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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

Audible

You never really know someone…especially online. In today’s world, the power of influence can be the quickest path to money and fame, and it often ends in ruin. These are the stories of the world’s most insidious Scamfluencers. And we are their prey. Join co-hosts Scaachi Koul and Sarah Hagi as they unpack epic stories of deception from the worlds of social media, fashion, finance, health, and wellness. These influencers claim to be everything from charismatic healers to trusted financial insiders to experts in dating. They cast spells over millions. Why do we believe them, and how does our culture allow them to thrive? From Black Swan Murder to a fake social media influencer to an audacious Hollywood Ponzi schemer, each season will take the listener along the twists and turns, the impact on victims, and what’s left when the facade falls away.

Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

Scamfluencers

Sam Israel was born into wealth, but he wanted to prove he could make it on Wall Street on his own. So he started a hedge fund – and almost immediately started losing money. But instead of admitting failure to his investors, he decided to lie. Eventually those lies spiraled into a $450 million fraud, a faked suicide, and a wild descent into a secret world of black-ops and dangerous con men. In a last ditch effort to dig his company out of debt, Sam is going to bet everything on a venture so bizarre, so shrouded in secrecy, that it’ll make the fraud look rational by comparison.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sam Israel: Greed Is Good Part 1 | 227

T.M Landry was a small independent school in Louisiana that gained national fame for sending kids from disadvantaged backgrounds to Ivy League schools. The viral videos were inspiring. The acceptance letters were real. But behind the scenes, the school doctored transcripts and fabricated personal stories to get students in – and behind closed doors, students endured psychological and physical abuse at the hands of the school’s founders. In this episode, we talk with the two New York Times reporters who broke the story – Erica L. Green and Katie Benner, authors of Miracle Children: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Miracle Children: The Price of Admission | 226

Juliette D’Souza had no medical degree and no spiritual training – but she convinced her clients she was a gifted healer and shaman. For more than a decade, her natural charm gave her control over her followers and their life savings. But when one victim stumbles onto the truth while trying to feed Juliette’s pet monkey, her spell starts to crack. Her victims band together to bring her down – and discover that getting justice will be almost as hard as breaking free.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Juliette D’Souza: The Sham Shaman | 225

Martin Armstrong is a Wall Street outsider who builds a financial prediction model with a hidden connection to the number pi. And whether it’s fortune-telling or just a fluke, Martin’s system really does predict some major economic events. His discovery attracts billions in investor funds and gives him the confidence to make bets no rational person would make. But when those bets fail, Martin faces a choice: admit the model was wrong or insist the whole world is conspiring against him. What happens next is either one of the greatest deep-state coverups in history… or an unhinged numerology scam that has Martin’s followers still tangled up to this day.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Martin Armstrong: The Man Who Bet Billions on Pi | 224

In our last episode, we followed the Wildenstein family over the span of four generations as they came to dominate the art world. The family prized success – and secrecy – above all else. But when the Wildenstein men attempt to cast aside the women they brought into their fold, leaving them with nothing, these women are going to fight back using the one thing the family fears most: publicity. As the Wildensteins make headlines, they’ll face court case after court case – and be forced to reckon with some brutal buried history.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Wildenstein Family Part 2: The Art of the Steal | 223

For over a century, the Wildenstein family has quietly dominated the art world, amassing one of the largest private collections ever assembled while most people have never even heard their name. The anonymity isn’t an accident; it’s a strategy. Because what they are hiding is enormous: a sprawling fortune built on secrecy, tax evasion, stolen masterpieces and alleged Nazi collaboration. Four generations of Wildenstein men constructed an empire designed to be invisible. But when one family member’s messy divorce blows the vault wide open, a century’s worth of buried secrets comes spilling out. Now, the women they’ve tried to discard are about to tear it all down.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Wildenstein Family Part 1: The Art of the Steal | 222

Bill Mize always believed he was destined for fortune – he just couldn’t figure out how to get it. After flaming out as a restaurateur and drug dealer, Bill finally found his calling: orchestrating a sprawling fraud ring of staged slip-in-falls and car wrecks for insurance money. He recruited his closest friends and family into the scheme, then skimmed some of their portion of the payouts. His obsession with control over everyone in his orbit eventually led to his downfall – and a run from the authorities that made national headlines.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bill Mize: The Car Crash King | 221

Trevor Milton called himself a serial entrepreneur and his playbook was simple: pick a futuristic idea, promise it will change the world… then talk about it constantly online. His biggest pitch was an emissions-free semi-truck that would make diesel engines obsolete. Investors poured in billions of dollars. But Trevor spent far more time selling the dream than building the truck – and soon, a scorned business partner, a frazzled engineer, and a finance bro with a conscience will start pulling at the threads of his startup empire, exposing the used car salesman at its core.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Trevor Milton: The Elon Musk of Semi-Trucks | 220

John McAfee was a brilliant but volatile programmer who helped pioneer antivirus software, making himself a fortune in the early days of personal computing. But he had an addictive personality and a short attention span, so after walking away from cybersecurity, he spent his life chasing bigger thrills, taking wilder risks, and getting into trouble in multiple countries. Behind the scenes, a lifetime of relentless self-indulgence was destroying everything – and everyone – around him, leaving him high, broke, and on the run from the U.S. authorities. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

John McAfee: The Antisocial Virus | 219

We’ll be back next week with new episodes. In the meantime, in honor of next month’s Tour de France, we’re revisiting one of the most infamous sports scandals of the early 2000s:

Lance Armstrong’s determination to win helps him survive cancer and become cycling’s biggest star in the early 2000s. But his ruthless desire to be the best leads him to create a secret cheating scheme. It fuels him to a historic Tour de France winning streak—but requires an elaborate cover-up that includes bullying anyone who tries to expose him, even his teammates. After he’s exposed and falls from grace, his pride and stubbornness makes his apology tour feel more like backpedaling to save his reputation.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sam Israel: Greed Is Good Part 1 | 227

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