A scammer scammed me for $92,000. Here are the 8 red flags I wish I had seen.

Some people play golf on the weekends. I hunt scammers.

But it has not always been so.

I used to think I could never get scammed. I’m way too smart for that. I have a degree from journalism school. And I read tons of newspapers and books. I know what is happening in the world. There’s just no way a scammer could outsmart me, is there?

Because scammers don’t outsmart you. They “over-sense” you. They use your emotions to get into your life so they can steal from you.

In 2017, I became the victim of a professional scammer, a woman named “Mair Smyth”, who very quickly dug deep into my psyche and systematically swindled me out of almost $100,000 using a sophisticated series of confidence tricks.

I’m a gay man, so she couldn’t use sex to trick me. His decoys were much more creative and sinister.

I would end up falling into one of the oldest drawbacks in the book: the inheritance scam.

But this scheme was not concocted by a Nigerian prince soliciting my help via email. I was actually charm submitted by a charismatic and exciting woman who injected herself into my life and became my best friend for four years. But in reality, she was an international con artist fleeing the authorities and hiding in my apartment building.

After realizing she had scammed me, I spent the next two and a half years bringing my scammer to justice — kicking and screaming — while discovering 45 of his other victims around the world. ‘she’s ensnared for over a million dollars combined. .

My story received tons of international media coverage.

I even produced a podcast about it for iHeartRadio called “Queen of the Con: The Irish Heiress”.

Soon, hundreds of victims of other scammers―inspired by my story of triumph and vindication―started contacting me through my website asking for help their scammers to justice.

So I started helping them. It became one of my hobbies, a kind of hobby.

I am now investigating a few dozen cases around the globe, involving some of the most despicable scammers and scammers “working” today. And at this point, the most important thing I’ve learned is this: professional scammers are all pretty much the same. They all use the same playbook. The same age-old set of scams. The same architecture of lies and manipulations. Only the names and places change. But if you know what the signs are early on, you can avoid falling into their trap.

And if you don’t, you won’t.

Scammers are everywhere. They live among us. Cleverly and convincingly impersonating a new boyfriend or girlfriend in your life. A new neighbor or colleague. A new best friend.

They look like ordinary people. But they are not.

Below is a list of red flags common to all scams I am currently investigating. These were also the red flags that my crook waved at me with reckless abandon – and which I completely missed.

Someone new in your life is incredibly kind and generous. They always offer to pay for things. They give you gifts. They always try to help you for no apparent reason other than being really nice. It’s too good to be true? It could be. A scammer’s first mission is to become your friend so that he can gain your trust. That way, one day, you’ll do things for them that you wouldn’t do for a stranger. Getting into your good graces ― and your life ― builds trust, which is exactly what they need to move forward with their scam.

Professional scammers are narcissists. They always tell you how awesome they are. How much they have accomplished in their surprising life. How they triumphed in the face of adversity. My scammer, who worked for a luxury travel agency in Los Angeles, told me she was the #1 seller in the United States of Pacific Island vacations. She claimed that the President of French Polynesia would send her every two months to inspect all their five-star hotels to make sure they were up to scratch. None of this was true. And my scammer was eventually arrested and convicted of defrauding $200,000 from that same travel company.

One of the things in every scam case I work on today is bravado. In order to engender trust, they need their grades to think highly of them and be impressed with them. The quickest way to hasten that end is to brag about themselves. To tell you how amazing they are ― and how lucky you are to know them.

Look, bad things happen to everyone. People get cancer. People have children who die suddenly. People have crazy family members looking to “get” them. But all these bad things rarely happen to same no one at the same time…unless he’s a con artist inventing all this drama in his life to manipulate and exploit your emotions. They use them to suck you into their madness and exploit your kindness and good nature. If there’s a new person in your life who puts on a constant stream of soap operas, change the channel.

Most professional scam artists have, or once had, legitimate day jobs. And they use the reputation of these jobs to give them a patina of legitimacy in their scams. They are mortgage brokers. They work at the town hall. They are investment analysts. They are traders. They are travel agents (mine was). They work for a giant mobile phone company. You think, There is no way they are scammers. They have amazing jobs. But this is their plan. They want you to think that, to let your guard down and believe their lies. Don’t. Their day jobs are just a cover, a side hustle. Their real job is to scam you. So the next time you’re thinking, “They could never rip me off, they’ve got amazing work,” think again.

For a scammer to be successful in scamming you, they must be able to steer you away from people who might dissuade you from following their scammer. Unfortunately, it’s remarkably easy to do. My scammer made me believe that my neighbor was a criminal on the run from Canadian authorities. So I avoided her like the plague. She then convinced my neighbor that I was mentally ill. So my neighbor avoided me. My scammer scammed us both using different stories and we were none the wiser until long after the money traded hands. So if someone new in your life doesn’t want you to talk to that person or that person…don’t accept it. be told not talking to someone is the biggest red flag there is and it’s a very effective tool for a “working” scammer to isolate you and keep you in the scam.

The next time someone shows you a text or email and claims it’s from someone, beware. Scammers who scam in the digital age create Google Voice accounts and email accounts in other people’s names to send text messages and emails themselves, so they can show you those text messages and emails. -mails to make you believe the story they tell. My scammer tricked some of her victims into thinking she was best friends with Jennifer Aniston using this technique. I’m a television producer in Los Angeles, so it’s very possible that someone I know is actually friends with Jennifer Aniston. My scammer cleverly made it look like Jennifer Aniston was still texting him. And she was showing those texts to the victims in a “look what Jen sends me now” way. Sometimes she even seemed to be annoyed by it and all of her victims bought it. By using this digital parody, a working scammer can convince a victim that he is friends with anyone and build a believable, but completely fake, story around him.

My scam artist tricked a few real estate investors into transferring $60,000 to him because his daughter allegedly needed life-saving surgery after being diagnosed with advanced cancer. In another case I work on, the victim sent her new boyfriend hundreds of thousands of dollars to help him out of trouble while a foreign government held his property hostage. In short: Never. Send. Son. Period. If someone asks you to wire them money, chances are it’s a scam.

In many investment scams and in many romance scams, the scammer will actually give you some money up front. They will let you “wet your beak”. My scammer paid me back the first $4,200 I lent him the very next day. This move gave me the confidence to lend him more. It was his plan. The term “scam artist” is short for “trust artist” because these individuals gain the complete and total trust of their victims – and then weaponize it against them.

If I knew then what I know now, I would never have been scammed. I would have seen all the red flags waving wildly a mile away and crossed the street when I saw my crook coming.

The problem is, I never really believed scammers existed. I mean, yeah, I knew there were tons of email and phone scams where people try to trick you into sending them money. But real people in my life who might be scammers? I didn’t believe that could ever happen. But I was wrong. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

Johnathan Walton is the host of the hit podcast “Queen of the Con: The Irish Heiress”. He’s also a reality TV producer by day and a vigilante seeking justice during his off hours. His experience of putting his own crook in jail awakened him to a new calling in life: helping other victims hunt down their crooks in the name of justice, closure, and healing. He can be reached via his website, JohnathanWalton.com.

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