Scam Goddess – “Fraud Friday: The Club Hopping Con Artist”
Guests: Patrick Hinds & Gillian Pensavalle (True Crime Obsessed)
Release Date: September 19, 2025
Host: Laci Mosley
Episode Overview
This energetic Fraud Friday episode of Scam Goddess brings together Laci Mosley and the hilarious duo from True Crime Obsessed, Patrick Hinds and Gillian Pensavalle. With razor-sharp wit, the group dives into stories of personal scams, warns listeners about sneaky frauds, and unpacks the rise and fall of Sean Kirkham, a notorious club scene con artist whose scams left real victims in their wake. The mix of personal anecdotes, scam breakdowns, and historic hoodwinks makes for a vivid and highly entertaining exploration of the funny, frustrating, and sometimes chilling world of cons.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Meet the Guests & Scam Confessions
[06:39]
- Laci introduces Patrick and Gillian, and the trio bond over the audience’s enthusiastic push to get True Crime Obsessed on the show.
- Gillian reveals her identity was stolen in her twenties and hilariously recounts receiving bills from children’s clothing stores.
“I started getting all these bills in the mail from Baby Gap and the Children's Place. Now, I am not a mother by choice... And I was like, right, I'm a single 22 year old!”
— Gillian, 06:58 - The group riffs on parental scams, kids as grifters, and the universal childhood scam of faking illness to skip school.
- Patrick admits he hasn’t been “properly” scammed—Laci jokes, “But if I'm correct, you do date men... Men are a scam.”
— Laci, 09:06
2. Listener Letter: Dental Appointment Scam
[17:14] – “What’s Hot and Fried” Segment
- Listener “Champagne Mignonette” shares her experience of being charged double for a cleaning when the hygienist only did half her mouth and claimed more frequent appointments were needed.
- The hosts share stories of dental hijinks, “scammy” dentists, and the difference between required and upsold services.
- Helpful tip: Consider dental schools for more affordable treatment.
Memorable Moment:
“She cleaned maybe three of my top teeth and decided to call it quits. She told me I have to come back... and then they charged me two full price cleanings!”
— Laci, as Champagne, 21:41
3. Personal Scams & Tooth Tales
[21:41–26:31]
- Patrick details a gruesome emergency tooth extraction:
“He numbed my mouth, put his foot up on the chair and ripped the tooth out... hearing all of the cracking and breaking.”
— Patrick, 22:13 - Group laments shaming by dentists and the oddities of dental pricing and procedure.
4. Historic Hoodwink: Sean Kirkham – The Club Hopping Con Artist
[34:20] – Main Deep Dive
- Laci recounts the wild, multi-chapter con career of Sean Kirkham:
- Raised in Canada; ran away after being outed as gay.
- Worked club circuits in NYC and Miami, befriending—and robbing—drug dealers, partying, and eventually working with the DEA to inform on major nightlife figures.
- Known for charming manipulations, double-crossing informants, and bizarre scams that even involved selling Madonna’s phone number ([40:07]).
- Ultimately disgraced after scamming a nonprofit designed to memorialize missing and murdered women in British Columbia—absconding with funds and providing shoddy, almost meaningless commemorative plaques.
Quote:
“The guy lied constantly about everything. I mean, literally everything. He just did really bad things to people.”
— Frank Owen (biographer), as read by Laci, 39:35
Quote:
“What kind of hygienist would only do half of your teeth for an appointment and then ask you to come back for the other half, then charge you double the price?”
— Laci (as Champagne), 27:38
5. The Limelight and Club Kid Era
[37:14–45:47]
- Patrick and Gillian provide context on the wild 90s NYC club scene, including Peter Gation’s infamous Limelight club and the “party monster” Michael Alig, whose story involved murder.
- Laci highlights how Sean Kirkham, as an informant, became entangled in this world, and how all players—informants, cops, and criminals—conspired, backstabbed, and ultimately destroyed each other.
Quote:
“Instead of waiting to be arrested... Kirkham began an escape plan. He started recording meetings with his handlers and then contracted Gation's legal team to offer to sell them confidential details of the case...”
— Laci, 45:26
6. Plaque “Memorial” Scam – The Final Con
[50:24–56:34]
- Kirkham’s final grift: A supposed nonprofit to memorialize murdered (primarily Indigenous) women, for which he took public money, only delivering a handful of comically small, barely informative plaques.
- Emotion runs high as Laci, Patrick, and Gillian express outrage over exploiting such a sensitive issue for personal gain.
Quote:
“What he did to these people, this memorial, these indigenous people, like, that's important. The reason that we commemorate those things is not for vanity. It’s so that it doesn’t fucking happen again.”
— Laci, 56:20
Notable Quotes & Host Chemistry
- “Men are a scam. Now, gay men, a little less, but still.”—Laci, 09:06
- “If you’re writing checks to your sex worker, you’re also doing that wrong. Like, this is a cash business if ever there was one.”—Patrick, 60:39
- “She’s a total savage. Especially when it comes to washing her hair. That's the biggest scam..."—Patrick, about his daughter, 09:59
- “You just gonna put murder threats, like, online?”—Laci, 50:04
The hosts’ chemistry is electric—quick banter, layered jokes, playful teases, and constant riffing on each other’s stories and traumas. Their irreverence keeps the episode light even as they cover deeply dark content.
Important Timestamps
- 06:39 – Guest intros, scam confessions, and audience bullying jokes
- 17:14 – Listener letter: The dental cleaning scam (“What’s Hot and Fried”)
- 21:41–26:31 – Dental shaming, Patrick’s wild extraction story, DIY scam healthcare
- 34:20 – Start of “Historic Hoodwinks”: The Sean Kirkham saga
- 37:14–45:47 – NYC club kid era, Limelight & Michael Alig context
- 50:24–56:34 – The Living Stones plaque scam; exploitation of victims
- 58:11 – “Scammer of the Week”: The boyfriend bond-out scam, a modern Bonnie and Clyde
- 61:31 – Guests’ plugs, closing remarks
Scammer of the Week
[58:11]
- Davion Sanford, described as a repeat con artist, forged documentation to post an $80,000 bond for his boyfriend Devonte Jones’ release, after they fell in love in jail together.
- Patrick delighting: “Also, those gays were super hot. Both of them.”
- The trio gleefully dub them the “Bonnie and Clyde—no, Bill and Clyde” of the scam world and critique the sex worker check scam with incredulity.
Overall Tone & Takeaways
The episode blends biting humor, personal reflection, and righteous indignation. The hosts leap from the ridiculousness of small-time scams (dental cons, childhood rackets) to the sobering, true-crime gravity of Kirkham’s exploitation. Their jokes carry layered social commentary, highlighting both the absurdities and the real harm that scams can cause. Anyone looking to laugh, learn, and get righteously mad at historic fraudsters will find a goldmine here.
Final advice for the “con-gregation”:
Stay scheming, but never at the expense of real victims. And if you’re gonna run a scam—don’t do it at the dentist, don’t exploit a tragedy, and for the love of god, pay your sex workers in cash.