Scams & Cons
Jim Grinstead
Why would anyone give thousands of dollars to a Nigerian prince? Or play Three Card Monte – it’s a well-known scam? Or be lulled into a marriage with someone you’ve never met face-to-face.Scammers and con artists do it all the time and the Scams and Cons podcast pulls the curtain back and tells you how it is done.Trust us. You should subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.
- 18 minutes 29 secondsThe scammer's guide to easy money
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.
25 December 2025, 7:00 am - 32 minutes 16 secondsThe cons that helped the Texas 7 escape prison for 41 days
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.
11 December 2025, 7:00 am - 14 minutes 24 secondsOur fears make us perfect marks for scammers
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.
27 November 2025, 7:00 am - 18 minutes 57 secondsRomance scams are getting more sophisticated
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.
13 November 2025, 7:00 am - 29 minutes 8 secondsThe cons that convicts use to escape prison
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.
23 October 2025, 6:00 am - 17 minutes 48 secondsScammers impersonate funeral directors to take money for video feeds
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.
9 October 2025, 6:00 am - 16 minutes 41 secondsThe objects tricksters use to distract you
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.
25 September 2025, 6:00 am - 20 minutes 54 secondsWhen scammers speak, they leave you no choice
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."
11 September 2025, 6:00 am - 39 secondsSeason 9 begins Sept. 11!
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!
28 August 2025, 9:00 pm - 3 minutes 10 secondsSomeone in St. Louis is channeling my thoughts
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!
24 July 2025, 6:00 am - 9 minutes 27 secondsScammers are pretending to be exorcists
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.
19 June 2025, 6:00 am - More Episodes? Get the App