Trouble in River City

Hesse concludes the story of how Magic Alex ensorcelled those inimitable lads famed for walking across London's Abbey Road Street.

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Hesse tells the story of Magic Alex, a dubious engineer that ensorcelled a wily band of Liverpudlian moptop Scousers known only as The Beatles.

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Riley tells the story of teen millionaire Barry Minkow, who made his fortune by running a carpet cleaning business and did not do any fraud of any kind.

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Devin O'Shea joins Hesse and Dan for a freewheeling episode covering book-tour life, harassment by Veiled Prophet thugs, an AI scam afflicting a band and its fans, and Herman Melville's The Confidence Man.

Buy Devin's book "The Veiled Prophet".

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Using the 17th Century Chinese text The Book of Swindles as our guide, we intend to inform listeners of strategies to avoid falling victim to common deceptions. This episode covers the following real-life situations:

—Stealing silk with a decoy horse

—Chen Quan scams his way into the arms of a famous courtesan

—Using broom handles to play a joke on sedan bearers

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Riley unspools an elaborate telemarketing scam that begins in the Monégasque Community and ends in Dnipro. Plus an update on the BC ostrich farm.

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Hesse forces Charles and Dan to watch the 2013 blockbuster film Now You See Me.

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John Semley discusses his Wired article about GLP-1 telehealth scams.

Read John's article for WIRED.

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Charles tells the story of a phony Chinese bank that went to great lengths to set up a believable brick-and-mortar location.

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Riley tells the story of a hands-on salad oil swindle (and explains what salad oil is).

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