She was really kind of upset.
“it’s possible for you to’t write me a check for $10,000?”
And I said, “No, I can’t.”
[00:00:16] Will Johnson: Welcome back to AARP - The Perfect Scam.
Frank, thanks for being here again.
[00:00:24] Frank Abagnale: Thank you, Will, thanks for having me.
Somebody just doing it by themselves.
[00:00:40] Frank Abagnale: Absolutely.
[00:01:07] Frank Abagnale: Yes.
[00:01:16] Frank Abagnale: It’s all to the same degree.
[00:01:44] Will Johnson: Alright, Frank, we’ll come back to you.
Jim Schmidt is one of those people, and to put it bluntly, he is a real character.
He has done a lot with his time on earth.
He’s made millions with real estate, and he’s dabbled in restaurants and resorts among other things.
[00:03:02] Jim Schmidt: But I had lots of companies.
I developed lots of properties, built lots of homes all over the West.
He’s not bragging, just being himself.
[00:03:36] Will Johnson: Yeah.
[00:03:46] Will Johnson: But when the real estate market tanked, Jim suffered losses.
A lot of losses.
This is the rags to riches, riches, and I was in the rags when Desiree approached me.
[00:04:15] Will Johnson: In some ways, Jim was probably the perfect target for a scammer.
He’d already lost it all.
In fact, he was staying with a friend at the Carson River Resort.
It’s a place he bought 45 years earlier in the Lake Tahoe area.
[00:05:01] Jim Schmidt: “Hi, this is Desiree, you remember me?”
Now understand in this, she thought that I was still the multimillionaire she read about, okay?
So that’s, okay, so she calls and then she sent me a picture.
And I said, “Oh, she’s pleasant.”
And I thought, boy, that’s great, you know.
I said, “Where are you?”
And she says, “Well in Las Vegas.”
[00:05:56] Will Johnson: Yeah, why not?
It would seem like kind of like a fun thing to do.
[00:05:59] Jim Schmidt: Yeah.
He made plans to pick her up.
[00:06:18] Will Johnson: Did you tell anybody about it?
I’m sorry about that.
It was a mistake."
It wasn’t a mistake.
[00:07:35] Will Johnson: But Jim believed her at the time.
He didn’t know it yet, but Desiree was laying the groundwork for her scam.
She gets off the plane and Jim recognizes her right away from her picture.
[00:07:44] Jim Schmidt: She had a nice dress on.
And we stopped at Walmart or someplace.
And uh I said, “Well what, what is it?”
She said, “Well, I refurbish uh, hotels and casinos with all their furnishings.”
And I said, “Gee, I’m not in any position to do that right now.”
I said, “I just, you know, just lost everything.”
There’s no doubt about it."
I had; I had a jet.
I had 40 cars, you know, I could sit here and tell you all I had.
I never had less than a half a million dollars in my checking, in my personal checking account.
[00:10:00] Jim Schmidt: Correct.
She made that up.
And I said, “What’s that?”
She said, “I’ve got to get them $10,000 like almost tomorrow.”
And I said, “No.
I’m sorry, but I’m just,” you know, I was feeling bad.
But to myself, from Vegas round-trip, that seems like a lot.
I said, “Hey, no problem.”
And here’s, here’s the part.
I’m embarrassed, I’m whatever.
[00:12:48] Jim Schmidt: She says, “Oh, I’ll pay.”
It was, I had a glass of wine and hamburger or something, I don’t know.
[00:12:58] Will Johnson: Jim and Desiree go back to the RV.
He makes plans for a sleeping arrangement.
it’s possible for you to sleep here; I’ll go there or whatever."
I was kind of had a funny feeling, but I’m still feeling bad.
Okay, so the night goes by, there’s no kissing, hugging, nothing.
Desiree said she’d be leaving in the morning.
He was up early taking care of some resort business.
She was in the car.
My little dog, I said, “Oh, I’ve got to get my little dog.”
“Oh no, I have your dog.”
She didn’t want me to back in the bus.
And she put it on the hood of the car.
And she said, “Oh, I can’t find my uh, my ID.”
And she says, “Well, let me look in that one.
You look in this one.”
She handed me both bags.
They say good-bye and Jim makes the drive back to the RV.
I said, “Oh, no problem.”
So I go in to get one of the signed checks.
The signed checks were there, and the cash was gone.
And I says, oh man.
She just, she just robbed me.
[00:15:15] Will Johnson: All of a sudden it all starts to make sense.
She took the cash, left the, but I didn’t know this at the time.
[00:15:39] Will Johnson: Even the hubbub about the missing ID was part of Desiree’s plan.
[00:15:52] Will Johnson: Jim now understands his sense of unease from the night before.
[00:16:01] Will Johnson: Okay.
Oh, the 2000 or so for the air–, for the airplane.
[00:16:13] Will Johnson: What’s going through your mind?
How do you feel?
So, I mean, you know, when I had millions you don’t think about it.
I could live a long time.
It was really a tragic thing for me because that’s all the cash I had.
[00:16:45] Will Johnson: Did you panic?
And I’m, I’m just like, I’m kind of, it kind of drains you.
I knew what had happened, and it all, all of a sudden it all clicked in.
The 2000 he gave her, 13,000 she made off with.
He’s got no spending money at all.
But, he’s a proactive guy.
Jim picks up the phone and calls her.
And she says, I said, “I, I needed that money.”
And she says, “No, I didn’t steal it.
You went through my bags.”
And she said, “Well, absolutely, no problem.”
[00:18:21] Will Johnson: But Jim still isn’t giving up.
[00:18:23] Jim Schmidt: So I kept calling.
And I just kept in touch.
And I needed that money."
But I wasn’t going to let this drop.
The 13,000 was gone, plus the 2,000 he gave her, and so was Desiree.
[00:19:12] Will Johnson: Desiree Boltos' home base was actually Fort Worth, Texas.
And authorities there already had her on their radar.
Other victims had come forward, other elderly men.
[00:19:26] Will Johnson: How old was she when she started doing this?
Did you find that out?
She learned about Desiree Boltos over a year ago.
She would do this by winning their hearts and then taking their wallet.
But the case was complicated.
[00:20:40] Lori Varnell: Exactly.
[00:20:41] Will Johnson: Okay.
And the lies were multifold.
I mean there were several of them.
Um, but she lied, and she got his money.
I mean it’s a simple as that.
[00:21:01] Will Johnson: Lori Varnell found records about Boltos.
But luring older men into a romantic relationship became an art form for Desiree.
She was subtle, and most importantly, believable.
And that’s not really how she did it.
Now she certainly had some attractions.
Who doesn’t want to do that?
They would tell her because they don’t have a reason not to.
“I have tumors in my uterus,” and their wife died of uterine cancer.
“I have tumors.
Whatever the lie was, they’d send money.
She was a professional, it was her job.
And she was good at it.
Many times be instructed to call them Papa.
Call the elderly victim, Papa.
[00:24:22] Will Johnson: Did she use her own children ever in those scenarios?
[00:24:24] Lori Varnell: Absolutely.
[00:24:26] Will Johnson: Law enforcement is finally onto Desiree.
It’s as if nothing can stop her.
[00:24:55] Frank Abagnale: Absolutely.
It’s just a lot easier to go, to take a minute or two to check it out.
“Well, have you ever been to his place?”
“Uh, no.”
“Well, does he live by you?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Well, did you ever call him at home?”
“Uh, no, he only tells me to call him at work.”
Uh, okay, those, those are red flags.
You want to say, well there’s [00:25:55] something not normal there.
you better go check that out.
Today you have to be careful.
[00:26:01] Will Johnson: Alright, Frank.
We’ll come back uh next week for part 2 of our story about Desiree Boltos.
And of course, my cohost, Frank Abagnale.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For The Perfect Scam, I’m Will Johnson.
END OF TRANSCRIPT
Jim spent much of his life building a real estate empire on the West Coast.
In the process he became a millionaire, profiled in newspapers and on television.
But in 2007, when the recession hit, Jim lost his vast fortune.
The woman on the other end of the line asks for Jim by name.
She introduces herself as Desiree and asks if Jim remembers her.
Desiree arrives with a business opportunity for Jim, who quickly realizes she thinks hes still wealthy.
Shes visibly disappointed to find that Jims house is no longer a mansion but a renovated Airstream trailer.
Desiree decides its time to go home.
When Jim returns from taking her to the airport, he has an uneasy feeling.
He looks to verify the checkbook the resort keeps to pay vendors is still there.
