[00:00:27] Michelle: Welcome back to AARP’s The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Michelle Kosinski.
This week, the sequel to what is honestly the most bizarre, elaborate scams I’ve ever encountered.
It all unfolds like a creepy thriller and fittingly enough is set in Los Angeles.
But who is the Hollywood Con Queen?
There have been hundreds of victims and Carley Rudd is one of them.
[00:01:34] Carley Rudd: I am a freelance travel photographer.
[00:01:53] Michelle: What kinds of things do you take pictures of?
The sun has cooked the afternoon to 95 degrees.
Dust if visibly swirling in the air.
The radio playing local music.
Motorbikes dodge her and one another.
Kids tricycles, toys, stuffed animals.
A man carries goods slung over his shoulder in a brown sack about as tall as he is.
And Carley is feeling hopeful, excited.
This would be part of an art exhibit for the 2020 Olympics.
[00:03:28] Michelle: All sounded good.
[00:03:30] Carley Rudd: Yeah, it did.
Too good to be true.
[00:03:33] Michelle: More on that later.
She needed to travel to the other side of the planet with all her equipment within 72 hours.
[00:03:48] Carley Rudd: It did.
It did feel like a red flag at the time.
I, I, I found ways to kind of ignore it and find excuses for it.
[00:03:57] Michelle: Was it because you wanted the job?
[00:04:36] Carley Rudd: I was excited.
I was also a little on edge the whole time.
[00:04:42] Michelle: Why is that?
Something felt a little off.
[00:04:53] Michelle: It even raised tensions a bit with the supposed Wendi Dang.
[00:04:58] Carley Rudd: I did get into an argument with her at one point.
[00:05:22] Carley Rudd: Yeah.
A smiling, friendly looking middle-aged man in a stripped polo shirt.
[00:07:14] Michelle: Oh no.
I kept making excuses for, it’s fine, it’s fine.
Like, let’s just get to the hotel.
[00:07:51] Michelle: Carley’s husband, though, is getting into fight or flight mode.
He, he thought we were part of some sort of heist at that point.
[00:08:07] Michelle: Whoa.
[00:08:08] Carley Rudd: Yeah.
[00:08:14] Carley Rudd: Yeah.
[00:09:03] Carley Rudd: I definitely did not feel safe.
[00:09:24] Michelle: Whoa.
Another hot day rolls around, and again, this one brings more changes, excuses, delays.
Now Wendi and Aaron want Carley and Jake to fly to Malaysia to stay another day.
And a disturbing request, they suggest Carley and Jake split up and shoot different locations on their own.
[00:10:57] Michelle: Like, let’s get that pesky husband out of the way.
I think their, their goal was to extract more money.
(phone recording)
[00:11:29] Aaron: Hey, Carley, how’s it going?
[00:11:41] Carley Rudd: …staying another list.
[00:11:42] Aaron: So don’t worry about that.
[00:11:43] Carley Rudd: All right, perfect.
[00:12:03] Wendi: Well that should be in your account by uh end of business, Tuesday.
I don’t want there to be any kind of miscommunication.
[00:12:25] Carley Rudd: …have that money prepared.
[00:12:27] Wendi: What?
Are you out of your mind?
[00:12:34] Michelle: These conversations ramble.
You said he’s a writer, right?
[00:12:46] Wendi: What does he write about?
[00:12:48] Michelle: Wendi emphasizes how important it is to her to work with trustworthy people.
She asks about Carley’s life and Jake.
[00:12:57] Wendi: And is he feeling comfortable?
Is he happy about things?
Just a quick question.
[00:13:00] Carley Rudd: Yep.
[00:13:01] Wendi: Are you feeling safe or not?
[00:13:03] Carley Rudd: Yes, Wendi, I am feeling safe.
I think there was an initial hesitation with the driver.
[00:13:11] Wendi: If you need anything, you contact Aaron.
Aaron will take care of it.
Is that kind of how she, how she played the game?
I’ll hear from him then, okay.
[00:14:04] Michelle: Whew.
Like a cloud of dust in the alley outside, they disappear.
[00:14:10] Carley Rudd: He doesn’t call.
[00:15:04] Michelle: This is like James Bond territory.
[00:15:07] Carley Rudd: Yeah, exactly.
[00:15:08] Michelle: It’s like, okay, so at that point do you call?
Do you take a stab at call Wendi?
[00:15:14] Carley Rudd: I only had Aaron’s number.
[00:15:31] Carley Rudd: Yeah.
[00:15:31] Michelle: How do you feel in that moment?
[00:15:34] Carley Rudd: It was pretty awful.
I, you know, my heart was racing, and I felt sick to my stomach.
I couldn’t believe that I had fallen for something like this.
It was a roller coaster of emotions.
[00:15:47] Michelle: That was on the second full day in Jakarta, right?
And how long was the whole trip supposed to be when you planned it?
[00:15:58] Michelle: Well you got off easy, girl.
[00:16:00] Carley Rudd: I know.
[00:16:13] Carley Rudd: Oh gosh, we were just mind blown.
And, you know, he kind of knew it all along that it didn’t feel right.
[00:16:22] Michelle: Psychologically…
[00:16:24] Carley Rudd: Yeah.
[00:16:59] Michelle: So what do you do after that?
[00:17:02] Carley Rudd: Yeah.
[00:17:02] Michelle: Do you go right to the police?
[00:17:27] Michelle: Hundreds.
Years of this, and hundreds of hopeful creatives led on trips and wild goose chases just like her.
And that opened the floodgates.
[00:18:58] Nicole Kotsianas: It struck me how people said the impersonation was so good.
[00:19:26] Michelle: And someone who is relentless.
A master of accents, of excuses, of persuasion.
Getting these professional people to go to extremes despite any suspicions or red flags they have.
When the scam involves elaborate trips, it’s generally to Indonesia.
[00:19:44] Nicole Kotsianas: There’s definitely been people who have gone multiple times.
Uh, and it was a, a longer running engagement.
You know, months versus a one off trip.
So it’s definitely been more extensive in some instances.
[00:21:12] Michelle: Oh, wow.
She and her team were constantly working on this, as the individual cases keep coming in.
They bring on a psychologist to take a stab at understand this scammer that many believe is a sociopathy.
[00:22:21] Nicole Kotsianas: It doesn’t appear to us to be entirely about the money.
[00:22:36] Michelle: That’s right.
The scammer seems most of all to be enjoying this, the role-playing, the manipulating.
All anonymous calls from a blocked number.
So trying to make sense and fit it in with the grand scheme uh was definitely difficult.
The individual was just trying to prove to me that they were, they were not involved.
[00:23:32] Michelle: Hmm, okay.
Did, was any of that believable to you?
[00:23:36] Nicole Kotsianas: There were things about it that were not believable.
[00:23:55] Aaron: Well let me talk to the…
[00:23:57] Michelle: Wendi.
They realize that all of these supposed players seem to be one person.
And the Hollywood Con Queen seems to actually be a king.
[00:24:28] Michelle: So what do you think this person wants ultimately?
What are they after?
Is it about the money?
[00:24:51] Michelle: Wow.
It sounds, it sounds like a dangerous person.
[00:24:59] Nicole Kotsianas: Yeah.
[00:25:00] Michelle: So…
[00:25:00] Nicole Kotsianas: Emotionally dangerous, for sure.
I’m not sure I’ll ever have a case like this again.
The FBI gets involved, and Nicole turns over everything she knows about it to them.
This is currently an active, federal investigation.
[00:25:46] Nicole Kotsianas: I’ll decline comment on that one.
[00:25:48] Michelle: (chuckle) Okay, got it.
What do you think?
Do you think this person will ultimately be found?
[00:25:56] Nicole Kotsianas: We’re hopeful.
They were of Indonesia descent.
They live in London.
[00:26:46] Carley Rudd: Well yeah.
Yeah, I mean…
[00:26:48] Michelle: So they have some money.
They could be impersonating somebody.
He’s doing it just for the thrill.
[00:28:00] Michelle: What would you say to this character?
[00:28:04] Carley Rudd: Oh gosh.
I don’t even know.
I, I would just enjoy seeing them put in jail and, and stopped.
[00:28:14] Michelle: What do you think about this person?
I would like to see justice.
It’s been years that they’ve been able to get away with it.
I, I, like I said earlier, this person’s a professional.
They know what they’re doing.
[00:29:24] Michelle: So this guy is now based in the friendly UK.
Why no arrest years later?
[00:29:33] Carley Rudd: Yeah, you know, that’s a good question.
It’s small amounts of money being taken from people.
[00:30:35] Michelle: Unbelievable.
[00:30:37] Carley Rudd: It’s wild.
She’s been a sort of sounding board for victims and potential victims ever since.
[00:31:34] Michelle: Do you think there’s something that could have prevented it?
Anything you could have done in retrospect?
[00:31:41] Carley Rudd: You know, I’ve thought a lot about that.
[00:32:22] Michelle: Right.
[00:32:27] Carley Rudd: Yeah, yeah.
And, and didn’t, um, really look into.
So now I’m, I’m pretty careful about um, addressing and, and noticing those things.
But it’s so hard.
[00:33:10] Michelle: What is the most head-slapping thing about this?
What to, to this day still makes you go, oh man!
And then just the scale of it.
[00:33:48] Michelle: But it gets worse.
This scam is still going on to this day.
So he’s tweaked the scam to fit the current circumstances.
He hasn’t stopped.
And then later found out that they were both there as part of this scam.
And, and I ended up talking with her while she was in Indonesia.
[00:35:44] Michelle: What did you say?
[00:36:05] Carley Rudd: Yeah, yeah, I was.
I mean, you know, she was just completely mind blown, yeah.
[00:36:53] Carley Rudd: It’s a, it really is incredible.
[00:36:55] Michelle: It’s a little way to get back at the mastermind.
You must, for every person that says you saved me, you must feel like, ha-ha.
[00:37:26] Michelle: The art of the scam.
[00:37:29] Carley Rudd: Yeah.
[00:37:31] Michelle: Great, well good for you.
It’s such a pleasure.
[00:37:34] Carley Rudd: Yeah, thanks.
[00:37:35] Michelle: All right, take care, Carley.
[00:37:38] Carley Rudd: Okay, bye.
For some wealthy wannabe influencer guy’s thrill?
I wonder what will come first?
The arrest or the movie?
Either one will be fascinating.
[00:38:32] Thank you for your call.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Michelle Kosinski.
Another photographer, Carley Rudd, had a similar experience with a person claiming to be Wendi Deng.
Investigators pick up the case, trying to decipher who is behind the scam and why theyre doing it.
