[00:00:03] I was numb.
[00:00:23] Bob: Welcome to The Perfect Scam.
I am your new host, Bob Sullivan.
I’m really excited to be here.
I’m an independent journalist.
I’ve done a lot of stories on online scams as well.
So Frank, very delighted to have you.
I have followed you for 20 years as well.
And that’s one of the great things that AARP does, and The Perfect Scam podcast does.
So, let’s get started.
[00:02:02] Frank Abagnale: Yes.
What kind of things have you seen about that?
it’s possible for you to’t pay to get early access to a vaccine.
Medicare will never call you or sell you anything.
[00:03:22] Bob: Hey, so here’s one um, silver lining to the pandemic.
We call the COVID puppies.
Everybody’s getting a puppy.
Everybody’s getting a dog or a cat or a pet to, as companionship during this time.
And sometimes, you know, some of these scam artists get very sophisticated.
That doesn’t make it real.
But it takes a little work.
[00:05:11] Bob: An elaborate website?
That doesn’t make it real.
You’re so right.
[00:05:16] Frank Abagnale: Absolutely.
He’s a barrel of laughs kind of guy, a gentle giant.
I live in a nice apartment building in downtown Los Angeles, and she had become a neighbor.
[00:06:44] Bob: I’ve actually been to this complex.
It’s nice, but it would never be mistaken for Beverly Hills.
You know, she says her name is Mair Smyth.
She says she’s from Ireland.
And so she kind of comes to this meeting with all the other residents, and she takes charge.
She stands up and she says, “We’re going to get our pool back.”
All the tenants love this woman.
Most important, Jonathan trusts her.
He is immediately drawn to her as they set out to fight on their cause together.
Quickly, their relationship progresses far beyond the pool dispute.
[00:07:57] Jonathan Walton: She wants to get to know us.
And she pays the bill.
Like she immediately comes off as a woman of means, as a woman of wealth.
[00:08:15] Bob: Pretty soon, Jonathan and Mair are best friends.
They text almost every day.
He’s involved in her life.
And Mair, it turns out, has some pretty great life stories to tell.
[00:08:46] Bob: There’s wining and there’s dining and lots of gifts.
Mair even convinces Jonathan that her family holds an important place in Irish history.
[00:09:12] Bob: Their intimacy was cemented when Mair found a way to deeply connect.
First, it was a common enemy over building management and the pool.
But now, there was a deeper common enemy that bonded them.
[00:09:25] Jonathan Walton: She quickly realized I was gay.
I confided in her that, you know, part of my family had disowned me for being gay.
So she pounces, and she says, “Well my family disowned me, too.
So I immediately bonded with her.
I was as close to her as any gay man can be to a woman.
We would end our phone calls with, “I love you; I love you.”
You know, she was like family.
[00:10:03] Bob: Mair seemed to have a lot of free time.
That also helped explain her expensive tastes.
[00:10:16] Jonathan Walton: It was fun.
She was so kind and giving.
And she struck me as a person who was always bringing other people joy.
We had a blast hanging out with her.
[00:10:35] Bob: They didn’t just hang out in LA’s hotspots.
Mair loved to travel, and she took friends along in fancy vacations too.
I would offer to pay, but she would always say, no, no, no, no.
I have a lot of money.
Jonathan now believes Mair is his best friend.
She has other plans.
So, I immediately put two and two together.
You know, I used to be a TV news reporter.
[00:12:24] Bob: Mair protests.
“No, that could never happen,” she tells Jonathan.
But he couldn’t be more primed for what’s about to happen next.
Lo and behold, I get a collect call from jail.
Will you accept from inmate Mair Smyth?”
She tells me, you were right.
She’s crying, uh, “I got arrested.
My family set me up to make it look like I stole $200,000 from the travel agency.
Oh my God, what am I going to do?
“I told you this would happen!”
He didn’t think twice about what to do next.
[00:13:16] Jonathan Walton: I bailed her out of jail immediately.
It was $4200.
And she paid me back the next day.
Since Mair paid him back the next day, Jonathan didn’t really think much about the money.
He just helped his rich friend in a pinch and that was that.
A few more months of fun go by until the stakes suddenly get much higher.
I’m determined to help her get her inheritance.
Help her clear her name.
I’m a hero, I feel like.
[00:14:01] Bob: And things go back to fun and games again.
I’m like, “What happened?
Are you okay?”
And I’m hugging her.
Her Irish family is trying to intimidate her, get her to give up her inheritance.
So I start loaning her more money until she can get her inheritance.
So I loan her, you know, almost 6,000 to pay rent in that building.
[00:15:19] Bob: It all made sense to Jonathan.
In the con game, we sometimes call this third party verification.
You’ve heard it before.
You know, like it happens all the time.
[00:16:26] Bob: The buildup to the big ask has been so meticulously crafted.
The trap so expertly laid.
[00:16:56] Bob: But, there’s just one thing.
Like I’d never been to court.
I’m like oh.
I give her $4,000 cash, and I let her charge my credit cards $50,000.
[00:17:39] Bob: Remember, Jonathan loves Mair, like a sister.
[00:17:42] Jonathan Walton: I mean think about your best friend, someone you swear you know.
This is someone anyone would do for anyone they love; you know.
Soon, Mair calls Jonathan with even more dramatic news.
She’s going away.
[00:18:03] Jonathan Walton: She’s crying again.
And I’m like, what?
So he’s going to punish me with a slap on the wrist.
It’s not a felony, it’s a 30-day jail sentence just to teach me a lesson.
It’s not a felony, I’m going to do 30 days.
As soon as I get out, I’ll get the inheritance, everything will be fine.”
[00:18:40] Bob: It’s all kind of a blur.
So he doesn’t question the jail sentence.
But he is surprised with Mair’s next, very insistent request.
“Don’t visit me in jail,” she asks.
And she’s like, “No, no, no.
I don’t want you to see me like this.
I’m so embarrassed, I can’t believe I’m in jail.
I’m like, “No,” we’re crying in the phone.
I’m like, “No, I’m coming to see you.”
[00:19:13] Bob: That decision turns out to be the turning point for Jonathan and Mair.
That’s when I discovered the first lie.
She said this was not a felony.
She said it was a slap on the wrist.
I’m just believing she lied about the felony, right.
So…
[00:20:16] Bob: It was worse than a gut punch.
Looking at her jail records suddenly snapped Jonathan back into reality, a very dark reality.
[00:20:26] Jonathan Walton: I was numb.
He went into TV producer research mode.
He hunted down every court record he could find about his Irish heiress friend.
And one by one, I discovered every single thing she told me about that case was a lie.
[00:21:12] Bob: The 30 days in jail, that was no slap on the wrist.
That was part of her plea agreement.
And the $54,000 that she borrowed, she needed that for the plea agreement too.
All the things anyone would feel.
[00:21:45] Jonathan Walton: I was devastated.
Like, how could I do this to us?
[00:21:57] Bob: So many con artist stories end like this.
But Jonathan’s story is different.
Very, very different.
He has a trick or two up his sleeve.
He’s worked in television.
He knows how to act, too, and he’s about to turn the tables on Mair.
[00:22:31] Bob: Next week on The Perfect Scam, the confrontation.
[00:22:34] Jonathan Walton: So, unpleasant stuff.
[00:22:37] Mair Smyth: Okay.
[00:22:37] Jonathan Walton: You’ve been lying to us the whole time about everything.
[00:22:42] Mair Smyth: What, about what?
[00:22:43] 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.
[00:22:51] Mair Smyth: I have not, Jonathan.
[00:22:52] Jonathan Walton: You have.
[00:22:53] Bob: That’s next week on The Perfect Scam.
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.
END OF TRANSCRIPT
Reality TV producer Johnathan Walton has worked on shows like American Ninja Warrior and Shark Tank.
Claiming to be Irish royalty, Smyth says she is battling her family for a $25 million inheritance.
AARPs Fraud Watch online grid can help you spot and avoid scams.
