Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen · Sony Music Entertainment / Campside Media

Chapter 9.5: The Psychology of the Scam

June 1, 2022·28 min·2 clips

How con artists use your own optimism bias to make you believe their promises.

Host Josh Dean and producer Vanessa Grigoriadis frame the bonus episode as a Thanksgiving detour to examine the mechanics and psychology behind the Hollywood con queen case. Their first guest is Maria Konnikova, author of The Confidence Game, who has studied con artistry from a psychological and historical perspective. Konnikova opens by noting that many skills used by journalists—building rapport, creating narratives, getting people to open up—overlap with those of con artists, with intent being the distinguishing factor. She describes how phone scams work differently from in-person cons, relying on disruption and fear to create urgency in targets who are caught off-guard. She explains that con artists thrive during periods of transition—both personal and societal—because disrupted frames of reference make people more susceptible to manipulation. Konnikova traces the Nigerian prince scam to the 1800s, when a 16-year-old American named Bill Morrison used newspaper advertisements to pose as a lonely Nigerian prince seeking pen pals, collecting old pants and small amounts of money in exchange for promised jewels that never arrived. She explains that con artists profile targets by listening for what is not said and then presenting victims with the idealized version of themselves they already secretly believe in. Dean interrupts to play audio of victim Heather describing how the con queen temporarily resolved her impostor syndrome by validating her talent. The second expert, Dr. Alexander Stein, is a confidential advisor to corporate boards and an expert in cybercrime psychology. He argues that the con queen's elaborate, labor-intensive methods indicate money was not the primary motivator, and suggests the fraudster derived psychological gratification from manipulating victims' hope and delivering crushing disappointments. Dr. Stein explains why the con queen would disengage from marks who seemed confident or immune to emotional manipulation, using audio clips of the con queen backing away from a skeptical target. He describes the dynamic as analogous to a predator seeking a specific emotional reaction from prey, and calls the fraudster's behavior a form of sadism. Dr. Stein then addresses shame as a structural tool: victims were so humiliated that most never told anyone, which allowed the scam to expand to hundreds of victims over years without significant exposure. He notes that NDAs added a formal layer to silence that humiliation already enforced informally. He closes by discussing whether the con queen could ever transition to a legitimate career, comparing him unfavorably to Frank Abagnale Jr., and arguing that this particular individual seems unable to conceive of power and influence except through harm.

As heard by us

A smart detour that explains why a scam works before it unravels.

Chameleon leaves the Hollywood con queen story to look at the mechanics behind the scam, and that shift gives the episode a clearer point of view.

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Why you'd press play

Want the con explained by someone who studies both the scammer and the mark?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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