Best Fraud & Scam True Crime Podcasts (2026)
Fraud and scam podcasts investigate the con artists, Ponzi schemers, and corporate criminals who cause devastation without ever picking up a weapon. These shows are as gripping as any murder mystery — and often more financially educational.
From Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos to Anna Delvey and Bernie Madoff, the most audacious frauds have inspired some of the best podcast storytelling. These shows ask how smart people get conned, and how fraudsters keep going until they can't.
48 podcasts — expert-reviewed and community-rated
Top Best Fraud & Scam True Crime Podcasts
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Sweet Bobby
Tortoise Media's definitive account of a years-long catfishing scheme — one of the most-discussed UK true crime podcasts of the decade.
The Missing Cryptoqueen
BBC journalist Jamie Bartlett tracks down Dr Ruja Ignatova, who persuaded millions to invest in OneCoin before vanishing without a trace.
The Retrievals
True crime fans interested in medical crime, systemic bias, and the treatment of women in healthcare; essential for anyone who has ever been dismissed by a doctor.
Dr. Death
True crime fans interested in medical crime, institutional failure, and white-collar predators — compelling for anyone who has ever trusted a doctor blindly.
Scam Factory
Wondery investigates people tricked into working at scam call centres in Myanmar under armed guard — the trafficking operation behind the messages you dismiss as spam.
Dirty John
True crime fans who love psychological manipulation, con artists, and domestic crime stories with high personal stakes.
Scamanda
True crime fans fascinated by con artists, medical fraud, and the psychology of long-term deception within close-knit communities.
Two-Faced: John of God
Exactly Right and iHeart investigate João Teixeira de Faria, the Brazilian 'spiritual healer' known worldwide as John of God, accused of abuse by hundreds.
The Clearing
Amanda Knox and Jon Ronson examine cult psychology through the prism of Knox's own experience.
The Dropout
People interested in tech fraud, startup culture, and white-collar crime; fans of The Dropout TV series who want the deeper journalism behind it.
Sea of Lies
CBC's Uncover, hosted by Sam Mullins, follows a con man whose trail of stolen identities and deception crosses continents — until a Rolex watch helps crack the case.
Fraudacious
Novel and BBC Studios trace how a London boutique owner was drawn into befriending a client posing as a wealthy Russian socialite.
I Am Not Nicholas
BBC Studios tracks Nicholas Rossi, a man accused of sexual assault who spent years evading justice by claiming to be someone else entirely.
Crime Story
CBC's Kathleen Goldhar brings journalistic integrity and a conversational edge to white-collar scandals, high-profile trials, and under-the-radar Canadian stories.
Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes
Ronan Farrow's raw tapes from the Weinstein investigation — including what NBC refused to broadcast.
The Shrink Next Door
Veteran journalist Joe Nocera's Hamptons neighbor was a therapist to the stars — until Nocera discovered everything he thought he knew about him was wrong.
Crimetown
True crime fans who want novelistic, character-driven storytelling about organised crime and institutional corruption; listeners who want something that feels as much like great drama as documentary.
The Lazarus Heist
BBC World Service investigates North Korea's billion-dollar state-sponsored hacking operation.
British Scandal
The obvious companion to American Scandal — a season-by-season anthology of Britain's biggest political and institutional scandals.
Slow Burn (Slate)
History buffs and true crime fans who want political crime; listeners who want to understand how America gets to defining moments of corruption and crisis.
Betrayal
True crime fans interested in psychological crime, identity deception, and the personal devastation of discovering you were living with a secret; fans of Dirty John who want the same intimate betrayal format.
Love Trapped
iHeart and Glass Podcasts trace how a casual fling turned into a paternity scandal and a wider story about deception in relationships that turn dangerous.
Hunting the Whisky Bandits
BBC Disclosure reporter Sam Poling investigates the whisky cask investment scams exploiting Scotland's most famous export.
Pretend
Deep psychological dives into con artists and fraudsters — the why, not just the what.
Smoke Screen: Fake Priest
A con man posed as a Catholic priest for years. The people he fooled are still trying to understand how.
Bag Man (MSNBC)
Political history fans; true crime listeners who want to understand how American power insulates its criminals; anyone surprised that Watergate wasn't the only White House crime happening simultaneously.
Gangster Capitalism
True crime fans interested in white-collar crime, education inequality, and how institutional privilege is bought and sold; anyone who wondered what really happened with Operation Varsity Blues.
Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen
True crime and fraud fans who love elaborate cons, Hollywood intrigue, and identity deception at a jaw-dropping scale.
Ridiculous Crime
Zaron Burnett and Elizabeth Dutton share outlandish true tales of capers, heists and cons that shine a light on the absurd side of crime.
Bad People
Dr Julia Shaw applies criminal psychology to real cases for BBC Radio 5 Live — murderers, fraudsters and internet trolls, explained.
Something Was Wrong
True crime fans who recognise that serious crimes don't always involve violence; survivors of abusive relationships who want their experiences validated; listeners interested in psychological manipulation and its aftermath.
Criminal
Listeners who appreciate literary storytelling and want true crime that feels more like Radio 4 documentary than sensational thriller; people who hate the mainstream true crime format.
Love Bombed: Wife Hunter
Reality TV star Vicky Pattison investigates romance fraud and extreme cases of love bombing — this season, a serial 'wife hunter'.
Over My Dead Body
True crime fans who enjoy high-production narrative storytelling and want a varied anthology across different types of extraordinary cases.
The Improvement Association
Serial Productions and The New York Times investigate a decade of unproven cheating allegations against a Black advocacy group in rural North Carolina.
Uncover (CBC)
True crime fans interested in cults, coercive control, and how dangerous organisations hide in plain sight; those who want original reporting rather than documentary recaps.
Court Junkie
True crime fans who want firsthand courtroom reporting rather than secondhand summarising; listeners interested in how trials actually work rather than how they look on TV.
Real Presents: Grave Concerns
Naomi Channell's 2026 series on UK funeral industry scandals — episode one is about Hull's Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, where police recovered 35 bodies from a single funeral parlour.
Royal Swindle
Exactly Right and iHeart follow two Australian women who touched down in 1996 London, became the toast of high society, and started touting an investment opportunity that wasn't what it seemed.
Tenfold More Wicked
True crime fans who love history; listeners who want cases they definitely haven't heard about; anyone who finds contemporary true crime's media saturation exhausting and wants genuinely fresh material.
American Scandal
History and current affairs enthusiasts who want true crime-style storytelling applied to institutional corruption and political failures.
Swindled
True crime fans bored of murder who want to be outraged by institutional and corporate evil; anyone who appreciates deadpan humor and business crime.
Scamfluencers
How social media influencers became the perfect cover for some of the 21st century's biggest scams.
Inside Forensic Science: A Case of Stolen Identity
A forensic-science-led true crime series that walks through a real stolen-identity case using the evidence and methods investigators actually relied on.
Killer Queens
Female criminals throughout history examined with a feminist lens and genuine historical depth.
Writing Wrongs
Aston University's Institute for Forensic Linguistics on how written and spoken language has cracked real cases — nothing else on the site does this.
Fake Psychic
BBC Radio 4's short series on the man who claimed he could put 1960s America in touch with the dead — for a fee.
Felonious Florida
South Florida Sun-Sentinel journalists tackle the state's most disturbing and bizarre crimes.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best fraud and financial crime podcasts?
Scam Goddess, Bad Blood (on Theranos), Ponzi Supernova, and The Dropout are highly regarded in this space. For white-collar crime more broadly, American Scandal covers a wide range of corporate fraud and political corruption cases.
Why are people so fascinated by fraud podcasts?
Fraud stories tap into deep psychological questions — how do con artists identify and exploit trust? What makes someone believable? The answer is usually a combination of charisma, ambiguity, and the mark's own hope or greed. These are universal vulnerabilities, which makes fraud stories feel personally relevant.
Are fraud podcasts educational?
Many are. The best fraud podcasts explain the mechanics of how schemes work, the red flags victims missed, and the structural conditions (regulatory gaps, cultural excess) that allowed frauds to grow. Understanding how fraud works is one of the best defences against it.
What's the difference between a fraud podcast and a true crime podcast?
Fraud podcasts focus on financial crime and deception rather than violent crime. The perpetrators are often charming and educated, and the harm (though real) is typically financial rather than physical. The genre overlaps significantly with business journalism and investigative reporting.
Which fraud scandal has generated the most podcast content?
Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos have inspired more podcast content than almost any other fraud case, including The Dropout (which became an ABC series), Bad Blood (based on John Carreyrou's book), and several documentary podcasts. The Fyre Festival is a close second.
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