Catch Me If You Ken I 3. IG Hottie

Summary

The Binge Cases: Catch Me If You Ken – Episode 3: IG Hottie

Introduction

In Episode 3 of Catch Me If You Ken, titled "IG Hottie," Sony Music Entertainment delves deeper into the intricate web woven by Ken Yanai, a charismatic con artist who has left a trail of deceit from Los Angeles to Italy. Hosted by Natalie Robomot, this episode centers around Sophie, Ken's latest victim, whose realization of Ken's true nature sets off a suspenseful quest for justice.

Sophie’s Initial Encounter with Ken

Sophie, a 20-year-old college student from Germany, finds herself enchanted by Ken during her time studying abroad in New York. Their relationship begins with what seems like a perfect match—shared interests, charming dates, and Ken’s portrayal as a tech genius and wealthy heir.

• First Date Misstep
  Sophie recounts:

  "He needed to go to the toilet. At the end of the date, he asked me, well, does your building have one? I was like, yeah, actually, sure. So you can walk home with me." (08:32)

This minor oversight—inviting Ken to her apartment on the first date—sets the stage for deeper involvement.

Building Trust and Isolation

As their relationship progresses, Ken meticulously crafts an image of success and trustworthiness. He introduces Sophie to his French bulldog, Luigi, and shares fabricated stories about his affluent background.

• Ken’s Fabricated Background
  Sophie says:

  "He confided in Sophie that he's the son of the founder of Uniqlo. He claimed that he had started Pokemon Go also, which is funny." (12:14)

Ken’s manipulative tactics extend to controlling Sophie’s social life, subtly isolating her from friends under the guise of his own emotional struggles.

• Isolation Tactics
  Sophie explains:

  "Every time I would try to attempt to have a night out, that there would be something happening where he was saying, like, oh, I feel so uncomfortable with you there." (22:28)

The Unraveling of the Scam

Sophie's realization begins when she receives a message from Nancy, a woman who claims Ken has scammed her out of $20,000. This revelation forces Sophie to confront the possibility that Ken is not who he appears to be.

• Discovery of Nancy’s Claims
  Sophie reacts:

  "I think this is when like my whole world kind of crumbled... I was so mad. Like, no, he's not gonna get away with this." (02:54)

Determined to uncover the truth, Sophie starts accumulating evidence against Ken, documenting their interactions and financial transactions.

Gathering Evidence and Taking Action

As Sophie gathers more information, she becomes increasingly aware of the extent of Ken’s deception. His inability to pay for their trips and the sudden disappearance pattern align with the testimonies of other victims.

• Financial Manipulation
  Sophie notes:

  "I was so mad... no, he's not gonna get away with this." (02:54)

Her meticulous documentation includes a comprehensive report ready to present to the authorities.

The Arrest

Sophie devises a plan to entrap Ken with the help of the German police. By luring him to a train station under the pretense of meeting her, the police successfully apprehend Ken, marking a significant victory in her battle against his scams.

• Executing the Trap
  Sophie describes:

  "So I messaged him, and I said, can you meet me at the station?... The police pounce, pulling Ken's hands behind his back." (35:25)

The arrest is dramatic, with Ken reacting vehemently to his sudden capture, denying any wrongdoing despite the mounting evidence.

Feelings of Relief and Lingering Doubts

While Sophie feels a sense of relief, the episode hints at Ken’s resourcefulness and the possibility of his evasion, setting the stage for future confrontations.

• Sophie’s Mixed Emotions

  "So then he gets thrown to the ground... What did I do? What are you guys doing?" (36:44)

Conclusion and Teaser for Next Episode

Episode 3 concludes with Ken’s arrest, but the narrative suggests that the story is far from over. Sophie's journey reflects the complexities of trust, vulnerability, and resilience in the face of deceit.

• Looking Ahead

  "Next time on Catch Me If You Ken..." (37:21)

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Sophie on discovering Nancy’s claims:

  "I think this is when like my whole world kind of crumbled..." (02:54)

• Sophie on her first realization of Ken’s deceit:

  "I was just about to be the end of him... he's gonna pay for this." (02:54)

• Sophie describing Ken’s fabricated background:

  "He claimed that he had started Pokemon Go also, which is funny." (12:14)

• Sophie on isolating tactics:

  "It was kind of, in retrospect, probably an attempt to isolate me a bit from people." (22:28)

• Sophie during the arrest:

  "So then he gets thrown to the ground. Like, this whole dramatic arrest." (36:44)

Final Thoughts

"IG Hottie" masterfully portrays Sophie's descent from trust to betrayal, highlighting Ken's sophisticated manipulation tactics. Through emotional depth and suspenseful storytelling, this episode underscores the enduring impact of financial scams and the strength required to overcome them.

For those captivated by true crime and psychological thrillers, Catch Me If You Ken continues to offer gripping narratives that explore the dark intricacies of human deception.

Transcript

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[Narrator]

Listen to all episodes of Catch Me if youf can ad free right now by subscribing to the binge. Visit the Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access. Wherever you listen the binge feed your true crime obsession Campsite Media Sophie is standing on the street in Marbella, Spain. It's early 2022, and she's holding her phone in disbelief. People walk past her, locals going about their day, tourists in search of the best paella. But Sophie is locked into what's on her screen because she's just texted the number of a woman. A woman who alleges that Sophie's boyfriend is a con artist who owes her money. Sophie stares at the screen.

[Sophie]

She messages me back pretty immediately. She's also, at first, suspicious. She's like, who are you? She probably thinks I'm Ken. And so I'm like, no, no, no, I'm not. Like, we can get on a phone call. I sent her my Instagram. I sent her photos of me and Ken together. I'm like, no, I've been dating him. Can we please talk? I want to find out more. And so she's like, oh my God, I can't believe I found someone that's like, gone through the same thing.

[Narrator]

They get on a call. The woman's name is Nancy. She tells Sophie that she was friends with Ken back in New York. Before Sophie met him. Ken had presented himself as a rich kid heir and they'd gotten close. She says she ended up giving Ken around $20,000.

[Sophie]

She was telling me that she found out he's a scammer because he never paid her back. And she was doing research on him and she was actually actively working on exposing him. So she had created this Instagram page called something like Ken's a scammer or something like that.

[Narrator]

The page is called Ken Yanai Scammed Me. It's an entire Instagram account filled with details of Ken and his cons. The woman sends Sophie a link to the page. Sophie stares at it in Horror.

[Sophie]

I think this is when like my whole world kind of crumbled, like on this phone call. Because I was like, how can this be? And I still thought to myself, well, he might be someone who lied about these things and he might have stolen from me. I'm sure some of the other parts are true. Like I couldn't really fully grasp that entire thing was a lie. It just seemed like there's like limits to things. Like you can't lie about those things. Like, that's impossible. How can a person do that? I remember that I was so. I was just so mad. Like my first reaction was just anger. And my first reaction was also like, no, he's not gonna get away with this. Like, no, this is not gonna happen to me and he's gonna pay for this. And so I even told her on the phone. I was like, no, no, no. Like we're gonna get him and he is absolutely going to suffer. He was also at this point texting me, asking me like, where am I? Because I was probably on the phone for like an hour with her.

[Narrator]

Sophie stands there trying to figure out what to do. And this episode is from Sophie's perspective. Without Ken's input, this felt like a movie.

[Sophie]

Cuz I can't go back to the apartment now and confront him. Obviously the dumbest thing to do would be to confront him because he could be a violent person.

[Narrator]

But luckily for Sophie, she's a pretty good actor and she's about to take on the role of a lifetime to finally catch Ken. From Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media, this is Catch Me if youf Can Episode three, IG Hottie. I'm Natalie Robomot.

[Sophie]

Catch Me if.

[Narrator]

Last episode, Rita the house cleaner tried to get her money back any way she could, but Ken and Becca slipped away before she was able to. And we met Ken's new love interest, Sophie, the blonde student who started dating Ken back when she was studying abroad in New York. This episode, Sophie zeroes in on Ken and finally gets the cops on the case. Sophie is still standing on the street, utterly shell shocked.

[Sophie]

I feel like I'm in one of those movies where you discover something about someone but you have to pretend that you don't know and you have to like pretend everything's normal.

[Narrator]

She goes back to the apartment she's sharing with Ken and opens the door.

[Sophie]

I have to go back and just kiss him and pretend like everything's normal. But I'm looking at him and I'm like, oh my God, who is this person? It's so funny because I think at this time the documentary the Tinder Swindler came out.

[Narrator]

The Tinder Swindler is a documentary about a guy who poses as a rich mogul only to con the women he meets online out of millions.

[Sophie]

That evening or the next day, we were actually watching it together and he kept saying like, oh my God, how terrible. And I could never do something like that. I was looking at him and I was like, how is he so good at lying? He was crazy.

[Narrator]

Because Sophie has more in common with the Tinder Swindler victims than first appears. Remember, she met Ken online and she also gave him money. Lots of money. But unlike the victims in the documentary, she's sitting next to her scammer right now and she has a chance to fight back. Want more true Crime? Subscribe to the binge to get all episodes of Catch Me if youf can ad free today and get instant access to over 50 other Jaw Dropping true crime stories. Plus subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series on the first of every month. Every month. Search for the binge channel on Apple Podcasts or head to getthebinge.com to subscribe today. The feed your true crime obsession I.

[Sophie]

Think you're on mute.

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[Narrator]

I think you're on mute.

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[Narrator]

So at this point, you might be asking, how did Sophie get herself into this situation? How did a smart girl from an upper class background get wrapped up with a guy like Ken? The answer? Well, it's complicated. And it reveals just how good Ken is at manipulating people, even very intelligent people. And that's one of the things that sets him apart from other conmen. He doesn't just go after easy marks. He targets all sorts of people. Let's go back in time to the beginning of Ken and Sophie's relationship. All the way back to their first date, about six months before this Marbella trip. It's September 2021, and they've just wrapped up dinner at a casual restaurant in Sophie's neighborhood.

[Sophie]

He needed to go to the toilet. At the end of the date, he asked me, well, does your building have one? I was like, yeah, actually, sure. So you can walk home with me. That was probably a mistake. Looking back, probably don't bring strangers to your address on the first date. But I did that anyways. And then somehow there wasn't a toilet in the lobby. So this is, again, a mistake that I probably shouldn't have done. But I did bring him up to my place. He saw my apartment on the first date already. And it was quite a nice apartment at the time. A concierge. It had all the amenities. It was quite big for a New York apartment. One bedroom, a closet, and all of these things. I think he could tell right off the bat, well, the girl seems to be well off in some sense. And then the second date, he mentioned to me that he loves reading and I love reading as well. So he suggested, well, why don't you meet my dog? We can go to Central park and have a little picnic and bring our books and read. And so that's what we did. That was our second date.

[Narrator]

The dog, by the way, is another French bulldog, like the one he had back when he was with Becca. This one is called Luigi, like the Super Mario character.

[Sophie]

His dog is actually the cutest. The dog is so friendly. And he also has quite a unique look. He has one blue eye. He has this blue special coloring. They're very expensive in general to get those kinds of purebred Frenchies. He claimed that the dog was actually $20,000.

[Narrator]

The cute dog, the reading date. All of this appeals to Sophie. Ken doesn't seem like a guy who's just trying to sleep with her. He seems serious.

[Sophie]

He was never pushy in any way, physically or romantically. I don't think we, like, even shared the case until, like, the fourth or fifth date. So he was very taking it slow, like, gaining my trust. We had all these long conversations about all kinds of topics. So that made him interesting and appealing to me. In the beginning. He did seem, like, very infatuated and giving me a lot of attention. Always texting, always wanting to meet. So things moved so quickly because we basically met sometimes day after day.

[Narrator]

Remember, Sophie is new to New York. She's only been in the city for a couple weeks and doesn't know anybody. She doesn't have a ton of other people to hang out with.

[Sophie]

Pretty soon, he made it clear with me that he really liked me and that he was serious intentions. And he said, look, I want you to be my girlfriend.

[Narrator]

And this sounds good to Sophie because Ken seems like a pretty big deal.

[Sophie]

He kept kind of name dropping a couple big entrepreneurs that he would say that he was friends with and that he was working with and like, all kinds of other people. And yes, this might sound like, well, how would you believe that? But the thing is that in certain circles in New York and also like actually in some of my friends circles, people do know known people.

[Narrator]

Remember, Sophie's only 20 years old. She's still in college. And even though she's well off, she's a hard worker, ambitious. Her new boyfriend is 13 years her senior. It seems like he can help her get to where she wants to go.

[Sophie]

And so he would also say, well, in the future I can help you maybe get internship here or there. So it sounded like he was really trying to support me and could help me. He would drop these cues of, well, I have a plane there and I know these people.

[Narrator]

As they get closer, Ken confides in Sophie that he's the son of the founder of Uniqlo.

[Sophie]

He claimed that he had started Pokemon Go also, which is funny. I later looked, actually looked that up, but only later on who were the founders of Pokemon Go? And his name wasn't there. But then he claimed that he wants to be anonymous in general. He said that he is a very anonymous person and that's why there's not much about him online. So that kind of made sense to me because a lot of guys in a tech space are like that. So I believed him. Whenever I would try to research him, which I did then later on, maybe a month into it, and try to seize this Tadashi and I, who are his children, well, apparently he's one of them. Why is he not on there on Wikipedia? He would say, well, he's father, they have a bad relationship. He also doesn't really want to be known online, all of those things. So he always had an excuse.

[Narrator]

And again, this isn't totally unheard of for a super rich person. There are firms you can hire to scrub yourself from the Internet. Maybe that's what Ken had done. So when Ken suggests they go on a trip together to Disney World just a few weeks into dating, Sophie's down.

[Sophie]

So at first he was offering to get us the tickets and a hotel. And I thought it was pretty normal because I've always been kind of dating guys who are more in this like traditional provider relationship where the guy, he pays for dinner, he would take care of the trip. That seemed pretty normal to me also since he was apparently so much more wealthier than I was at the time. So we got to the hotel in Orlando and then when we checked in, they of course always asked for a credit card on file. And then for some reason his credit card wasn't working. And then he was pretty distraught about that. And he was. He would pull out a different card and give them another card that also wasn't working. And he was like, oh, my God, I'm so sorry. I'm so embarrassed about this. I don't know what's happening right now. And because he was so distraught and, like, overly reacting about this, I just kind of wanted him to calm down. I was like, no, no, it's okay. Let me just put down mine and, like, I'll cover it.

[Narrator]

People pleasing, it's a disease. I've got it, too. When you see someone having a terrible time, you'll do whatever you can to make them feel better, even if it means putting down your own credit card when you weren't expecting to, because you're hoping it'll just make this awkward situation go away.

[Sophie]

And at that point, he was also saying, I'm so sorry. I'm so embarrassed. I'm going to pay you back immediately after. I don't know what's going on. I have to call my bank. This and that. Later in the evening, he told me this whole story, that him and his dad had this very bad relationship, and his dad had actually blocked his trust fund because apparently all of the children in this family had gotten a trust fund, which makes sense if he does come from this billionaire family background. And because his dad and him were not really speaking, they had locked his cart.

[Narrator]

At this point, for Sophie, Ken has a new twist, one that makes her feel like this is all her fault.

[Sophie]

Apparently, his family also had found out that he was spending a lot of time with me, that he was dating me, and they were apparently not approving this relationship because they wanted him to be with someone that's also from the same ethnic background, also Japanese.

[Narrator]

Ken's family apparently don't like that he's dating a white European girl, and that's part of why they've cut him off. Sophie feels awful about this.

[Sophie]

I kind of felt bad for him because I totally believed his story. And I also felt guilty because he made it sound like, well, his family is not approving of this relationship now. He has trouble with them because of me. And he also made it sound like, well, they don't want him to date someone that is European. I also didn't want to come across as someone that's a gold digger because he made himself sound so important. So I was like, well, I don't want to be that girl. I genuinely liked him at that point. So I kind of wanted to prove to him, I don't care about the money. I'll pay for things. I'm not after that. That's not my intention. So I was kind of even trying to prove that I was not after anything like that.

[Narrator]

So when they go to Disneyland the next day and Ken's card doesn't work again, Sophie puts her card down again and again and again. She spends about $2,000 on the trip. When they get back to New York, Ken opens up even more, as though Sophie stepping up financially made him trust her emotionally. He tells her he has a history with drug addiction, that he used to spend $100,000 a month on drugs, and that's why his family keeps such a tight leash on him. Then he tells her his mother had died.

[Sophie]

I saw him as this guy who was really just struggling with his mental health, who had gone for something so traumatic like losing his mother, who he said was kind of his main person, since he wasn't really close to his dad. So this made me feel sympathy for him. I really felt like this was someone I needed to protect. He said also that his father was abusing him as a child and was beating him and things like that. So, yeah, this whole story, it made me really sympathize for him so much.

[Narrator]

Sophie feels so bad for him. So when Ken needs help paying for a lawyer and his accounts are still blocked by his mean family, Sophie steps in.

[Sophie]

I think it was like 2000 or 3000 that he needed to pay to get the specific document to send to his uncle. And so I was happy to do that. And he even gave me the name of his attorney. And I looked it up.

[Narrator]

It all checks out. The attorney is real. There's something else, too. Ken's been living in a hotel, but now there's a problem with that as well.

[Sophie]

He wasn't able to pay for it anymore. So then he asked if he could move into my place just for a couple of days until this issue was solved. I told him very clearly that I wasn't really comfortable with us living together long term. But of course, if he needed a place for a week, of course he could move in. And at this point, we were obviously, like, much closer. I felt that I really, really liked him. I wouldn't say falling in love, because I'm not sure if I was ever really in love, truly in love with any of my exes. But I definitely had feelings for him at the time, and so I was happy to help him, and I didn't really see an issue.

[Narrator]

Do you remember being 20? I do. It's a chaotic, sticky time. You're a fresh adult who's just been unleashed on the world, and you're out there dating and partying and trying to figure out what you want to do with your life. You think you're all grown up, but everything you're feeling is still new. For Sophie, each day is still filled with firsts. Her first time living in New York City. Her first Central park date. Her first New York fall. Her first whirlwind, thrilling romance with an older, richer guy.

[Sophie]

I actually told my friends quite early about him because I was so excited and I thought he was great. So I told them really early on. I was like, oh, my God, I met this guy. He's so smart. He knows all these people. He's a programmer, this and that. So they knew about him. I'm very social. Like, I go out. I love house music. I love raves. So there would be this festival that I would go to called Time Warp at, like, this warehouse in Brooklyn. And so I would go with my friends there and just wanted to have a fun night out. But then every time I would try to attempt to have a night out, that there would be something happening where he was saying, like, oh, I feel so uncomfortable with you there. I'm actually feeling so depressed. I feel I'm relapsing all of these things. So then in the middle of the night, I felt so bad for him. I felt like I needed to be there for him. I had to just end my night after being out maybe for an hour and just go back. So he kept making me feel like I was the bad guy because I was the one that wanted to go out and party. But then that made it so hard for him because he was in recovery. It was kind of, in retrospect, probably an attempt to isolate me a bit from people.

[Narrator]

She's away from her family. Her boyfriend of a few weeks, who's about 13 years older than her, has just moved in. He's not paying rent, and somehow he's making her feel bad for this.

[Sophie]

He was saying how he was so depressed every day because he was feeling so bad for me that he would have to take up the space. And then I was actually justifying it, and I was saying, like, oh, no. Like, don't worry about it. Like, I don't want you to feel so bad and depressed.

[Narrator]

The whole thing is so intense, so dramatic. Sophie is totally and utterly caught up in it.

[Sophie]

There was actually a point where he pretended to leave and he left the letter. He was like, I'm so sorry. I feel like I have destroyed your life in some way. I didn't want to take you away from your experience abroad and this and that. And he has wrote me a check. Actually, he wrote, like, a $20,000 check that he had left with this letter. Then he disappeared.

[Narrator]

Ken vanishes. Sophie panics. Somehow she feels as though this is all her fault, as if she hasn't taken good enough care of him or reassured Ken enough, and she's worried about him.

[Sophie]

And I was stressed out because I was like, oh, my God, no, I don't want to lose him. I actually liked him at that point. So I was trying to get in contact with him. I was like, no, please don't leave. This is completely fine. Don't feel guil. I'm happy to work with you through this. We'll get through this. Trying to be positive.

[Narrator]

Sophie cares about Ken, and even though he owes her money and is the one staying in her apartment for free, she feels bad for him. Sophie's stuck in a game of high stakes poker, but it's not just money on the line. It's her feelings, her ability to trust someone else. Believe what they're telling her. She reassures herself it's going to be fine.

[Sophie]

I'm sure he would get access back to his funds. And he's a smart guy, so, you know, he also has his Google job, all of these things. He said that he then later got fired from Google. This was probably also, like, around November, because he was trying to expose their practices, something related to the algorithms and how they would manipulate people. He never got access back to his fund. Apparently his family was really locking him out.

[Narrator]

This is where things take an even darker turn, where the emotional poker chips reach a towering stack. Because around December, Ken starts telling Sophie that he's experiencing suicidal ideation as a result of all this money stress with his family.

[Sophie]

And I felt extremely bad for him, and I was just, like, wanting to keep him alive. Like, I thought this was a life or death situation. And kind of telling him, like, no, we're going to get through this and it's fine. This made the whole thing emotionally so much harder.

[Narrator]

Sophie doesn't want Ken to take his own life. Even if she's stressed out, she feels a responsibility to say everything's okay to keep Ken alive. She's hoping she can stay strong and that they can get through this whole thing together. She's also hoping that Ken's finances will turn around, that he'll be able to pay her back the tens of thousands of dollars. She is now out. And there are signs that make Sophie believe the money part will get fixed.

[Sophie]

There was also little signs that he does actually have money and he was going to pay me back. So, for example, at some point, he accessed his supposed storage in New York. He came back with a bunch of stuff. He had a Chanel bag, and he said that belonged to his mother. It was a vintage one, a very old, like, vintage one. And it felt very sentimental because it's from his mother. Right. And it also made the whole story more believable that he was someone who does have money. Then, like, once in a while, he would pay for things. So, for example, in December, it was actually my birthday, and I wanted to go for a birthday trip, and I suggested that Tulum. And he said, look, actually I know a hotel owner there. He's one of my friends. He can probably get us to stay for free. Then I was like, okay, great. Like, I'll pay for the rest. Like, I'll get the flights and stuff. And we went to this very expensive hotel in Tulum. So then again, that made it believable to me. Like, oh, he does have connections. He does have some friends. He did actually pay for that hotel that we were staying at. And I did also have, like, two friends from Europe coming, two girlfriends. So some of my girlfriends had met him, and they also. They didn't really see anything wrong with him. Like, none of us sensed any red flags.

[Narrator]

It's around this time that Kim presents a really great solution, one that would help get him out of this pickle.

[Sophie]

He said, look, I have this project. I know we're going to make a lot of money out of this. If you can put some money in, then we're going to get it back almost immediately, 10 times of that. This is like a guy that I know really well. He's so smart. I worked with him. It's a great coin.

[Narrator]

It's a new cryptocurrency. Not one of the main currencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but a smaller coin. Now, remember, from the very beginning, Ken has told her he's a big investor in crypto with lots of connections in this space. So it makes sense that he would be invited to invest early in a sort of friends and family round.

[Sophie]

I think at this point, it was like 20k or something was the minimum to be one of the investors.

[Narrator]

So she logs into her cryptocurrency wallet and sends Ken $20,000 to invest in this new coin, money she's made from being a social media influencer, from getting into crypto early and doing well with it. Ken tells her it's all good.

[Sophie]

He just showed me on his phone, like, look, here it is. Here's the coin. Here's this, like, wallet, they call it. It's going up. We're making money. Great. I was like, wonderful.

[Narrator]

Then Ken decides he's going to make his own coin.

[Sophie]

He said, I'm going to launch this. It will do well. But the whole launch for this thing, there are so many things he needed to do. He needed to hire other programmers, he needed to invest into the marketing. There's just so many costs associated with that. And this was kind of when I started giving him more and more, I think. So this is probably when the rest of the 50k or something came in in January. He kept just needing more and making up excuses like, well, we need to hire these programmers. They cost this much, and then we need to have an initial amount of liquidity to launch this coin, and this will cost this much. And so then it just kept going and going because every time that something was good was supposed to happen, like the day we were supposed to get the money back, he then in the morning woke up and told me, oh, my God, we got hacked. Like, something happened. All the money's drained.

[Narrator]

But now, sitting in this apartment in Marbella, looking at an Instagram account dedicated to calling her boyfriend a scammer, Sophie realizes that hacking was probably fake. Ken's robbery was probably fake. In fact, Ken's entire cryptocurrency investment, the coin he apparently started, him having a trust fund at all. Maybe none of that was real. She says she's given him close to $150,000 and she wants to get her money back.

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[Narrator]

So while Sophie pretends everything is normal, on the outside, sitting in this apartment with Ken, internally, her mind's going a million miles a minute. She sits on her laptop pretending to do schoolwork and starts figuring out a plan. She wants to build a case against Ken, gather all the information she has about what she sent him and when information she can take to the cops. Remember, they're on vacation in Spain.

[Sophie]

I figured, well, I need to go back to my home country because I speak the language. So I made up an excuse to him of why we need to go back to my home country. I said that my parents were missing me, they wanted me to come back and I needed to do something for my school in person, things like that. And I told him, look, I can find us an Airbnb there. So during all this time I'm preparing, I'm trying to gather everything together, I'm trying to make sense of the timeline. I actually started writing this huge report that I was planning to give to the police where I would write the first day we met, this and that. It was like a 20 page report. I didn't want to wait any longer. I didn't want to pretend to be normal and like, sleep in the same bed with him and all of that. Like, I. I guess I was grossed out by him at this point.

[Narrator]

So Sophie and Ken travel back to Germany, where Sophie is from. And once they're there, settled into their new place, Sophie makes up an excuse that she just needs to go to her school library just to do something boring that Ken definitely doesn't need to come along for.

[Sophie]

And during this time, I actually went to the police station.

[Narrator]

She tells the police, look, I got.

[Sophie]

Scammed out of 100k. You need to help me. I have all the documents here. They were not that busy, so they immediately took me in. I went to a room and they were very helpful, they were very nice. They had a specific term for this, love scamming or something. I'm not sure what the term in English is, but this is like quite the common thing where partners will have victims and they tried to make them fall in love or be in a relationship and then take money from them in some way. So, yeah, they were really nice and supportive and they immediately believed me. All the police really needed, they needed exactly the amounts of what I had transferred, and they needed Proof that I had transferred it to him. Like these screenshots and like all the transaction receipts.

[Narrator]

Sophie has all that to hand in the dossier she'd already compiled for the German police. Police in Germany, cops can pick someone up on suspicion alone, but they've got 48 hours to make a case. If a judge doesn't see enough evidence to press charges in that window, the person has to be released.

[Sophie]

They were like, okay, we're going to arrest him. How can we do it?

[Narrator]

Sophie says that the cops tell her to lure Ken to a public place where they can arrest him. And reminder, this episode is from Sophie's perspective.

[Sophie]

So I messaged him, and I said, can you meet me at the station? Because it was kind of quite late that night. Like a train station coming back from school. Meet me there.

[Narrator]

Sophie's a young woman. She doesn't want to walk home from the train station late at night alone. It makes sense to ask her boyfriend to meet her there.

[Sophie]

But in reality, I was with the police, and the police had plans. A setup.

[Narrator]

Sophie stays safely in the police station while the cops head out. She can't believe this is real. The butterflies in her stomach are doing jumping jacks.

[Sophie]

Five police officers or something like that. Like, they go there. I'm quite excited, actually, that this is happening. I'm telling my friend who lives in the same city. I'm like, okay, he's about to get arrested. Like, get a video of this.

[Narrator]

It's winter. The trees outside the train station are bare. The slabs on the floor damp with recent rain. The officers are in plain clothes, big coats and beanies for the cold. Ken arrives to meet Sophie, or so he thinks. He's wearing a red hoodie, dark jeans, and white sneakers.

[Sophie]

He's texting me, hey, I'm here. Where are you? I feel slightly guilty, actually. I'm like, oh, my God. I'm, like, participating in this. I'm tricking him.

[Narrator]

The police pounce, pulling Ken's hands behind his back.

[Sophie]

So then he gets thrown to the ground. Like, this whole dramatic arrest. He keeps yelling out, what did I do? What did I do? What are you guys doing? Like, as if he's so innocent.

[Narrator]

Ken gets taken to jail. Sophie is flooded with relief. She thinks, now I'm safe. Now I'm going to get my money back. Now this will all be over. But Ken has other plans. Next time on Catch Me if youf Can.

[Sophie]

I pretended to him. Yeah, if you can pay me, we can be together.

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There's a reason why you see a lot of really wealthy gross looking men with a lot of really attractive younger women. And it's money.

[Sophie]

There were a few brilliant traders and.

[Narrator]

One of them was our scammer.

[Sophie]

Catch Me if you can.

[Narrator]

Don't want to wait for that next episode. You don't have to unlock all episodes of Catch Me if youf can ad free right now by subscribing to the Binge Podcast Channel. Search for the binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page, not on apple. Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. As a subscriber, you'll get binge access to new stories on the 1st of every month. Check out the Binge Channel page on apple podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn more. Catch Me if youf can is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media in association with Ish Entertainment. It's written and hosted by me, Nathalie Robomed, and executive produced by myself and Vanessa Grigoriadis. Our senior producer is Abokar Adan, our producer is Julia Case Levine, our story editor is Michael Canyon Meyer, and our Assistant editor is Emma Siminoff. We had help from Blake Rook and Lily Houston Smith, who managed the production, sound design, mix and Engineering by Mark McAdam, voice acting for Ken by E Win Lai Trimuin, Becca by Lily Houston Smith and Sophie by Madison Lanicey. The executive producers at Sony Music Entertainment are Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch, Josh Dean, Adam Hoff and Matt Sher at Campside Media and Michael Hirschhorn at Ish Entertainment. Thanks to Jess Antonini, Joe Mancino and Regan Graham, and thanks to Campside's operations team, Doug Slaywin, Ashley Warren and Sabina Mara. And thank you for listening.