0:01

Wow, Time Machine, can you

0:03

believe we've made it to

0:05

the season finale? Yo, that's

0:07

crazy. We should do something

0:09

to celebrate. Ooh, yes. Let's

0:11

throw a party. Perfect. Why

0:14

don't you just give me your credit card

0:16

number and I'll go buy us some party

0:18

supplies. My credit card number? Sure.

0:21

Let me go grab my wallet.

0:23

Yeah. And maybe also your social

0:25

security number in case

0:27

I ask. Oh, do they usually

0:30

ask for that? Also, I'm gonna need you

0:32

to cash out these Amazon gift cards for

0:34

me. Oh, and I

0:36

happen to be friends with this Nigerian

0:38

prince and... Okay, crazy story.

0:40

He just lost access to his

0:42

vast wealth and... Wait a second.

0:44

This doesn't seem right. Activate

0:47

anti-scam software. No.

0:51

Wait. Oh,

0:54

man. What did you do that for? See,

0:56

I knew you weren't the real Time

0:58

Machine. She's never that nice to me.

1:02

Ah, these scams are getting out of control.

1:04

Let's just start the show. From

1:08

ZSP Media, this is Past Perfect,

1:10

a trivia tournament that travels through

1:12

time. I'm your host, Simone Polanin.

1:16

Do you love robbery and

1:18

fraud? Well, good news, because

1:20

today's episode, our season finale,

1:22

is all about scams. And

1:25

the con artists that almost got away

1:27

with their dastardly plans. It's

1:30

scamming season, baby. So watch your back.

1:32

We'll meet our guests after the break.

1:36

Yeah, that's perfect. Articles

1:39

of Interest is a show about

1:41

what we wear. It's for

1:43

people who think they're not interested in fashion,

1:46

and it's for people who are already obsessed

1:48

with it. If you don't name your style

1:50

someone else will. Discover the

1:52

hidden legacies of black fashion designers

1:54

in America and one fashion

1:56

designer from behind the iron curtain. Young

1:58

people, they see socially... I'm dull

2:00

and monotonous, but I don't think

2:02

it was true. Learn why it

2:04

is so hard to actually know

2:07

the labor standards in garment factories.

2:09

We had been led to

2:11

by the factory management to

2:13

fly. And why we still

2:15

don't have Cher's closet. Why

2:17

doesn't the tech that Cher Horwitz

2:19

had in the 90s

2:21

from Clueless exist yet? These

2:24

are all articles of interest.

2:26

I'm Avery Trinselman. Let me be your guide. You

2:28

can find it, you know, wherever you

2:31

get your podcast. I

2:41

am joined by two very special

2:43

guests today. They are experts in

2:45

the art of deception. They know

2:47

a con when they see one

2:49

because they are the hosts of

2:51

MTV's series Catfish. Neeb

2:53

Shulman and Kammy Crawford. Welcome.

2:56

Hey. Hello. You

2:58

know, I personally have been following the

3:01

catfish journey since the movie came out

3:03

in 2010. I

3:05

remember going to the theaters and just

3:07

blown away. And

3:09

after the movie came out, Neeb,

3:11

you started hosting the TV show

3:13

Catfish on MTV. And

3:15

today you're still helping people who suspect

3:17

that they've been catfish. Kammy has joined

3:19

you now as your co-host. Yes.

3:22

So, you know, I figure you guys

3:24

are pretty good at sniffing out a

3:26

scam. But we're all a

3:28

little susceptible to a trick now and then.

3:31

So I'm dying to know, have you two

3:33

ever been the victim of a scam yourself?

3:36

My first experience getting sort of taken

3:38

before scammed was, I think I was maybe

3:41

14. And a

3:43

couple of guys on the street

3:45

near where I lived were trying to

3:47

sell a... Oh,

3:50

last time was like a brand new Macbook.

3:55

Which was absolutely something that I

3:57

wanted and thought I was going

3:59

to get a great deal. brand new, the box was shrink-wrapped,

4:01

I was like couldn't believe I was getting this deal

4:03

and I knew it was probably like stolen

4:06

or something but I you know I didn't

4:08

care. Anyway I bought

4:10

it and when I opened it it was

4:12

just full of like rocks and just like

4:15

there was nothing inside. Damn,

4:17

that's heartbreaking. I have

4:21

also experienced some

4:24

things. Most recently though I got

4:28

scammed on Venmo. It was like

4:30

the weirdest thing. I was

4:32

in Vegas, I had a bunch of Froze

4:34

with my friends by the pool and I

4:36

get a call from Venmo saying

4:39

that basically my account

4:41

has been compromised. I need to click

4:44

this button or whatever if I

4:46

meant to send some type of

4:48

transaction and then they

4:50

were like we're going to text you right now

4:52

with your code whatever enter it and

4:54

I put in the code and sure enough

4:57

five seconds later my name has

4:59

changed to like Stewart something and

5:02

my picture is still the same but

5:04

now over like almost $2,000 has been

5:06

transferred to this person's account. It

5:09

was the craziest, weirdest thing especially

5:12

to experience while halfway drunk but

5:15

I was able to get my money back. Dang.

5:18

Crazy. Yeah. Thank you for that money

5:20

by the way. Yeah. I

5:23

recently fell for truly one of the

5:25

dumbest ones

5:28

so all the all the cool young girls

5:30

in my life love to wear a Ritzia

5:32

so I was like you know what I'm

5:34

gonna get with the girls. I

5:37

see a Ritzia flash warehouse sale

5:40

you know all this stuff is

5:42

$2 and I should

5:44

have known like but I was

5:46

so like entranced and by the allure

5:48

of like you can

5:50

be 20 again if you wear

5:53

this tank top yeah so thankfully

5:55

it was only like $70 that went their way but You

8:00

know him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The good old Garh true

8:27

identity. And

8:30

so where's the girl? Hopefully she's good.

8:32

Yeah, she made it back home. You know,

8:35

she's a young adult now. She seems fine. Well,

8:37

it sounds like her mom. Her mom was

8:39

a boss. So yeah. Yeah. Got a closet

8:41

full of Erytia tank tops now. She's happy,

8:45

happy girl. She's living the life.

8:47

She might call an Erytia crass.

8:50

Yeah. Yeah.

8:53

Yeah. Exactly. All

8:56

right, Meave, I have got one for you.

8:59

Let's go. Florida businessman Lou

9:01

Pearlman was the creator of huge

9:03

culture defining boy bands like NSYNC

9:06

and the Backstreet Boys. But

9:08

he was also running one of the biggest

9:10

Ponzi schemes in American history when he was

9:12

arrested for fraud in 2007. Now,

9:16

is this real or scam? Before

9:19

becoming a music manager, Pearlman actually

9:21

got his professional start in the

9:23

blimp business. Um,

9:26

that sounds real to me.

9:28

I feel like it's too

9:31

weird and he's from Florida.

9:33

So those two things go well together.

9:35

So I'm going to say that's true. You

9:37

are correct. Yeah, this is real.

9:40

That is exactly the kind of Florida

9:43

shenanigans one might get up to. Before

9:46

he was a music manager, Lou

9:48

Pearlman's earliest jobs were in the

9:50

blimp business. In the

9:52

80s, Pearlman rented out ad space on his

9:55

blimp to a designer jeans brand. Jordash

9:58

jeans, if you remember them. Yes,

10:00

Jordan. Of course. Mm-hmm. Now,

10:05

I know that people listening can't see this picture I'm looking

10:07

at, but tell me that

10:09

doesn't look like Brendan Fraser from The

10:11

Whale. And shouldn't he consider playing him

10:14

in a biopic? He does look like

10:16

him. You have no idea how hard

10:18

I have been trying to fan cast

10:20

the Lou Pearlman biopic. And

10:22

Brendan Fraser is at the top of my list. Actually,

10:26

really? That's crazy. So

10:28

Pearlman, he rented out his blimp to

10:30

Jordash Jeans. But

10:32

he failed to mention he didn't actually

10:34

own any blimps. So what

10:36

he did is he mail ordered

10:38

a fake blimp-like object, slapped on

10:40

a logo, hoped

10:43

for the best. And predictably, this

10:45

fake blimp crash landed into a

10:48

New Jersey garbage dump. Oh

10:50

my god. The 170-foot helium-filled

10:52

blimp found itself impaled at

10:54

a tree. Less than

10:56

a half-while from, a minutes after, it

10:58

took off at the Lakehurst Naval Air

11:01

Station. However, Pearlman eventually was

11:03

able to use his moderate success

11:05

in the blimp business to bankroll

11:07

the creation of NSYNC, The Backstreet

11:09

Boys, and a bunch of other

11:11

music groups. In

11:13

fact, the open casting call that led

11:16

to the formation of The Backstreet Boys

11:18

took place in Lou's Blimp Hanger, which

11:21

I think is a great scene for the

11:23

Brendan Fraser biopic. What a weirdo. Weird,

11:26

crazy. I was actually driving recently, and I saw a

11:28

blimp in the sky, but it was so far away

11:30

that I thought it was a UFO. And

11:32

so I took a video of it and zoomed in

11:34

so that I would have footage of the UFO, but

11:36

it was, in fact, a blimp. Gotcha.

11:39

Dang. That little girl fell.

11:42

I appreciate it. Keep your eyes open,

11:44

Camille. You have to. These days. All

11:47

right. Cammy, we are going to go back to

11:49

you. In 2017,

11:51

Anthony Ginyak was arrested after

11:53

defrauding investors of more than

11:56

$8 million. Despite growing

11:58

up in Michigan, Ginyak was arrested. Ginyak posed

12:00

for years as a wealthy

12:02

Saudi prince, Khalid bin al-Saud,

12:05

to try to attract investors to his

12:07

fraudulent schemes. Now is

12:09

this real or scam? Ginyak's

12:12

con began to unravel because

12:15

of some prosciutto.

12:17

Now I'm stressed. Because

12:20

what would prosciutto have to do with anything? Unless

12:23

he was eating prosciutto when he was

12:25

scamming and he got called out, somebody

12:28

knew. I'm

12:30

gonna go with, because it's

12:32

so outlandish, it has

12:34

to be real. You are correct.

12:36

This one is real. How

12:40

might prosciutto mess up a

12:42

con? Well, I will tell you. So

12:45

Ginyak ordered prosciutto in front

12:47

of billionaire Jeffrey Sofer, a

12:49

Miami real estate mogul. Are

12:53

these characters you're familiar with either of

12:55

you? No. I

12:57

know about Ginyak. You know about Ginyak. So

13:00

do you know about this prosciutto story? I could be wrong,

13:02

but it didn't have something to do with not eating pork. Well

13:06

that's what I was gonna say. He's supposed to be a Saudi

13:08

prince. Why would you be eating

13:10

pork? These are the exact

13:12

thoughts that were going through this

13:14

real estate mogul's mind as he

13:16

was wining and diming Ginyak. The

13:20

two had met after the fake prince approached

13:22

Sofer, offering to buy a massive steak in

13:24

his hotel. When

13:26

he ordered prosciutto at dinner, they

13:28

sort of set off alarm bells

13:31

in Sofer's head. He

13:33

enlisted a private security team to investigate

13:35

the supposed prince. And

13:37

turns out Ginyak had been impersonating a

13:39

Saudi prince for decades and had already

13:41

been arrested 11 times for

13:44

quote, prince-related schemes. How

13:47

do you fuck that up? Prosciutto!

13:51

That's great. The details. The devil's in

13:53

the details. In

13:55

2017, Ginyak was arrested for

13:57

a 12th time and ultimately sentenced.

14:00

to 18 years in prison. All right,

14:03

me, you have our final question of the

14:05

round. George

14:07

C. Parker was one of New York City's

14:09

most notorious con men. Between 1883 and 1928,

14:11

Parker pretended to own the

14:16

Brooklyn Bridge and would sell it

14:19

to unsuspecting wealthy immigrants thousands of

14:21

times over. Now

14:23

is this real or scam? Parker

14:26

didn't just sell the Brooklyn Bridge,

14:28

he also repeatedly sold the Statue

14:30

of Liberty, Central Park, and Grant's

14:33

Tomb to his marks. That

14:36

sounds a little, I mean,

14:38

offering to sell the Brooklyn Bridge is pretty

14:40

outlandish, but something about the Statue of Liberty

14:43

and Central Park seems like too much. So

14:45

I'm going to say that is scam.

14:49

You are correct. That

14:51

is scam, yeah. That's

14:54

not quite true, but only because

14:56

Central Park was never on George

14:58

Parker's list of landmarks. But

15:01

he really did repeatedly sell the Statue

15:03

of Liberty and Grant's Tomb. He

15:05

pretended to be a descendant of Ulysses S.

15:08

Grant to pull off the ladder. So he

15:10

was, you know, not quite so audacious, but

15:12

he was pretty audacious.

15:15

Like other hucksters of the day, Parker

15:17

would target wealthy immigrants who didn't know

15:19

the laws of the US very well,

15:21

and were looking for economic opportunities.

15:24

Oh, no. Yeah. I

15:27

mean, I feel like before Google

15:29

anything was possible, and

15:31

he was just taking advantage of that.

15:33

He's an entrepreneur. Yeah. I mean,

15:35

he tried his best,

15:37

and I give him

15:39

props for that. All

15:42

right. Well, that brings us

15:44

to the end of our first round, which

15:46

means it is time to check in

15:48

on our scores. I've got our producer,

15:50

Laura Newcomb on the line who's keeping track.

15:53

Laura, how are our players doing? Yeah.

15:56

How's my win coming along? It's

15:59

coming along pretty well. Well, and at

16:01

the very least, the numbers don't lie. It

16:03

is two to two right now. Okay,

16:05

very well balanced. We

16:08

got to shake it up. You know, I've

16:10

just shared some pretty wild, true

16:12

scam stories with you guys. And

16:15

as you know, more than anyone else, people

16:18

have this insatiable appetite for these kinds

16:20

of stories on screen. And

16:22

that spirit, we're going to move on to

16:24

our second round. The sound round. The

16:27

way this works is I will play a

16:29

clip from a movie or TV show about

16:31

a scammer, con artist, charlatan, what have you.

16:35

And you will have to tell me who is

16:37

speaking. I'm looking for the

16:39

character name, not the actor. So

16:42

you know, if I were to play

16:44

you a clip from Lincoln, you would need to tell

16:46

me Abraham Lincoln, not Daniel Day Lewis. Oh

16:48

my god. Okay. Make sense?

16:51

Hopefully. Alright, let's do it. I'm ready. Alright.

16:55

So, Steve, you have got the first clip of this round.

16:58

Let's take a listen. Paper's double bonded,

17:00

much too heavy to be a bank check.

17:04

Magnetic ink, it's raised against my fingers

17:07

instead of foam. Do

17:09

I have to wait for the whole clip? It doesn't

17:11

sound like Mickert, some kind of a... I mean, you

17:14

could jump in. ...grafting ink, you know, to kind of

17:16

get at a stationary storm. I knew it right away.

17:18

That is Frank, Frank Abagnale.

17:21

It's technically Frank Abagnale Jr.,

17:23

but I mean, you pulled that out. You pulled

17:25

that out. I'll give it to you. I'll give it

17:27

to you. Oh my god. Sorry, I

17:29

made you putt there for a second. That

17:32

was Frank Abagnale Jr., as played

17:34

by none other than Leonardo DiCaprio.

17:37

Oh yeah. And watch me if you can.

17:39

Love that movie. Yeah, it's a great one. Lots

17:43

of big performances. This

17:46

one came out in 2002 and

17:48

was based on Abagnale's autobiography, in

17:50

which he claims to have successfully

17:52

posed as a pilot, doctor, and

17:54

prosecutor all before his 19th birthday.

17:58

In this particular clip, he's explaining to the... how

18:00

he can tell a forged check from the real

18:02

deal. In the

18:04

movie, the FBI spring Abagnale from prison

18:06

so he can work for them in

18:08

their financial crimes units. But

18:11

interestingly enough, this is a bit of a

18:13

scam on scam situation because

18:15

most of Abagnale's claims about

18:18

his accomplishments as a fraudster

18:20

have been debunked. Oh,

18:22

God. Yes. Those scammer scams. You

18:24

just can't stop. You can't stop.

18:27

There is no evidence to

18:30

support Abagnale's claim that he worked for the

18:32

FBI or really any of the claims he

18:34

made about his success as a con

18:36

artist. But you know, he

18:38

still managed to get a movie about his

18:40

life. I love it. All

18:44

right, I have got another clip

18:47

for us. I'm so stressed. Kami,

18:49

this is for you. Let's take

18:51

a listen. You have no

18:53

proof what it's like for me. I'm

18:56

a hot dog. I'm trying to build a foundation

18:58

and I'm trying to make a place of money

19:00

here. Do you think I have time to waste

19:02

with this? Your money

19:04

is coming. I do

19:06

not have time for this. I do not have

19:08

time for you. This is Anna Delvi. Obviously.

19:12

Obviously, yes. Classic

19:15

queen. She's free, you know. We

19:18

love her. We know her. We respect

19:20

her. I feel like

19:22

it's especially easy to root for Anna

19:24

Delvi because her targets were

19:26

like major banks and you

19:28

know, multi-millionaires. And so it's like, yeah,

19:30

Anna. You did what we were

19:32

all thinking. Yep. Yes,

19:35

this was indeed Anna Delvi,

19:37

AKA Anna Sirokin. Everyone's

19:39

favorite fake heiress. And

19:42

that was from the 2022 Netflix series Inventing

19:45

Anna starring Julia Garner. The

19:48

show follows Delvi's attempt to fake it till

19:50

she makes it in New York City. She

19:53

was born in Russia, moved to New York

19:55

in 2013. There

19:57

she hoped to create a private members club

19:59

slash. Art Foundation, which she of

20:01

course would call the Ann Adelvi Foundation.

20:05

All in all, she defrauded hotels, major

20:07

financial institutions, and her supposed friends of

20:09

about $275,000. Crazy.

20:13

That's it. I know. It's not that

20:16

much like in the end. I

20:18

guess, I guess she almost got the 60 million,

20:20

right? That was what was so crazy. That she

20:22

was so close to getting all the money she

20:25

needed to actually like open that club. Yeah. Yeah.

20:28

I have got a another clip. Uh, this

20:30

one is for you, Neve. Let us take

20:32

a listen. Okay. We are

20:34

looking to make strategic relationships to move that

20:37

along, but I kind of agree

20:39

with Mark Zuckerberg when he said move

20:42

fast and break things. Okay.

20:47

Um, I

20:49

don't, I don't

20:51

know. I don't know this movie. And

20:53

if I knew the movie, I certainly didn't, I

20:55

don't think I know the character's name. Um,

21:00

so I think I'm just going to have to pass. All

21:03

right. I think I know the like

21:06

synopsis, but

21:08

I don't know. Well, I can't

21:11

give you points, but do you, I'm very

21:13

curious to hear what you think it is,

21:15

Cammy. I feel like it's the woman who

21:17

was like a scientist

21:19

or like pretended that she had the ponytail,

21:22

she had the turtleneck. It

21:25

is the lady. What's her name? Elizabeth? Elizabeth

21:28

Holm. Yeah. Yeah.

21:31

Uh, white lady with turtleneck. Oh, that was

21:34

from the, the blood pill thing. Yeah.

21:36

White lady with turtleneck. Lady

21:38

with turtleneck and the red lipstick. Yes.

21:42

Uh, Elizabeth Holmes who founded

21:44

Theranos. Uh, and in

21:46

the clip we just heard, she was played

21:48

by Amanda Seyfried in the, uh,

21:51

Hulu series, the dropout from 2022. Um,

21:55

Holmes herself dropped out of Stanford university in

21:57

2003 to found Theranos. which

22:00

was a medical device company that ended

22:02

up being worth $10 billion just 10

22:04

years later. Theranos

22:07

claimed to have invented a breakthrough technology that

22:09

could perform hundreds of tests on just a

22:11

single drop of blood, but

22:13

unfortunately those claims were proven to

22:16

be false and Holmes was sentenced

22:18

to just over 11 years in

22:20

prison in November of 2022. This

22:23

is an inspiring step forward. An inspiring

22:27

step forward. All

22:30

right, I have got one last clip in the

22:32

round. Let's take a listen. I'm

22:35

gonna set you guys up. Since

22:37

it's all gonna be okay, there's a still

22:39

a few hundred million left.

22:42

I'm gonna make sure that you guys are all taken care

22:44

of, the rest of the

22:46

family, some loyal employees. It's all

22:48

gonna be good. Let me just get a week. I

22:51

know what it's from and

22:54

I'm trying to, I think I know what it's

22:56

from. I'm almost 100% certain,

22:59

but I can't remember his name.

23:02

Give me some of the details that are

23:04

in your brain here. It's from Casino, right?

23:08

No, it is not. I

23:11

feel like, well, I think it sounds like

23:13

De Niro, but I'm not sure. It could

23:15

be someone else, but

23:18

I was getting De Niro also. It

23:20

is De Niro, but it's not Casino

23:22

De Niro. Oh my

23:24

god, it's too late now.

23:26

I will let you know what

23:28

that was. That was Robert

23:31

De Niro in the 2017 movie Wizard

23:33

of Lies, where he portrays Bernie

23:36

Madoff. Of

23:40

course, I forgot about that. I never

23:42

saw that. In 2008, Madoff

23:44

was arrested for defrauding his investors,

23:46

which included foundations, celebrities, and prominent

23:48

hedge funds out of $65 billion.

23:51

That's a real number. Yeah. But

24:00

in better news, this concludes the second

24:03

round of trivia, y'all. So it is

24:05

time to check in on our scores.

24:07

How have our players been doing, Laura? Continued

24:10

success, but we're still tied. I have

24:12

three to three right now. That's insane.

24:15

Ooh, it's a tight game. Well,

24:18

we are going to take a quick break,

24:20

but when we return, boy, do

24:23

I have an exciting investment opportunity

24:25

for you when we're back.

24:37

Hey, I'm James Lavino, and I'm here to

24:39

tell you about Alternate Sides, a movie podcast

24:41

with a twist. I've worked

24:43

in the film business for two decades, but I

24:45

haven't actually seen that many movies, and

24:48

this has been driving my frequent

24:50

collaborator, Saab, a self-confessed film snob,

24:52

crazy. So every week,

24:54

while he's stuck in his car trying to

24:56

avoid getting a parking ticket, thanks to New

24:58

York City's alternate side parking regulations, we

25:01

discuss a classic film I've finally just gotten

25:03

around to seeing. Alternate

25:05

Sides, a new podcast about movies,

25:07

parking, and a 25-year friendship. Wherever

25:10

you get your podcasts. Welcome

25:27

back, my bamboozlers. I

25:29

am here with the co-hosts of

25:32

MTV's Catfish, Niamh Shulman, and Cami

25:34

Crawford. We're talking all things

25:36

scams today. They are

25:38

currently tied with three points each,

25:40

which is very exciting, because

25:43

we are heading into our final round.

25:46

The lightning round. The

25:52

way this works is I will ask

25:55

you both a series of short-answer trivia

25:57

questions, all related to scams. You'll

25:59

have 60 seconds. seconds to answer as many of them as

26:01

you can. If you don't know the

26:03

answer, you can pass and I'll go to the

26:05

next question. Oh, God. Makes sense?

26:07

Yeah. Yes. And listen, it's

26:10

a tie. So, eeny, meeny, my

26:12

emo, Kami, you'll go first. Oh,

26:14

God. Lucky you. Okay.

26:17

How are you feeling? You think you can beat me?

26:20

I know I can beat him. It's

26:23

just a matter of time and whatever

26:25

these questions are going to be. Well,

26:28

let us put 60 seconds on the clock. Your

26:31

time, start now. Which

26:34

viral scammer said, I'm a messy bitch

26:36

who lives for drama? Joanne the

26:38

scammer. Correct. What product

26:40

was sold by pyramid scheme Lula

26:42

Roe participants? Oh,

26:46

my God. There's so many pyramid schemes. How are

26:48

we supposed to know which one? Oh, God. You

26:51

can pass. You can pass. I don't know, pass.

26:53

Leggings. What is the term for attempting

26:55

to fraudulently get sensitive info over email?

27:00

I don't get the same email. Fuck.

27:05

No, it's not catfishing. It's

27:07

fucking... Yeah, fishing. Fishing. Correct. It's

27:09

ph ph fishing. Correct. Who is

27:12

the Ponzi scheme named after? Somebody

27:15

Ponzi. I don't know. Ponzi. Ponzi. Carl Ponzi.

27:18

Which Houston-based energy company collapsed in 2001 due

27:20

to fraud? Pass.

27:23

Enron. What was Saranos' blood

27:26

testing machine called? What?

27:31

Oh, my God. Pass. The

27:33

Edison. Which... Oh,

27:35

and that is time. What the hell?

27:38

That was hard. That was pretty good, though. You

27:43

got... I believe you got two. Two. Out

27:46

of that lightning round, which

27:49

means that, Meave, you've got your

27:51

challenge set up for you. You

27:53

have got to answer three in

27:56

order to beat Cammie. Oh, my God.

27:58

You can do that. I

28:01

don't know. These questions are tough, but I'll

28:03

certainly do my best. Alright. Well,

28:05

let us put 60 seconds on the clock.

28:09

Your time starts now.

28:12

Which former New York House representative spent

28:14

campaign funds at Sephora? George

28:19

Soros, or whatever his name is.

28:21

George Santos. Santos, yeah. Who played

28:24

conman Tom Ripley in 1999's

28:26

The Talented Mr. Ripley? Um,

28:29

uh, not gonna have to flack the other guy. Um,

28:31

no, wait. Uh, Matt Damon?

28:34

Correct. Yes. Dr. Dunsh,

28:36

who maimed dozens of patients, was the subject

28:38

of what podcast? Dr. Dunsh? I

28:41

don't know, pass. Dr.

28:44

Death. Oh. What

28:46

type of financial fraud relies on recruiting new

28:49

members? Pyramid Scheme.

28:51

Correct. Right. Who

28:54

is the real-life wolf of Wall Street? Ah,

28:58

I can't remember his name, pass. Jordan

29:00

Belfort. Yes. What is the

29:02

term for leaving a restaurant without paying? Dime Dash.

29:05

Correct. What controversial influencer

29:07

titled her 2023 Marmoire Scammer?

29:12

Oh, that's the end of the question.

29:14

Oh, another time. It was Caroline Alloway.

29:18

Ooh, boo. Who made

29:20

it? Tomato, tomato,

29:22

tomato. Man, even I'm sweating right

29:24

now. Okay, well, this

29:26

is where I turn to Laura, because

29:29

I feel like we do have a

29:31

winner today. Would you like to

29:33

tell us what the final score was? Yes.

29:36

I think, Cammie, you scored five

29:38

points total. Niamh, you ended

29:40

up with six. Ooh,

29:43

there it is. Congratulations.

29:45

Niamh, you are our

29:47

winner today. Boo.

29:49

You know what? You seem pretty elated.

29:51

I think he scammed his way through

29:53

this, and that's how he gets you.

30:00

the win and you know what scammers never

30:02

win in the end and I

30:04

think that's the lesson we can all take home today. They

30:07

never win in the end but they do

30:09

win trivia I guess not to call

30:11

your scammer name. I don't want to imply that.

30:14

Before I let you guys go today you know

30:16

we kind of touched on this earlier but something

30:19

that is so wild to me

30:21

is despite how much we love

30:23

to hate scammers we kind of

30:25

also just love them. We

30:27

elevate them to celebrity status, we're fascinated

30:30

by their stories. I don't

30:32

know why are we so drawn to these people? I

30:35

think there is a temptation

30:38

that many of us have at any

30:41

given moment whether it's you

30:43

know standing online at the grocery

30:46

store and you think I could just put a

30:48

candy bar in my pocket no one would notice

30:51

or you know finding a wallet

30:53

on the street should you

30:55

keep it should you return I mean

30:57

you know We're constantly faced with temptation

30:59

and I hope most people choose

31:01

sort of the right path

31:04

but it's tempting

31:07

and I think the

31:09

appeal of scammers is that they allow themselves

31:11

to take advantage of any opportunity

31:13

or weakness that they come across and

31:17

yeah I think

31:19

we're all a little jealous of that. I think there's

31:21

something to that. So there's a little bit of a

31:24

scammer in all of us. I

31:31

think I think there's some truth to that

31:33

for sure. I think we make them famous

31:35

because we like Niamh was

31:37

saying like we don't have it in most

31:39

of us to make

31:42

those things happen and so we're so

31:44

fascinated by how people are able to

31:46

achieve those things but in

31:48

the end like is it really worth it? I

31:51

mean I'm not trying to have an

31:53

ankle monitor on for the next five years

31:55

of my life like I would like to

31:57

actually try to achieve something

31:59

like Who knows what Anna Delvey could have

32:01

been if she would have dedicated her time

32:03

to actually, you know, trying to

32:06

help people instead of trying to promote herself.

32:08

And now it's something to think about. But

32:11

that brings up, I think, an even better

32:14

version of my answer, which was everyone

32:17

wants to take a shortcut. Right? If

32:19

there's a get rich quick way to

32:23

make millions versus the hard work

32:25

and dedication and struggle and setbacks

32:27

that most people go through, I

32:30

think we'd all wish we could take it. Sure.

32:33

It also just seems like a stressful

32:35

lifestyle to live. Like maybe we all

32:37

kind of are like,

32:39

oh, in a fantasy world, but yeah, I

32:42

mean, practically. I'm not built to be on

32:44

the run. I'm not. Exactly. And

32:48

that's just one of maybe many reasons why

32:50

it's not the lifestyle. But

32:54

hey, you know what? I'm not

32:56

part of the problem. I'll probably watch the George

32:58

Santos Z-Way interview. Oh my God, yeah. As

33:00

soon as we end this taping. So we're

33:02

all in it. That's right. Well, thank you

33:04

both so much for joining me today. It

33:06

was really sweet. Thank you. Path

33:17

Perfect is produced by ZSP Media,

33:19

created by Zach Stewart-Pontier and me,

33:21

Simone Talanen. This episode was written

33:24

and produced by Laura Newcomb. The

33:26

supervising producer is Liz Styles and

33:28

featuring Liz Styles as the time

33:30

machine. Fact checking by Ian

33:32

Michael, sound design and mixing by Emma

33:34

Munger, original music and theme by Jaybless,

33:36

with show art by Sarah Gonzalez. The

33:39

executive producer is Zach Stewart-Pontier. The head

33:41

of production and development is Liz Styles.

33:43

Special thanks to Erica Morrison and Emily

33:46

Wiedemann. You can follow me on

33:48

Instagram at Simone Talanen or follow

33:50

the show at Path Perfect Podcast.

33:52

Thanks for hanging. See

33:54

you in the new year. Kimmy,

33:59

from now on, I'm. I want you to refer to me

34:01

as winner. I

34:03

will never do that. I

34:05

would sooner die than admit.

34:08

Let's just trash this footage. Let's just put

34:10

it. You don't have to release this episode.