Crooked College Wall Street Investor w/ Cristen Conger (Fraud Friday)

In this Fraud Fridays episode of Scam Goddess, host Lacey Mosley welcomes guest Cristen Conger, co-host of the Webby Award-winning podcast Unladylike, for a deep dive into the world of scams, fraud, and the people who live by them. The conversation kicks off with a playful exploration of Conger’s personal history as the youngest of five, where she humorously frames her childhood as a lifelong scam—stealing clothes, sneaking into her sister’s closet, and earning the nickname 'Scraps' for her lunchtime scavenging. Lacey then introduces the story of Doris Payne, a real-life jewel thief who nearly fell victim to a sophisticated Amazon Fire Stick scam, where a scammer tricked her into buying a $100 gift card to 'verify her location.' The episode shifts to the infamous 1988 Wall Street con artist David, a 23-year-old Duke graduate who defrauded 100 friends and family members of over $10 million by running a Ponzi scheme, using fake stock trades and lavish spending to maintain the illusion of success. Despite being imprisoned for eight years, David returned to fraud in 1999, continuing his criminal career for decades—marrying a woman named Nancy, swindling her and others, and even resurfacing in 2022 with new scams in Los Angeles. The episode concludes with a satirical look at the 2022 American Cornhole League World Championship, where players were caught using illegally altered beanbags, exposing the sport’s corruption and hypocrisy. Throughout, Lacey and Cristen celebrate the audacity, creativity, and sheer dedication of scammers—framing fraud not as laziness, but as a relentless, almost heroic profession.