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- [00:01]
Grainger Commercial Voice
When you're a maintenance engineer in a beverage manufacturing plant, you keep production lines moving and quality on track because there's no room for slowdowns. With Grainger's vast selection of high quality motors, sensors, belts and hard to find parts, you can get what you need fast and all in one place. So nothing gets in the way of getting the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [00:30]
Aura Commercial Voice
Most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and sold every day. Data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the Internet and then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent. That's how your information lands in the hands of scammers, spammers, even stalkers. It's why you get endless robocalls and why ads seem to follow you everywhere. The that's where Aura comes in. Aura actively removes your data from broker sites and keeps it off. They also instantly alert you if your information shows up in a breach or on the dark web. But Aura goes beyond data protection. With one app, you get a vpn, antivirus, password manager, spam call protection, dark web monitoring, and even up to $5 million in identity theft insurance. All backed by 24, 7 US based fraud support. Other companies might sell just credit monitoring or just a VPN or Aura gives you all of it together at the same price. Competitors charge for just one service. Start your free trial today at aura.com remove. Protect yourself now@aura.com remove.
- [01:35]
Jonathan Walton
One of the most fascinating things about cons is that not all of them are executed by professional con artists. Sometimes with. With some cons, an incredible opportunity will suddenly present itself to a regular law abiding person who's never scammed anyone for anything ever. But overnight they'll start scamming, usually justifying it by thinking to themselves they're not hurting anyone and they'll never get caught. So who's gonna. I have this friend here in Los Angeles who at the height of the
- [02:16]
Grainger Commercial Voice
pandemic, as a number of coronavirus cases
- [02:19]
Jonathan Walton
soars above 3,000, when everyone started working remotely, he got a second job. But he didn't tell his first job because they would have fired him for that kind of thing. And then he got a third job. And he's been working full time at all three jobs for years now. And each of his employers do not know about the other. Keep in mind he's making more than $40,000 a month and working those three jobs all at the same time has enabled him to finally buy a house for himself and his growing family here in Los Angeles, where the median price of a home is upwards of a million dollars. So technically, this is a scam, because if any one of those employers found out about the other, they'd all fire him immediately. But who's he hurting? He's getting his work done at all three jobs and he keeps racking up glowing employment reviews. He's not breaking any criminal law. Yes, he's violating the employment agreements he signed with each of those three companies that hired him, but he is most certainly not a professional con artist. He's just a regular guy who saw an opportunity to triple his income without hurting anyone, and he took it. That's the subject of this episode of Hardcore Con. Regular people who suddenly start doing irregular things when seemingly harmless opportunities to scam appear out of nowhere. I'm Jonathan Walton and this is hardcore con. Episode 3 Dead Money. Picture it. Northern Italy. One of the most beautiful places in existence. Rolling, lush green fields peppered with old World homes that are literally hundreds and hundreds of years old, scattered in no particular pattern all over the mountainous Italian countryside, their terracotta roofs glistening in the midday sun. It's 2022 now in Lombardy, Italy, just a couple hours west of Milan, and 54 year old Giuseppe Dallagiglio is sitting in his mother's home crying uncontrollably because his mother, Graziella Dallagiglio, is lying dead in her bed and Giuseppe just discovered her body after coming home from the grocery store. Giuseppe's been living with his mother for the past few years after losing his job as a nurse at the local hospital. That's when he decided to move in and live with his mother full time. She passed away at 82 years old of seemingly natural causes. But but still, Giuseppe is understandably heartbroken. His father, who was the town doctor, died years earlier and now Giuseppe feels like an orphan. Yes, he's 54 years old, but still, with both his parents gone, the loneliness and isolation consumes him. At some point he climbs into bed with the corpse of his dead mother and wraps his arms around her, then kisses her on the cheek. Her skin is ice cold, a reminder that the mother he knew and loved is no longer there. Giuseppe sobs uncontrollably as he says his last goodbye by Hours pass and Jeppi gets up from his mother's bed and walks into the living room. The silence in that house is now deafening, so Jeppi turns on the TV. As the sounds of an Italian soap opera pervade the stifling air. Giuseppe sits down on the couch and starts thinking, what now? What now? What now? He suddenly panics and his heart starts racing when he realizes he's in major trouble. Major financial trouble. Remember, Giuseppe's unemployed. He hasn't collected a paycheck in years, and he's been living rent free and using his mother's pension for living expenses for him and his mother. That pension, €53,000, which is about $60,000 a year, every year, will stop coming the second Giuseppe reports his mother's death to authorities. Giuseppe thinks to himself, does he even have to report his mother's death to the authorities? In a moment of macabre clarity, Giuseppe decides not to say anything about his mother's death to anyone. And then suddenly, Giuseppe glances down at the caller id. One of his mother's friends is calling. He nervously picks up the phone and says, hello.
- [08:40]
Francesco Oporti
Hello, Giuseppe. How is your mother doing today? I know she wasn't feeling well when I spoke to her yesterday. Has her condition improved at all?
- [08:50]
Jonathan Walton
Giuseppe tells the woman his mother is fine. She's still feeling under the weather, but she's resting now and he doesn't want to wake her. The woman accepts that explanation and hangs up. That was easy, Giuseppe thinks to himself as he walks back into the kitchen and starts making dinner. Giuseppe eats dinner by himself for the first time for as far back as he can remember. He's sitting at the family dinner table alone. He finishes his meal and goes to bed, leaving his dirty dishes in the sink. Normally, his mother would raise hell about dirty dishes in the sink, but that'll never happen again. Giuseppe lies in bed that night, unable to fall asleep, while his mother lay dead in the next room. Giuseppe's mind is awash with worries and concerns. How the hell is he going to pull this off? On the upside, that old lady who called is one of the last of his mother's living friends. His mother was 82 years old when she died, and the vast majority of her contemporaries have already passed away. Besides, Giuseppe thinks to himself, he can actually impersonate his mother's voice over the phone. He's done it in the past as a joke, and he was very, very convincing. So that shouldn't be a problem, Giuseppe thinks, comforting himself as he drifts off to sleep. This show is brought to you by BetterHelp. We talk about mental health more openly now, but asking for help can still feel hard, and BetterHelp's latest research confirms it. BetterHelp's 2026 State of Stigma report surveyed 2,000Americans and revealed that 85% of them believe getting support is wise, yet 74% say society discourages people from doing so. With more than 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform and it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session. BetterHelp does initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences and their 12 plus years of experience and industry leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first time. Don't let stigma stand in the way of support. Start therapy with BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off@betterhelp.com that's better. H E L P.com hey, it's Ryan
- [11:43]
Aura Commercial Voice
Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now. I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back.
- [11:51]
Francesco Oporti
So I thought it would be fun
- [11:52]
Aura Commercial Voice
if we made $15 bills, but it
- [11:55]
Jonathan Walton
turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial.
- [12:00]
Aura Commercial Voice
Give it a try@mintmobile.com switch upfront payment
- [12:04]
Grainger Commercial Voice
of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes me slow when network is busy.
- [12:12]
Aura Commercial Voice
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- [12:48]
Jonathan Walton
As the sun rises the next morning on a new day, a new problem Giuseppe has to solve hits him straight in the face. Well, actually, in the no. You see, the science of death is inescapable. When someone dies when their heart stops pumping blood, when all their cells stop repairing and replacing themselves on a minute by minute basis, their body starts to rapidly decompose and the putrid smell of death is as overwhelming as it is unmistakable. And that smells, that stench of death quickly fills the house as the new day sun heats up the dead woman's Bedroom. Giuseppe's gotta act fast. What if the mailman comes to the door? He'll surely know someone died. Giuseppe thinks to himself, what now? What now? What now? Maybe there's a powerful air freshener he could buy. Maybe he can continuously spray hand sanitizer or bleach on the body to mask the smell. The smell of Giuseppe's dead mother breaks his train of thought. It's getting worse. He needs to do something about it. Now. The good news is Giuseppe worked as a nurse for decades. And over the course of all those years, he's built up an implacable tolerance to the sort of stuff that would gross most people out. Vomit, human excrement, blood, you name it. Giuseppe's been hit in the face by it hundreds of times while working at the hospital. So to say that he wasn't squeamish is a massive, massive understatement. So Giuseppe whips out his phone and Googles how to embalm a human body. It's actually a lot easier than you would think as long as you're not grossed out by blood and gore and moving a dead body. Giuseppe grabs a bunch of giant syringes and a scalpel and then makes a series of small incisions near his mother's neck, puncturing her carotid artery and then her jugular vein. And then he cuts into his mother's thigh, into her femoral artery. And little by little, Giuseppe drains every drop of blood and fluid from his mother's decomposing body. He then wraps her up using a bunch of sleeping bags and hides the body in a closet in the laundry room. Now that all the blood and fluids have been drained from his mother's dead body, it quickly dries up and mummifies like an Egyptian pharaoh. And that putrid smell of death subsides and completely dissipates. As the days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months. Giuseppe appears to be getting away with it all. His mother's pension checks are hitting her account by direct deposit like clockwork every month. And Giuseppe has full access to that account. And he withdraws all the cash he needs to pay for food and water and electricity and all. All of his other living expenses. At the one year mark, Giuseppe files tax returns in his mother's name and forges her signature. And he does the same thing at the two year mark. But by year three of this death defying deception, it's 2025, and government records show his mother is now 85 years old and her government ID is officially expired. She Needs to renew it in person at the clerk's office of the commune. They live in Borgo Virgilio in northern Italy. Giuseppe needs that new ID in his mother's name in order to keep receiving her pension checks every month. What now? What now? What now?
- [17:33]
Francesco Oporti
Daniel? Hi.
- [17:34]
Aura Commercial Voice
Could you make me a woman?
- [17:35]
Jonathan Walton
Have you ever seen that movie Mrs. Doubtfire where Robin Williams loses custody of his kids so he dresses up like a woman and secretly gets hired as an old English nanny so that he can be in his kids lives?
- [17:52]
Francesco Oporti
You know, some parents, when they're angry, they get along much better.
- [17:56]
Jonathan Walton
When they don't live together, they don't
- [17:58]
Francesco Oporti
fight all the time. And they can become better people and much better mommies and daddies for you.
- [18:04]
Jonathan Walton
Well, Giuseppe Dallagilio decides to pull a Mrs. Doubtfire so that he can renew his mother's government ID in person in order to continue receiving her pension checks. $60,000 a year. Giuseppe opens his mother's closet, pulls out one of her signature blouses, matches it to one of her skirts, throws on one of her necklaces, a pair of her earrings, plasters on her makeup and puts on her wig. He even douses himself with her expensive French perfume that she used to save for important events like weddings and funerals. As Giuseppe stands there in his mother's bedroom, looking at himself in a full length mirror, he actually looks a lot like his mom. And he smells like her too. But will he be able to fool government officials? Giuseppe walks out of the house dressed like his mother, gets into his car and starts making his way to the town's registry office to renew the government issued ID of his now 85 year old mother while dressed up like his 85 year old mother, who in reality died three years ago at 82. As Giuseppe Parks in front of the municipal office, he's confident he can pull this off. After all, he's been impersonating his mother over the phone for three years now to all the people calling to check up on her. So he's got the voice down pat. Giuseppe grabs the rearview mirror to take one last look at himself, to make sure his lipstick is flawless, his foundation is even, his wig is on straight. And then he gets out of his car, walks across the parking lot and into that registry office. So I did some digging and I was able to get my hands on the actual security footage of Giuseppe dressed up like his 85 year old mother, walking across the parking lot and into that office to renew his mother's id. And then in that same video, you see him right after walking back to his car. It's truly something to behold. I'm posting that incredible security cam video right now on my Instagram eenofthecon. In that same video, you can see Giuseppe carrying his mother's purse and walking with a cane like any 85 year old woman would. I'm also posting the real side by side pictures of Giuseppe dressed up like his mother, alongside a picture of his actual mother that's on my Instagram toonofthecan. They look very similar, like sisters, but it's definitely not the same person. The second Giuseppe walks up to that clerk at the registry office dressed like his 85 year old mother, the clerk is not fooled at all. I mean, she pretends like everything's fine and she takes the paperwork Giuseppe submits and sends him on his way, giving him the impression that that he'll be receiving that new ID in his mother's name in a matter of days. But in reality, as soon as Giuseppe walks out of that office, the clerk immediately reports him to the authorities and they launch an investigation. And Giuseppe is eventually arrested and charged with concealing a corpse from fraud and identity theft. The mayor of Giuseppe's town, a man named Francesco Oporti, gives a media interview about this case.
- [22:21]
Francesco Oporti
It is certainly a story of profound loneliness. Everything else remains to be determined. The woman died of natural causes and she was 82 years old, so that's not surprising. What is surprising is that financially they were not in difficulty. Besides the pension, we found real estate jointly owned by mother and son, three houses and some land. It is a very, very sad story.
- [22:49]
Jonathan Walton
And the way the mayor tells it, Giuseppe's charade in that registry office back in November of 2025, pretending to be his mother was over the minute he walked in.
- [23:02]
Francesco Oporti
It all started with the intuition of an employee at the registry office. She met with this woman who wanted to renew her expired identity card. She looked remarkably like the woman in the ID photo. But something didn't feel right to the employee. There were hairs on the neck, heavy makeup, and it seemed as though beard stubble was showing through the thick foundation. The woman left and was supposed to return later to collect the new id. The employee shared her her doubts with us and our local police officers began investigating. They reviewed surveillance camera footage and saw that the woman had arrived by car. That immediately raised a red flag because the elderly woman didn't have a driver's license. From there, piece by piece, the entire disturbing story came together.
- [23:47]
Aura Commercial Voice
Most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and Sold every day, data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the Internet, and then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent. That's how your information lands in the hands of scammers, spammers, even stalkers. It's why you get endless robocalls and why ads seem to follow you everywhere. That's where Aura comes in. Aura actively removes your data from broker sites and keeps it off. They also instantly alert you if your information shows up in a breach or on the dark web. But Aura goes beyond data protection. With one app, you get a vpn, antivirus, password manager, spam call protection, dark web monitoring, and even up to $5 million in identity theft insurance. All backed by 24. 7 US based fraud support. Other companies might sell just credit monitoring or just a vpn. Aura gives you all of it together at the same price. Competitors charge for just one service. Start your free trial today@aura.com remove. Protect yourself now@aura.com remove.
- [24:47]
Jonathan Walton
And according to the mayor, they let Giuseppe leave that day unencumbered, while they secretly began a sprawling investigation.
- [24:56]
Francesco Oporti
We checked the National Health Service, emergency room visits, specialist appointments, records from the family doctor. The woman appeared nowhere, and neither did her son. It was as though they had been completely isolated from the outside world. We also found signatures supposedly belonging to the woman on some building permit paperwork, but they didn't exactly match her authentic signature. We examined tax returns filed in her name, and they had been submitted regularly. Every year. They reported an annual income of about $53,000, about $60,000 in American money, which complicated matters because it suggested normal activity. Finally, we spoke with neighbors and acquaintances. No one had seen the woman for
- [25:37]
Jonathan Walton
years, and that's all the evidence they needed to launch a sting operation. Days later, the mayor, working with local police, set a trap for Giuseppe, tricking him into walking back into that same office dressed up as his mother.
- [26:02]
Francesco Oporti
After he came to the registry office, where I was present along with a plainclothes police officer, we told him that to complete the identification process, he needed to come to the local police headquarters across the street. During questioning there, he admitted that he was actually the woman's son. The officers then asked for permission to inspect his mother's home, and he agreed. During the search, they found a mummified body in one of the rooms.
- [26:35]
Jonathan Walton
Giuseppe is still in jail, awaiting trial in Northern Italy. But the thing that really surprises me about this whole story is just how common it is, especially here in the United States, where people who are not con artists suddenly start scamming when a relative dies and they see an opportunity to continue collecting money on that relative's behalf. Just last year in 2025 in Minnesota, a 54 year old woman was charged with collecting more than $360,000 in her deceased mother's name. Her mother died in 1999 and she dressed up like her mother, just like Giuseppe, albeit more convincingly. And she went into the Social Security office office numerous times to make sure the payments kept coming. And back in 2021, an Oregon man was convicted of collecting nearly half a million dollars in Social Security payments in the name of his deceased aunt, who died 40 years earlier. The aunt passed away in a nursing home and for some reason her death was never officially reported. So her Social Security checks just kept coming and her nephew forged her signature and just kept depositing those checks into her account, which he had access to. This went on for 40 years. 40 years. Years. By the time they busted the nephew, he was in his 70s and he had collected more than $460,000 in his aunt's name. And get this, the only reason he was found out was because someone randomly at the Social Security Administration thought it was unusual that this guy's aunt, who was 114 years old on paper, is A still alive and B, still collecting Social Security. So they started looking into it and they caught the nephew red handed, depositing his dead aunt's Social Security checks. And listen, it's not just individuals getting in on this dead money scam. According to a recent Associated Press report, in just one year alone, Medicaid paid out more than $200 million to hundreds of healthcare providers across the country for medical treatments for dead people. Yep, this dead money scam is happening on every single level and it doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.
- [29:47]
Francesco Oporti
Foreign.
- [29:56]
Jonathan Walton
Hey, can you all do me a favor? If you're listening to this on Apple, can you leave me a five star review and mention what you liked about this series or this episode or me? If you didn't like this episode, why'd you listen all the way to the end? Come on, there are so many amazing podcasts out there. Don't waste time listening to stuff you don't like. Life is too short. Hardcore Con was created, written and hosted by me, Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Media executive producer, Evan Goldstein. All editing and sound design was done by Jimmy O'. Holligan. My book, Anatomy of a Con Artist, the 14 red flags to Spot the Scammers, Grifters and Thieves is available everywhere. Books are sold in print and audio, so it's like a podcast, and both print and audio are also available for free at most public libraries throughout the country and on the Libby app. God, I love the Libby app. Make sure you subscribe to Jonathan Walton Media on whatever podcast platform you're listening on so you you can get alerts when new episodes drop and new seasons. And if you've got a story you think deserves its own podcast, pitch it to me@Jonathan Walton.com.
- [31:25]
Grainger Commercial Voice
When you're a maintenance engineer in a beverage manufacturing plant, you keep production lines moving and quality on track because there is no room for slowdowns. With Grainger's vast selection of high quality motors, sensors, belts and hard to find parts, you can get what you need fast and all in one place so nothing gets in the way of getting the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.
- [31:55]
Aura Commercial Voice
Most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and sold every day. Data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the Internet, and then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent. That's how your information lands in the hands of scammers, spammers, even stalkers. It's why you get endless robocalls and why ads seem to follow you everywhere. That's where Aura comes in. Aura actively removes your data from broker sites and keeps it off. They also instantly alert you if your information shows up in a breach or on the dark web. But Aura goes beyond data protection. With one app, you get a vpn, antivirus, password manager, spam, call protection, dark web monitoring, and even up to $5 million in identity theft insurance, all backed by 24. 7 US based fraud support. Other companies might sell just credit monitoring or just a vpn. Aura gives you all of it together at the same price Competitors charge for just one service. Start your free trial today at aura.com remove protect yourself now@aura.com remove.