer, and leading fraud expert and AARP Fraud Watch Network Ambassador Frank Abagnale, the series introduces listeners to compelling personal stories from scam victims and their families. Interviews with professional con artists and leading experts in the topic allow Will and Frank to pull back the curtain on how scammers operate and share tips with listeners on how best to protect themselves.

The Perfect Scam

AARP Presents The Perfect Scam

In this episode of The Perfect Scam, Frank discusses his favorite scams. Then Will speaks with AARP Fraud Watch Network experts Kristin Keckeisen and Amy Nofziger to learn more about being on the front lines and helping victims who’ve been scammed.

Frank’s Favorite Scams & Tips From Fraud Watch Network

In a Texas suburb, a typical lottery scam has turned into something much more sinister. A scammer has promised a retired couple a fictitious lottery payout if they continue to send him money for fees and taxes. With their life savings gone, the victims are forced to sell their home. But the swindler isn’t done with them yet, as his constant calls have created a bond between him and the 70-year-old woman, who may be suffering from dementia. He realizes that she has grown fond of him and pivots from a lottery to a romance scam. He promises her a beautiful life together on the sandy beaches of Jamaica, where he’s based. The con man tells her that all he needs is money in order to start building an oceanfront dream home that they can share. To come up with the funds, he proposes a disturbing plan. He demands that she kill her husband and flee to Jamaica with the proceeds of their home sale. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which has been monitoring a trail of cash making its way from the U.S. to the scammer in Jamaica, discovers the couple in Texas and sends an agent to their home. When the agent arrives, little does he know he’s about to walk into a murder plot.

The Lottery Scam That Almost Turned Deadly, Part 2

The average American is on the receiving end of more than 150&nbsp;robocalls a year. Some robocalls, which are automated telephone calls placed by a computerized auto dialer, have legitimate purposes. Unfortunately, many of these calls are used to pester or scam consumers. In June 2019 alone&nbsp;Americans received 4.35 billion robocalls, with scams and telemarketing making up over&nbsp;50 percent. Curious about the barrage of robocalls he&nbsp;himself&nbsp;receives, journalist Alex Palmer decides to look into how robocalls work and why they’ve become so popular. He finds that advances in technology and the low cost of placing robocalls—as little as&nbsp;4 cents&nbsp;per dial—have made&nbsp;this nuisance&nbsp;a popular marketing tool for scammers. After digging deeper into the trend, Alex discovers the case of a set of illegal robocalls that temporarily stalled a Virginia-based paging provider, disrupting the ability of hospitals to get in touch with emergency services personnel. As a result, local doctors, nurses, EMTs and&nbsp;firefighters&nbsp;were at risk of missing critical pages. Due to the&nbsp;resulting&nbsp;public safety hazard, the&nbsp;Federal Communications Commission made tracking down the source of these robocalls a top priority. Meanwhile,&nbsp;travel-review website TripAdvisor&nbsp;is being inundated with complaints from customers that&nbsp;it is&nbsp;soliciting them through&nbsp;robocalls to use&nbsp;its&nbsp;travel rewards program. But TripAdvisor isn’t making the calls and doesn’t have a rewards program. With&nbsp;its&nbsp;reputation at stake, TripAdvisor puts&nbsp;its&nbsp;top fraud experts on the case.&nbsp;The FCC and the travel site&nbsp;will eventually learn that they are on the hunt for the same man, Adrian Abramovich.

Robocall King Meets the FCC, Part 1

TripAdvisor and the&nbsp;Federal Communications Commission&nbsp;are conducting separate investigations into the same series of robocalls that have caused a public nuisance. The FCC became aware of the calls when&nbsp;they&nbsp;shut down a paging service used to communicate with emergency personnel. TripAdvisor began to investigate when&nbsp;its&nbsp;customers reported&nbsp;that these&nbsp;calls were fraudulently using&nbsp;the travel site’s&nbsp;name to sell vacation packages. Finally, after months of investigating, the head of TripAdvisor’s&nbsp;anti-fraud (“anti-fraud,” not “fraud” team)&nbsp;team, Fred Garvin, gets a break in the case. He personally receives&nbsp;one&nbsp;of the robocalls that have been plaguing TripAdvisor’s customers. Working&nbsp;backward&nbsp;to find the source of the&nbsp;call, TripAdvisor gathers the information&nbsp;it needs&nbsp;to track down where the calls are coming from. Once&nbsp;it has&nbsp;sufficient evidence, TripAdvisor reaches out to the FCC.&nbsp;To the website’s&nbsp;surprise, the FCC has also been tirelessly investigating the same robocalls. Now working together, TripAdvisor and the FCC build a case against the source of the calls,&nbsp;“Robocall King”&nbsp;Adrian Abramovich.&nbsp;The FCC finds that in a&nbsp;three-month&nbsp;period,&nbsp;&nbsp;Abramovich is responsible for making more than 96 million robocalls. These illegal&nbsp;calls&nbsp;use the names of companies&nbsp;such as&nbsp;TripAdvisor,&nbsp;Marriott, Expedia, and Hilton to trick victims into purchasing vacation packages. With the&nbsp;culprit identified, the FCC gets to&nbsp;work shutting down Abramovich’s operation.

Robocall King Meets the FCC, Part 2

After 26 years of service, U.S. Army Col. Bryan Denny retires from an incredible career in the military and begins to receive odd messages. They’re coming from women around the world who claim to be in online relationships with him. But Bryan isn’t on any dating sites. Meanwhile Kathy Walters is learning about the online boyfriend of her friend Sharon. They plan to marry, but Sharon has never met the man in person because he claims to be in the military stationed overseas. Sharon shows Kathy a picture of the man she knows as Ross, but the name on his uniform reads Bryan Denny. Unsure if her friend is in a real romance or caught up in romance scam, Kathy begins to investigate. She heads to Facebook, and what she finds is shocking. The same picture Kathy’s friend has fallen in love with is featured in multiple profiles across the internet under a wide variety of names. That’s when Kathy knows she needs to track down the real Bryan Denny. After some digging, Kathy is able to locate him and reaches out to see if Bryan has any knowledge of what’s going on. Bryan has been fielding calls, emails and sometimes in-person visits from women who’ve fallen in love with his picture. Together, Bryan and Kathy uncover hundreds of fraudulent social media and dating site accounts that are using Bryan’s image, as well as images of his family members, to entice women into romance scams. Disgusted by what they’ve found, Kathy and Bryan decide to fight back against these scammers.

Stolen Valor, Stolen Hearts: Military Romance Scam

Rob, a veteran in his 70’s, was a caretaker for his wife for years. He is still grieving her death when he receives a call from a woman claiming to be from social security. The woman tells Rob that his social security number has been used to defraud multiple banks and there is a warrant out for his arrest. Even more troubling for Rob, the woman tells him that he will need to get all new identification cards. Rob has been looking forward to taking his special needs daughter on a much needed vacation and worries he won’t be able to get a new license in time for the trip. In a frenzied state, he begins to comply with the instructions of the woman on the phone. But as her directions get stranger, Rob begins to question if he’s doing the right thing. He realizes that he may be the victim of a scam. Unfortunately, by this time the scammers have already emptied out Rob’s savings account. Rob is distraught as this means he’ll have to cancel his trip with his daughter. But, just when he’s about to lose all hope, Rob’s community steps in to help.

They Stole My Savings in Minutes: Social Security Scam

Debra is a divorced mother and ballroom dancer who travels between her home in Florida and New York to train with her dance partner. When Debra loses her part-time job in New York and boyfriend in the same day, she’s distraught. Without the extra income from her job and a place to stay from her boyfriend, Debra knows she’ll have to quit ballroom dancing — even though she and her partner have been climbing the ranks on the Pro-Am circuit. Walking in Greenwich Village, Debra sees a psychic shop she often passes. Today it catches her eye. She is searching for answers and decides to stop in. The shop is well- appointed with lavish decor and plaques that show additional locations in glamorous cities around the world. Sylvia, the psychic who comes to give Debra a reading, is dressed to the nines — like many professionals you would see in New York. After the initial reading, Sylvia says she can help Debra but that she’ll need to come back for a deep reading. When Debra returns for the two-hour deep reading, Sylvia determines that Debra has trust issues, particularly when it involves money. Seeking closure and desperate for a solution to her problems, Debra starts to believe and trust Sylvia. The psychic tells Debra to write her a check for $28,000 and promises she will hold on to it for one day.&nbsp;When she&nbsp;returns the check, Sylvia tells Debra that her money and trust issues will be solved.&nbsp;Debra follows Sylvia’s instructions and gets the money for the check from a home equity loan. However, as soon as she hands the check over, Debra realizes she has made a&nbsp;terrible mistake.

The Hidden World of Psychic Scams, Part 1

The Perfect Scam will be back on April 10th with a new host Michelle Kosinski, along with Frank Abagnale (Catch Me If You Can) and other fraud experts.

The Perfect Scam returns April 10th

AARP’s new weekly podcast profiling America’s biggest scam stories. Hosted by Will Johnson and leading fraud expert and AARP Fraud Watch Network Ambassador Frank Abagnale.

ThePerfectScam - AARP Studios