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★★★★★

4.5

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61 reviews

Description

Scammers don't steal your money, they create a world where it makes perfect sense to hand your cash over to them. Three-card-monte, the longest running show on Broadway, seems easy. You're watching the tosser and you always see the queen. What you don't see is a group of shills working you into the gate where you'll lose everything you have.Sometimes a large sum of money is accidentally sent to you and the sender asks for the additional cash to be sent back. In the meantime, they empty your bank account.We'll tell you all about the scams, how they work and why people fall for them. Don't become a sucker. Listen in.

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Check latest episodes from Scams & Cons podcast

Disaster scams

2026/02/05

Winter storms have swept the country recently and we've previously experienced other forms of severe weather or dangerous phenomena. In this postscript edition, we tell you about the scammers who swoop in during disasters. Don't make a crisis even worse. Listen in and find out how to protect yourself from those who want you to pay for services or say your charity money will go to help those in need.

Discover Unseen Influences

2026/01/15

Learn about our new podcast -- Unseen Influences. It takes you behind the scenes of the techniques others use to guide our behavior. It officially launches in February, but Scams & Cons listeners can listen to early episodes right now. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts or by going to our website, unseeninfluences.com. In this four-minute episode, I'll also bring you up-to-date on what's happening with Scams & Cons and give you details about what shows to expect on Unseen Influences. Listen in -- you're the first to know.

The scammer's guide to easy money

2025/12/25

The only ways I know to get easy money is to either to be born rich, marry a rich partner or have someone bequeath you a fortune. If someone stepped up to us and said they have a way for us to make a lot of money fast, odds are we’d listen – listening doesn’t cost anything. Unless the person doing the talking is a scammer and they have now set the hook and may very well reel us in. Today we'll talk about Easy Money scams and you'll learn just how easy it is for you to lose your cash.

The cons that helped the Texas 7 escape prison for 41 days

2025/12/11

It's not easy to escape from prison, but when you have a lot of time on your hands and experienced con artists available ... well, it's going to be inevitable. A few weeks ago, we looked at how con artists used their skills to escape a highly secure prison. This time we're looking at the case of the Texas 7 who managed to escape, but not without costing a police officer his life. The Seven were on the lam for 41 days, but then police used cons of their own to bring them back to jail. We'll tell you how.

Our fears make us perfect marks for scammers

2025/11/27

Fear gets your attention. It throws you off-kilter. It corrupts your judgement. You recover quickly when surprised by a spider. The impact is greater if you awaken in the night and see a stranger standing at the foot of your bed. In this episode, we tell you how scammers use fear to get us to do things that interfere with our ability to reason and recognize the scam for what it is.

Romance scams are getting more sophisticated

2025/11/13

The basics of romance scams haven't changed all that much. Find someone who is lonely, gain their trust and affection, then bleed them dry of all the money and assets they have. In this update to season one's story, we tell you how scammers are using new techniques and technology to make their efforts more effective and dangerous.

The cons that convicts use to escape prison

2025/10/23

Why would a good scammer give up their trade just because they are in prison where those skills could be used to escape? If they are bold enough, they wouldn't. This is the tale of the Maze Prison Break. Maze is a prison within a prison within a military base. It took a lot of planning and a lot of cons, but they got out. We'll tell you how.

Scammers impersonate funeral directors to take money for video feeds

2025/10/09

Nearly all scams are impersonation scams. They need you to believe they are someone else in order to get you to hand over your money. In this episode, we tell you about some of the new ways scammers are using impersonation techniques to rob you and why it's only going to get worse in the future.

The objects tricksters use to distract you

2025/09/25

In our last episode, I told you about social engineering -- how a con artist's patter can convince you to do anything. But sometimes props are needed to make that tale seem more real. In this episode we talk about the devices and distractions tricksters use to keep you from noticing your money is slipping from your fingers.

When scammers speak, they leave you no choice

2025/09/11

Nearly all scams are built around the technique of social engineering. Con artists know how to manipulate you, what buttons to push and allow you to believe you made a choice you never had. In this episode, we explore the techniques of social engineering and why we're all vulnerable to them. And you'll hear a scammer confess to her crime and said she took advantage of an elderly couple because they were "good people."

Season 9 begins Sept. 11!

2025/08/28

We're ready to go back to school with Scams & Cons classes that begin Sept. 11. Enjoy the long weekend, then it's back to the fun!

Someone in St. Louis is channeling my thoughts

2025/07/24

It's time for our summer break so I can prepare new episodes for season 9. Listen in as I give you the details and respond to some listener notes. Have a great summer and make some time away from the news to have some fun. You deserve it!

Scammers are pretending to be exorcists

2025/06/19

If you bought tickets to a pop-up taco museum restaurant in San Antonio, you got scammed. If someone wants to hook you up with a priest who does exorcisms, beware. But we begin with the story of a brand new scam called call merging. It involves merging your phone call with a scammer and a bank’s two-factor authentication system, stealing your secret code.

Scamming for hotel rooms with roaches and used condoms

2025/06/05

More than 60 hotels are conned by a man who dirtied rooms with roaches and condoms, and scammers are showing up at people’s doors to collect money they say they are owed. And I want to tell you the tale of a gambit that I can't call a con, but it's a great way to lose your money.

How to stay safe from nearly all scams

2025/05/22

We're all vulnerable to scams, but we don't have to be willing victims. Today I'm doing something I should have done a long time ago -- tell you just what to do to thwart scammers.

Podcast reviews

Read Scams & Cons podcast reviews

4.5 out of 5

61 reviews

★★★★☆

KO ESQ 2021/10/28

Just too short

Love the show but wish it were longer. Great for quick trips though!

★★★★★

HarrietVane2 2025/09/28

No jokes

I love this pod for its useful info and lack of jokes, blather, and nonsense. Jim doesn’t waste your time. Everyone should listen.

★★★★★

Marq with a “Q” 2025/05/15

Big Fan

Really informative. Anyone can get scammed. Don’t let it be you.

★★★★★

ObscureOwl 2025/01/16

Great find

Discovered this through another show on Killer Podcasts. It lived up to the hype! Big gram of the over Jim gives about the political/legal impact or t...

★★★★★

Lalaland35 2024/12/29

Great Podcast! Highly entertaining

Thank you for providing the education and entertainment to the Apple Podcasts!

★★★★★

MandLShow 2024/02/10

Great show!

I was introduced to Jim and his show at Podfest 2024. So glad I did! This show is clever, creative and thoughtful. It’s very well produced. I’m lookin...

★★★★★

danielledelany 2023/05/21

The Klingon commercial had me DYING

Great show that hasn’t been poisoned by wokeness

★☆☆☆☆

Joshdone 2021/11/18

I'm suspect

After listening to the house scams episode, it had a pronounced alarmist, very right wingy tone. I'm surprised it's not a New York Post podcast. I'll ...

★★★★★

ILickedThis 2021/08/17

New, but good.

This is a high quality show that goes into a deep dive on both well-known and more obscure scams and grifts. It takes an almost academic disinterest i...

★★★★★

ToddinMiami 2021/06/18

Great show!

This is a very well produced show, and quite intriguing. I love hearing about a well-executed scam, and Jim knows how to explain the intricacies of ho...

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