Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions

At 5:02 p.m. on June 5, 1986, an emergency call came into the local sheriff’s office in the small town of Auburn, Washington State. A distressed housewife, Stella Nickell, said her husband, Bruce, was having a seizure....

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters behind the 2018 bombshell New York Times exposé of then-President Trump’s finances, an explosive investigation into the history of Donald Trump’s wealth, revealing how exactly one of the country’s biggest business failures lied his way into the White House.

Investigative journalist Gareth Gore recounts how members of Opus Dei—a secretive, ultra-conservative Catholic sect—pushed its radical agenda within the Church and around the globe, using billions of dollars siphoned from one of the world’s largest banks.

In 1971, Go Ask Alice reinvented the young adult genre with a blistering portrayal of sex, psychosis, and teenage self-destruction. The supposed diary of a middle-class addict, Go Ask Alice terrified adults and cemented LSD's fearsome reputation....

Part memoir, part explosive window into the mind of a catfish, a thrilling personal account of three women coming face-to-face with an internet predator and teaming up to expose them....

The stranger-than-fiction story of the now-notorious low country clan, in all its Southern Gothic intensity—by an author with unparalleled access to and knowledge of the players, the history, and the place.

Now a number-one international best seller, Billion Dollar Whale is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly), revealing how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history....

Fat Leonard is the unvarnished story of how a charismatic Malaysian defense contractor bribed scores of high-ranking military officers, defrauded the US Navy of tens of millions of dollars, and jeopardized our nation’s security.

Fifteen years after Bernie Madoff’s arrest, renowned investigative journalist Richard Behar delivers the definitive account of history’s largest, longest-running financial fraud—featuring audio excerpts from archival interviews with Bernie Madoff from prison.

In 1911 two British heiresses, Claire and Dora Williamson, read a brochure about a revolutionary fasting treatment that promised a lifetime of good health....

Investigative reporter Zeke Faux provides an uproarious account of a crypto delusion; how Sam Bankman-Fried and a cast of fellow nerds and hustlers turned useless virtual coins into trillions of dollars.

The astonishing true story of Anna Delvey, a young con artist posing as a German heiress in New York City - as told by the former Vanity Fair photo editor who got seduced by her friendship and then scammed out of more than $62,000....

The Absinthe Forger pieces together the forger's subterfuge and motivation. It shows how absinthe can transform a person-and even connect drinkers with a deeper, often hidden sense of self.

In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global—the multibillion-dollar entertainment empire that includes Paramount, CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Showtime, and Simon & Schuster—hung precariously in the balance....

A delightfully subversive essay collection from Laci Mosley, host of the award-winning “Scam Goddess” podcast, about the frauds, cons, and schemes that make up our world—and how the scammer mindset has affected her own upbringing, career, friendships, love life, and more. ​

An explosive investigation into Word of Faith Fellowship, a secretive evangelical cult whose charismatic female leader is a master of manipulation....

A page-turning real-life thriller that features deadpan FBI agents, crooked executives, idealistic lawyers....

The highly anticipated inside look at the collapse of the Murdaugh dynasty by the celebrated investigative journalist and creator of the #1 hit Murdaugh Murders Podcast, Mandy Matney....

Peabody and Emmy Award–winning journalist Jane Marie expands on her popular podcast The Dream to expose the scourge of multilevel marketing schemes and how they have profited off the evisceration of the American working class.

If you’re a fan of true crime, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the big-name cases. In my books, I do my best to find stories you may not have heard of. I count on my fans to send me stories that may have gone forgotten and aren't found all over the internet....

The men on the SS Marine Electric sailed into a storm in February 1983 not knowing that they would make history - at a great cost in lives....

The uproarious, bestselling true story of the world's most sought-after con man, immortalized by Leonardo DiCaprio in DreamWorks' feature film of the same name, from the author of Scam Me If You Can.

Belle Gibson convinced the world she had healed herself from terminal brain cancer with a healthy diet. There was just one problem: she'd never had cancer....

Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is one of the most beloved novels ever. And yet, very few know that the subject of the novel was inspired by a real-life case: the 1948 abduction of 11-year-old Sally Horner. The Real Lolita tells Sally Horner’s full story for the first time....

Filled with explosive new information, this is the definitive inside story of the case that captivated the nation and the verdict that no one saw coming....