0:00

What a tangled web we have created with

0:02

the brave new world of computing. And

0:04

the thing is it prays on people's

0:06

ego? You don't want them coming back

0:08

at you? If they're smart, they can

0:10

ruin you. Yes. If they get a

0:12

vindictive sort of streak on, Jenny just

0:14

walked up beside me with her iPad

0:16

and pointed it at the screen. I

0:18

should have known. Yes, pointed it at

0:20

the scream, podcast scam. Oh I see.

0:22

And then there it is. Then we

0:24

opened it after he followed the exact

0:26

script, even down to the exact script,

0:28

even down to the fee. I'm Andrew

0:30

Rule, this is Life and Crimes.

0:33

It's many a long day since

0:35

we had as a guest here

0:37

my old mate Marty Fields. Now

0:40

Marty Fields is known to most

0:42

of our listeners as a very

0:44

funny man. He has been the

0:47

length and breadth of the wide

0:49

brown land entertaining people for far

0:51

too long probably Marty, but you

0:54

come here today not really to

0:56

crack jokes so much as warners

0:58

about... a very sophisticated scam that

1:01

almost got under your guard. It certainly

1:03

did, Andrew. How did this happen, Marty? What

1:05

went on? Well, look, you and I, we've

1:07

both been around a bit and you know,

1:10

we know, we know, we know, we know,

1:12

well, you know, we know how to spot a

1:14

wood duck. We also know how to spot someone

1:16

who's trying to have a bit of

1:18

a land of us. They're known as

1:20

the black duck. Yes. Yeah. Yes, I

1:22

wonder what kind of what kind of

1:24

duck they were. Anyhow, I got a

1:26

very innocuous email. from a guy saying

1:28

we're very impressed with you know what

1:30

you've achieved with your career we run

1:32

a podcast in the United States this

1:35

this lady's called Kendra G and they

1:37

represent themselves as Kendra G management now

1:39

I didn't know Kendra G because I

1:41

don't really listen to any podcast except

1:43

yours and mine so I didn't know

1:45

who she was but apparently she's she's quite

1:47

a big deal yeah and this like represented

1:49

her and he said please feel free to

1:52

googler and I did so and My wife,

1:54

who's also not a deal, she looked her

1:56

up, she seems real, she has a podcast,

1:58

goes out Saturday night. out of LA and

2:01

I said okay fair enough anyway right back

2:03

yes that'd be interesting he wants to talk

2:05

to me that's his thing he wants to

2:07

just chat with me about going on the

2:10

podcast for an hour so this person that

2:12

is in touch purports to be the management

2:14

of Kendra G correct it says I want

2:16

to talk to you Marty in Australia about

2:19

Yes, stuff. And the platform he wants

2:21

to use is some sort of Facebook,

2:23

face-to-face video platform. I'm not particularly familiar

2:25

with it. I've got a Facebook page,

2:27

which has got probably maybe, I guess

2:29

around 300,000 people who follow it. It's

2:32

just jokes. And just, you know, occasionally

2:34

I'll say something deep, but that's really

2:36

very rare. And I thought, well, that's

2:38

nice. He's, you know, he's noticed me,

2:40

so my ego has been... given a

2:42

bit of a paeum which is lovely

2:44

and you know I have been at

2:46

this caper a fair while so I'm

2:49

thinking well you know this is the sort

2:51

of thing that you occasionally get noticed for

2:53

out of your own domain that'll be all

2:55

right so they offered a three thousand dollar

2:57

US fee for an hour and how did that

2:59

strike you about average actually yeah that seems

3:02

to be like that that would fall into

3:04

a gig fee for me if I only had

3:06

to go around the corner and when you're doing

3:08

it on your machine at home you don't have

3:10

to go anywhere. So that strikes you,

3:12

it just fits very neatly. Yes.

3:14

And they may well have known

3:16

that. That's right. They clearly had

3:18

sort of done this before. Yeah. And

3:21

that's what I thought at the

3:23

time. They've hit the right mark

3:25

because I'm not the first person

3:27

that they've used for this podcast.

3:29

Not thinking that it's a

3:31

learned experience from trying to. give

3:33

you a bit of a twist. Right.

3:35

Anyway, so we back and forward a

3:37

bit and I try to explain to

3:40

him that my Facebook doesn't work like

3:42

that, it's just a page, it's not

3:44

a friends Facebook thing. Can we do

3:46

it on Zoom? Can we do it

3:48

on meetings? Can we do it on

3:50

meetings? Can we do it on another

3:52

platform? No, no, no, and no. I

3:54

said, look, I've tried to do this

3:56

before set up, you know, face-to-face things

3:58

on Facebook, on Facebook. Friday morning and

4:00

we'll go through it. And I said, yeah, okay, cool. So

4:03

we did that. He said, it'll be 9am Melbourne time. And

4:05

I said, okay, cool, you just say you know, that's five

4:07

hours behind LA time. He said, yes, I know, yes, I

4:09

know, this is not speaking, this is all writing. So at the moment,

4:11

I can't hear his language or his talk or his anything. Fair enough.

4:13

It's all words. And he says, okay. And then I'm in front I'm

4:15

in front of the front of the front of the screen of the

4:18

screen at the screen at nine of the screen at 9 at 9am

4:20

in front of the screen at 9am. No zoom, no lead into the

4:22

meeting, nothing. So I emailed him saying, I'm here, what's going on? He

4:24

said, I got the times wrong, it's 10am, sorry, that's 3 p.m. LA

4:26

time. And I said, okay, cool. So I come back at 10 a.m.

4:28

And we have a chat. He can see me, I can see him,

4:31

all I can see is the graphic of the show, Kendra G. Managedy.

4:33

So I can't see him, but I can hear him, but I can

4:35

hear him, he's got a South African here, he's got a South African

4:37

accent, he's got a South African accent, he's got a South

4:39

African accent, he's got a South African accent, he's got a South

4:41

African accent, he's got a South African accent, he's got a

4:43

South African accent, he's, he's, he's got a South African accent,

4:45

he's, he's got a South African accent, he's got a South

4:47

African accent, he's, Not broad no not anything so

4:49

he said mean anything to you not really

4:52

just you know plenty of South Africans go

4:54

to America LA is full of people from

4:56

somewhere else that's exactly right Andrew and I

4:58

said to him look I don't know how

5:00

to do this he said that's fine I'll

5:02

talk you through it better still why don't

5:04

we just Are you in front of your

5:06

computer? I said no I'm in front of

5:09

the iPad. He said well go upstairs get

5:11

in front of your computer. All right now

5:13

click on your Facebook icon and it comes

5:15

up and he says okay now you see

5:17

down the side and I said no it's

5:19

not like that it's not set up like you're

5:21

explaining it. You said but let me do it

5:23

for you. Just punch this code into your computer

5:26

and I can operate it and get it up for

5:28

you. Bang alarm bell. Because we're all

5:30

told never give control to your

5:32

computer to anybody else in the

5:34

whole wide world unless there's somebody you're

5:36

paying $200 an hour to fix your

5:38

computer from you know one of those

5:40

tech mobs. Then said to him just in

5:43

past, I said, this will take a minute,

5:45

Jen's ear is pricked up because she can

5:47

hear it now, she home up next to

5:49

her office, and that's my wife, and... She's

5:51

the sort of clever one of the... Yeah,

5:53

well, you know, yeah, look at her, okay,

5:55

yeah, and beautiful. She only staying at home

5:57

because it's easier than kissing me goodbye, yeah,

5:59

yeah. And she says, who's that? And I

6:01

said, it's the guy from LA. And she

6:03

said, oh, yeah, hi. And he said, so

6:05

how's it being going over there? I said,

6:07

great, a pity about what's going on with

6:09

you guys over there with the fires have

6:12

come back. And he said, what fires? Oh, that

6:14

is so interesting. And so this has

6:16

happened right in the middle of

6:18

the big fires in LA. Yes.

6:20

It's on front of mind for

6:22

everybody for everybody there. Yes. And

6:24

everybody. Dead air. Yeah, the rocket's red glare,

6:26

not there. Oh dear. Yeah, so now I'm very

6:28

cautious and I'm saying, look, I might get someone

6:31

here to work it out for me and then

6:33

you can get back to me. And he said,

6:35

oh, we need to do it now, we need

6:37

to do it now. And then, you know, you

6:39

can pick an erger. And I said, no. No,

6:42

let me get this right over here, because I

6:44

get it right for you, I can get it

6:46

right for everybody, so it'd be great. So you're

6:48

actually helping me. So I'm not making the bloke

6:50

dirty. No. I'm just still playing the wood duck.

6:53

Right, perfect. Right, because if you get them filthy,

6:55

you don't want them coming back at you.

6:57

If they're smart, they can ruin you. Yes. If

6:59

you if they get a vindictive sort of streak

7:01

on you. Okay. So you've got to keep nice.

7:04

Yeah. But I patted him down. He said,

7:06

okay, I'll get back in touch with you very

7:08

soon. So as it turns out today, Andrew, I

7:10

got a WhatsApp message from him saying we spoke

7:12

the other day. I want to keep talking and

7:15

see if we can make this work. How

7:17

did you go with your tech guy? Bla blah

7:19

blah blah blah. I see and so. Having

7:21

decided that he is a shonk and you

7:23

know this for sure, and we'll go into

7:25

that, what is your, what's going to be

7:28

your reaction to sort of stay nice but

7:30

rebuff him? I know radio silence now. Radio

7:32

silence. Yeah, radio silence. They'll get sick of

7:34

me and go on to someone else. To

7:36

go back in the story a little bit,

7:38

what was your reaction then once you'd twig

7:41

that, you know, he's a shonk? and you've

7:43

realized that you are not a wood duck,

7:45

you are on the ball? And you thought,

7:47

what'll I do next? I better research this. What

7:49

did you find out? I didn't have to

7:52

do anything because Cheney just walked up beside

7:54

me with her iPad and pointed at the

7:56

screen. I should have known. Yes, pointed at

7:58

the scream, podcast scam. Oh. I see. And

8:00

then we opened it after he'd gone.

8:02

We opened it. He followed the exact

8:04

script, even down to the fee. The

8:06

fee even. The exact fee. The whole

8:08

thing. So it's the podcast scam. And

8:11

so then you say to yourself. What

8:13

do they get out of it? Like

8:15

you understand that if someone's trying to

8:17

scam you out of a million dollars,

8:19

they're trying to get a million dollars.

8:21

What do they get out of this?

8:23

Yes. Well, apparently what they do, if

8:25

you have enough followers, it's worthwhile for

8:27

them to take over your page. You

8:29

fall into a band of targets. Exactly.

8:31

You're that relatively rare creature that has

8:33

a lot of followers. Yes. Right. And

8:35

then they impersonate you. Yes. By getting

8:37

inside your Facebook thing. And what damage

8:40

could they do then, Marty? Well, then

8:42

they lock you out for a start.

8:44

Oh, that's not good. No. So you've

8:46

got no control. All the people that

8:48

you would be telling, hey, this is

8:50

a scam. You can't tell because they're

8:52

the people who are still looking at

8:54

your page thinking it's you. They're dead

8:56

driving your car. That's right. Wearing your

8:58

hat. Exactly. speeding through stop signs, yes,

9:00

waving and smiling. No, it's not. So

9:02

he then monetizes putting on things on

9:04

my page that he rips the money

9:06

from, then he starts to try and

9:09

sell them fake donations and fake everything,

9:11

which of course completely ruins my reputation.

9:13

Yes. Business-wise, commercially, entertainment, all gone, and

9:15

also you've lost all your followers. So

9:17

of course, it's not the worst thing

9:19

that could happen to you? No, but

9:21

it's pretty catastrophic in a commercial sense.

9:23

Yes. Yes. Yes, it's not brain cancer.

9:25

That's right. But it's not nice. That's

9:27

right. And the thing is, this is

9:29

not the first time it's happened to

9:31

me about 15 years ago in a

9:33

much less sophisticated world. A guy emailed

9:35

me saying, I am the pastor at

9:38

Devon, our Lady of the Twisted Sancho

9:40

Church or whatever, in Devon. In the

9:42

old country. Yes, Devon, which I thought

9:44

at the time was a kind of

9:46

chop. lunch meat, but it turns out

9:48

it's a joint. Yeah, it's a place

9:50

over there. Yeah, and it sounds like

9:52

a city, doesn't it? You know, they

9:54

all sound like cities over there. And

9:56

he said, Boo wants you to come

9:58

and... perform at our winter solstice celebrations

10:00

on you know jed December the whatever

10:02

and it'd be marvelous and we're gonna

10:04

pay you 20,000 pounds and again you

10:07

thought it was 20,000 pounds sound a

10:09

bit rich to you well it's a

10:11

it's an overseas trip yeah it's a

10:13

long time like that'd be my conference

10:15

fee if I was going close to

10:17

context of five days so it wasn't

10:19

mad no it wasn't mad it was

10:21

high as high but not mad. That's

10:23

right. So you're still on the hook

10:25

then. Yeah. You go, this is very

10:27

handy. This is a second honeymoon. So

10:29

I send in my bio and things

10:31

and he goes, yes I know who

10:33

you are, you know, we've got people

10:36

here from Australia that want to see

10:38

you. You know, that's why we're getting,

10:40

that's why you. And you know, blah

10:42

blah. And I said, okay, fantastic. He

10:44

said, now all we need to do

10:46

is get your visa organized to come

10:48

over. Organised to come over. Bang. Bang.

10:50

visa. Because we'd just come back from

10:52

the United States, we're very skilled on

10:54

who needed a visa to go where.

10:56

Besides, that time Jenny, my wife, was

10:58

managing professional golfers and the majority of

11:00

her job was involved in getting them

11:03

entry into various countries. And you knew,

11:05

she knew, both of you knew, no

11:07

visa for the UK. No, no visa

11:09

for the UK. And he said, just

11:11

send us a copy of your passport.

11:13

That's all they wanted. That's all they

11:15

wanted? All that nonsense was just here.

11:17

So I rang the pastor. So I

11:19

rang the pastor at Devon. The twisted

11:21

tant you, church. Yes, that's right. I

11:23

found the church and I rang him.

11:25

Oh God, not another one. Oh for

11:27

goodness a sec, it's just a scam.

11:29

Boy, there's hundreds of these dumb calls

11:32

a week. I can't take it anymore.

11:34

You know, so poor bugger. He's over

11:36

there, you know, and he's a good

11:38

accent. Thank you. He's using him as

11:40

the white ball bouncing around on the

11:42

rule ewell. He's an absolute passenger in

11:44

this scam. Oh. That is this one.

11:46

So all they really want, of course,

11:48

they just want to get you details

11:50

and then they can do bad things

11:52

with your passport. Exactly, they can man.

11:54

Tell me what they might do with

11:56

your password. Well, they can get a

11:58

credit card. Yeah, they can get a

12:01

driver's license. False ID. That's right. Build

12:03

a false... Get a loan. in your

12:05

name at the bank for $500,000 for

12:07

a property, all that sort of thing.

12:09

Oh goodness gracious me. Yeah they're really

12:11

bad ones. What a tangle web we

12:13

have, you know, created with the brave

12:15

new world of computing. And the thing

12:17

is it prays on people's ego? It

12:19

does. And praise on people's need to

12:21

want to help, that's another kind of

12:23

scam. Yeah. Where that, you know, they

12:25

pretend you're, you're getting a phone call

12:27

from your daughter on a number you

12:30

don't know. Yeah. And it's just a

12:32

text saying, Dad, I've lost my phone

12:34

and it has my credit card in

12:36

it. Can you please? I just send

12:38

some money to the ATM, the ANZ

12:40

in South Melbourne or something and give

12:42

me the code and I'll go and

12:44

I'll go and get it. That was

12:46

the theory behind the Nigerian Prince thing.

12:48

It's ridiculous, but one little old lady

12:50

with cataracts that would fall in. Press

12:52

a button on a computer, they can

12:54

send a million emails in a second.

12:56

So if only one of them comes

12:59

back, that's a decent day's work. And

13:01

just as a quiet tip, if you

13:03

did know anything about global... politics. You're

13:05

never going to get an email from

13:07

a Nigerian prince because it's a presidential

13:09

democracy. They don't have a royal family.

13:11

Haven't had one since the last one

13:13

was eaten in about 1650? Correct. Delicious

13:15

I believe, but not around. Yes, exactly.

13:17

Insert 43 funny missionary jokes here. We've

13:19

lived that for another time. Are they

13:21

funny missionary jokes? Oh hysterical, yeah. To

13:23

do with missionary positions? Oh, no, no.

13:25

But this is a family show, Andrew?

13:28

I don't do anything. You don't work

13:30

blue? No! Did your dad work blue?

13:32

Not much. No, never swore. Never swore.

13:34

Never swore. We're referring, of course, to

13:36

the late Great Morrie Fields. One of

13:38

the icons of my childhood, when my

13:40

grandmother turned on the telly in the

13:42

bush in these keeps laying way back

13:44

in the old black and white days,

13:46

there he was on Belbert. on homicide,

13:48

he was on skyways, he was on

13:50

flying doctors with mom, he did all

13:52

sorts of things like that. Anyway, also,

13:54

imagine how many people would have tried

13:57

to target him with his profile, but

13:59

fortunately he never got done like that.

14:01

Fortunately he was no longer with us

14:03

before he could be targeted. Exactly, and

14:05

it was an old carnie as well,

14:07

he would have picked up on it.

14:09

Hi, it's Gary Jublin here. Do you

14:11

want a real and raw look inside

14:13

the world of crime? Well then check

14:15

out my podcast, I Catch Killers, where

14:17

I interview people from all sides of

14:19

the law. I draw my firearm and

14:21

I went in to fight mode. I

14:23

wanted to find and confront this government.

14:26

I'm not getting verbal demo. I shouldn't

14:28

have trusted you. See, I'm trying to

14:30

open my mind up to defense. I

14:32

know, it's just begging to be said.

14:34

Fair call. We have amazing guests every

14:36

week. Search for I Catch Killers, wherever

14:38

you get your podcast. The other reason

14:40

that people get done also and it's

14:42

unfortunate is because of greed. So you're

14:44

saying that beautiful alloy, that mix of

14:46

ego and greed is the perfect hook

14:48

and we've all got it. We've all

14:50

got ego and we've all got greed.

14:52

Absolutely. At some level. You know, why

14:55

get 5% on your money when with

14:57

a little bit more risk you can

14:59

get 12% on your money or 15%?

15:01

Yes. So it's never you're going to...

15:03

quintuple your money. It's always, why get

15:05

5% we can give you 11%? Yes.

15:07

And then they just doctor up a

15:09

page that looks like AMP or looks

15:11

like CBA or looks like anything? Yeah.

15:13

And they can get you in. Again,

15:15

all lines in the water, the more

15:17

people they can get to, the more

15:19

chances they are. I have to say

15:21

that after we had a phone conversation

15:24

the other day, I started to scroll

15:26

through the computer looking for this and

15:28

for this very interesting stories to do

15:30

with this game. It goes back away.

15:32

Yeah. Yeah. But despite the fact that

15:34

it's been exposed, it keeps cropping up

15:36

because it's such a plausible thing that

15:38

they find someone like in the entertainment

15:40

business, like yourself or someone like... that

15:42

who's got a lot of followers, who

15:44

is in the gig economy, they do

15:46

gigs and they haggle over prices and

15:48

so on, the perfect target. Absolutely. Because

15:50

you are dealing with managers and management

15:53

and booking agents and promoters every week,

15:55

aren't you? Absolutely. Now normally we would

15:57

just pass this on to our agents,

15:59

but as it turned out, it was

16:01

in the middle of January, offices are

16:03

closed. So every little element, it ticked

16:05

every box. It's very clever, you know,

16:07

and I admired that like I got

16:09

done in Rome I got done in

16:11

Rome in 1997. Could you just clarify

16:13

that please? I got out of the

16:15

train at the Century Termini Station in

16:17

Rome, fresh off the plane from Australia,

16:19

and wheeled my suitcases to my hotel

16:22

room, and wheeled my suitcases to my

16:24

hotel room, and then I had to

16:26

go for a walk, because there wasn't

16:28

enough room in the room for me,

16:30

and the cases at the same time.

16:32

I put the key in the front

16:34

door, I broke the back past the

16:36

back window. It's a small room. And

16:38

some guy walks up to me blonde

16:40

hair Swedish accent. He says, hey, how

16:42

are you? And I said, yeah, good.

16:44

He said, you're just visiting? I said,

16:46

yeah, I just got here, you know,

16:48

and you just want to have a

16:51

chat? You don't know anybody in the

16:53

joint? And he says, do you want

16:55

some drugs? And I said, no, I'm

16:57

alright. And he said, I got some

16:59

weed, it's nothing, you know, it's just

17:01

some hash, it's really good stuff. No,

17:03

no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

17:05

no, no, I'm fine. I'm fine. and

17:07

I had done my research and apparently

17:09

in Italy the less you look like

17:11

a copper the more likely it is

17:13

you are a copper. I see. The

17:15

least powerful police have the most magnificent

17:17

uniforms. Oh right. The parking office, unbelievable.

17:20

Yeah, Mussolini. Unbelievable. Right up to the

17:22

real detectives who just looked like tent

17:24

warbs. Colombo. Colombo. Terrible. Yeah, shock. So

17:26

they tumble out of this car, these

17:28

two guys. One grabs him, one grabs

17:30

me. Oh. Right. And they put him.

17:32

in front of so I can see

17:34

him over the shoulder of the dude

17:36

that's talking to me and he starts

17:38

talking me in Italian. I said no,

17:40

no, English. He said, okay, did he

17:42

offer to sell you drugs? And I

17:44

said, I don't know, I don't want

17:46

to give the blike up. And I

17:49

said, I don't know, I don't want

17:51

to give the blike up. And I

17:53

said, I don't know, I don't want

17:55

to give the blike up. And I

17:57

said, I don't know, I don't want

17:59

to I don't want to give the

18:01

blike, I want to give the blike,

18:03

I want to give the blike, I

18:05

want to give the blike, I want

18:07

to give the blike, I want to

18:09

give the blike, I want to give

18:11

the blike, I want to give the

18:13

blike, I want to give the blike,

18:15

I want to give the blike, I

18:18

want to give the blike, I want

18:20

to give the blike, I want to

18:22

give If I had had drugs, he

18:24

wouldn't have found him anyway. And I

18:26

can see the bloke over his shoulder

18:28

putting that blonde dive in their car.

18:30

Right, so I'm thinking, okay, they've got

18:32

him. And now the second guy comes

18:34

over to me and he said, has

18:36

he got drugs? You know, they took,

18:38

obviously, has he got drugs? You know,

18:40

they took, obviously that's what they were

18:42

saying to each other in Italian. And

18:44

I said, no, you just had 600...

18:47

thousand lira which was 600 bucks yeah

18:49

and I said this and he said

18:51

I don't carry it like that you

18:53

need to put it in your in

18:55

your little waistband thing so he opened

18:57

up my waistband you know my thing

18:59

and he shoved it in there right

19:01

yeah and then he closed the zip

19:03

and he said that's where you want

19:05

to keep it and I said okay

19:07

thank you he said don't put it

19:09

in your pocket is very dangerous enjoy

19:11

your time and really into the car

19:13

they sped off Two hours later after

19:16

seeing my 19th museum and 24th overpriced

19:18

clothing shop, I went to have some

19:20

lunch. I opened up my little thing.

19:22

There's my water money with the hundred

19:24

thousand leer on the outside and inside

19:26

tens. Oh lovely. He'd done the most

19:28

magnificent palm. So instead of getting filthy,

19:30

because it was six hundred, so I'd

19:32

lost five hundred dollars, right? But instead

19:34

of, I just leant back in the

19:36

back of my chair, sipped my cafe

19:38

latte and said, Well, that was beautiful.

19:40

Yeah, oh, very nice. I just felt

19:42

like the sting should be playing in

19:45

the background. Just because it's the start

19:47

of the sting. It's absolutely, yes. Beautiful

19:49

bricorn. Yeah, how Luther does it. does

19:51

it? Yeah it's just a wonderful thing

19:53

and it's real. Without doubt one of

19:55

the most entertaining books and films. Oh

19:57

beautiful and a bit of ragtime music.

19:59

Yes wonderful. I played it all as

20:01

a kid on the piano those all

20:03

those tunes the Scott Joplin stuff. Did

20:05

you? Wonderful yeah. There's nothing you can't

20:07

do. I don't know about that. Now

20:09

Marty I think we should talk about

20:11

what people should do if they've been

20:14

scammed. Well what would you do? I'd

20:16

panic, I'd swear, I'd sit down, I'd

20:18

make a cup of tea and then

20:20

I'd think now I'd start to think

20:22

it through and come down a bit,

20:24

but it would take me a while

20:26

to sort of settle. Well the first

20:28

thing you should do is contact Scam

20:30

Watch. Is that right? Yeah, the government

20:32

website. Yeah. All you have to do

20:34

is Google, I think I have been

20:36

scanned. What do I do if I've

20:38

been scanned? Right. It will send you

20:40

straight to that. If you said the

20:43

ways you could get done there too.

20:45

Oh dear. And fill out the forms,

20:47

they ask for any photographic evidence, anything

20:49

you can give them that's going to

20:51

help them, because it's a collective knowledge

20:53

database that they've got. Okay. And then

20:55

they can release information on the net

20:57

saying watch out for the podcast scam,

20:59

watch out for the, you know, the

21:01

Devon Priest thing, all that. Yeah, okay.

21:03

He was that old. It was a

21:05

wicked exit. He had a signed copy

21:07

of the Bible. Old he was. Dead

21:09

Sea was just getting sick. Anyway, he

21:12

is a target for us today, but

21:14

that is a sad thing for him.

21:16

But what you need to do, get

21:18

on a scam watch, they'll take all

21:20

your details, they'll also give you an

21:22

idea of what to do. First thing

21:24

you should do is try and close

21:26

off the conduit of funds, if there

21:28

is such a thing, if that's what

21:30

they're doing so directly, contact your bank,

21:32

directly, contact your credit card thing, all

21:34

that, see what's happened, and see what's

21:36

actually lost anything. If not, pull the

21:38

roll the roll the roll door down.

21:41

change passwords, change this. change that, make

21:43

yourself immune again. Tell me this, to

21:45

go back to your case, had it

21:47

been three weeks later and your agent

21:49

was around, would they have got to

21:51

your agent and could they have got

21:53

any sense from the agent? Could they

21:55

scam the agent? I wouldn't have thought

21:57

so. I'm just trying to think this

21:59

rule. I can't think that fast. I

22:01

think, yeah, I think that they get

22:03

around the agent by saying it's not

22:05

a huge amount of money. Okay, you

22:07

know what I mean? Because occasionally, my

22:10

agency, pretty cool, that sort of stuff,

22:12

you know, there's little things, it's more

22:14

work to them that it's worth. And

22:16

if I'm happy, just like, it's just

22:18

a podcast sitting at home at the

22:20

piano. Right, I always say, okay. I

22:22

don't have to do anything, they don't

22:24

have to do anything. I would put

22:26

the money back through my agency so

22:28

they can cop a whack out of

22:30

it, but I'd organize it simply just

22:32

to make it just to make it

22:34

to make it easier. Right. Anyway, the

22:36

funny thing I saw on the scam

22:39

watch thing was, be careful of companies

22:41

that now contact you offering to help

22:43

get your money back, because a lot

22:45

of them can be scams as well.

22:47

Oh. Now I want to know how

22:49

they get that, if you know what

22:51

I mean. That they already know that

22:53

someone's the target of a scam. Yes.

22:55

That is a very good point. It

22:57

is very good, isn't it? There's a

22:59

left hand doing, following the right hand.

23:01

Yes, if they have no luck with

23:03

you, they have no luck with you.

23:06

Welcome. This is Scam watch contacting you.

23:08

Thank you for contacting us. Is there

23:10

anything quite as efficient as corruption and

23:12

criminality? Apparently not. It's so good. They

23:14

work around the clock. Yes. And nothing's

23:16

too hard for them. And when AI

23:18

gets going, forget about it because what

23:20

you're going to be able to see

23:22

is me calling you on a video

23:24

phone saying Andrew, I need a grand.

23:26

I've got the fourth leg of the

23:28

courte. It's an absolute motta, but I

23:30

can't. quite get the funds up. And

23:32

you're seeing my face, but no, I'm

23:35

an absolute computer-generated image. It's all coming.

23:37

That's not going to be good for

23:39

some people? No, it's not going to

23:41

be good for anybody. I think AI

23:43

will be the end of the world,

23:45

that's another story. It could be. It

23:47

might infect all sorts of things. Anyway,

23:49

let's not leave it on that. If

23:51

people want to follow me, just go

23:53

to Facebook, just don't go to normal

23:55

Facebook, go to Facebook pages. Facebook pages.

23:57

Facebook pages? Yeah, it's, or just Google,

23:59

Martyfield's comedian. And you'll see my beautiful

24:01

face there. And is it an old

24:04

photo? Yeah, it's so mean. I know,

24:06

I'm not that good-looking. Well, I've never

24:08

been good-looking, Andrew. Neither have I. No,

24:10

mate, when I was a kid. What

24:12

happened? My parents put me in an

24:14

ugly baby competition that said, sorry, no

24:16

professionals. Oh, is that terrible? That's terrible.

24:18

Now, I know we've been through this

24:20

before, but some of our listeners, there

24:22

are many more of them now. And

24:24

some of them won't know the story

24:26

about your late mother. Val. who passed

24:28

away down in, I'm going to say,

24:30

Port Melbourne, but Albert Park. It's close

24:33

to Port Melbourne. And of course, she

24:35

came from an era back in the

24:37

vaudeville days and all the rest of

24:39

it, where she knew a lot of

24:41

scallywags and scoundrels, as your dad did,

24:43

in a nice as possible way. And

24:45

what did you find when you were

24:47

cleaning out your mother's nice little house?

24:49

Four guns? four guns. Is that all

24:51

he was? I thought it was 14.

24:53

No. Four? And I sent you pictures

24:55

of them. Yeah, he did. And the

24:57

curtains were weighed down with bullets, not

24:59

those slugs that you see in normal

25:02

old curtains. These were bullets. That's where

25:04

they'd put them. Oh, that is. The

25:06

way down the curtain. Is that a

25:08

fact. Yeah. And so she had a,

25:10

now, just run through this, for a

25:12

benefit of illnesses. They can go back

25:14

and listen to the episodes. No, no,

25:16

no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

25:18

no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

25:20

Do it live, no. Do it live,

25:22

no. No, no. No, no. No, no.

25:24

No, no. No, no. No, no. No,

25:26

no. No, no. No, no. No, no.

25:28

No, no. No, no. Do it, no.

25:31

Do it, no. Do it, no. Do

25:33

it, it, There was a handgun in

25:35

the bedside drawer, there was a rifle

25:37

under the floor, there was a rifle

25:39

behind the wardrobe, and there was a

25:41

saw and off in the back shed,

25:43

which I had been using to put

25:45

long sort of garden stakes. in because

25:47

all I could see with the two

25:49

holes coming out. Oh you just pop

25:51

them in there. Yeah. Well I'm glad

25:53

it wasn't loaded and cocked because... No

25:55

so they would have shot sky rocket.

25:57

Wouldn't be good. Very bad. You formed

26:00

a belief I think that after a

26:02

particular ugly incident in the neighbourhood where

26:04

chap was shot dead that may be

26:06

one of the scalywags or scoundrels came

26:08

around and... pop day a rifle in

26:10

my father's boot. In your father's boot?

26:12

Yes, the Kingswood, or whatever. Yes, the

26:14

Premier, the Gold Premier. Sorry, the Gold

26:16

Premier. Dad drove around with it for

26:18

six weeks and then the bloke came

26:20

and got it back. And that was

26:22

it. Yeah, and that was, yeah. Who

26:24

was that chap? That might have been

26:26

Mark Brandon Reid. Really? Yes, that was

26:29

my understand. That's what dad told me.

26:31

I'm not sure if that's accurate. I

26:33

don't think dad knew who that that

26:35

guy, who that guy, that guy. He's

26:37

young fell, he's young fell, he's young

26:39

fell, he's young fell, he's, he's, he's,

26:41

he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's,

26:43

he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's,

26:45

he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's,

26:47

he's, he short dark hair. Oh well.

26:49

But probably might not have made, I

26:51

think dad might have made a false

26:53

connection there, but I definitely know that

26:55

it was the gun that was involved

26:58

in a matter at the Drewards Hotel.

27:00

I see. Oh that is so interesting.

27:02

But I don't know why the Texan.

27:04

Anyway, we'll see. The Texan was involved.

27:06

Well the Texan got locked up for

27:08

it. Yes. And he was clearly, you

27:10

know, close by. But dad knew all

27:12

the P&D. So did I, at the

27:14

Council Club. That was fun. That was

27:16

fun. That was great. Good audiences, fabulous.

27:18

Big tippers, big tippers, big tippers, love

27:20

to sing along, fight like 40 men,

27:22

all of them. It was always a

27:24

stink. But it was, they were funny

27:27

fights. Not normal, sort of like you

27:29

see now, terrible shock and things to

27:31

look at. These were hilarious. Like they

27:33

were all having a blue one night

27:35

outside Her Majesty's Hotel and Peran. All

27:37

these old knockabout gang about gangsters, having

27:39

the biggest stink of all time. and

27:41

they stopped and they're all looking on

27:43

the ground. Try, come over here. It's

27:45

not over there, I know, but the

27:47

light's better over here. You know, and

27:49

they found it, got it, bang, straight,

27:51

bag, in, into what we go again.

27:53

Is that a fact? That's true story,

27:56

yeah. They're a bit different, aren't they,

27:58

from the fellows that we've seen? who

28:00

mowed down Sam, the punisher, absolutely are

28:02

him, too. They don't, they don't look

28:04

for gold teeth. No, they wouldn't have

28:06

to look too far enough in that

28:08

circumstance. No, I don't like to see

28:10

anybody, you know, getting hurt and stuff,

28:12

but it is a real live by

28:14

the sword prophecy, isn't it? And just

28:16

before we wrap up, because I've got

28:18

a, you know, you've got places to

28:20

go. I've got things to do, you

28:22

know, you know, and there's something in

28:25

the boot not getting any fresher, not

28:27

getting any fresher, not getting any fresher,

28:29

any fresher, anyway. Anyway. I see. Not

28:31

a body. It might be a body,

28:33

but not a human. No, you've got

28:35

to put him somewhere though. Might be

28:37

just a chook. Look, honestly, if my

28:39

grandfather knew how little we spent on

28:41

his funeral, he'd be rolling over in

28:43

the garage now. So something I just

28:45

wanted to point out, often you'll get

28:47

an email from your bank or from

28:49

a building society or from Visa or

28:51

American Express or something like that. Or

28:54

very, very commonly from PayPal. or a

28:56

mob like that you might be involved,

28:58

you might have an account with PayPal

29:00

or something like that. It will say,

29:02

we just are doing a quick security

29:04

check, we suggest it's time to change

29:06

your password, blah blah blah. If you

29:08

see a link in the email, never

29:10

ever click that link because that immediately

29:12

says that it's a scam. No building

29:14

society, no bank, no... They would never

29:16

send a link. They would always say,

29:18

please log into your PayPal account or

29:20

please contact your branch. No link. No

29:23

link, never click on any email link

29:25

ever ever. When in doubt do nothing.

29:27

That's exactly it when in doubt do

29:29

nothing. I ignore stuff and I think

29:31

well one day I noticed there was

29:33

a small problem I didn't register a

29:35

car for nine months and my brother-in-law

29:37

was driving it and got pulled up

29:39

and that was a little bit sad

29:41

but anyway. the fine was only the

29:43

same amount as I'd saved in registration.

29:45

Oh, perfect. Anyway, it's another story. Yeah,

29:47

no, that's very good. No, don't ever

29:49

do that. That's really important. And that's

29:52

that's very, very common way that they

29:54

get you because the way they can

29:56

mock things up now to look... exactly

29:58

like a normal thing. It's incredible. Of

30:00

course, okay. And we, I mean, we

30:02

open computers, we look at the page,

30:04

how can you pick one? And you're

30:06

on the phone all the time, your

30:08

phone's got emails, and you sit there,

30:10

you're boring, you know, and so you

30:12

jump on your phone, and you're not

30:14

looking too closely either. No. And some

30:16

of these links, you only need to

30:18

bumping with your thumb, and suddenly you're

30:21

in there, you're in there, and you're

30:23

in there, you're in there, you're in

30:25

there, you're in there, you're in there,

30:27

you're in there, you're in there, you're

30:29

in there, you're in there, you're in

30:31

there, you're in there, you're in there,

30:33

you're in there, you're in there, you're

30:35

in there, you're in there, you're in

30:37

there, you're in there, you're in there,

30:39

you're in there, you're in there, you're

30:41

in there, you five thousand of them

30:43

yeah they only need five to be

30:45

live yeah that's right yeah so for

30:47

example your bank often sends out online

30:50

statements that's that's fine but it always

30:52

says like I'm with the Commonwealth it

30:54

says me too well they would say

30:56

log into a net back account do

30:58

you think Commonwealth would like to sponsor

31:00

our show here I'm sorry see why

31:02

they wouldn't I'm happy to run around

31:04

with their jumper on do you think

31:06

if they're having a sort of a

31:08

Christmas party or some other party you

31:10

and I What do you think? Two

31:12

loose pages from the Book of Fun,

31:14

we'd be. Loose is the right word.

31:16

Yeah. Now, when we started this conversation,

31:19

Marty, it started out as saying that

31:21

you got something from somebody who purported

31:23

to be the management of one Kendra

31:25

G. That's right. Now she definitely... is

31:27

not involved. There's absolutely no way that

31:29

she's involved. She is a real proper

31:31

person with a real proper, probably very

31:33

interesting podcast. I haven't listened to it.

31:35

But it's clever because all they had

31:37

to do was say, set up an

31:39

email address, Kendra G management@gmail.com. You can

31:41

set up anything@gmail.com or at hotmail or

31:43

whatever. And when you... on the computer

31:45

and looked at it, there's the logo

31:48

on the screen, which they just copied

31:50

off her website. Easy. It's so easy.

31:52

It's dead simple, really. And the thing

31:54

is, it's how really good magicians work.

31:56

You think no one would go to

31:58

that amount of trouble to make that

32:00

work, so my brain is going to

32:02

eliminate that possibility of how they did

32:04

it. Yes. And I'm going to look

32:06

for the most obvious ways that they

32:08

could have done it. So clever and

32:10

intrinsic and time consuming thing, you couldn't

32:12

possibly have set up a radio controlled

32:14

thing in your pocket that is sending

32:17

a signal to a light at the

32:19

back of the room that is flashing

32:21

so the guy can see how many

32:23

somethings there are. Right. That would have

32:25

taken so much time and you wouldn't

32:27

have set it up in every theatre

32:29

that you're doing on the tour. But

32:31

yes. They do. Yes. Okay. Yeah. These

32:33

are the magicians of the scamming age.

32:35

They are. They are. And they are

32:37

to be applauded. If you can remain,

32:39

you know, impervious to them, sit back

32:41

and watch the show, it's entertaining. And

32:43

speaking of entertaining, I'll leave you with

32:46

this, there are some fantastic things on

32:48

Instagram. By the way, you can follow

32:50

me on Instagram. So they film themselves

32:52

talking to the scammer in Indonesia or

32:54

somewhere. It's so funny. And they're screaming

32:56

at them. No, I'm not quite sure

32:58

what you tell me to do. You

33:00

know, they drive them crazy. It's so

33:02

entertaining. So if you can find some

33:04

of them, they're a lot of fun.

33:06

I have a relative who sometimes find

33:08

scammers. There's a lot of low-level scammers.

33:10

They offer something for sale. And you

33:12

ring up, you know, and I want

33:15

to buy your car. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

33:17

And of course, anybody is really selling

33:19

a caravan or a horse float for

33:21

a couch. They're very inclined to want

33:23

to sell it. So if you say

33:25

I'm going to come around with my

33:27

trailer and pick it up, I pay

33:29

you. The real ones are going to

33:31

go, yeah, beauty, you know, I've seen

33:33

them in an hour. That's right. But

33:35

these ones go, oh no, mate, I've

33:37

got to, you know, I'm babysitting the

33:39

kids, no, no, I've got concert tickets

33:41

tonight. That's right. And all this, and

33:44

my cousin, he, but he does sometimes,

33:46

he's wring them up and badged them,

33:48

say, I can get around there, I've

33:50

got a new South Wales policeman, turned

33:52

investigative reporter. were the passion for missing

33:54

persons cases. I'm here to quickly tell

33:56

you about our true crime Australia podcast,

33:58

The Missing. In this series I look

34:00

at old missing persons cases which have

34:02

all gone cold. an attempt to try

34:04

and uncover new information, which could help

34:06

see these missing people reunited with their

34:08

loved ones, or any form of clue

34:10

that could bring these families closure. The

34:13

missing is available now, wherever you get

34:15

your podcast, and early and ad free

34:17

on CrimeX Plus, on Apple Podcast. And

34:19

on that note, we are

34:21

going to think Marty Fields

34:24

for making the time to

34:26

come all away from where

34:28

he lives in another postcode.

34:31

almost. Nearly. And I talked

34:33

to us here at Herald

34:36

Sun Headquarters to Life and

34:38

Crimes. Your life, you've known

34:40

a lot of crimes along

34:43

the way, but you've never

34:45

committed any, or not many.

34:48

Never been caught, never convicted.

34:50

Thanks for listening. Life and

34:52

Crimes is a Sunday Herald

34:55

Sun production for True Crime

34:57

Australia. Our producer is Johnty

35:00

Burton. For my columns features

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and more go to heraldson.com.a

35:04

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