- In 2017, I fell for a
scam by a close friend and lost close to $100,000. - I spent over two years bringing my con artist to justice, she was sentenced to five years in prison.
Some people play golf on the weekends. I hunt con artists.
But it wasn't always like that. I used to think there was no way a scammer could outsmart me. Con artists don't actually outsmart you — they use your emotions to scam you.
In 2017, I fell for one of the oldest cons in the book: the inheritance scam. I lost almost $100,000.
But this scam wasn't served up to me in an email from some Nigerian prince. It was gingerly laid out for me by my best friend who I knew for four years. I was helping her battle her Irish family for her share of a 25 million euro inheritance.
I never thought for a second that the emails and texts she would frequently show me from her "barristers" and her belligerent family were actually coming from accounts she'd created to sell me her scam.
I spent over two years bringing my con artist to justice. I produced a
Here are three red flags that keep coming up in con cases I'm investigating. My own con artist had also waved them with reckless abandon.
If I'd known then what I know now, I would have seen all the red flags from a mile away; I would have never been conned.
They're too kind too quickly
If someone new in your life is inexplicably kind and giving and is always insisting on paying for everything for no apparent reason, I would start to worry about being set up for a con.
My con artist wined and dined my husband and me at fancy Los Angeles restaurants and lavished us with gifts. In my experience, con artists try to get in deep with you fast — to eventually get you to do things for them. Don't take the bait.
They isolate you
For a con artist to scam you, they need to lure you away from people who might talk you out of going along with their con. My con artist told me a neighbor of mine was wanted in Canada for murder, so I avoided the neighbor, and my con artist scammed my neighbor and me using different cons.
Had I been talking to my neighbor all along, I would have heard the wildly different story she was getting from my con artist and confronted her. Anyone telling you not to talk to this person or that person is about the biggest red flag there is.
They let you wet your beak
In a lot of scams, the con artist will actually show you a little of your money up front. My con artist paid me back the first $4,200 I ever loaned her — the very next day.
That gave me the confidence to loan her more, which was her plan all along. Con artists like to let you "wet your beak" — don't fall for it.