Dramas inspired by the most astonishing real-life scams are everywhere at the moment, from ’s Inventing Anna to ’s The Dropout.
Starring actress Julia Garner, tells the tale of Anna Delvey, who convinced New York’s elite that she was a German heiress, conning friends, banks and luxury hotels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Meanwhile, features Mamma Mia!’s Amanda Seyfriend as Elizabeth Holmes, the icy blond who made billions by falsely claiming she had developed a revolutionary blood test that could detect a host of illnesses.
While these jaw-dropping tales are destined for the small screen, with their compelling characters, unbelievable twists and plenty of human drama, there are many more horrifying scams that would make brilliant TV shows.
Here are the five shocking scams that should be coming to TV next.
Sweet Bobby
Sweet Bobby is the hugely successful podcast from slow news platform Tortoise about Londoner Kirat Assi, who fell victim to a complex catfishing scam.
Lasting a decade, the deception started in 2009 when Kirat was a 29-year-old radio presenter and received a Facebook message from Bobby, a cardiologist who she vaguely knew.
They struck up a friendship over the social media site before it developed into something more romantic.
Throughout the course of the relationship, Kirat tried multiple times to meet up with Bobby, who she only spoke to online or over the phone, but he always came up with an excuse.
Things finally began to come to a head after eight years, when Kirat hired a private investigator to hunt down Bobby.
But when officers eventually tracked down Bobby, he was found at home with his wife and children, claiming he had no knowledge of his relationship with Kirat whatsoever.
Eventually, Kirat’s cousin Simran Bhogal, who at the time had a successful career in finance, confessed that she had been impersonating Bobby all along and had been catfishing a devastated Kirat.
The Rolex Rippers
In leafy and exclusive areas of South England, a group of women, who reportedly have gang connections, are snatching Rolexes off the wrists of oblivious wealthy men.
Dubbed ‘The Rolex Rippers’, the women often pose as charity workers and approach rich retirees, asking them to sign false petitions.
But when the men go to sign their clipboards, the women secretly whip off their Rolex watches, which can fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds.
In the past year, there have been more than 60 incidents where Rolexes have been robbed off men’s wrists in broad daylight, which typically happen at golf courses, supermarkets and posh high streets.
No one yet has been arrested for the crimes, but police in areas such as Dorset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Surrey and Sussex have warned locals to be careful.
Football’s Fraudster
Wannabe Senegalese football star Ali Dia finally got his big break in the beautiful game, but it wasn’t through hard work.
Having played in lower-level teams in France and Germany, then failing trials at teams including Gillingham, Ali’s career-high was joining a non-league club – where he only made one substitute appearance.
Taking matters into his own hands, the audacious player called up then Southampton manager, Graeme Souness, and pretended to be World Player of the Year, George Weah.
Ali, as George, lied to Sounness and told him that he was George’s cousin and had played for top team Paris Saint-Germain.
Souness signed him on the spot for a one-month contract, but Ali failed spectacularly in the few games he played and was fired after two weeks.
Ali is now considered one of the worst footballers to step onto the pitch during the Premier League.
The Covid Criminal
A man committed one of the evilest crimes during the depths of the coronavirus pandemic, by posing as an NHS worker and administering a fake vaccine.
David Chambers, of Hook Rise North in Surbiton, who was arrested aged 33 in January 2021, tricked a 92-year-old woman into believing he had been sent from the NHS to give her the vaccine at her Surbiton home.
Once he jabbed her with a ‘dart-like implement’, Chambers charged the victim a hefty £140 for the single ‘dose’, claiming it would be later reimbursed by the NHS.
Shockingly, Chambers returned just five days later to demand a further £100 fee for the fake jab, which he was paid.
It wasn’t the last time he visited, either, returning for a third and final time for more cash, but, by then, the woman had learnt she had been the victim of a horrible scam and contacted the police.
The Evil Twin
Siblings can be annoying, but one man from the Indian state of Chhattisgarh took his brotherly bond too far.
Ram Singh Porte is a conman who scammed dozens of people and stole their money.
In one instance, he sold a woman, who was suffering from a horrible and unknown illness, a fake herbal medicine, promising it would cure her.
After committing several similar crimes, Ram started popping up on police radars – but he managed to get away with all his crimes for nine years.
The conman evaded officers because he has a twin brother Laxman, who kept being arrested instead of him.
Confused police even raided Ram’s purported hideouts on more than one occasion, but continually found Laxman.
Eventually, they were tipped off that the real Ram – and not his brother- would be at a festival and were finally able to cuff him.
