My dearest inexplicable cold spots:

Happy Summer!! Is it summer where you live? Here in the land of wind and fog we do have some sun but it’s the ever present sixty degrees. I hope flowers are blooming and the sun is shining where you are.

Today we are going off script to talk about SCAMMERS. In order of pathology, I love scammers second only to compulsive liars. Especially because a lot of them are kind of the same?? Like they start out lying and can’t stop and it turns into a scam?? Those are my JAM. I think it’s the pathos that gets me. I love a quasi-sympathetic villain.

Scam Goddess

Laci Mosley’s podcast is the end-all, be-all repository of scam content. I recommend you start with the Shaun King episode. OH, YOU DIDN’T KNOW HE WAS A SCAMMER???

Check out Scam Goddess »

Cover art for the Scam Goddess podcast

All Scams All the Time

Close up of a missing person flyer with info about Sherri Papini's "disappearance"

She was not, in fact, missing

The Sherri Papini Case

OH MY GOD I could talk about Sherri Papini all day. When she first “went missing,” my friend Haley and I would talk for HOURS about what the fuck happened to her and SURPRISE we knew it was a scam from the jump.Sherri is a super basic blonde lady from Redding who DISAPPEARED right before Thanksgiving in 2016. Her husband was all over the news, and this extremely shady “hostage negotiator” named Cameron Gamble (a scam in a scam, you guys) got involved, claiming a neighbor had put up a ransom fund. The cops were like, who the fuck is this guy?

Sherri turned up in the middle of the night on the side of the highway – caught on video wandering around a parking lot with bruises and ligature marks. She said she had been kidnapped by “two Hispanic women” (WHY ARE THESE SCAMMERS ALWAYS RACIST) and kept locked up. For why – WHO KNOWS!

Cops were on to this bitch, however, and the FBI investigated and found out she was with an EX BOYFRIEND the whole time. She was charged and pleaded guilty, and she’ll be sentenced in July. I recommend literally every story you can find about her.    

Timeline: What led to Sherri Papini’s plea deal in faking kidnapping »

The Untold Truth Of Sherri Papini »

The “Master of Noir”

First of all, thank you to list member Karena for sending this to me. I feel seen and now the rest of you do, too. This is a completely wild article about a French liar-turned-crime-marketer/expert. Along the way to writing books about serial killers and hosting bizarre salons in his house filled with ghoulish memorabilia, he makes up a story about a murdered girlfriend. FASCINATING also DON’T TRUST PEOPLE WHO TRY THIS HARD. If a man is wearing a fake human skin coat, time to move along.

The Unravelling of an Expert on Serial Killers »

A distorted photo of a man walking across a striped crosswalk

We love to see a con unmasked

Cover art for the podcast Sympathy Pain

Sarah, no!

Sympathy Pains

This podcast will piss you off sooooooooo fucking much. Listen immediately!! It’s about this woman named Sarah who fakes being disabled for attention!! You will be screaming through the whole thing but the payoff is you can go on YouTube and watch the actual footage of her appearance on Dr. Phil. She is very definition of “lights are on, but nobody’s home.” SO GOOD.

Check out Sympathy Pains »