Perfect Strangers for Perfect Swindlers

The true story of a family that became the target of a confidence trickster, who through an elaborate web of lies and deceit was befriended by the family and who built a false sense of trust in order to exploit the kindness and generosity of the family. Listen to the devastating consequences of having a con-artist and a predator select you as their next prey. 

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Subscribe to Fraud Files on Spotify, Amazon, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram for all of the latest updates.

Got comments or questions for Edward? Leave us a comment or question on socials or on Spotify and we'll read your questions on the show.

You can also email questions to us at info@fraud-files.com.

Transcript

Dolores 0:02

Imagine opening your door to someone who has come into your life, seemingly by chance, becoming friends, socializing with them, sharing meals, stories, laughter and your home, only to discover that their entire existence was a carefully constructed lie, a meticulously spun web designed to strip you of not just your money but also your sense of safety and reality. Welcome to 'Perfect Strangers for Perfect Swindlers' Hi Edward, let's get started. What True Crime story have you got in store for us today in this episode, we're going to explore how these con artists are not just after money, but they want to exert control and a sense of power on their victims. And often they will expertly weave themselves into the fabric of a community, playing the roles of the perfect neighbor, the devoted friend, or the deserving stranger. Your story is about Perfect Swindlers. Can you elaborate they get into your lives, they get into your hair. They take advantage of human empathy, turning a victim's kindness against them, making them question their own judgment when the truth finally comes to light, and then leaving behind a complex web of deception. It takes two to tango

Simon 1:56

This leads to the difficult question: are these perpetrators, these con artists, solely at fault? Or does our willingness to believe in the good in others sometimes leave us vulnerable to manipulation

Dolores 2:11

How would you describe Swindlers

Simon 2:14

Swindlers are con artists, scammers, and grifters. They deceive and manipulate people out of their money, property, or sensitive information they deploy a wide range of fraudulent activities from high-tech digital phishing and romance scams to low-tech doorstep cons.

Dolores 2:39

Are we all at risk from them?

Simon 2:41

Because swindlers constantly evolve their tactics to exploit trust, knowing how to identify and protect yourself against common schemes is highly effective. So the common types of swindlers, you've got confidence tricksters who build a false sense of trust to exploit victims, often through elaborate investments or counterfeit goods. You've got romance scammers who use dating apps or social media to manufacture affectionate relationships, eventually manipulating victims into sending money or giving their financial details. You've got imposter scams where somebody poses as a trusted organization like a bank, the police, government tax agencies to trick you into transferring funds. You've got property fraudsters, where they target the real estate market by forging deals or selling properties they do not legally own. So you've got a whole myriad and array of different types of swindlers and con artists. It's a minefield out there.

Dolores 3:53

How do you protect yourself against that?

Simon 3:56

I think the first thing you've got to do is just slow down. Swindlers rely on high-pressure tactics and urgency. Take a step back to evaluate the situation before acting. It's easier said than done, the other thing to do to protect yourself is to verify communications. Never hand over money or sensitive data based on an unsolicited message or call. Directly contact the organization using a verified number. The other way to protect yourself from con artists is to confirm their identity.

Dolores 4:31

Is it easy to spot a Swindler? Are there general traits you've come across?

Simon 4:35

I think con artists, fraudsters, scammers will portray certain recognizable personality types Typically, in order for them to be able to perpetrate their crimes, they've got to be quite arrogant. They tend to have a sense of superiority, narcissism, a self-centered personality style. They've got to have a preoccupation with themselves and their own needs. Let's face it, often the reason they want to obtain something is because they're envious of others. They don't have what maybe others have. They seek possessions like homes, cars, watches They crave validation. I think in terms of the way they come across, they're extremely sociable, charming, charismatic, highly articulate, reassuring. All these traits are required in order to manipulate a stranger. Let's face it, they haven't met the person before. They're developing relationships, and it's through these relationships, whether they're short-term relationships in the case of scammers, whereas in the case of the long-term fraudsters, where they, get into your life. You can't get rid of them. In fact, they ingratiate themselves so much to you that you actually enjoy their company. You want to be around them. You want them in your life. In a romance scam, you may want to have a romantic relationship with them. Their charmingness, the sense that they have everything perhaps, that they are wealthy and successful draws you to them. But of course, it's all fake. There's often no reality to the situation that you're being duped into.

Dolores 6:18

So you have a particular story that you encountered, or rather a very good friend of yours encountered?

Simon 6:25

In this episode of Fraud Files: Perfect Strangers for Perfect Swindlers, we're gonna be talking about real-life imposters. In this particular case, I have, experience of that from friends who were duped and who recounted the stories to me. And, from that, I was able to build the picture of, what had transpired over a period of time. In this particular case, you have a situation where, a family, living in a particular community, good upstanding members of the community, model family. In this case, they were welcoming someone into their life, somebody who they were allowing to almost share their home somebody who had become friends with them, introducing them to their family and believing they were a true friend, only to realize months later that it was all an elaborate facade. So today we're delving into the chilling world of long-term deception, and we're going to be exploring the anatomy of an infiltration, examining how skilled con artists meticulously build trust, weave themselves into the fabric of a family, and exploit connections for their own gain.

Dolores 7:54

A very disturbing situation for that family, then.

Simon 7:58

It's not just about the theft of money, it's the theft of security, trust, and peace of mind. It leaves the victims shaken We're about to lay bare the psychological maneuvers that make this possible

Dolores 8:15

Okay, let's have it.

Simon 8:17

This story all began with a chance encounter on a bustling city center street where an elderly man, the father of a respected local businessman, struck up a conversation with a man and his daughter whilst sitting in a coffee shop The man introduced himself as Frank and his daughter Jenny for the purpose of this podcast. And they had just arrived apparently from another city, and they got chatting to this elderly man and, the elderly man just thought it was a random meeting. He, found the, father and his daughter, that's Frank and Jenny, very engaging. They seemed to share similar interests and were from similar backgrounds as the elderly man. And, of course, from Frank and Jenny's point of view, as we'll come to learn, this wasn't just a random meeting. This was the start of a meticulously planned infiltration that would go on to shake a family to its very core So you have this situation where the elderly man said to Frank that, he had a son, who, he'd like to introduce him to And, he set up, a get-together between, Frank and Jenny and, this man's son, Adam, and Adam's wife, Olivia, for the purpose of the podcast. And they were a good respected family. They had three children. They lived very comfortably. They were members of a local community and, involved in that community. So upstanding citizens, I suppose, is the way to call, Adam, Olivia, and their three, young children, who were at school age at that time. And, you know, they all got on very well. Frank and Jenny, were charming, a charming, father and daughter. Their story sounded plausible. Frank was going to put Jenny, who was a teenager, into a local school to finish off her studies. And, yeah, everything just looked very nice. On the social side of things, they all got on very well. So over a period of months, Adam and Olivia became very close friends with Frank and Jenny. They would, socialize with them. Adam and Olivia, introduced them to their friends. And of course, the children, were involved as well.

Dolores 10:41

Whilst Jenny was just a little bit older than the three children. From time to time, Jenny would babysit for Adam and Olivia's, children. Frank would assist them if they needed some special, favors. There's one situation where Frank offered to pick the family up from the airport when they were coming back from a holiday,

Simon 10:58

Adam, and Olivia and their children were picked up and brought back to their house, there was a lot of close interaction between, them and, things were moving along very nicely. Adam, was a property owner. He owned a number of apartments around town and, after some short period of time, he offered Frank and Jenny, because they were obviously renting, because they were, temporarily, because they had arrived into the area from outside and, so Adam offered them, to stay in, one of his, apartments that he was holding for investment purposes. It was a buy to let. He had a number of apartments, so he was a well-to-do businessman, very well respected. Frank and Jenny would have moved in very nice. And then, the fraudsters, this man and his daughter, they wove themselves into the fabric of, the businessman's life, gaining the trust of his wife, Olivia, and the children. Becoming so close that Adam, provided Frank and Jenny with rent-free accommodation in one of his apartments. And this is typical of these imposter scams because the perpetrators take on a whole new identity. It's quite unbelievable. It's difficult to comprehend how they are able to, create a whole new identity for themselves. Nobody's checking their backstory. Nobody's checking where they've come from. It's just like these wonderful people have arrived into our lives and what lovely new friends to have. What lovely, charming people. Um, I mean, so elaborate was this particular situation that, Jenny started to attend the local school. And so everything was just moving along sort of nicely

Dolores 12:33

At what point and how did things start to unravel?

Simon 12:36

After some time, a number of months, the climax of this long con started to come to a head because one way or the other, somehow or another, the con artist, obviously after a period of time, Frank, discussed with Adam that, he would like to buy the apartment, from Adam. He would pay market price. He had some spare funds, he said to Adam, from a previous property. He'd like to invest them in this local location. And so there was then this back and forth and setting up a, sale, from Adam to Frank because Adam had a number of properties, and he was turning them over from time to time. So he thought, "Well, why not? Nice guy, friend of mine. Frank, I could sell it to him at a market price anyway," and so, there was a deal, that was developing, for the title of the apartment to be transferred. And Adam drew up a contract, through his solicitors so it was all gonna be above board, arm's length, independent, and so on. And the deal ultimately obviously would've, resulted in Frank, securing the title But after some deadlines were missed on Frank's side of things in terms of, deposits and, monies forthcoming, started to get a little bit worried. There was no legitimate funds changing hands. Slowly but surely, Adam, who was a businessman, who was a sensible person, had allowed this Frank and his daughter Jenny into their lives, but he was a sensible person. Um, but suddenly alarm bells started to ring. Supposedly Frank had money available. Why was he stalling on transferring the funds, when everybody was ready to transfer title to execute the sale, to complete? And I suppose with these alarm bells beginning to ring, it's not easy, is it? It's not easy for Adam to have thought has he been duped? Have they been conned? Have their whole lives have been infiltrated by these two strangers? How were they selected for this? What Adam did was he, knew through the various negotiations Frank had, put forward the name of a bank that he had, in a different town, but who at some point in the negotiations, he said could be used as a reference. It wasn't the bank from which funds were necessarily gonna be transferred from. But anyway, Adam, wanted to find out a little bit more and do a little bit of due diligence, because things seemed to be stalling a little bit here and he was being given the run around about where the money was, so he phoned the bank directly. He got speaking to

Dolores 15:05

the people, and he explained the situation about Frank and Jenny and, the bank then alerted, Adam to the fact that, Frank had, been, perpetrating, crimes and frauds, a string of them. And that they did know him because some of them had involved clients of theirs and so on.

Simon 15:27

And so it was the swift intervention of an alert bank that derailed the property transaction. And this was, a luxury apartment. So, an expensive apartment, well-located in town. I'm not sure how Frank hoped to get away with it. But anyway, the bank exposed the swindler's deceit and, Adam couldn't believe it. He discussed it with his father. Remember his father albeit an el-elderly man, but had introduced them originally at this stage it would've been over a year, a year and a half ago. Um, and they couldn't work it out. But the penny dropped. The penny just dropped that they were being caught up in a, an imposter scam. And basically, the way the story goes, and there's no point in me holding back on it, but they, they basically got a couple of heavy guys to go round to the apartment and they, Frank and Jenny were there, and, and Adam and his father actually went, there as well with the heavies, and they basically got all the possessions and all the belongings of Frank and Jenny, and they basically told them to put them into bags or suitcases or whatever they could, and they basically dumped them out on the street, and they told them to be gone.

Dolores 16:38

And they never wanted to hear from them again. Adam was a respected businessman. He was totally embarrassed by what had happened. He didn't wanna press charges. He hadn't actually lost any money. What he had lost was, his pride and he was shaken by the experience. But he just wanted rid of it. He just wanted rid of these two imposters. And so, this is the story. Adam and Olivia were perfect strangers for Frank and Jenny, who were perfect swindlers The damage to the family's confidence and thoughts of how they had exposed themselves and their children to bad actors must have taken its toll?

Simon 17:16

The family, Adam and Olivia, and the children were so shaken to the core by this. And, it leaves a really, bad feeling and a lot of anxiety, when you have a situation like this. It, really disturbs one's, equilibrium. And, the family, ultimately were forced to, leave the city where they lived. They felt so shaken about it and the whole thing, and they actually moved a year or so later to an entirely new country to restart their lives. So that's how shaken they were. Never mind about just getting these imposters out of their lives, but they felt so anxious about the whole situation. They upped themselves and moved to another country and restarted their lives in another country. So the damage that these type of things can do, whether it's in this situation, which is, this imposter scam, whether it's a romance scam and, people are very familiar, they would have seen on TV the impact that that has on the victims. It's a terrible, terrible, outcome for people. And which is why it's so important at the outset to do everything to protect yourself, as I mentioned earlier, to take steps as best one can to make sure that you and your family don't fall victim to this type of crime.

Dolores 18:29

And what concluding thoughts and observations do you want to leave with our podcast listeners today?

Simon 18:35

The art of the long con relies on exploiting the most fundamental human desires, the need for connection, the desire to help others, and the assumption of good faith. When swindlers use a family facade, they're not just stealing assets, they're systematically eroding a victim's sense of safety. They masterfully mirror their targets' lives to accelerate trust and create false urgency. This psychological manipulation runs deep, leaving victims not only financially devastated in many cases, but emotionally broken, having been duped by those they believed were closest to them.