I didn’t know she was an international con artist.
I didn’t know she had 45 other victims all over the world.
You should really go listen to that episode first.
But back to our story.
But not this story.
He’s now laying a trap for her.
[00:01:20] Jonathan Walton: I didn’t come out ‘til I was 32 years old.
I’d spent my life pretending to be something else.
So this is something I had a lot of experience with.
I knew I had to pretend everything was fine while I investigate further.
So I go to visit her in jail, and I had my poker face on.
[00:01:36] Bob: He’s patient.
He never lets on that he knows Mair’s shocking truth.
He wants to confront her in person.
I’m like, “So how was it in jail?
Did you make any friends?
[00:02:10] Bob: Here’s the recording of that confrontation.
Jonathan is seething, but he sounds pretty calm.
[00:02:23] Jonathan Walton: So, unpleasant stuff.
[00:02:26] Mair Smyth: Okay.
[00:02:27] Jonathan Walton: You’ve been lying to us the whole time about everything.
[00:02:30] Mair Smyth: About what?
[00:02:31] Jonathan Walton: (inaudible) the whole time.
That was a lie.
That last four grand you needed that came out of nowhere, that was a lie.
You’ve been scamming us out of money this whole time.
[00:02:40] Mair Smyth: I have not, Jonathan.
[00:02:41] Jonathan Walton: You have.
[00:02:42] Mair Smyth: (inaudible) I haven’t.
[00:02:42] Jonathan Walton: Yeah, you’re not, you’re busted.
[00:02:44] Mair Smyth: Okay.
[00:02:45] Jonathan Walton: So, from here on in, we’re not friends.
[00:02:48] Mair Smyth: Okay.
[00:02:53] Mair Smyth: Okay.
[00:02:53] Jonathan Walton: You’re supposed to start making payments of $1900 a month.
[00:02:56] Mair Smyth: Okay.
[00:02:59] Mair Smyth: Okay.
[00:03:07] Mair Smyth: Okay.
[00:03:11] Mair Smyth: Okay.
You’ll be, I’ll be one more.
[00:03:17] Mair Smyth: Okay.
[00:03:17] Jonathan Walton: And I’ll file a complaint with the LA Sheriff’s Office.
I didn’t know she had 45 other victims all over the world.
[00:03:39] Bob: You might this Mair would look broken or desperate or frantic or something.
Instead, there were Jonathan says some crocodile tears, and then she pretty much just walked away.
[00:03:50] Jonathan Walton: Because I think she’d been busted many times in her life.
[00:03:57] Bob: But Jonathan was not about to let Mair just move on.
“No, I’ll mail it to you.
I’m not meeting you.”
I’m like, “You know what, I’m done.
I’m going to police.”
[00:04:21] Bob: Like everything in this story, nothing is easy for Jonathan.
He has an experience many victims have.
At first, police seem disinterested in his case.
[00:04:30] Jonathan Walton: I went to police, and I filed a police report.
And at first, the police didn’t want to take my report.
The guy tells me, “Listen, you gave her the money.
It’s not a crime.”
And I’m like, “That’s not true!”
They trick the money out of you.
It’s a crime.”
A couple months after me calling every day, it gets assigned to a detective.
He starts his own investigation that progresses rather quickly.
The impact is immediate.
Jonathan says he saved a man named Bob from signing over his home title to Mair.
This was the last guy she was dating.
His name was Bob, and he lived in Newport Beach, and that’s all I knew.
Then about a month and a half later, I get a call.
He’s like, “Thank you so much.
You saved me from her.”
So she finds this $12 million house in Newport Beach that she’s going to buy.
She gets a realtor.
Her and Bob look at this 12 million house a dozen times with the realtor.
The last time she takes Bob’s kids there, and has them pick out their bedrooms, right.
Because if our relationship goes south, I’m going to own half the house.
That’s not fair.
I’ll owe $6 million of your house."
And she was drawing up paperwork to do that.
She wants to know more about this woman.
He’s like, “All right, Mair and I are coming right down.”
She’s like, “No.
I don’t want Mair around.
Come by yourself, meet me at the park down the street.”
She hands Bob the, the printed out blog.
He looks at it in disbelief.
He doesn’t believe it’s true.
He is, he’s shocked, so he brings the printed out blog home where Mair is.
She doesn’t say a word.
Forty-five through it all, he says, all who heard slight variations of Mair’s Irish heiress story.
Others start to hear about this story too.
[00:08:25] Bob: That’s Katie Kilkenny, a journalist with the Hollywood Reporter.
She went to a restaurant and said she was going to introduce them.
Jennifer Aniston never showed up.
She hosted a lobster dinner where she said Jennifer Aniston was going to come; never showed up.
And the producer sent me some of those emails, and they were really wild.
And this is somebody who’s worked with a lot of big people.
So it was amazing how she was able to deceive him for as long as she did.
[00:10:06] Bob: Mair was clearly very persuasive, and was a masterful storyteller.
He wrote in the Huffington Post that Mair used this amazing trick to make her cancer story more believable.
She also earned cash on the side by claiming she had psychic powers.
Here she is describing her natural powers on a YouTube video promoting her Orchid Psychics business.
[00:10:53] (video)
“My name is Mair Anya, and I’m a empathic psychic.
I’ve always had a gift since I was a little girl.
My intentions as a psychic is to share my gift.
And gifts come from God.
It’s kind and gentle and my gift is, is to be kind and gentle.
Even some victims still aren’t sure they’re victims, Katie says.
This neighbor still feels very conflicted.
And every time I have to remind them, you know, this woman befriended people over years.
Everything was done in so much detail, down to her email address aliases.
So that’s what I took away from the story, was that it could be any of us.
That Irish accent, fake.
Mair is actually from Bangor, Maine.
There is an element of truth to the Irish story, however.
She’s not from a famous family, but Irish authorities sure know about her.
He’s been looking for Marianne Smyth for 10 years.
She worked in mortgages over there.
[00:14:59] Jonathan Walton: So, we’re going along.
There are literally 24 court appearances.
There were 24 court appearances before the trial, like no one can go to all those.
So when the victim stops going to court, they have to drop the charges.
And I’m like, “No, no, no, no, no.
I’m coming.”
I wasn’t going to give up now.
And I assured him, “I’m in this for the long haul.
We’re going to get her.”
[00:15:39] Bob: As the court appearances begin, Mair still performs like an actress.
[00:15:43] Jonathan Walton: So the preliminary hearing rolls around, and she does she do?
She shows up to court looking like a homeless woman on crutches.
Showed up on crutches.
Clearly, it’s, it’s another scam.
He ruled there’s enough evidence for a trial and, and set a trial date.
One gets a camera in Mair’s face as she leaves the courtroom.
Do you have any comment on that?”
And she said nothing.
[00:16:42] Bob: Finally the trial arrives.
It’s not easy.
Mair has a clever defense attorney who paints a picture of Mair as the victim.
And I’m like, “Yeah.”
“Well, you have friends who work in the news business, don’t you?”
And I’m like, “Yeah.”
I’m like, “No!”
Oh my god, “That’s not how that works!
I know people in like in Houston where I used to work, or Miami.
I don’t know people in LA.
Like, come on!”
Either they believe you, or they don’t.
We have to do this again."
And the thought of going through another trial, I just, you know, I just couldn’t.
[00:18:11] Bob: Deliberations take three hours.
[00:18:30] Judge: …circumstances…
[00:18:30] Bob: Even the judge was outraged.
[00:18:32] Judge: This case calls for departure.
We heard that earlier.
She um, showed no remorse um, no sense of contrition of any sort whatsoever.
What she did was just soulless.
Her mind, her soul seemed to work differently than most.
She is incapable of knowing right from wrong, she’s incapable of feeling.
She doesn’t feel anything for anyone.
She did everything by the book.
Every single con works the same way.
That gave me confidence to loan her more money.
That’s what they do.
[00:20:23] Bob: It can’t be overstated.
And it’s not just Jonathan who says that.
So she did use that for sure to draw people in.
That’s one reason you’ll see these high stakes games.
Ice in her veins.
At any moment I could be found out.
[00:21:58] Jonathan Walton: So, con artists are like sharks.
They’re targeting everybody.
They have their feelers out.
Con artists don’t outsmart anybody.
They don’t manipulate your intellect.
They don’t outsmart you.
They out feel you.
They make an emotional connection and then they use your emotions against you.
They come over to our circle, you know at a cocktail party there’s different circles talking.
We kind of saved up for this.
We’re kind of retired already, you know, we have nothing to do.
We’re just looking, you know, sensing everything out."
I’m like, “Oh, that’s interesting.”
And I make a note of it.
He says he works security at this firm and blah, blah, blah.
I’m like, what is this guy’s game?
[00:23:49] Bob: I would say Jonathan has another superpower, too.
He came forward and told his story.
If he hadn’t, who knows how many other victims there might be.
[00:24:57] Bob: As I’ve said before, this con story has an unusual ending.
It has a happy ending.
Even an inspiring ending.
Jonathan found a new cause to sink his teeth into.
And that has made all the difference.
You know, before they read my story, they were ashamed and scared to do anything.
And now, I’ve inspired them, like I had no idea this was coming.
I feel grateful she awoken the giant within me that I didn’t know.
You know we really don’t know what we’re capable of until we’re forced.
I like who I am.
And now people are reaching out to Jonathan looking for help.
All of this Jonathan does for free in his spare time.
I think the message is clear here.
How important it is to tell someone right away if you think you’re being targeted by a scam.
Don’t be ashamed.
These people are professional con artists and will stop at nothing.
[00:27:08] Frank Abagnale: Right, and nothing, it’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed about.
They’re there to protect you.
These things they keep records on.
These are the kind of things they will go out and investigate.
You don’t have to be an AARP member; you might be 18 years old and call.
So there are a lot of resources out there, but the thing is to do something.
Don’t, you know, you don’t be reactive, you’re proactive.
And that’s the bravest thing you’re able to do.
[00:29:16] Bob: Okay, thanks very much, Frank Abagnale.
We look forward to talking to you again next week.
[00:29:20] Frank Abagnale: Thanks, Bob.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
AARPs Fraud Watch connection can help you spot and avoid scams.
