Con artists galore on streaming media

There seems to be a surge of shows/movies on Netflix/Prime/Hotstar featuring real-life con artists and incredible scams. And I am all for it. As someone who can’t lie to save her life, something is fascinating about people who can spin the most unbelievable webs and get people to fall for them.

Here are some shows/movies I watched recently and/or plan to watch.

Inventing Anna

Audacious entrepreneur or con artist? A journalist chases down the story of Anna Delvey, who convinced New York’s elite she was a German heiress.

Watch on Netflix

My Review

A 10-episode mini-series, the show focuses on con artist Anna Delvey (played impeccably by Julia Garner) and the journalist Vivian Kent (Jessica Pressler in real-life), played by Anna Chlumsky. Each episode focuses on one person who Anna has swindled.

The actual real-life story is really interesting. I loved Jessica Pressler’s article that inspired this show.

The show produced by Shonda Rhimes (the brain behind Grey’s Anatomy and other super-successful shows) doesn’t do the story justice. In her hands, it is an over-dramatized soap opera.

Anna Delvey is a con artist who ripped off a lot of people. Never mind that she mostly ripped off bankers and socialites – it’s still a crime. But Inventing Anna portrays her like a Robin Hood character with a you-go-girl attitude and a Girl Boss take on it. There’s this weird feminist slant where Anna talks about how difficult it is to achieve her dreams (as a woman) in New York – all the while without doing a lick of work. This felt like reaching. No man or woman would have been able to swing such a huge loan as she was trying to get without detailed paperwork indicating they are in a good position to repay it.

So, yeah, I liked the idea of the show. It was entertaining, but I got tired way before the last episode. The tone swung violently between Anna being a psychopath and Anna being a victim of the patriarchy. I ended up being confused about whether I was supposed to root for Anna or hate her.

Overall entertaining but some what mixed thoughts on the show. I’d recommend reading the Vanity Fair article by Rachel (a friend she conned), and reading real-life journalist Jessica Pressler’s The Cut article over watching this show.

The Tinder Swindler

Posing a wealthy, jet-setting diamond mogul, he wooed women online and conned them out of millions of dollars. Now some victims plan for payback.

Watch on Netflix

My Review

This is a true-crime documentary movie depicting how one man conned several women in a type of Ponzi scheme – conning one woman and using that money to con another, and then another, and so on.

The so-called Tinder Swindler is Shimon Hayut, a convicted fraudster born in Israel. Hayut used dating apps to meet multiple women, then established lines of credit and loans in their names, ultimately leaving them holding the bills.

His modus operandi was matching with a woman on Tinder, taking her on an expensive date. Once he seduced her, he would start confiding that he was worried about enemies. Eventually, he would send a photo of his bleeding bodyguard, allegedly injured by these enemies, to incite further concern. Once that groundwork had been laid, he would urgently message each girlfriend to say that his credit card could not be used for security reasons and ask her to open a new one under her name for him to use. And boom! That was it!

In total, he stole about ten million dollars from all these women. Eventually, he was caught when one of his girlfriends caught on to his scheme and, in turn, conned him before ratting him out to the police. Unfortunately, he only spent five months in jail and is now out, probably conning more women.

The basic story of Shimon is fascinating, and the documentary does an excellent job interviewing the women he conned and building the story of how he could get away with such a big con. All the women interviewed were heart-breakingly honest. It can’t have been easy to reveal so many personal details and admit you were played for a fool publicly; these women were so brave!

Short and punchy, I found The Tinder Swindler fascinating.

And yet more con artists

I never knew real-life con artists were almost a genre to themselves. Once I watched Inventing Anna and The Tinder Swindler, the Netflix algorithm went into full swing suggesting I might like Bad Vegan (about a woman who gets conned into marrying a man who claims to make her dog immortal), and Fyre (about the greatest festival that never happened).

I think I need a break though. Too many fraudsters would just end up making me feel jaded and cynical. Although I just might make an exception for The Inventor (a movie on Hotstar about the rise and fall of Theranos.

And that will be it, I swear. No more con artists for me. Have you seen any of these movies/shows? Are you as surprised as I am about the number of con artists that seem to be out there?