Table of Contents

• Behind the Scams BlogCast: The Water Scam
• Introduction
• A Mirage in the Desert: The Fool’s Gold of Water Vending Machine Investment Fraud
• Musical Chairs with Collateral: How One Snack Machine Had 25 Owners and a Bank Loan
• Passive Income? More like Passive Aggressive: The Mirage of Returns and Investor Fatigue
• From PowerPoint to Portfolio: Bonds, Big Investors, and Bigger Lies ($275 Million Ponzi Scheme Details)
• Big Investors, Bigger Red Flags
• Collateral: The Comedy of “Secured” Bonds

Table of Contents

• BlogCast: From Audio to Insight
• Introduction: A Humanitarian Crisis!
• How Tech Dreams Morph Into Traps: The Lure and Snare of Scam Farms
• The Bait: High Salaries and Free Travel
• The Trap: From Arrival to Enslavement
• Who Falls Victim? Vulnerability and Aspiration
• The Machinery of Deception: How Fraud Factories Operate
• Beyond Borders: A Growing, Hidden Crisis
• Inside the Compounds: Daily Life, Control, and Modern Slavery
• Locked Down and Cut Off: Living Conditions Behind Barbed Wire
• Endless Labor: The Reality of Online Scam Farms

Table of Contents

• BlogCast: From Audio to Insight
• Introduction
• The Anatomy of a Modern Romance Scam (and Why They Still Work)
• Old-School Lies, New-School Tools
• How the Scam Unfolds
• Why These Scams Still Work
• From Utah to Nigeria: The Real Cases Behind the Headlines
• Multi-Million-Dollar Swindles: The Utah Connection
• An Ex-Federal Agent’s Deep Dive
• How the Scam Worked: Exploiting Trust and Technology
• How the Scripts Play Out: Real Victims, Real Losses, Surreal Stories

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• I Almost Fell for It: Tales of Millennial Mishaps and Gen Z Close Calls
• Sarah vs. The $375 “Bank” Text: A Real-World Bank Fraud Scam
• Why Even “Digital Natives” Get Duped
• Embarrassing Fail? Why Reporting Is a Power Move
• Unmasking the Numbers: What Stats Say About Gen Z & Millennial Scam Victims
• You Call That ‘Digital Native’? How Our Online Habits Are a Hacker’s Playground
• From Venmo to Instagram ‘Deals’: The Danger of Seamless Digital Life
• Sarah’s Story: When Venmo Becomes a Scam Magnet

Table of Contents

• Welcome to Another BlogCast Episode!
• The Gold Grifter Scam
• Gold: Shiny Shield or Scam Magnet?
• Why Gold? (And Not Beanie Babies or Bitcoin?)
• Surging Prices, Surging Scams
• Why Seniors Are the Prime Targets
• Inside the Gold Bars Scam: Fear, Phonies & Christmas Paper
• Pop-Ups, Panic, and Phony Feds
• High Pressure Sales Tactics: “Act Now or Lose Everything!”
• From Savings to Shiny Bars—And Then, Christmas Paper?
• Couriers: The Unwitting Middlemen
• Vulnerability for Sale: Why Seniors Get Targeted (and How Scammers Twist the Knife)
• Senior...

Table of Contents

• BlogCast: From Audio to Insight
• Introduction
• Pig Butchering Scam Overview: A Digital Slaughterhouse
• Cryptocurrency Trading Platform Scams: Are You Next?
• Emotional Manipulation in Scams: The Soft Science of Getting Scammed
• Major Cryptocurrency Scam Indictments & Money Laundering: Following the Dirty Dollars
• Scam Prevention Tips 2025: Turning the Tables
• Conclusion

This post comes straight from an episode of Behind the Scams, the true‑crime podcast from Stamp Out Scams. We couldn’t choose between writing or talking about scams—so we figured, why not both? That’s how the BlogCast was born: in a world full of scams, sometimes you need both a keyboard and a microphone to fight back.

We’ve turned this podcast episode into a full written story because the lessons in it are simply too important to miss. Scams don’t just steal money—they take away trust, security, and sometimes even lives. By turning these stories into blog posts, we make sure you can read, share, and easily search for the crucial prevention details that might one day protect someone you care about.

If you prefer to take it all in at your own pace, the full story from the podcast is right here in written form. It’s designed to let you dig into the details in whatever way works best for you.

Prefer listening over reading? The full episode is waiting for you in the player above. And if you’ve got a favorite podcast app, we’ve made it easy—just scroll click on your platform of choice. It’s like scam‑fighting, but hands‑free!