* Andolina Gonzalez
* The Sweet Granny Con
* "Bonnie"
* The Fake Countess
* The Sweetheart Swindler


I thought it was terrible that Andolina Gonzalez got away with her scam with the judge. I hope she gets caught or someone scams her. Im not sure if the sweet granny got caught. She is the one that was business partners with her son and they bilked their investors of money. She is the one that would give away fruit cakes. I think I read somewhere where "Bonnie" got caught in 2003 for identity fraud. She was the fat ugly woman who stole money from the department store she worked at. The fake countess ended up going to prison for her fraud. The sweetheart swindler is an all too common case. You really have to be careful with those people.

You really have to be careful with those people.

The problems is that these fraud artists are predators like serial killers and robbers. They search and use your weaknesses against you. They're like cheetahs going after a herd. While they try to find the old and the sick. If one is not available they will go after the strong if necessary.

All the caution in the world may not prevent you from being a victim of a fraud artists, just like all the caution in the world might not prevent your house from being ransacked. or yourself from being killed.

Yep the "Sweet Granny", aka Gertrude Pruitt, was eventually caught.

Hmmm can't remember his name, but they guy who bilked members of a retirement community out of millions by posing as a broker for the Kemper Group.

Phillip Breen- was he ever caught?

The one who went diving with his son and "disappeared" after defrauding the government of profits from retail gasoline sales.

Great avatar, Apostapler.

The con segments are my 11 year olds favorites. She likes the one with the lottery tickets.

Wasn't there one where a rabbi was stealing millions of dollars around the world?

Wasn't there one where a rabbi was stealing millions of dollars around the world?


Joseph Prushikowski(sp?)? I forget how to spell his name but I think thats who you mean.

My favorite fraud segment was the "swoop and SQuat". When people would stage car accidents usually with 18 wheelers and then complain of soft tissue injury because it was too hard to disprove

The Lancaster Letters might be the most brilliant extortion plot I have ever seen.

Even though they got caught, there was a lot of thought and planning that went into the scam.

In theory it could work brilliantly.

I think there problem was that they tried it on too small a sample. They needed more people in order to hide their tracks.

I'm surprised nobody has ever tried to do this again.

Great avatar, Apostapler.

The con segments are my 11 year olds favorites. She likes the one with the lottery tickets.

You have no idea how much I pray my future children turn out like yours, Corky.


This is a great thread topic, I think. My favorites:

- Bonnie Wilder
- Eric Kessler
- Phillip Breen
- Dan Tondevold
- Liz Carmichael

Scary Fraud cases:

- The one where they fake pulled chicken parts out of the peoples' stomachs!

- The one where the man dressed in drag goes into the travel office!

- Liz Carmichael was freaky!

One of my favorite fraud segments was about a heavy set man who checked himself into hospitals complaining of back pain. He'd contact lawyers in the area and convince them to give him some money, then he'd take off never to be heard from again. He died during one of his hospital stays, but authorities didn't know his real identity. It has been a long time since I've seen this segment, but I think the case was eventually solved. Seems like he had been doing this hospital con for years. Always wondered what this guy's background was (had he always been a con artist?) and if he had a family that he left behind.

Theres so many to choose from but one story that always got me was Liz Carmichael, the transvestite con artist that claimed that her new 3 wheeled car, "The Dale" could travel 70 miles on a single gallon of gas and was extremely safe and strong and would only cost like $2,000 or something if I remember correctly.. From memory she attracted hordes of media attention, millions of dollars without anyone really questioning her claims about her "revolutionary" 3 wheeled car and then did a runner..

What about that woman who claimed she had psychic powers and scammed some elderly woman into burning money for some sort of religious cult inside a garbage can and throwing it off a bridge, was that woman caught?

and there was another fraud segment that I don't remember much, all I remember seeing is a scene where this lady drove with this guy to a bank or a building or a warehouse or something, and she told him to go inside and get something, and when he came out she drove off. Which one was that?

What about that woman who claimed she had psychic powers and scammed some elderly woman into burning money for some sort of religious cult inside a garbage can and throwing it off a bridge, was that woman caught?

I remember that one. If I recall correctly, the woman in question was never found and the statute of limitations eventually ran out on that case.

The two women having posed as mother and daughter in order to swindle a broken-hearted divorcee.

*Garland "Rusty" Russel

I have probably seen this case a dozen times and never payed attention to where this took place. Pierson is about 45 minutes from me and I travel over there frequently. I would never have known there was a nudest camp over there. I'm sure there are directions online but if you go there it is not something you would see around town.

Small world. Now I'm going to be intrigued when I go over there next, LOL.

Jack Lutter. What a creep.

I think Fraud/identity theft should be taken more seriously. even if they don't kill the person they are conning. (& sometimes these con artists do. poor Bev Mcgowan among others.) they are still preying on people and manipulating them. it's just sickening.

I remember reading one story where a blind elderly man lived through a natural disaster. he was taken in by a man and a woman. they tied him up and collected his Social Security. eventually he somehow got out of their house and was rescued.

I just hope there is a special place in Hell for people like Andolina Gonzalez and other con artists. how can these people sleep at night?

The two women having posed as mother and daughter in order to swindle a broken-hearted divorcee.


I felt really bad for the woman (I think her name is Young Sun Kim) because she depended on those two for support and companionship and they totally ripped her off. To go through a rough time already and then learn your roommates didn't care about you but only your valuables...:(

The Eric Kessler one always cracks me up, not because of what he did, but because his project, where you can get a picture of yourself with different hairstyles, was actually made and installed in video arcades and malls. It probably isn't as sophisticated as the machine Kessler used in his con though.

I think Fraud/identity theft should be taken more seriously. even if they don't kill the person they are conning. (& sometimes these con artists do. poor Bev Mcgowan among others.) they are still preying on people and manipulating them. it's just sickening.

Even if they never get caught, I've always believed that simply featuring these con artists on UM is a bit of a victory. A wanted murderer can just stay in hiding, but a con artist's livelihood requires them to get out in the open and interact with people, something they are much less likely to do once their photo has been circulated on national TV. I'd like to think the ones who were never caught at least had to curtail their activities a great deal.

How about the guy that posed as a Dr. and would buy coins with phony checks. One time he even got a guy to go to the hopsital to meet him and got his coins and took off. Another time he just filled out a phony check and handed it another customer at the coin shop and took off with the coins. Any word if he's been caught? I think in the segment he used the name Dr. John Anderson.

I love the Bonnie Wilder case.

what was the case where there was this guy who told people that he could build them their dream home, and they guy ended up getting a lot of money off of people. I remember this family interviewed on the segment said that they used their life's savings to get their home built and this guy took off with their money. It was sad.

what was the case where there was this guy who told people that he could build them their dream home, and they guy ended up getting a lot of money off of people. I remember this family interviewed on the segment said that they used their life's savings to get their home built and this guy took off with their money. It was sad.
i believe you are talking about wade parker. there was another thread that basically said he'd been found. the lady that was inteviewed in that segment someone had mentioned that she'd died of cancer recently.

Liz Carmichel, for the sheer bizarreness of the whole thing. And the fact that some people still believe that she was the real deal and the car was not a fraud. She/he must have been one heck of a con artist!

Dan Tondevold was really intriguing, too.

Yep the "Sweet Granny", aka Gertrude Pruitt, was eventually caught.

Hmmm can't remember his name, but they guy who bilked members of a retirement community out of millions by posing as a broker for the Kemper Group.

Phillip Breen- was he ever caught?

The one who went diving with his son and "disappeared" after defrauding the government of profits from retail gasoline sales.

Raymond Young (the guy who went diving) was caught about 8 years after the segment was first shown.