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PODCAST

PRETEND

Creative Babble, LLC

PRETEND is an investigative true crime podcast about real people who lie for a living — con artists, scammers, and the victims caught in their web. Hosted by journalist Javier Leiva, PRETEND exposes the human psychology behind deception and fraud. Each episode follows a real case of manipulation — from financial scams and Ponzi schemes to digital hoaxes and emotional cons. PRETEND explains how and why deception works without shaming victims, combining ethical journalism with cinematic

true crime

All Episodes

56:08

S701: The Real Donnie Brasco

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2021/01/04

Johnny Depp played Donnie Brasco in the Academy Award-nominated film. But the real-life story of Donnie Brasco is even more fascinating. Joe Pistone, an FBI agent, went deep undercover as Brasco and spent six years inside the Bonanno and Columbo crime families. The movie, if you remember, starts with Joe Pistone immediately infiltrating with the mob. In today's episode, we will talk about everything that happened before the movie even begins. What was Donnie Brasco's backstory? Where did he come

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47:14

S611: The Santa Claus Man (Rebroadcast)

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2020/12/22

Brian Earl with the Christmas Past podcast shares a Christmas story you’ve probably never heard before. In the early 1900s, children’s letters to Santa Claus never made it to the North Pole. They landed in the dead letter office and were eventually destroyed. But along came John Gluck, a hustler who took these letters to Santa and turned it into an opportunity to get rich and famous. It’s the strange and true story of government agents, spies, an art thief, U.S. presidents, and gun-toting boy

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42:55

S610: The Party Crasher

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2020/12/09

Remember when we used to go out to parties? Well, since you can't really go out these days, today we're going to celebrate together. In this episode we're talking about party crashers. Act 1: How to crash a party Our first story is about the art of crashing a party. What do you need to do to attend a party you weren't invited to without ever getting caught? Megan Gillikin a wedding planner and the host of the Wedding for Real Podcast shows us how. Act 2: The White House party crashers Our second

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48:49

S609: The Treasure Hunter part 4

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2020/11/25

A real-life Indiana Jones? The word on the street is that Michael Torres is Ph.D. by day and a treasure hunter by night. Torres claims he has an aeronautical engineering degree from Duke University. Don’t believe him? He has a photo of his diploma. Michael Torres also claims to have taught at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He has the library card to prove it. When he’s not in the classroom, Torres is out looking for treasure. He claims he raided catacombs in Turkey, he’s recovered one of Sir Francis

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61:55

S608: The Treasure Hunter part 3

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2020/11/11

In this episode, Michael Torres discovers "a mass Jewish grave." But is it what he thinks it is? And I talk to the CEO of Seafarer Exploration to figure out why he hasn't found a single treasure in 13 years. ------- Story idea? If you have a story to share, email Javier at info@pretendradio.org. For more episodes like this visit pretendradio.org. To get early releases and bonus episodes go to pretendradio.org/donate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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49:28

S607: The Treasure Hunter part 2

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2020/10/30

A modern-day pirate Michael Torres is a self-proclaimed pirate. He says his most recent finds include the crown jewels of a pre-Incan civilization, a missing colonial settlement, and a desecrated Jewish burial site at Bonaventure cemetery. These larger-than-life discoveries have come into question. In today’s episode, we’ll follow the evidence to separate fact from fiction. Seafarer Exploration Michael Torres is currently being sued by Seafarer Exploration, a treasure salvage company. The company

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42:07

S606: The Treasure Hunter part 1

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2020/10/16

A Florida treasure-hunting CEO says he was tricked by a conman. Seafarer Exploration, a treasure salvage company, has spent the last 13 years trying to find a 300-year-old Spanish galleon sunken off the coast of Florida. A galleon is a large sailboat, with multiple leveled decks, and 3 or 4 masts. These ships were designed to carry large treasures found in the new world and bring them back to Spain. Lost treasure In 1715, a Spanish fleet loaded up with silver departed from Havana, Cuba. Seven days

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52:31

S605: The Inheritance

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2020/10/02

A man says his best friend scammed him out of almost $100,000. Now, he's getting revenge. Jonathan Walton fell for the oldest trick in the book. He said, “It wasn't some Nigerian Prince emailing me in my spam folder. It was a living, breathing, lovable woman.” That lovable woman’s name is Mair Smyth. She’s also known as Marianne Smyth, or Marianne Andle, or Marianne Welch. She has 23 known aliases. The way Johnathan Walton describes her, Marianne Smyth is a gifted con artist who brilliantly juggles

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54:53

S604: How to disappear part 4

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2020/09/18

Confessions of a former identity thief Dartanyon A. Williams stole his parents' identities at the age of 15. Unfortunately, they weren’t his last victims. Dartanyon, who also goes by DAW, claims he has stolen thousands of identities. So many that he lost count. How to steal someone’s identity How did he do it? He had many tactics. But the most proven technique was paying off employees at restaurants, car dealerships, and tax preparation companies. These employees served as double agents. When no

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62:11

S603: How to disappear part 3

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2020/09/04

In the last two episodes, you heard from Michael Bazzell a privacy expert whose job is to make people disappear. But who is he? Why is he so passionate about privacy? And how exactly does he make people disappear? I'm going to do my best to figure him out. It turns out Michael Bazzell eats his own dog food. He's pretty much an invisible man. I have no idea where he lives or what he looks like. I've spent hours talking to Michael these past few months hoping that he will slip up and let out some

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45:54

S602: How to disappear part 2

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2020/08/21

In the last episode, we talked about the wrong way to disappear. Faking your own death rarely works. But did you know that there are real people out there who legitimately need to fade away into society? Who needs to disappear? There are many reasons to live anonymously. However, we’ve broken it down to four different archetypes: the executive, the celebrity, the victim, and the government employee. The executive CEOs and business executives are easy targets. They take all the credit when things

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41:37

S601: How to disappear part 1

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2020/08/07

Did Olivia Newton-John’s Former Boyfriend Fake His Own Death?Faking your own death is almost always a bad idea. Hear the story of Patrick McDermott, Olivia Newton John’s boyfriend, who many believe staged his own death. The wrong way to disappear People have been playing dead since the beginning of time. There’s really no way of knowing for how long this has been going on. But I can imagine that the illusion of dying is closely correlated with the concept of debt. If you owe someone lots of money,

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42:30

S512: COVID-19 Scams: The Rattlesnake King

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2020/06/16

The COVID-19 pandemic is a conman’s Super Bowl. In times like these, when there's so much uncertainty, snake oil salesmen are ready to promise you a cure. In this episode, you'll hear from a woman who takes one of these miracle drugs. I ask her why she takes it. Special thanks to: Joe Terrell with Instrument of Mercy https://instrumentofmercy.com/ A Concerned Citizen and host of

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37:35

S511: COVID-19 Scams: How to Steal a Stimulus Check

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2020/05/26

COVID-19 Scams I wasn’t expecting to be back with a new PRETEND episode so soon. In fact, I’m still wrapping up the final episodes for my new show called CRIMINAL CONDUCT. But the world around us has changed. And scammers are on the prowl. If you live in the US, chances are you probably received your stimulus payment. It went either straight into your bank account through direct deposit. Or some of you may have cashed the check that you received in the mail. We’re talking about much-needed money

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20:03

Inside Criminal Conduct

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2020/03/16

//Criminal Conduct debuts on March 23rd.// Get an inside look into the making of the new podcast. Thank you to Jerri Williams from FBI Retired Case File Review for helping us with this bonus episode. You can listen to the episode one now on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/34832524 Subscribe to Criminal Conduct now so you won't miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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2:48

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: Criminal Conduct

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2020/02/03

On September 2nd, 2010, 24 year-old Michelle O’Connell broke up with her boyfriend, St. Johns County Sheriff’s Deputy, Jeremy Banks. Minutes later, she was dead. The St. Johns Sheriff’s Office quickly ruled the case a suicide, without examining crucial forensic evidence or interviewing any key witnesses. A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide, yet other investigations failed to gain traction. Her boyfriend, Deputy Jeremy Banks was never charged and is still working as a St. Johns County

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60:19

S510: The Joe Schmo Show

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2020/01/14

The Joe Schmo Show is a real-life Truman Show—where everyone is an actor except one unsuspecting guy. It’s a reality show within a reality show. The series everyone watched on SPIKE TV was called The Joe Schmo show. But the show Matt Kennedy Gould thought he was participating in was called The Lap of Luxury—a Big Brother style television show. He had no idea that the people he was living with were all actors. The series was created by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (Deadpool). It was hosted by

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43:38

S509: The Santa Claus Man

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2019/12/18

A con artist save Christmas Brian Earl with the Christmas Past podcast shares a Christmas story you’ve probably never heard before. In the early 1900s, children’s letters to Santa Claus never made it to the North Pole. They landed in the dead letter office and were eventually destroyed. But along came John Gluck, a hustler who took these letters to Santa and turned it into an opportunity to get rich and famous. It’s the strange and true story of government agents, spies, an art thief, U.S

en

34:13

S508: The Prank Call part 4

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2019/12/04

PrankNet is a network of online terrorists who performed crank calls which caused thousands of dollars worth in damages. These cruel prank phone calls created anxiety and fear for anyone who picked up the phone. PrankNet victims destroyed hotel rooms, set off fire alarms, and flooded rooms by damaging the sprinkler system. In part 3, you heard actual Pranknet prank calls. In part 4, you’ll hear from a former prank caller who says she was one of the architects behind Pranknet’s most despicable

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39:13

S507: The Prank Call part 3

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2019/11/20

When does a prank call go too far? When it leads to sexual abuse and thousands of dollars worth of destruction. PrankNet The punks at Pranknet are believed to be responsible for tens of thousands of dollars worth in damages. They often called restaurants making employees set off sprinklers systems and fire alarms. Sometimes they would even call hotel guests directly and convince them to shatter hotel windows. An ESPN reporter falls for a Pranknet hoax Nobody is safe from PrankNet's mayhem. Even

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294 results

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