One scam per episode, taken apart on the table. Each case begins with a real adjudicated file — a sentencing, an indictment, a bank closure — and works outwards: how the hook lands, who is really on the other end, where the money physically goes, and the three tells that would have stopped it. The documents behind every claim are listed at the foot of each episode page.
If one of these has already happened to you or to someone in your family: you were not foolish. You were up against a production line.
Episode 01 — Is pig butchering real?
A Kansas bank CEO wired $47.1 million to scammers in under six weeks. The bank collapsed. He is serving 24 years.
wired in ten transfers
from first wire to collapse
federal sentence imposed
Published 29 July 202621 min 12 sec
Case: U.S. v. Shan Hanes · Heartland Tri-State Bank, Elkhart, Kansas
Episode 02 — Is the grandchild-in-jail phone call a scam?
One 87-year-old widow. Nine days. $108,000. The first elder-fraud network in American history charged under RICO.
taken from one widow
start to finish
defendants charged under RICO
Published 5 August 202619 min 46 sec
Case: U.S. v. Ingram et al., 21cr2216-CAB (S.D. Cal.)
Episode 03 — Is paying with gift cards a scam?
Thirteen minutes after the victim paid, strangers were spending the cards — per evidence at a federal trial.
from purchase to spent
laundered through gift cards
convicted at federal trial
Published 12 August 202618 min 45 sec
Case: U.S. v. Bai, Hu & Shi — the “Magic Lamp” case (C.D. Cal.)
Production note
New episodes are published weekly. A case only goes on the table once the adjudicated record exists to support it, so the running order follows the documents rather than the news cycle. There are 3 published episodes at present.
Narration uses a synthetic AI voice; some illustrations on the evidence board are AI-generated and are visibly illustrations. Disclosed per EU AI Act Article 50. Every factual claim is sourced from public court records and official releases.
