From a certain fake German heiress convincing hotels that the wiya transfuh is really on the way, to a Ponzi scheme run on Tinder, to a Stanford dropout trying to pull wool over the healthcare industry’s eyes, scams are everywhere right now. We look on in horror and empathise with the scammed – and also secretly wonder what it would be like to be as audacious as the scammer.
If you’re a scam obsessive looking to sink your teeth into even spicier stories of deception and fraud, then Scamfluencers is the podcast for you. The new Wondery podcast series, which premieres today, is hosted by writers Scaachi Koul and Sarah Hagi. With new episodes dropping weekly, Koul and Hagi hope to unpack what it means to be a scammer in the age of social media. “These are the people who will do anything for influence,” Koul says in the trailer.
Koul and Hagi will be digging into a plethora of different scam cases in the podcast – they describe one as “the Fyre Fest of the ballet world” – from within a variety of industries and worlds including religion, fashion, finance, health, and wellness.
Speaking to Dazed, Koul and Hagi share what inspired them to create the podcast and their thoughts on why our collective fascination with scammers is so enduring.
What inspired you to create the podcast?
Sarah Hagi: Scams are having a real moment right now, but scams have always been popular. It’s not something that goes away. It becomes even more interesting when you factor in the…
