Hey Beautiful: Anatomy of a Romance Scam Ep 1 (from the Patreon)

Summary

Podcast Summary: True Crime Obsessed – "Hey Beautiful: Anatomy of a Romance Scam Ep 1"

Release Date: October 23, 2025
Hosts: Julian & Tracy
Featured Documentary: "Hey Beautiful" (Anatomy of a Romance Scam, Ep 1)

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Overview of the Episode

This lively, sharp-witted True Crime Obsessed Patreon episode dives into “Hey Beautiful,” a documentary series exposing the anatomy of a global romance scam. Julian and Tracy (joined briefly by others) deconstruct the real stories of three women – Roxy (USA), Annette (Canada), and Gabby (Germany) – who fell victim to elaborate online relationship cons. With their trademark humor and heart, the hosts take listeners through the emotional and financial devastation wrought by scammers, all while delivering memorable moments and side commentary on scams, self-worth, and the baffling world of overpriced makeup tutorials.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Setup: Anatomy of a Romance Scam

• The romance scam at the center preys on loneliness, emotional vulnerability, and the hope for love.
• Scammers use fake identities and professions, such as glamorous oil rig workers or gemstone merchants.
• Victims are contacted on benign platforms (Words With Friends, Facebook Dating, LinkedIn), then moved to private apps like WhatsApp for privacy and further manipulation.
• The hosts focus on the individual's stories, highlighting both the common emotional need and the unique personalities involved.
• Memorable quote – Tracy (03:02): "The fucking Scott Peterson of it all."

2. Meet the Victims

A. Roxy (Connecticut, USA) [05:00–16:19]

• Roxy’s story begins as a bored, married Words With Friends player who receives a game invite from “Scott Hall.”
• Her keen loneliness, despite a 51-year marriage, makes her susceptible.
• Tracy and Julian affectionately riff on Roxy’s accent and personality, but highlight her humanity.
  • Quote – Tracy (10:05): "Roxy, girl, don't sweat it. We're totally following you. Like, my love, you're over explaining. Get to the good part."
• Roxy’s scam scenario is more benign – she never sends vast sums, but ends up with a fraudulent check, embarrassment, and grief in her marriage.

B. Annette (Canada) [16:19–20:13; 24:50+]

• Annette serves in a diner, cares deeply for others, but is emotionally battered after a controlling marriage and loss of family support and her pet.
• Seeks comfort on Facebook Dating, where she meets "Mark Da Silva," an 'underwater pipeline' worker.
• Annette’s openness and need for validation make her an easy mark, ultimately costing her $40,000.

C. Gabby (Germany) [20:13–end]

• Gabby, a successful businesswoman, is contacted via LinkedIn by "Michael Silver," a "gemstone wholesaler."
• Gabby is unhappy in her marriage, susceptible to romance and validation from flattery and shared interests.
• The emotional connection with the scammer is coupled with growing financial requests.
  • Quote – Gabby (22:18): "I didn't tell anybody about Michael, and I hided this from my husband."
• Gabby's decisions escalate dramatically, culminating in selling her parents' house and sending over $500,000 in Bitcoin.

3. Scam Tactics and Escalation

• Initial contact is innocent, then “intimate” (WhatsApp move, personal photos).
• Scammer stories follow a formula: sudden crisis, need for money, dramatic life struggles (death of a spouse, single parenthood, international barriers).
• Manipulative ‘proofs’ are provided: fake contracts, doctored bank access/logins, hurried video calls with stolen footage.
  • Quote – Julian (26:38): "Did he give her the login or is it just a screenshot?... Maybe he built a website that looks like a bank account."
• The scammer sometimes “returns” money at first to build trust: “He actually paid back Gabby the $5,000. ... He's playing the long game.” (Tracy, 30:02)

4. The Emotional Toll & Manipulation

• Victims describe feelings of excitement, hope, and secret independence, before guilt, shame, and devastation set in.
• Scammers exploit both affection (“Hey, beautiful!”) and guilt (“Do you really love me?”), pushing the victims to ever-greater sacrifices.
• The hosts note how embarrassment and the sunk-cost fallacy trap the victims. Even as doubts arise, the victims have already lost so much they hope staying will recover their losses.
  • Quote – Tracy (41:01): “It was all via WhatsApp... and we see the text, it's super abusive. He's really mean to her. And she does it and she's like, I did it to prove my love and to prove our relationship. Relationship? What relationship?”

5. How the Scam is Revealed [42:28+]

• Annette’s friend Nicole uncovers the scam by reverse image searching the boyfriend’s photo, discovering a well-known “oil rig scam” template.
  • Quote – Annette (43:06): "She's like, his head is too big for the body. The guy looks like he's 5'7; Mark's supposed to be 6'2. It looked like a bubble head on his body."
• The hosts marvel at how obvious the fake images look in hindsight, highlighting the psychological manipulation involved.

6. The Scammer’s Stolen Identity: Brian Haugen [45:57+]

• All the fake profiles use images of a real person: Brian Haugen, an actor/model/skincare entrepreneur.
• Gabby and others attempt to contact Haugen to confirm if he is the scammer; they get no reply, but many send money anyway.

7. The Side Scam: Makeup Tutorials & Overpriced Serums [49:06+]

• In an ironic twist, Roxy attempts to book a makeup consultation with Brian Haugen, only to discover his “business” charges hundreds for a virtual session and exorbitant sums for skincare products (a $640 serum).
• Tracy goes on a scathing (and hilarious) rant about the cost and apparent scamminess of the make-up tutorial business—a scam within a scam.
  • Quote – Tracy (50:54): "Honestly, this website is a scam and nobody talks about it. I will talk about it for an hour next week."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Loneliness & Vulnerability:
  • "I was lonely, so I went online." – Annette (02:22)
• On Scammer Personas:
  • "He goes by the name of Scott Donald Wall." – Roxy (04:10)
• On Emotional Manipulation:
  • "I swore I can taste you right now. ... I will lick you until you swear your allegiance to my empire." – Tracy (30:32–30:49, quoting scammer’s messages)
• On Realization:
  • “It is so fake. It is stupid how fake it is.” – Tracy (43:27)
• On the Ultimate Scammer:
  • “All the profiles lead to this Brian Haugen guy... He’s an actor. He’s a model, and he has an online company where he teaches women how to do makeup.” – Tracy (48:38)
• On Side Scams:
  • “A $640 serum. That’s one ounce... Who are you to be making serum like this?” – Tracy (50:03)
• Reflecting on Victims’ Self-Worth:
  • “They’ve convinced Annette... that she’s only worth someone who will text her and ask her for money, which she deserves so much more than that.” – Tracy (32:08)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:01 – 01:37 | Episode intro, context for release
• 05:00 – 16:19 | Meet Roxy and the onset of her scam
• 16:19 – 20:13 | Annette’s background and vulnerability
• 20:13 – 24:50 | Gabby’s story: from LinkedIn to love scam
• 24:50 – 32:35 | Scammer escalation: requests for money, emotional hooks
• 35:00 – 39:01 | Roxy discovers the check fraud and fallout at home
• 40:19 – 46:52 | Gabby’s $550k bitcoin nightmare and the realization moment
• 45:57 – 49:06 | Discovering Brian Haugen, the real face behind the scam
• 49:06 – 52:29 | Brian Haugen’s makeup business – “scam” within the scam
• 52:50 – end | Outro & preview for the next episode

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The Hosts' Tone & Approach

Julian and Tracy balance sincere empathy for the victims with a bright, irreverent tone, mixing laugh-out-loud commentary ("Aggressively handsome", "bubble head", long rants about makeup scams) with real rage at the mechanics and human toll of online fraud. Their tone encourages listeners to approach these stories with both skepticism and compassion, never blaming the victims, always rooting for their dignity to be restored.

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Summary Judgment

This is both a cautionary tale and a character-driven comedy. The first episode of “Hey Beautiful: Anatomy of a Romance Scam” exposes the mechanics of digital emotional cons, affirms the reality of vulnerability, and warns listeners about manipulative tactics—even prompting a hilarious side investigation into the price of high-end serums. Julian and Tracy keep it lively, but never lose sight of the emotional damage at the scam’s heart.

Closing advice, per the hosts:
“Stay safe out there, especially on the Internet... Just have like a force field around you. Okay, we love you.” – Tracy (54:17)

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Next Episode Teaser:
Expect deeper dives into both the scam’s unraveling and the questionable skincare empire of Brian Haugen, with more laughs, sass, and heartfelt moments from your hosts.
Find ad-free episodes and bonus content at patreon.com/truecrimeobsessed

Transcript

[Julian]

Hey, Julia Bethevale.

[Tracy]

Hey, beautiful.

[Julian]

Oh, I know you're not talking about me.

[Tracy]

I am. It's a double entende.

[Julian]

Okay, I'll take it. I'll take it. Tell them what's happening.

[Tracy]

Well, there's a documentary that we covered called hey Beautiful. It's three episodes. It's about one of those romcon kind of scams. Well, it's not a kind of scam. It's definitely a scam. And so we did on the Patreon, but we're gonna drop the first episode right here in the feed.

[Julian]

This is a wild story, fam. So this is a romance scam. These women are made to suffer. It's awful. But then they find the guy kind.

[Tracy]

Or do they kind of. Yeah, it's a whole thing. And of course, like, because we can't have anything now, like calling someone beautiful has this tainted, like. Wait, are you serious?

[Julian]

I know.

[Tracy]

Everything's the worst, but we had fun.

[Julian]

I will say this series is wild. It has a bunch of twists and turns. It gets super, super gay at some point. So stay tuned for that. And like Julian said, all three episodes are available right now and ad free on our Patreon. It's where you can find over 500 full ad free bonus episodes. You get our drag bingo. At other tiers, you get ad free versions of our regular feed episodes. There's a tier where we episodes just for you, covering Unsolved Mysteries and Mob Wives. Mob Wives. We send you some stuff in the mail. Our Patreon is pretty fantastic.

[Tracy]

It is, how you say, popping.

[Julian]

It is popping. It is popping.

[Tracy]

Everyone's invited.

[Julian]

Yeah. So listen to episode one here ad free. Go listen to the rest of it on the Patreon if you're so inclined. Find the link to the Patreon in our show notes. You can also go to patreon.com truecrimeobsessed all right. And we'll say a quick goodbye on the way out.

[Tracy]

Yeah, and be careful out there, would you? But we'll say that again at the end. Now, it's not really.

[Julian]

That's true. That's true. I have the reading Rainbow theme stuck in my head.

[Roxy]

Why?

[Julian]

Reading Rainbow. Reading Rainbow.

[Roxy]

That's great.

[Julian]

I can go anywhere. I don't know why. Oh, I really don't know why.

[Tracy]

I've misbehaven from gemstones because someone says the word gemstone in one of these episodes. So then misbehaving was in my head for the rest of the day, so.

[Gabby]

Hi.

[Julian]

Julia Bezavali. Hello.

[Tracy]

Patrick Hines.

[Julian]

What are we talking about today?

[Tracy]

Oh, God. Hey, beautiful. The fucking Scott Peterson of it all. Anatomy of a romance scam Episode 1.

[Julian]

The Face of Trouble what bothers me the most about this is I can't give away the big reveal. And all I want to do is talk about what is revealed.

[Tracy]

Soon enough.

[Julian]

But not soon enough.

[Annette]

You know, I wanted love because I was lonely. So I went online.

[Gabby]

He's a handsome man.

[Roxy]

He was very handsome. He was a very handsome man.

[Annette]

He had a nice body like that.

[Roxy]

But.

[Gabby]

I got a message from somebody.

[Roxy]

The words that he spoke, it was like a drug.

[Gabby]

He texted more and more compliments how nice, how pretty I am.

[Annette]

He said to me, I love you.

[Gabby]

He fell in love with me. And I started to fall in love with him. Day after day. He texted me, oh, you're beautiful.

[Annette]

It got me excited. He was telling me everything I wanted to hear.

[Gabby]

And then something happened and it was craz. Suddenly he told me he needs surgery to prove my love. I sent 500,000.

[Roxy]

I trusted him so much. I gave him my Social Security. $9,000 was just the tip of what other people gave my life savings.

[Annette]

I wired the 30,000 because I love it.

[Gabby]

1.5 million.

[Annette]

2,750,000. I had lost almost everything. Nothing. Oh, my God.

[Roxy]

It's all bullshit.

[Annette]

My sister, she died with a broken heart.

[Roxy]

It was done and over with.

[Julian]

At least I thought it was.

[Gabby]

There is something really wrong.

[Annette]

You don't know half of it. You can't trust anybody.

[Gabby]

Who should I believe.

[Roxy]

I fell for it.

[Annette]

I've really been scammed.

[Roxy]

I was angry. I didn't know who he was. But I wanted to track him down. I wanted an maybe. Was it possible that we could catch him? He goes by the name of Scott Donald Wall.

[Tracy]

James Richards.

[Gabby]

Michael Silver.

[Tracy]

I'm not Michael Silver. I'm not Scott Donald hall.

[Julian]

And I'm not James Richards.

[Gabby]

It shocked me, Gracie.

[Annette]

I was pissed off. What was I thinking? I needed to find out who he really was. I was very excited because I finally got to see his face. And I'm like, it's real.

[Julian]

He's.

[Tracy]

Are you an international cyber criminal mastermind? The person I really am goes much deeper than that.

[Roxy]

I have secrets of my own.

[Tracy]

Can we just start in Connecticut with Roxy?

[Julian]

Oh, my. Are you gonna do her accent?

[Tracy]

Oh, my God. So we're in Connecticut. It's Roxy.

[Julian]

You got. I need you to do it.

[Tracy]

It all started on Words with Friends. Keeps you busy. And then she goes, gets in trouble, too.

[Roxy]

Whenever I get a chance. When I'm Sitting down. Especially at night after I'm done with all the housework and everything. I'll turn the television on, and I'll play Words with Friends. Keeps you busy. Gets you in trouble, too.

[Julian]

Sorry to shove this in front of you.

[Roxy]

That's okay, sweetheart.

[Tracy]

Speeding and Marcus.

[Julian]

Jesus.

[Annette]

You.

[Roxy]

Oh, hey, wait a minute. You got a piece of chocolate? I don't have a piece of chocolate.

[Julian]

Oh, I'd love it.

[Roxy]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Tracy]

Roxy was a hoot and a half on set, I will tell you that right now.

[Julian]

She wants that little piece of chocolate.

[Tracy]

She goes. She's like, that's okay, sweetheart. They're having a grand old time. She sees someone with a chocolate bar and literally takes it out of his hand. But believe me when I tell you in the fun way.

[Julian]

What person on set is handing out chocolate as they're about to start on set? I get. But they're about to start shooting.

[Tracy]

Well, there's. She probably to wait. It's all in the editing.

[Julian]

Have you seen. Her name is Roxy. And so I have to talk. What do you call those things? The wind things that are like people that go up. They have them.

[Tracy]

Oh, the thing that's on the guest. Yeah, I don't know what they're called, but the guy. The floaty guy, Like. Yeah, whatever, because his name.

[Julian]

This woman's name is Roxy. There's this TikTok that goes around every now and then of Roxy's big song from Chicago, and it's from far away. It's one of those wind things that the wind is blowing in just such a way that it keeps coming in and disappearing, and it's, like, coming in like this and disappearing. Coming in and disappear. It's so. But like, it's a little wind fan doing Fosse. It's the gayest thing on the Internet. Except for when I'm on the Internet.

[Tracy]

Of course, which is maybe right now.

[Julian]

Bump, bump, bump.

[Tracy]

Did you ever see the. The flamingos dancing to Fosse? I think it's like, Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. Great.

[Julian]

Did you see there was a wedding recently that this little flock of ducks interrupted? No, it was the. It was a wedding, and it was a mother duck walking through with all of her little babies. And the whole wedding stopped.

[Tracy]

You're goddamn right it did. If it didn't divorce, if Mike was like, we got to keep it moving. We can't stare at the ducks for 40 minutes. I'd be like, I'm leaving you.

[Julian]

I'm gonna say right now, you know we're do for the hero bells for one monthly surprise. We're each gonna pick like two or three TikToks that we love and share them with each other and, like, talk about them.

[Tracy]

After the mob wives.

[Julian]

After the mob wives.

[Tracy]

Mob wives comes.

[Julian]

Get up, Karen.

[Tracy]

Karen, get up. 2019. Roxy is waiting for her grandkids. She's picking them up from karate. And I thought of a very early Bob's Burgers. Oh, I'm going to Tina's karate concert. Very funny. She's playing Words with Friends. Obviously she's killing time.

[Julian]

I didn't realize that Words with Friends was so fun.

[Tracy]

Roxy describes Words with Friends to us like we've never heard of scra. And I love that for all of us.

[Julian]

Do you have a Roxy in you somewhere? You must.

[Tracy]

Well, I don't know. I mean, in a way, because, like.

[Julian]

Her accent is so distinct.

[Tracy]

And Roxy, I was gonna save this for later. Everything you hear from now on, I do with love. As someone who is relentlessly told all the time that I'm saying things wrong, you can say things however you want. But like, if I don't say man. A very handsome man.

[Roxy]

It was a Monday. I was in a car waiting for my grandchildren to come out from karate. And I was playing Words with Friends. And up popped an invitation to play the game with a man called Scott Hall. He chose to put a profile picture in to let people know who he was. It was like, holy wolly, you know, he was a good looking man. He was a very handsome man.

[Tracy]

A man named Scott hall invites her to play. This person has a million different names and aliases. We're just gonna call him the scammer.

[Julian]

The scammer. Now, I'm of the opinion that this is many different people. Like all of the people that we're going to meet today are not being scammed by the same person.

[Tracy]

I thought, it's like, it's got to be a ring.

[Julian]

Gotta be like, gotta be a ring. It's gotta be a ring.

[Tracy]

So. But they're playing wars with Friends. Now, the screenshot is that the last word that he played is sham.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

And I was like, that's either cute editing or a crazy coincidence. But then I was like, if it's editing, then it would be scam, right? Not sham.

[Julian]

Oh, yeah. Although that might be a little on the nose.

[Tracy]

But he plays a four letter word for.

[Julian]

I know. Listen, I'm telling you, like, like Scrabble is a fudgeing hard game.

[Tracy]

It's incredibly hard.

[Julian]

It's a Very. There was a time. Oh, my God. I memorized all the two letter words because I was going to a holiday with the Tiptons and I was so sick of fudgeing. Losing.

[Tracy]

Yeah.

[Julian]

Also, za za shortcut on a triple word score.

[Tracy]

It's a lot more strategic than I think it looks like. Like your first time playing Scrabble, you're like, how strategic could it be?

[Julian]

And then you're like, oh, yeah. And qat, that's also a word.

[Tracy]

I mean, I remember when Words with Friends was a thing I was, like, still bartending at. So that was like, you know, working the Monday at 4 o' clock playing Words with Friends.

[Julian]

Well, so Roxy's getting a little flirty with this guy, but we're learning Roxy's backstory. Oh, God. What?

[Tracy]

Roxy keeps over explaining things, and I love her because she's trying to tell the story, right?

[Julian]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tracy]

Because she's like, he chose to put a profile picture and to let people know who he was. I'm like, roxy, girl, don't sweat it. We're totally following you. Like, my love, you're over explaining. Get to the good part.

[Julian]

My thing is, I would never have thought to, but I honestly was watching this, like, should I be playing Words with Friends? Am I missing out on new friends by not playing Words with Friends?

[Tracy]

No.

[Julian]

Okay.

[Tracy]

But, like, play it if you want to.

[Julian]

The look of concern, I don't think I'm missing. I think I'm gonna get kidnapped. I think I'm gonna be okay.

[Tracy]

He's a good looking man. A very handsome man.

[Julian]

We're gonna get to him. We are gonna get to him.

[Tracy]

Look, Roxy's been married for 51 years.

[Julian]

Yeah. And she, like, she literally plays Words with Friends to make friends, to interact with them. She says she's lonely. Roxy is like a lonely, happy, but lonely lady.

[Tracy]

Well, she's been married for 51 years, but she's known her husband since they're six.

[Roxy]

Sixteen. Yeah.

[Tracy]

So Roxy loved being married and raising her kids. And I'm like, fried dough every Friday night at Roxy's. Count me.

[Julian]

And literally, I loved being the house that on Friday night, I'm like, oh, you had the keggers. No, on Friday night, you went to Roxy's for the fried dough.

[Tracy]

I would be there. Are you kidding? Like, Roxy, like, I get it. I know exactly. Homemade desserts. I love it.

[Julian]

But she says, like, their kids got older and they moved out and her husband is tired. Like, her husband goes to bed early. She's bored. She wants to stay up and, like, have a life. Like, she misses people being around.

[Tracy]

She just kind of wants to chit chat. And so, like, words with Friends filled a void for her because, like, it was kind of like, quiet. She's just on her phone, she's playing the game, she's chatting in the DMs, like, whatever.

[Julian]

I lived down the block from Roxy. I would go to her house once a week at least for coffee. I would have the best. Roxy would be a great neighbor.

[Tracy]

I love Roxy.

[Julian]

Me too.

[Tracy]

Four months in with Scott, it took.

[Roxy]

Maybe three or four games before the hi, how are you? Popped up on the screen. And we just started talking, you know, casual things. How are you? What do you do for a living? There was nothing other than that on it until maybe three, four months later he asked to go on WhatsApp, and I did. And then the messages, you know, it was different. He started getting more involved, started telling me his life story.

[Tracy]

And the scammer wants to move to WhatsApp. Roxy, again with love.

[Julian]

I need a real quick detour here. Yeah, explain fucking WhatsApp to me.

[Tracy]

It's just a messenger app. So you use it like I use it with my friends who are overseas. It's an easy way to chat that doesn't cost like a zillion dollars, but it's.

[Julian]

You're still using your phone number, right?

[Tracy]

Yeah.

[Julian]

Like, there's not a way to use WhatsApp anonymously. Right? Because it's not like a messenger. Like you're. You're.

[Tracy]

No texting, but it's a way to talk to people overseas.

[Julian]

What does that mean?

[Tracy]

Scammers.

[Julian]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tracy]

Are maybe not the person they're thinking they are. You know what I mean?

[Julian]

Yeah, of course. Look, I understand why it works for bad people, but why aren't we just texting?

[Tracy]

We are texting. But like, my friend Carl in the UK is much easier.

[Julian]

Okay. Because it costs money to text internationally or whatever.

[Tracy]

Like it could. You kind of don't know what your plan is and it's just much. It's a much easier way to do it that way.

[Julian]

Just checking.

[Tracy]

Yeah. So once they move to WhatsApp, things get way more involved and he starts telling her more things about himself. AKA lies about himself.

[Julian]

Yeah, he's an oil rig worker from Texas. He. His work took him 200 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland. I have a friend who has had a partner who does this. I can't remember if they're still together or not.

[Tracy]

Scamming or working on oil rig at.

[Julian]

Least working on an oil rig. The scamming, I don't know, I can't speak. I can't speak to that. But like, this is like serious shit. Like you're there for weeks at a time. It's very dangerous, high stakes, lots of.

[Tracy]

Potential drama, lots of potential injuries. Perfect for a scammer, right?

[Julian]

Exactly.

[Tracy]

He has a daughter named Amanda. She's in boarding school. He misses her so much.

[Julian]

So much.

[Tracy]

Things were very, very casual and boring. Kind of like surface level. Until the scammer starts sett sending Roxy photos of himself.

[Roxy]

Conversations got deep. He sent me pictures. Every day I would send him a picture just of my face.

[Julian]

Was it a little fun to have a secret life?

[Roxy]

Yeah, we do, don't we? We all want that little fun. We all want that little surprise, that little element. Yeah, I can't wait to get on the phone and talk to this one or I can't wait to tell this one. It was a fun, it was a challenge. And then, then a few months later, he fell in love with me, this guy.

[Julian]

We, you and I had like a 10 minute conversation about this before we started. This guy is very handsome, but like. And we are, we are going to talk endlessly.

[Tracy]

What did you say? Aggressively handsome?

[Julian]

Well, he's not like I was saying. I was trying to understand what it was about him because his face is so inviting and somebody later says he's handsome, but he looks safe. He looks like somebody that you can trust. Whereas, like we were talking about, like, Zac Efron is like an example of somebody who's very attractive, but like aggressively attractive.

[Tracy]

Like especially during the scene. High School Musical too.

[Julian]

But like attractive people generally are like that. Right? Whereas this guy, he's very handsome, but very warm looking. Very. There is a reason why this man's pictures are being.

[Tracy]

And there's like a little bit of an age gap, but definitely not enough for it to like. To me, I just keep thinking like, he kind of looks like your son's friend, like Roxy, maybe Roxy's son's friend who always thought he was cute. But like, definitely not okay for Roxy to be interested in. But like, here comes this guy and.

[Julian]

He looks like he's like in his early 50s, you know, and Roxy's probably, I mean, you know, who knows? But like, it's the age thing is important.

[Tracy]

Yeah. So Roxy was like into it. It was her exciting little secret. She's thinking this is totally harmless, that she goes. And then a few months later, he fell in love with me. And Roxy's no stranger to this?

[Julian]

No. But Roxy is also a romantic. She believes in the fairy tale and the happily ever after. She says if want it, it can happen to you in your own life. The thing is, I don't know what the deal with Roxy and her husband is. We never really are told what the deal is there. I'm sure that there is love there, but this is a new exciting thing with a hot young guy. And she's known her husband since she was 16 years old. Like, Roxy's kind of in hook line.

[Tracy]

And Roxy also, as far as I understand, she wasn't in looking for a husband replacement. She just wanted someone who would not ignore her. Playing words with friends. And she could like chat.

[Julian]

Yeah. And. But I do think that there is a romance. There is like a thing. He's calling her beautiful.

[Tracy]

Well, hey, beautiful.

[Julian]

That's the.

[Tracy]

That's how it starts.

[Julian]

Like, this is the kind of thing that like she's not telling her husband. And it's not exactly cheating, but it's not not cheating.

[Tracy]

Well, it's emotion. It's an emotional violation.

[Julian]

Right.

[Tracy]

But she's like, it's still harmless. Right.

[Julian]

Right.

[Tracy]

Now let's go to Canada with Annette. Because Annette is actually someone looking for love and looking for a companion. At least how it started with Roxy. She was just like looking for words with friends. Right?

[Julian]

She was looking for friends with words.

[Tracy]

Yes.

[Julian]

You know what I mean?

[Tracy]

Annette, oh my God. I serve her at a diner. She's been doing it for 40 years. She loves it. She goes, I love serving people. I'll put people first before myself at all times. I'm like, we need to stop doing this. We need to have balance.

[Julian]

100.

[Tracy]

I say to myself in the mirror.

[Julian]

I know she loves being around people. She loves being at work. She doesn't want to be at home. Annette has gone through some shit. Right.

[Tracy]

And we'll get into it. But she's very much like Roxy is like. She's just like. She doesn't want to be alone for whatever reason. Reason. Maybe the reasons are different.

[Julian]

Well, these women are here for a reason. Like I was thinking about. Like, all of these women have some sort of sadness in their lives. For all of these three women that we're going to meet, there was probably 10 each that it didn't work with.

[Tracy]

Yes.

[Julian]

You know what I mean? Because those 10 women weren't looking for something, whereas Annette, Roxy and our other person are.

[Tracy]

So Annette has two kids.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Three grandkids and then two step kids from her now ex husband. So she explains the Marriage with the ex husband. And this is so heartbreaking because she.

[Annette]

She says, like, my marriage was okay at the beginning. It not great. It was okay. I did love him, but I felt controlled. And I didn't like that. Over the years, it got very negative. The kids would come home and say, oh, my God, like, the negativity in here is so thick. This house is so dark. And I'd be sitting there looking at them thinking, yeah, you don't even know. Half of came too chaotic. And I just couldn't handle the whole life anymore anymore.

[Tracy]

This house is so dark. That's so telling.

[Julian]

Well, she decides eventually to leave her husband, and within a week, she's gone. And that completely ends the relationship with her step kids.

[Tracy]

Right? So Annette ditches this loser, moves out of the house within a week. And then things get really bad for Annette because the step kids, this ex husband's kids immediately go. No contact with her, never speak to her again. Then she had to re home her dog because he or she bit a few people. That poor dog was probably as stressed as she was and didn't know how to handle it, truly. And she says, my heart was broken.

[Annette]

And I was very sad and I didn't see any future anymore.

[Julian]

I was done.

[Annette]

It was tough. I had lost almost everything in like a week. So I was just nothing. I had nothing. So I went online and I just wanted to meet somebody, be with somebody that would love me, have fun with me, enjoy me. And that's where I'm at.

[Julian]

Mark Da Silva, she goes on the Facebook dating website. I had no idea. In Canada.

[Tracy]

I didn't know that was a thing. And like, again, Annette, like, I say this with love because Annette was going through it. Like, Annette was perfect for the scammer.

[Julian]

And that's why I'm saying for all of the women that we meet, that it worked for. I'm sure there were 10 that it didn't work for.

[Tracy]

Right. You know, Annette is going there like she just wants to be loved because this guy treated her like shit. And she feels lonely. She misses her dog. Like, it just sucks.

[Julian]

Yeah. It turns out it's really easy to prey on people. You know what I mean? Like, that's what's so sad about this whole thing.

[Tracy]

So when he's talking to Annette, the scammer says, oh, he works in New York. He has his own company. He installs underwater pipelines. He has a kid named Jason. His wife died from brain cancer. There's always that, yeah, story, something like that, right?

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

He's Just trying to put himself out there. But it's so hard to trust people. Oh, my God.

[Julian]

I know. And we see the pictures, and it's the same pictures that Roxy was seeing.

[Tracy]

Right. But, like, the guy looks like he has a really put together life, you know? Like, he's handsome, he's traveling. Tons of gym selfies.

[Julian]

Tons of gym selfies. Which should tell you a little something. Little bit. He's sending, like, underwear pictures.

[Tracy]

Right. And there's, like, so many to go around. But he's, like, wearing nice clothes, he's well dressed. Like he's put together.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

And Annette was going through it, and she's confiding in him. Like, he was so understanding. She didn't feel so alone. She felt safe.

[Julian]

Yeah. And they have this similar interest. They love to travel. They, you know, they both love their kids.

[Tracy]

All right, let's go to Germany.

[Julian]

Okay. We got to meet Gabby. Oh, Gabby.

[Tracy]

Gabby. Girl, you make it really hard like Gabby. I struggle a lot with Gabby.

[Julian]

Same.

[Gabby]

I got a message from somebody named Michael Silver on LinkedIn. He requested to follow each other. He was a gemstone wholesaler in London. Michael really was a handsome man. It was impressing for me to be in touch with a handsome man. Then he wrote me. He asked me if he can switch to. What up?

[Tracy]

He tells her he's a gemstone wholesaler in London, which is Q. Misbehaving in my head. Mama told me not to.

[Annette]

I didn't.

[Tracy]

Anyway, misbehaving. Do you know misbehaving?

[Julian]

Is that ain't misbehaving?

[Tracy]

No, it's the gemstones. It's the song sings with. Okay, we'll tell you all. You'll learn once you. Because once you know misbehaving, you can't go back. And you're.

[Julian]

I'm still catching up with Karen. Get up.

[Tracy]

You're better for it if you know misbehaving.

[Julian]

I can't wait. I'll go look it up tonight. Uncle Baby, I'm learning a lot in this room.

[Tracy]

Okay, great. So here, like, he's using the same tactics as the other women. Like, they meet on a social media site, then he'll ask to switch to WhatsApp.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

Then they're chatting, they're talking more and more. He sends more photos. All of the same interest. Someone died of cancer, or there's someone he's really missing or he's mourning in.

[Julian]

Some way, and she's giving him too much information about her. She's a businesswoman with no kids. They have the same interest in sports and working out.

[Tracy]

Right? And then the hey, beautiful. And then the compliments. And then he falls in love. And he's always the one who's like, I'm in love with you first.

[Julian]

And by the way, he's sending these gym pics to everybody. He loves his gym pics.

[Tracy]

Right. You've captured my heart. All I think about is you. I can't stop thinking about you. They have never met, not even a video chat.

[Julian]

Now, let me say this. He tells her that he loves her.

[Gabby]

She says, before I told him I love him, I needed many, many days. Because I was not sure about that. Because I was worried. I'd been married several years and I went through some challenges.

[Roxy]

Challenges.

[Gabby]

I never thought of having an affair. I was not really sure what my future will be with my husband. I didn't tell anybody about Michael, and I hided this from my husband.

[Julian]

And he's saying, I love you, and she's deciding whether or not to say I love you back.

[Tracy]

They're texting, right? That's it. It's all text.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Annette]

Yes.

[Tracy]

Okay.

[Julian]

Oh, my God. Right? And pictures.

[Tracy]

Right. But it's like there's nothing there.

[Julian]

They haven't spoken.

[Tracy]

Okay, so Gabby is not in a happy marriage. Obviously, we don't know anything about this guy. I will ask no less than 15 million times, what about your husband?

[Julian]

I know.

[Tracy]

Is he trash? I don't know. But Gabby, like, I know. So she eventually says, I love you back to the scammer. Gabby says, after four weeks of talking, the scammer wants to meet in person. Which means that they were both in love. After four weeks of just texting. Texting on WhatsApp.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Gabby, part of you has to know. Know this is bullshit.

[Julian]

But that's my issue with Gabby is that, like, she keeps. There are so many instances of her being like, I don't know. I was questioning. I looked into it. People were telling me this was not real.

[Tracy]

People will tell her.

[Julian]

Just wants to believe it.

[Tracy]

So Gabby books the hotel to meet him. And I'm like. She's like, for me, it was this new beginning. Where does your husband think you are now?

[Julian]

Right. Honestly? Because she's going to meet him in Berlin. Look, we have no idea what she told the husband.

[Tracy]

I mean, clearly we will get. I don't want to give this away just yet. But, like, like, clearly she's very successful.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

So maybe she has the kind of life where she could be like, I have to go away for work for the weekend. I don't know.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Yeah, but, like, this is. The guy does the same thing with all the women. Like, he'll make. And we've seen this 8,000 times.

[Julian]

She gets all the way to Berlin and he cancels on her.

[Tracy]

Right. So he'll, like, make the plans to meet up and then can't make it because of some big drama with work.

[Julian]

Like, the thing that makes me so crazy about this is time is money, baby.

[Roxy]

Yeah.

[Julian]

Like, why can't you cancel on her while she's at the airport before she gets on the flight?

[Tracy]

That's high stakes. We did this with Sweet Bobby. We've done this a million times.

[Julian]

I know.

[Tracy]

High stakes. Because he always has some proof. It'll be like a contract with work to prove why. And then he says, no, no, darling, my love, my beautiful. Think of it this way. The money I get.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

From the reason why I can't meet you.

[Julian]

Right.

[Tracy]

Will provide such an amazing life for us. So even though I can't meet you, this is actually a good thing because I'm getting more money for our life together.

[Julian]

What makes me insane about that is that anybody would feel entitled to his money after four weeks.

[Tracy]

He is letting them think that. That now.

[Julian]

Right.

[Tracy]

Except I think for Roxy.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

I don't think. Unless I'm wrong and they're just not telling us. I don't think he ever makes it this far with Roxy.

[Julian]

No. Yeah.

[Tracy]

Because Roxy was just looking for something different than Annette and Gabby. Like, and we're just hearing about this part of it.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Annette and Gabby.

[Julian]

Well, because. So the story with Gabby is that they were supposed to be to Berlin. She gets to Berlin, all of a sudden he's got to go to Vietnam to buy some fancy gems.

[Tracy]

But here's this paperwork as proof.

[Julian]

Exactly.

[Tracy]

And everyone's like, okay, makes sense.

[Roxy]

Sense.

[Julian]

So then we're back with Annette from Canada. He was supposed to come up and visit, but last minute he can't make it because he's got to go build underwater pipes in Norway where he's going to earn $2.7 million, of which Annette thinks she's going to get some.

[Tracy]

And here's a piece of paper to prove it. Another Dr. Document.

[Julian]

And once again, I've been thinking so much about this lately that, like, if we're doing this with a purpose and you and anybody is getting anything out of listening to this other than, like, you know, a fun afternoon, like, when people start to pull this shit on, you know, it's always a lie. It's a lie when it's all the Attention Text. And they're trying to send you contracts to prove that it's all a lie.

[Tracy]

Especially when he. Here's where he starts asking for money.

[Julian]

Right.

[Tracy]

They've been texting for a couple of weeks. Just texting. He says to Gabby, after about two.

[Gabby]

Weeks, Michael told me that he bought all the stones, but then he had issues with the customs office. They want me to pay customs fee and my bank account is blocked. He sent me the bank account and I saw on the bank account his face, his name, and more than £1 million. I thought, okay, he has really problems to get this money.

[Julian]

Gabby believes him. It's $5,000.

[Tracy]

And the reason she believes him is because this scammer gives Gabby the bank login.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

And she's able to see everything, which. What's weird is that, that he has, like, a profile picture on his bank account. Chase, I don't have a bank. Like a profile picture. There's £1.2 million in his account. There's the alert to call the bank and sort out these banking issues that he's been telling Gabby about. It looks real.

[Julian]

It does look.

[Tracy]

To her credit, he's made it look real.

[Julian]

Did he give her the login or is it just a screenshot?

[Tracy]

She says it's the bank login and she goes in and she's able to see it. I don't know if this is revisionist.

[Julian]

History or if he was able to build a website that looks like a bank account.

[Tracy]

Yeah, it's that one.

[Julian]

Totally.

[Roxy]

So.

[Tracy]

And it's. I'm sure there's some reason. Well, it's a Vietnamese bank. Let's own something that, like, oh, this doesn't look like the.

[Julian]

Require a sexy picture.

[Tracy]

Fine.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

So this all looks real. She gives him the $5,000. There's a different scam with Annette. Annette, he's in Norway on some ship. The ship doesn't have any gas. Annette needs to pay for the gas for the ship. Annette's like, sure, I got you. Here's $10,000.

[Julian]

Now my question is, that is the hardest earned money I've ever heard. She's been a server at a diner for 40 years. Come on, 10 grand to fucking gas, right? For the ship?

[Tracy]

And she needs that money even more because Annette just told us that she's just lost everything in her life. She's starting over. That's like. Do you know what I mean?

[Julian]

Of course. And like, that's the thing that really gets me about this, is that these people don't care.

[Tracy]

Right.

[Julian]

And I'm like, is it one guy in a room or is it 10 guys in a bank of computers being like, you know what I mean? Like, how well orchestrated is this scam exactly?

[Tracy]

And now this is where we know, like, oh, yeah, it's definitely different with Roxy, because with Roxy, he just needs $1,000 to fix it.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Like, she doesn't get the sob story. It's not a lot of money. He's like, oh, I need to get home to my daughter. Which makes sense because Roxy's an empty nester.

[Julian]

Yeah. That's what he's using now with Gabby. Gabby's the one in Berlin, and he wants five grand from her. And she. This is what's. What annoys me about her. She's got the good instincts. She's saying, hang on before I give you five grand, which probably isn't that much money to Gabby.

[Tracy]

But she's like, you know what?

[Gabby]

We have never met in person. And so I thought, okay, what should I do? So I. I said, I need a video call. I want to know if the person I think you are is real. He told me, okay, I will call you on video tomorrow. It was not a really long call because he was busy. I was busy. I just talked to him a few seconds. I saw his face. I thought, okay, it's Michael. That was proof that he exists.

[Tracy]

And now I was waiting for all the catfish excuses about how he doesn't have a webcam. Remember, Max would be like, then go to Best Buy and get one. Totally isn't Will Smith you're talking to.

[Julian]

Right?

[Tracy]

Or whatever.

[Julian]

You know what I mean? Yeah.

[Tracy]

So. But he does it. It's a very, very short call, but it's enough for Gabby to believe that this person is who he says.

[Julian]

Let me just say this, Gabby, this again, is some revisionist history. Because she's, like, not wanting to own up to, like. And again, he's the bad guy. He's the scammer. I'm not blaming her. I'm just saying it's an exercise in watching her ignore her very good instincts where she's like, the video call is kind of choppy. I saw his face for a second. But what this must be is some video of this actual person that he stole off the Internet. Internet. And it's just him talking, and she's talking to, like, it. So it's choppy. It's cutting in and out. Like, I would love to go back in time and see what that video call actually looked like.

[Tracy]

Well, we will actually unpack the video calls.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Just telling you eventually, like, we will get there, and it's worse than you think.

[Julian]

Oh, God.

[Tracy]

But. And that has a similar call. It's only like. Oh, it's only five minutes. She's like, it was cutting out a lot, but, like, it proved that he was real.

[Julian]

Yes. This is more evidence than a lot of people we've seen scammed usually yet.

[Tracy]

And this is how you know the scammer is playing the long game. He actually paid back Gabby the $5,000.

[Julian]

Genius.

[Tracy]

So he paid her back right away because now she can trust him. And I'm like, oh, this guy's good. I hate to say it. He's playing the long game.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

But now things start getting spicy. The sexy selfies, the phone sex, the hardcore sexting.

[Julian]

I. Oh, God. Really?

[Tracy]

Oh, my God. Do I have to say it?

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Okay. Don't look at me.

[Julian]

Oh, no, I don't. Okay. Okay. Okay. What is it? What is is it?

[Tracy]

It's three sentences. Okay.

[Julian]

Oh, God. Okay.

[Tracy]

I crave you.

[Julian]

No.

[Tracy]

Oh, my God. I'm so sorry.

[Julian]

Well, now I'm looking right at you.

[Tracy]

I will lick you until you swear your allegiance to my empire. I swear I can taste you right now. And I'm like, what even is this? Like, what is this?

[Annette]

No.

[Tracy]

What?

[Julian]

Until you swear your allegiance to my empire.

[Tracy]

Also, you know what? My empire, number one.

[Julian]

Well, look, it's really, like, chat GPT. Write me some D. Like, it's my empire. Oh, my God.

[Tracy]

And, like, if you're gonna worship it, fine. But, like, let's not get it twisted. Whose empire really is.

[Julian]

And also, like, there's hints of Taylor in there somewhere.

[Tracy]

How dare you?

[Julian]

I'm just saying, like, my empire. I feels Taylor. No, it's just. Okay, sorry, we're moving on.

[Tracy]

You can't say chat GPT and then be like, it's Taylor reminiscent.

[Julian]

Like, you're right. You're right. I can't have.

[Tracy]

The point is, there's a lot of intimacy going on.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Not just sexually, but they're talking about their lives together. Like, sending real estate listings of houses to choose from.

[Julian]

This is. I'm sorry to say it. This is not taking care of yourself, ladies. Like, when you're receiving them and really believing that he's gonna buy.

[Gabby]

What?

[Julian]

He's literally saying to her, pick whichever house you want. We're gonna buy it.

[Tracy]

Right. And if Roxy's like, I've heard this all before. My husband said this to me. So Roxy's like. But like, Annette. And I'm not being mean about It. But Annette has told us as much like she needs that she's gonna play into it more and lean into it more.

[Julian]

And it's. It makes me sad for these women.

[Tracy]

I agree.

[Julian]

That they were in such a low place and. And that these people, these scammers, know that there are people out there in the world that are in these really low places that can be like, you can't have a soul if you're doing this to people.

[Tracy]

No. And they've convinced Annette, for example, that she's only worth someone who will text her and ask her for money, which she deserves so much more than that. So that even, like, making her think not that highly of herself, because in a way, it's like, oh, my God, he loves me. But also, like, that he should be FaceTiming you 24 hours a day.

[Julian]

Exactly. And, like, at one point, she refers to him as her boyfriend. I'm like, you guys have only been.

[Tracy]

Texting for, like, a couple of days.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

But this guy always needs more money. And it's like, the stakes are always, always higher. There's an explosion. There's so much blood. I need more pipes. I need to hire crew. I need more gas.

[Julian]

I know. And everybody believes it. And like, Gabby. Gabby starts saying to him, I can only send you $25,000 today. That's all I can send you.

[Tracy]

Annette is going to send 30 grand.

[Julian]

I know.

[Tracy]

So Gabby goes to the bank, and the thing is, she needs to transfer $25,000 to another country. And that's a big deal. Like, you have to go to the. The bank. You have to talk to someone, and.

[Julian]

We'Re going to find out there are stopgaps in place.

[Tracy]

Like, the reason you have to go down to the bank and talk to somebody is to avoid scams like this, 100%. I'm not defending big sperm. I'm not defending big bank. But, like, there's a reason why you have to go and speak to somebody, because you can't just, like, send 25. You know what I mean?

[Julian]

I know, I know. And, like, the bank manager is asking Gabby, like, all the right questions.

[Gabby]

Like, the bank manager started also to discuss with me, where do you send the money? Do you really want to send the money? Is this real? He asked critical questions. So I came back to Michael. Michael said, okay, it's your private life. It's your money. You have not to tell the bank manager why you do this. They have to accept this because she.

[Tracy]

Doesn'T do the bank transfer. She leaves in that moment, and she's like, in a panic. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. Don't you ever talk to the bank again. Right, sweetheart?

[Julian]

Right.

[Tracy]

Yeah, I. Please. He goes, honey, all I need from you now is to relax your mind and be happy. Please, no more communication with the bank about money or anything else. Please stop all communication with them.

[Julian]

I know.

[Tracy]

Scammer, you got, like, a subtlety. I know they say in scream subtlety, Stu, look it up. But, like, it's so obvious.

[Gabby]

Yes.

[Julian]

Why is Gabby. She's such a smart woman. It's just very frustrating to watch her falling for it.

[Tracy]

And this is also, like, I want.

[Julian]

To say, like, he's manipulating her. I'm not saying that she's falling for it. I understand that she's being manipulated, but it's very hard to watch the manipulation happen.

[Tracy]

And when Gabby says that, she blacks out from the stress. Yes, dear listener, when your body is literally rejecting what's happening to you, walk away.

[Julian]

For a man you've never met, like, you.

[Tracy]

You don't have to engage with him. No one is forcing you to respond.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Like, how much stress are you going to take from a guy you've never met?

[Julian]

Right.

[Tracy]

Stop and breathe for a minute and just be like, whoa.

[Julian]

Right. Because now we're back with Annette, and it's not that I don't feel for Gabby. It's just the financial dire straits doesn't feel to apply to her the way that it feels to Annette.

[Tracy]

And also, by the way, Gabby went back and said, you know what? Blackout be damned. I'm going to go send the money.

[Julian]

She does it. So now we're at Annette, who's trying to wire this guy 30 grand, which is probably all the money she has in the world.

[Tracy]

Yeah.

[Julian]

And she's like.

[Annette]

So I went to the bank again, but the second time around, one girl was like, I. I don't have a good feeling about this. How well do you know this guy? I'm like, no, no, it's fine. Like, it's my boyfriend. I'm not worried about it. He's in. He's in Norway. He needs help. And she's like, I don't feel good about this. I don't want to send this money. I really don't want to do this. And I kind of looked at her and said, listen, lady, I really don't care. Just send them the money. I don't want to deal with you.

[Julian]

This is where I have that hard time believing that there's no part of them that thinks this isn't A scam.

[Tracy]

Because I think we've reached the point with Annette.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

It has to be real.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

Right now, that's where Annette is, as she cannot take another heartbreak.

[Julian]

Right.

[Tracy]

She absolutely needs this. It's worth 30 grand and more.

[Julian]

I know. That's what it almost feels like. They're paying for the opportunity to be in this fake relationship, and I think Annette is. Yeah.

[Tracy]

I hate to say I have.

[Julian]

Gabby gets there, too. There's no, like, Gabby. Like, at some point, you're in so deep that it has to be real. Because if I lose this, not only do I lose the man, but I lose all my money.

[Tracy]

Yeah.

[Julian]

You know, I see.

[Tracy]

I hear you. I see. Annette and Gabby is very different. Like, motivations and emotional responses and.

[Julian]

And also their ability to make the money back on their own. Like. Like. Like Gabby's a businesswoman who's, like, makes money, and Annette works at a diner.

[Tracy]

Right.

[Julian]

I don't just. I feel for a. Like, I know how hard earned that.

[Tracy]

Money was to give 40 grand.

[Julian]

I know. I know.

[Tracy]

Now we're back with Roxy. The scammer wants to repay her the thousand dollars she gave him. Just a little something extra for yourself, sweetheart. Don't spend it all in one place. Like, it's literally what he says to her. She's like, okay. What a handsome man. So the check arrives. It's four grand.

[Julian]

It's like, I know.

[Tracy]

Easy money for playing words with friends with some guy. Like, while my husband is asleep upstairs, easy.

[Julian]

I know. She takes it to the bank. She deposits it through the atm. The next morning, she gets a call from the.

[Roxy]

The next morning, I got a phone call from my bank that something was wrong. They told me it was a fraudulent check. They didn't collect the money because there was no money in the account. I texted Scott and told him what happened, and I kept asking him, where'd you get this money from? Where'd you get this money from? And he never answered me. My bank closed my account because of it.

[Julian]

Can somebody give Roxy the benefit of the doubt?

[Tracy]

Her bank account account is closed.

[Julian]

Roxy has never run a red light in her life.

[Tracy]

They close the account and they call her. And Roxy's like, I've heard enough. I'm done. She knows this is a scam.

[Julian]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tracy]

And she's like, I'm over it. Also, I feel like maybe her husband will get wind of the fact that her account has been closed and come asking some questions.

[Julian]

And that is exactly what happens.

[Tracy]

So. But her husband finds out once again.

[Julian]

We don't know anything about the husband, but the husband feels so deeply betrayed by this.

[Tracy]

It was like Roxy had an emotional affair with some scammer online, and he stole. And then she stole $1,000 from her husband, and now their bank account has been shut down.

[Julian]

I don't. I was having. I know. I'm not calling you out. I know this is not what you meant, but, like, I was having kind of a hard time with the way that it was being presented as though it was just his money.

[Tracy]

And now Roxy's like, oh, like, I stole the money from my husband. So she's making it seem like it's not their money, it's his money.

[Julian]

And I just hate that so much. It's like, Roxy, like, it's all. It's all communal money. It's your one family.

[Tracy]

But, like, I think we're splitting hairs with that word. It's like, there's the emotional affair, and there's $1,000 gone, and also their bank account is shut down.

[Julian]

But to me, it just. It shows. Yes. I think it's. It's. It's a whole other conversation of the inequity in their marriage that, like, you know what I mean?

[Tracy]

Yeah.

[Julian]

The kids are disappointed in her. The husband's disappointed in her, and at least she says the daughter understands. Like, I understand. Like, if everybody could zoom out and be like, this is very out of character for Roxy.

[Tracy]

Right.

[Julian]

She's clearly struggling. She's clearly alone, and her husband doesn't list to her. Like, you know what I mean? Like, she's probably been like, george, stay up and watch TV with me tonight. George, let's go do something. And he's tired, and he doesn't want to, and he's working. And it's like, she didn't mean anything.

[Tracy]

By it, but she is owning it now. She's like, I know it was stupid. It never should have happened. And she's angry. Like, she's embarrassed. She's angry, and she's talking about it.

[Julian]

I just want somebody to address her emotional issues. You know what I mean? I want somebody to look at her and say, I love you, and I'm sorry that you're lonely, and we're going to fix that, but let's not do this again.

[Tracy]

And I'm not just here for the churros or the fried. Whatever.

[Julian]

The fried dough or whatever, but because.

[Tracy]

This train is never late. The scammers now in the hospital. I know Gabby wants to fly to Vietnam to nurse him back to health.

[Julian]

And, like, never has anybody been Luckier for a global pandemic than this guy. Because Gabby was on the plane to Vietnam.

[Tracy]

He just never would have showed up. He would have ghosted her. Like, on to the next one. Like, people are disposable.

[Julian]

Wait, I keep forgetting he wasn't actually there. You know what I mean? Right?

[Tracy]

But, you know, so she couldn't get on a plane. But you know what? She could sell her parents house to pay for his medical expenses.

[Gabby]

My dad had a heart attack and had to go to the care home. So I had to decide what to do with the house. But Michael really supported me to sell the house and we had a lot of fights about that. He told me, you don't support me. Do you really love me? You don't want to help me? I felt okay, I have have to help him to prove my love, to prove our relationship. The decision was then to sell the house.

[Tracy]

Now she's like, he really supported me to sell the house. No, girl, he's manipulating you. Because they are fighting about this endlessly. She has never met him.

[Julian]

No.

[Tracy]

They've quote video chatted for maybe 30 seconds. It's all via WhatsApp.

[Julian]

And like, she's got to sell the house because she's already given him all her liquid cash.

[Tracy]

But we see the text, it's super abusive. He's really mean to her. And she does it and she's like, I did it to prove my love and to prove our relationship. Relationship? What relationship?

[Julian]

I know. And this was the moment where I was like, Gabby, like, like, why do you need this so badly? And Gabby does start to say, like, what you were saying before, like, it has to be real because if I lose him, that I also lose the money. Like, she basically gives him $400,000.

[Tracy]

Well, she sells the house for €475, which is like 550,000American dollars. Right. I just want to slow down on this.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

She sells her parents house from them.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Her childhood home. For a guy who's fighting with her all the time.

[Julian]

And because she can't go back to the bank, because she doesn't want to deal with that pesky manager, he wants her to give it to him in bitcoin.

[Tracy]

The transaction is so suspicious that the website she's using blocks the transfer. Like, flag.

[Julian]

The shadiest shit in the world is cryptocurrency. And even they're like, Girl.

[Tracy]

Wait. $550,000.

[Julian]

I know. She ultimately gives him 30 Bitcoin. I looked up what bitcoin now is worth so much. It's worth $117,000 per bitcoin. Now, she had 30 of them. If she had held onto that bitcoin, you know what I mean?

[Tracy]

Oh, she was never going to.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

So back with Annette, who just set this guy $30,000 as it's for a total of 40 grand.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

She starts showing some people photos of her boyfriend.

[Julian]

Oh my God.

[Tracy]

Including her best friend Nicole. Nicole comes sit next to me.

[Julian]

Nicole is literally here. And like, may I ask that we all just show pictures of our Internet boyfriends to people.

[Tracy]

Everyone get a Nicole.

[Julian]

Everyone get a Nicole. Like, because these pictures are so obviously dark.

[Tracy]

Nicole is the maid. It was 10 o' clock at night.

[Gabby]

I'm usually in bed.

[Tracy]

But she sent me the picture. The picture was just odd.

[Annette]

She's like, his head is too big for the body. The guy looks like he's 5 7. Mark's supposed to be 6 2. It looked like a bubble head on his body.

[Tracy]

So I reversed image this on Google and then the original picture of who it is came up. This. This is the worst Photoshop job I've ever seen.

[Julian]

You're very good at this. But anybody with a pair of eyes can see, you know what I mean?

[Tracy]

Because when we see the picture, Patrick, I'm not joking. I did a spit take.

[Julian]

I know.

[Tracy]

Once we see it, you're like, it is so fake. It is stupid how fake it is.

[Julian]

And it is the best tangible evidence we have of how much these people were willing to overlook. Because it's so obvious.

[Tracy]

Because Nicole, immediately she looks at the picture also does a spit take.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

She immediately heads to Google and she finds the real picture.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

So she's showing Annette the side by side. She's like, what were you thinking?

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

So to be clear, the face of the scammer is the face that all of these women have seen.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

This, like, handsome face. Right. In this case, the guy found a photo of someone on an oil rig.

[Julian]

Because remember, like in this story, he works on an oil rig.

[Tracy]

Right. And put the face that all of the women know on top of it. Poorly.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

And when Nicole Google so poorly. And like, the proportions don't make any sense.

[Julian]

No.

[Tracy]

When Nicole Googles this, they see that this is a known scam. It's the oil rig scam.

[Julian]

Yes. And when we see the actual picture of the guy on the oil rig that like the scammer put his face over, the face of the guy in the picture is about half the size of the face of the scammer.

[Tracy]

It's like the guy from Beetlejuice.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

Where the head really struck your head. Enormous body. You're like, what?

[Julian]

And you're like, google this picture if you haven't seen this documentary. It is, like. It is so obvious.

[Tracy]

But thank God this is all Annette needs.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

There's no way she can't see that this is a scam. And thankfully, she doesn't try to justify it. Like, she needed Nicole to be like, girl, right here. Look at me, girl. Yeah, I'm here with you. Like, they. Like, Stewie said, succession. Like, we can have a real human moment here right now. Like, me.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

You know this is fake. And thank God. And that's like. It's like she snaps out of it and she's done.

[Julian]

Yeah. And she says she was like. And then I woke up, you know? And now, like. And when that moment happens, like, Annette's given this guy 40 grand.

[Roxy]

Right.

[Julian]

Like, her life saving, and it's gone. It's gone.

[Tracy]

So all of the women, collectively, in their own ways, finally notice that, like, something's up.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

And they start doing their own research. Because remember, like, Roxy's account got shut down. Now BFF Nicole comes along.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Even the suspicious activity on the bitcoin account, like, they're all kind of like, wait.

[Julian]

I mean, Gabby got stopped by the bank people, and the bitcoin people being like, this isn't real. And she still didn't listen.

[Tracy]

Now it all leads to one person, and no one can say his name.

[Julian]

I'm like, I know how.

[Tracy]

It's Brian Haugen.

[Julian]

Yeah, exactly.

[Tracy]

And the scammers like, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, my God. Did I not tell you I was also an actor? Oh, my God.

[Julian]

Because they find his profile online easily. He's got, like, an actory Instagram page. But the thing that they're seeing is that every single image that any of them have been sent have come from this Instagram page.

[Tracy]

And they're all different names. So one of them is Brian Silver. One of that. Like, it's all the same thing, right?

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

So Gabby reaches out to this, like, actor account.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

And she's like, hi, please confirm. She's not even asking, like, is this real? What she's asking is, please confirm that it's safe for me to send another $50,000 to this person from the Internet that I've never met.

[Julian]

And she gets no response from this Instagram account and sends the money anyway.

[Gabby]

I was really confused at that time. Whom should I believe? Because when you're already in love, normally you trust and you Love someone and believe them more than other people. That's normal situation in a relationship. And the crazy thing is because I lost already so many money, I thought, okay, when I now leave, I will lose all. But it's crazy because you're afraid when you now leave this guy, guy, you will never get this money back. It's. It's like you're in a circle.

[Tracy]

Gabby, wake up. Like now it just seems like she's willfully ignoring every single red flag in front of her. All the drama.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

The stress she blacked out. The manipulation, the fighting, the endless need for money. You sold your parents out. The bank didn't want you to transfer. And then when you told him that, he said, never mention the bank again.

[Julian]

Right.

[Tracy]

Stop going to the bank. Beautiful.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

Then the bitcoin site won't do the transfer. Now, he's an actor, but you can't confirm it. Gabby. Literally one thing right after the other. But no, no, no. Today is not. I decided to trust Michael. Which is the name the scammer was using with her.

[Julian]

Exactly. So she just keeps sending him money.

[Tracy]

So now Gabby has sort of convinced herself that now this is a crusade to get her money back.

[Julian]

And it's also, I think, that she's paying money to live in it for like another week so she doesn't have to deal with it, I guess. You know what I mean, Gabby, like.

[Tracy]

She'S obviously incredibly successful. She's got a ton of money.

[Julian]

Yeah, because.

[Tracy]

So she jumps through all of these hoops to get the bitcoin transfer to go through.

[Julian]

He helps her do it, literally writes the email for her to send to the bitcoin company.

[Tracy]

She gives him all of her money.

[Julian]

30 Bitcoin, which is the.

[Tracy]

It's the $475,000 that she got from the sale of her childhood home, which is really 550 grand.

[Julian]

Wait, that would be worth $3.5 million if she had sold her parents house, bought the bitcoin, and held it until today. $3.5 million.

[Tracy]

Holy shit.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

So she gives him all the money from the sale of her child at home. That was his idea.

[Gabby]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

She did it to prove her love to him when he's either love bombing her or yelling at her or causing her to blackout from the stress. Then he's having her send it to like 10 different addresses.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

Isn't that. Yeah. Two Bitcoin here, three Bitcoin here. And Gabby is thrilled. She's like, I saved his life. I paid for that heart surgery.

[Julian]

I know. Which is calling Surgery, which I know it's a language thing because it's like a hard G, you know, and our language makes no sense, but. But it was making me crazy.

[Tracy]

Okay, so all the profiles lead to this Brian Haugen guy.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

He's an actor. He's a model, and he has an online company where he teaches women how to do makeup.

[Julian]

Yes.

[Tracy]

So they follow, find him. Right. And Roxy signs up for the consultation because she had to meet him. This is where I start going insane.

[Julian]

Now, he is a real person. This is a real person that they have found. And their way to get to him is to sign up for his makeup tutorial. Like, they're actually going to speak to this guy that they think is scamming them.

[Tracy]

Right. I got to slow down on the makeup thing.

[Julian]

Okay, great.

[Tracy]

So the online Consultation ranges from 200 to $300, depending on which one you buy, which is just insane to begin with.

[Julian]

Yeah.

[Tracy]

This is what the screenshots in the documentary tell us. He has since reduced his prices by about, like, 50 bucks or he's always having sales. But what I'm about to tell you is based on the screenshots I took.

[Julian]

Okay.

[Tracy]

Right now. Which is based on Roxy's receipt.

[Julian]

Okay. Okay.

[Tracy]

So Roxy buys the either $200 or $300 consultation. Then she has to buy all of the makeup. She can't do the consultation without buying the makeup. She spent over $700 to meet the scammer face to face and yell at him. It is so shady because she signs up. Then they're like, oh, no. You have to, like, buy the specific makeup so that Brian can teach you what to do. Roxy paid $712.30, which is after the $15 discount.

[Julian]

So it's not like the tutorial is free, but you have to buy the makeup.

[Tracy]

It's like it all costs hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

[Julian]

Oh, my God.

[Tracy]

So the receipt, like, we see it, they zoom in on it. It' $12.30, which is after the 15% New Year's Eve discount. Most of it is for a serum. A $640 serum. That's one ounce.

[Julian]

And how much do serums, like, cost?

[Tracy]

30. Like, if it's medical grade, 100 and something. Which is still insane. For a one ounce serum. One ounce for $640, it's marked down to 544. The total should have been 838 dollars. Tack on the 200. $300 lesson.

[Julian]

Oh, my God.

[Tracy]

Fucking crazy. And also, who are you to be making serum like this? Do you have credentials. Are you a scientist? Are you a dermatologist? Honestly, this website is a scam and nobody talks about it. I will talk about it for an hour next week.

[Julian]

And it's not even the scam that we're here to talk about.

[Tracy]

I was like, oh, so this scam has to play into the other scam? No, dear listener spoiler.

[Julian]

I know I'm going to talk about.

[Tracy]

It, but I was like, wait a second, second. That price jumped out at me, like out of my screen. $712 to talk to this guy, that these women just are throwing money at him.

[Julian]

Let me just say this. I just. My only counter to this is, you know, we just did a makeup tutorial for Daisy. We. We had to find a lady on the Internet who. Daisy went and did an in person makeup tutorial with her because we don't know how to do makeup and she's getting really interested in it.

[Tracy]

Okay.

[Julian]

She gave us a list of products to buy. So it wasn't coming from her? No, no, no, no. It was like, go to Sephora and buy these products. But it was minimal. It was like blush and eyeshadow.

[Tracy]

I was gonna say how. How lamb is an 11 year old doing.

[Julian]

It's also mostly skin care. It's not really all makeup. It's really mostly like, this is how you wash your face and this is what you use and all that. So when I looked into booking this for Daisy, the prices are like $450 for like a kid.

[Tracy]

That's. I'm sorry, insane.

[Julian]

It is insane. But my only point is his fee for his in person makeup consultation is less than that.

[Tracy]

No, no, this is virtual girl.

[Roxy]

But.

[Julian]

But he started in person and then it became virtual.

[Tracy]

Okay, well, the in person is $1000. It is, it's 1100 dollars. I was going to save it for next week. I'm going to dive into the pricing.

[Julian]

I'm not defending him. I'm not. I'm just saying, like. But also, like, the people that we were looking into are just people who do makeup. They're not like credentialed. My point is just. This shit is expensive.

[Tracy]

It's expensive. But also, who are you to be making a $650 serum girl?

[Julian]

But you would think that you would have to have if you're making things.

[Tracy]

This is what I mean. Who are you?

[Julian]

I know.

[Tracy]

Who are you? I was convinced that this is the scam all along. I was.

[Julian]

I know, I know it. I know. Well, we, like, this guy becomes his own character and I Cannot wait to get it.

[Tracy]

He sure does.

[Julian]

Girl. We've got. I know. We've got a. We got a lot to get to.

[Tracy]

Yeah. And we will continue right where we left off with the makeup me screaming about the makeup scam at the top of next week's episode.

[Julian]

We love you, fam.

[Tracy]

We love you. Thanks for joining us on this brand new journey, new series. Who this? Here we are.

[Gabby]

All right.

[Julian]

Bye.

[Tracy]

Bye.

[Julian]

Oh, my God, girl. Episode one of hey, Beautiful fam. All three episodes of this are available right now and ad free on our Patreon. It's like I said at the beginning, where you can get over 500 full ad free bonus apps covering all of those series that are crazy on the Netflix and the Hulu and the HBO and all of that.

[Tracy]

All that stuff. Yeah.

[Gabby]

And this.

[Tracy]

In this one, they actually kind of end up telling you a little bit of, like, how these people are able to do that. Like, we get a lot more information. It's still infuriating. But I'm saying if you haven't listened to these episodes, like, they kind of dive into it. Some of your questions are answered, some of them are not. And sometimes you just get mad. So we'll see.

[Julian]

Yeah. And stay tuned. I think episode two is where it gets really gay for a minute and it's pretty fun.

[Tracy]

Yeah. And when I get really mad about the skincare website, I mean, I'm. Take this microphone away for me.

[Julian]

Oh, I know. No, no, get her another one. Get her a second mic. We need more. Once again, fam, you can find the link to the Patreon in the show notes or go to patreon.com truecrimeobssessed yeah, and we love you.

[Tracy]

All right. We love you. And really stay safe out there, okay?

[Julian]

Stay safe out there, please.

[Tracy]

You especially on the Internet and in person and just everywhere. Just have like a force field around you. Okay, we love you.

[Julian]

Bye. Never leave your house. Okay? We love you. Goodbye.