Three classic scams are looked at in this episode. First we look at how credit card skimming works, then a quick look into the trust required for scammers to pull off an investment fraud, and then we finish off with a woman who loses her entire business due to the deceptive advanced fee scam.

1. Credit Card / Investment Fraud / Advanced Fee

Factual

True Crime

All over the world, con artists target innocent victims to separate them from their hard-earned money. One of the most committed crimes in the world, fraud knows no borders.

Scammed

Series 1

All over the world, con artists target innocent victims to separate them from their money.

ITV News

National and international news with reports and analysis from ITV's Correspondents.

ITV Evening News

STV News - Central

STV News at Six

Identity theft is becoming more and more prevalent these days, but the military has been a particularly vulnerable target. We explore one story of a young soldier who returns home to find his identity has been stolen and his credit rating ruined. We then explore the new dangers of the internet and how they can easily lead to identity theft.

2. Military / ID theft

Counterfeit products are a hot topic presently, and in the world of sports memorabilia, counterfeit products can make criminals rich. At the world's largest sports memorabilia conference, leading experts speak about the breadth of this crime, and we also speak to FBI Special Agent Fitzsimmons about Operation Bullpen.

3. Counterfeit Products

Affinity frauds are perpetrated against people of particular social or ethnic groups. These two criminals, David Spark and Andrew Lech, prey upon trusting groups of people that do not fear or would never suspect being taken advantage of by someone from within their own community.

4. Affinity (Sparks and Lech)

Society's altruism can be easily affirmed through the donations given to charities in times of need. We often seek out a means to help aid others in these desperate instances, and very often we are able to do so by donating money in person or, more commonly nowadays, online.

5. Charity (Illness & Disaster)

Automobiles play a major part of our daily lives now, and we often put our trust in those people that maintain and deal in these vehicles. Vehicles are often traded and sold secondhand; when going through this process, opportunities for criminals to defraud vehicle owners and the insurance companies become a result.

6. Automotive (RV/Airbag)

In the early 20th century a man scammed people out of their savings through an elaborate plan that is now referred to as a Ponzi scheme. This scheme is still used today, and in this episode you will find out the inner workings of how a Ponzi scheme works and the devastation and loss it can cause to many innocent people that are manipulated into investing.

7. Ponzi Saxton

8. Butler Ponzi

These fraudsters ran an international scheme that stretched all over the globe. This became a family fraud that lasted over twenty years, with the son taking over his father's well-established plan. Sending out thousands of forged international lotto letters, they were able to attract and convince people they were a legitimate lotto that also ran a pension fund for its regular playing customers.

9. Lotto

This episode uncovers the horrifying story of a funeral home outside Chicago involved with selling recycled graves by disposing of the original remains and burying the new. Follow this ghastly fraud with Sheriff Tom Dart and other victims as they share their experience and reaction throughout the entire ordeal.

10. Funeral Cemetery

All relationships encounter their share of problems, but when one partner lies and defrauds the other of their savings, it becomes a crime. Romance and relationship frauds can be particularly devastating due to the amount of personal involvement from the criminal and victim.

11. Romance Fraud (Kent)

Throughout the world ID Theft has become a common and major part of fraudulent crime. Whether it's forging documents or stealing people's personal information, this crime is not limited by borders and affects people of all walks of life. During this episode you will meet Detectives Glass and Staab as they each guide us through two separate fascinating ID theft cases.

12. ID Theft

The elderly are often preyed upon by fraudsters; what's even more shocking is that these crimes almost always come at the hands of someone they know and trust. Follow the stories of these elderly people whose retirement savings were plundered by everyone from their trusted fiduciaries and new romantic interests, and even their own children.