‘The self-help industry is a huge industry. It’s ten billion dollars a year.’ ibid. Commentator
I still want to connect with you. ibid. Ray
The work you get done here is the work you get done. ibid.
Tonight – as millions prepare for their summer holiday we expose the common scams targeting British tourists. Tonight: Sun, Sea and Scams, ITV 2017
Online booking fraud - we expose the fake sites. ibid.
The Pea Men … The Gold Salesman … Food Scammers [credit card details] … More than a dozen fake holiday sites … Fake police … Dodgy sales tactics … Wing mirror swindle … ibid.
Tonight: Coronavirus cons – the tricks to watch out for. The fraudsters conning universal credit. And how to protect yourself against scammers. Tonight: Scammers: Hunting the Lockdown Criminals, ITV 2020
With millions of us in lockdown, we are using technology more than ever before … but this could mean we are increasingly at risk of bring targeted by scammers. ibid.
It’s the elderly and the vulnerable who are most at risk. ibid.
Scamming the elderly: the billion pound criminal industry. Has your pension pot been targeted? The lockdown scam explosion and the lives destroyed … It’s one of the cruelest crimes and it’s getting worse. Life savings and pension pots ripped by the worst kind of criminals who are targeting the elderly and the vulnerable … A massive rise in scams and frauds aimed at the Over-55s since the start of the pandemic. Tonight: Scams: Ripping Off the Elderly, ITV 2020
Buyers beware: Christmas cons revealed. The real cost of shopping online if you don’t play it safe. The imitation Christmas presents with dangerous consequences. And are we fighting a losing battle against the scammers? … The Christmas season is particularly lucrative for fraudsters. Tonight: Buyer Beware, ITV 2020
Hot tubs: it seemed the perfect early Christmas present for Jo and her family … They went to pick up their online purchase at the address they were given … ibid.
Requests to pay by bank transfer can be a sign of a scam. ibid.
A spokesperson for Paypal said, ‘Sellers need to be very wary if buyers ask them to change delivery address.’ ibid.
The huge rise in cheats, fiddles and scams. Thousands conned out of their life’s savings. One of online’s biggest car fraudsters locked up. And how to stop scammers getting your money … There have been rich pickings for the scammers during the pandemic. Tonight: Cheats, Fiddles & Scams, ITV 2021
They met in cyberspace where reality is entirely in the eye of the beholder, and where online love is probably just as blind as the regular kind. Maybe more. Very Bad Men s1e1: Don Juan of Con, ID 2006
Michael told her he was a surgeon who had just lost a child on the operating table. He was taking time off. He needed a new beginning. He needed Joyce. ibid.
The wake-up call came from Michael’s sister Pam who lives in Texas. ibid.
None of Michael’s wives saw it coming. ibid.
Meet Leslie Gall – men’s gift to women. Or so he says. Half a dozen magistrates have decided that in fact he is a conman having robbed and ruined many women’s lives. Very Bad Men s1e4: Sweetheart Swindler
Leslie Gall fled Canada wanted by the law and his wife and children … He headed for Florida. ibid.
‘He really takes pride in what he does.’ ibid. reporter
His first wife dumped him for another man. ibid.
Congregations all over the southern states from Tennessee to Georgia and Mississippi and Alabama were lining up to be blown away by the charismatic pastor named Abraham Kennard and his incredible plan to help out poor churches. Very Bad Men s1e6: The High Rolling Reverend
Hundreds of churches would eventually say yes, handing over millions of dollars to Network International Investment Corporation. ibid.
The judge sent him to federal prison for 17 years. ibid.
When a suave young Frenchman named Christopher Rocancourt landed in Hollywood … he was the perfect illusion … Rocancourt was infiltrating the lives of famous people all over Los Angeles. Very Bad Men s1e7: The Faux Rockefeller
Guaranteed one of those three prizes. I’m going to have a courier come to your house; you’re going to give him a cheque … Matchstick Men 2003 starring Nicolas Cage & Sam Rockwell & Alison Lohman & Bruce Altman & Bruce McGill & Sheila Kelley & Beth Grant & Melora Walters et al, director Ridley Scott
A feeling of nothingness … What am I doing here? … The whole thing is a con game. House of Games 1987 starring Lindsay Crouse & Joe Mantegna & Steven Goldstein & Ricky Jay & Mike Bussbaum & J T Walsh & Lilia Skala & William H Macey et al, director David Mamet, patient to shrink Margaret
I’ll tear up your friend’s marker if you help me out. ibid. Mike to Margaret
I’m a con man. That’s what I am. A criminal. ibid. him to her
We’re on the trail of a businessman whose rip-offs have gone on unnoticed for years. He’s made million of pounds kicking communities when they are down. Social classes, sports classes, working men’s clubs. Across England and Wales they say they have been dealt a bad hand. It’s a game where one man usually wins. Panorama: Ripped Off? Join the Club, BBC 2018
He’s a Nigerian prince. He’s worth conservatively $400 million … The banks have frozen their assets. Better Call Saul s1e10: Marco, Saul in bar, Netflix 2015
There are wolves and sheep in this world, kid. Wolves and sheep. Figure out which one you’re gonna be. Better Call Saul s2e7: Inflatable, con-man
Promotional shoot Fyre festival the Bahamas: The biggest event in a decade, I promise you. Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened, co-founder, Netflix 2019
Now the event’s co-founder is facing up to 20 years in prison. ibid. news
A small island in the Bahamas? It was probably the most difficult place you could do it. ibid. promotional associate
They booked the festival during the busiest weekend in the year. ibid. dude
Billy McFarland was sentenced to six years in federal prison and agreed to a lifetime ban on serving as a corporate officer or director. ibid.
So when an opportunity presents itself to get out of your parents’ basement and go be part of something that’s culturally relevant, you’re going to absolutely jump at that. Fyre Fraud, opening scene, Hulu 2019
The whole thing is wrapped in sex appeal. ibid. dude
It’s an absolute circus. I don’t know what’s going on. ibid. lass
People like to see rich millennials get scammed. ibid. sceptic
So Billy goes island shopping. ibid. dude
An impossible thing to do. ibid. sensible dude
Those villas to not exist. ibid. observant dude
If we shift toward a model in which we are determining the onset of disease in time for therapy to be effective we will change outcomes. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, Elizabeth Holmes, 2019
Elizabeth has raised more than $400 million; the company is valued at $9 billion. ibid. observer
Nestled in the foothills above Silicon Valley there is a 700-acre plot of land called the Stanford Research Park … In the fall of 2014 she [Holmes] moved her bio-tech start-up Theranos to the research park. The company employed 800 people and was valued at nearly $10 billion: 4 years later it was worth less than zero. ibid. commentary
The value of the story: this compelling tale of divining hundreds of diseases from a drop of blood. ibid.
She had a policy of controlling demonstrations and tightly guarding access to the Edison prototypes. ibid.
It was a mess inside. ibid. company worker on machine
Then after a while people became paranoid of one another. ibid. worker
With the Walgreens rollout, the problems at Therenos were magnifying. ibid.
Their downfall was when they started giving us results that were not matching up with other labs. ibid. woman
Internally, we had so little faith in these tests but were still resulting them on patients. ibid. lab technician
Nothing works. We’re on a sinking ship. It’s a lie. ibid. worker
I knew that most of their blood tests were run on commercial analysers. ibid. John Carreyrou, The Wall Street Journal
In 2018 Theranos dissolved. Elizabeth and Sunny were charged with conspiracy and fraud. They pleaded not guilty. ibid.