Shows
Scam CitySlicing Up the Fruitcake Fraud: Sandy Jenkins Embezzles $17 million from Collin Street BakeryCorsicana, Texas is home to four things: Exxon, the Navarro Cheer team, the largest fruitcake manufacturer in the world, and the embezzlement of said largest fruitcake manufacturer in the world. Over the course of 10 years, Sandy Jenkins, Collin Street Bakery's executive comptroller and sole person in charge of all accounting, wrote 888 checks from O.P.P. (Other People’s Pocketbooks) totaling $17 million. Why? So that he and his wife, Kay, could live that jet-set life, drive lavish cars, and buy out a Neiman Marcus.Stealing from a #SmallBusiness is anything but sweet. Especially when you’re in a small town and e...2022-03-141h 05Scam CityLeave Room for Jesus: Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker Scam Evangelists Out of $150 MillionQuestion of the scam: We all live for an experience or at least a 4-day vacation - but what if your experience was at a religious-themed theme park? Would you spend $1,000 to attend a Christian version of Disneyland? Scam City is back for season two with “Leave Room for Jesus: How Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker Scammed Evangelists Out of $150 Million”! The apostle Paul called himself the “Chief of Sinners,” and then Jim Bakker said hold my beer. Between 1966 and 1987, beloved televangelical, Tammy Faye Bakker, and her husband, Jim Bakker were peddling the good Lord’s Word for profit and power on t...2021-09-191h 22
Scam CityDon’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game - How Jerome "Uncle Jerry" Jacobson McScammed $24 Million from McDonald's MonopolyQuestion of the scam: We all have a friend who seems to know someone who knows someone. So imagine that your homegirl presents you the opportunity to “win” a contest for a million dollars. You have to decide three things: do you do it, yes or no?
Do you take your money upfront in a lump sum or in small payments of $50,000/yr for 20 years? Finally, do you pay the $50,000 finders fee she’s demanding to her and all of the “someones” involved upfront or ask that you have a year to pay them back?
Don’t Hate...2019-11-2657 minScam City"Love In This (Scores Strip) Club": Hustlers Movie Recap*Spoilers Ahead (even though you already know the story since you listened to our "Make That Money, Don't Let It Make You" episode, right?!)*
In this very special bonus episode of Scam City, Taylor and Cass discuss Lorene Scarfaria's masterpiece, Hustlers starring Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Lily Reinhart and Keke Palmer. Digressions include Constance Wu's wig, J.Lo resurrecting her Juicy couture, Usher's cameo, and why Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are the only white men we stan.
Now that this is a professional podcast, we've got our very first sponsor! Listen...2019-09-141h 09Scam CityMake That Money, Don't Let It Make You: The Real Life Hustlers at ScoresIn March of 2019, the internet was #SurvivingCardiB. The hashtag, an obvious play on Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly docu-series, was in response to an old video of Cardi admitting to drugging and robbing men back in her dancing days as a means of survival. Before the cancel could set in, a bunch of people said that Cardi’s behavior, while not ok, wasn’t in the same strastophere as R. Kelly’s crimes and that other dancers did this too.
Unbeknownst to your sisters in scam, they were right - other dancers have done this too. Rosie Ke...2019-08-0150 minScam CityScamming, But Make It Fashion: Anna Delvey Takes Things From Rich PeopleWith her oversized black sunglasses, Supreme athleisure, and Rimowa suitcase, Anna Delvey (real name Anna Sorokin) posed a German heiress and scammed hoteliers, influencers, NYC elite, and the damn SWISS BANK in order to social climb in Manhattan.
Landing in 'Merica at the age of 28, Sorokin, the daughter of a former truck driver from Russia, migrated from Germany to the United States in 2014. After her arrival, she got a little creative with her backstory and recreated her entire identity, claiming to be a wealthy socialite, and the daughter of an oil baron...or a diplomat, depending...2019-06-101h 07Scam CityThe S In Theranos Stands For ScamAt the age of 19, Elizabeth Holmes promised to disrupt the multibillion-dollar blood testing industry with her revolutionary finger-prick tests. The flashy Board! The turtle necks! The deep voice! The generational white wealth! It all helped to create a facade that at the age of 19, while most of us were playing flip cup and making questionable decisions, Holmes had created a device that would undercut blood testing costs and deliver results to sick people in seconds...except she didn't. The $8 billion company had 800 employees and was operating in Walgreens stores in Phoenix when John Carreyrou's whistleblowing piece in the...2019-04-201h 03Scam CityIt Be Your Own Parents: The College Admission ScandalApplying to college is a laborious task. For most people it means sobbing while you re-write your common app essay 19 times or questioning if losing your sanity is worth your parent's ability to flex to their friends with where you're pursuing a fancy piece of paper. Unless you're one of the kids wrapped up in "Operation Varsity Blues", a scam in which wealthy parents paid their kids' way into colleges and then got caught. Talk about embarrassing.
This week we talk about how beloved TV Moms/Aunts and a bunch of random CEOs made rookie moves...2019-03-151h 09Scam CityTrailer: Scam CityWelcome to Scam City, a new podcast where two regular girls who love a good story about a conman (or con woman) break down the wildest scams and what led to its downfall.
Join pop culture writers Cass Alcide and Taylor Davis every week for dissections, reflections, and deep dives into scams. 2019-02-2000 min
What a Week3 | Black Women Everywhere Are Surviving R. Kelly, And It's Making Us TiredI sit down with my good friend Cass Alcide (@cassndra_ on Twitter) to talk about how exhausted the Lifetime documentary Surviving R. Kelly made us. Everything about those six hours sucked the soul out my body: the lack of empathy from R. Kelly's apologist, the overt complicity from so many people and the complicated relationship that black women have being supportive and being supported was enough to make us want to rip our baby hairs out. I just needed to vent about what hurt me, what enraged me and what truly bewildered me. While we laughed through some of...2019-01-0849 min