Chameleon
by Audiochuck | Campside Media
Latest episode
Who is Swagg Man? The Rapper Scamming His Fans
Who is Swagg Man? The Rapper Scamming His Fans
About this podcast
We are living in a golden age of deception. It feels like everyone has an angle and that, everywhere you turn, someone’s trying to scam you. Chameleon is a new weekly show from veteran journalist Josh Dean (co-creator and host of The Clearing, Hooked, White Devil, and the original Chameleon season, Hollywood Con Queen) that takes you inside an incredible, stranger-than-fiction story about someone—or some people—pretending to be something they aren’t. Are you obsessed with cons, frauds, and impostors? Then this is the podcast for you. Get your new weekly true crime obsession every Thursday from Campside Media and Audiochuck.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 56 episodes
- Who is Swagg Man? The Rapper Scamming His Fans · 34 min · Episode 51Swagg Man wanted you to know he was rich. He drove Lamborghinis through Miami, covered himself in designer logos, and told his millions of followers that he’d made it from…
- Queen of Her Own Mind: A QAon Cult Takes Over a Tiny Canadian Town · 36 minRomana Didulo emerged from the chaos of the pandemic as a QAnon conspiracy influencer, building a devoted following with promises of a new vision for Canada where taxes…
- Defrocked: There’s a Plagiarizing Pretend Parson on the Run · 38 minRobert Peters was almost none of the things he claimed to be. For decades, Peters moved all over the world, talking his way into universities, teaching jobs and churches with…
- The Rise and Fall of Michael Avenatti: An Anti-Trump Hero Who Flew Too Close to the Sun · 38 minIn 2018, Michael Avenatti seemed to appear out of nowhere. A brash, flashy lawyer riding shotgun with the porn star Stormy Daniels as her allegations against Donald Trump…
- Program Pusher: A Trojan Horse Cult For Troubled Teens · 41 minWhen Esther was a teenager, her parents supported her in joining a group that promised to help her with her drug problem. She found a world of secret rituals, forced confessions…
- The Problem Dog Whisperer: Too Good To Be True · 48 minSteffen Baldwin was a tattooed dog whisperer with an apparent gift for rehabilitating dangerous animals. He was a beloved local celebrity with a reputation for saving the most…
- Jacob and the Lion: A Cult, A Gangster And A Billion Dollar Tax Fraud · 39 min · Episode 45Jacob Kingston wanted money, status and the approval of his family. Then he met a charismatic Armenian oil tycoon called The Lion. What began with a deal over a shipment of…
- The Four Mrs Wilsons: The Spy Thriller Author with a Real Life to Match · 43 minWhen Mike Shannon was nine years old, he was told that his father had died fighting the Germans at the Battle of El Alamein. Michael’s father hadn’t died at all. He’d been a…
- REVISITED: The Undead Tour: How The Fake Zombies Fooled America · 34 minA British band called The Zombies had a smash hit single in America with ‘Time of the Season’ in the late 60s. Shortly afterwards, four handsome Texans hit the road pretending to…
- A View To Deceive: An Artist Goes Undercover To Expose The Uber Rich · 37 min · Episode 41The views from New York's luxury high-rise apartments can be spectacular. And the higher up you go, the more exclusive, and expensive the properties become. An artist became…
- The Artist of Cons: The Unbelievable but Totally Real Life of Milwaukee’s Most Interesting Man · 51 min · Episode 42As a teenager in Milwaukee, Art Rapkin became a hustler, karate champion and a fake Bob Dylan. Then he started smuggling cocaine, before ending up in a Mexican prison, where he…
- Lie in The Sky: Is Frank Abagnale Jr's story too good to be true? · 35 min · Episode 41Frank Abagnale Jr. became America's most famous con artist. He said he stole millions of dollars, posed as a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, before working for the FBI. His story…
- Cultivated: The Self-Proclaimed Prophet Hiding In Plain Sight · 36 min · Episode 40"In the summer of 1991, a young woman walks into a police station in Ogden, Utah. She claims that just blocks away, amongst the manicured suburban sprawl, a self-proclaimed…
- The Archangel Made Me Do It: The French Mayor And The “Fortune Teller” Who Has His Ear · 39 min · Episode 39The mayor of an idyllic seaside town in France had seemingly fallen under the spell of a glamorous mystic who claimed she could speak to the dead. Their relationship soon pulled…
- Big Man on Campus: The Hoops Phenom Who Tried High School Twice · 33 min · Episode 38A promising high school basketball star seemed to appear out of nowhere—a talented homeless kid trying to rebuild his life after Hurricane Harvey. But Rashun Richardson was no…
- Going Places: The College Art Students Who Fooled a Nation · 38 min · Episode 37In the late 1990s, a group of art students from Leeds, England, announce a week in Spain as their latest “conceptual artwork” — and Britain’s tabloids lose their collective mind…
- The Wannabe Pilot: Fish Swim, Birds Fly, and Randy Lies · 38 min · Episode 36His friends, family and a string of partners all believed a version of the same thing. That Randy was a former marine who now flew commercial airliners. But as the people around…
- For The Love Of Dogs: The Scam Shelters Abusing Animals For Clicks · 40 min · Episode 35A network of animal shelters in Uganda started posting heartbreaking videos of starving, mutilated dogs on social media, begging for donations from animal lovers. But as a group…
- REVISITED: The Kid Who Couldn’t Stop Playing Cop · 31 minIn 2009, Vincent Richardson walked into a Chicago police station and reported for duty. No one noticed he wasn’t actually a cop. No one noticed he was 14 years old. This is the…
- Mother of All Stories Part 2: Mom On The Run · 43 min · Episode 34When Heidi Cloud was twelve years old, she became the first child in America to be sent to jail for refusing a court-ordered visit with her father. As she grew up, Heidi came to…
- Mother of All Stories Part 1: A Daughter Falls Under A Spell · 40 min · Episode 33Heidi Cloud's childhood never stood a chance of being normal. A mother with a warped way of seeing the world keeps the family on the run and embroiled in an impossible custody…
- Mr 10 Percent: The Suburban Dad Who Fleeced Global Soccer · 39 min · Episode 32He rode a mobility scooter through Central Park with a parrot on his shoulder. He also helped pull off one of the biggest financial scams in sports history. This is Chuck Blazer…
- Fetal Attraction: The Reality Star And The Woman He Wished He’d Never Met · 39 min · Episode 31When Clayton Echard’s season of The Bachelor ended, he thought the public humiliation was behind him. Then a woman he barely knew claimed she was carrying his twins — something…
- Laundry Man: The Wild Ride of the Pig Butcher's Banker · 33 min · Episode 30A swashbuckling South African expat, Benjamin Mauerberger, rose up as a boiler-room stock hustler in Southeast Asia, then reappeared years later with a diplomatic passport and…
- Introducing: Crimeless · 37 minJoin your Chameleon host Josh Dean and his partner in (dumb) crime, comedian Rory Scovel, as they dive into the incredible story of a shady Swami who scammed Newark, New Jersey…
- Dumpster Fire Phoenix: The “Festival” Organizer Who Just Can’t Stop Himself · 41 min · Episode 29Fyre Festival was sold as the most exclusive party on earth — a luxury music festival in the Bahamas for influencers, celebrities, and the ultra-wealthy. It became one of the…
- Catch Him if You Ken: The Dating Scammer Who Targeted Influencers · 31 min · Episode 28The story of a mild-mannered guy who charmed his way into the lives—and bank accounts—of women on two continents by posing as a wealthy heir with big crypto dreams. But Ken’s…
- Whiteout: The Olympic Snowboarder Who Became A Cocaine Kingpin · 45 min · Episode 27A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder should have been a footnote—a guy who raced once, finished 24th, and faded away. But in early 2026, Ryan Wedding resurfaces as a fugitive on…
- High Stakes: Life inside a Vampire Cult · 49 min · Episode 26As a lonely, grieving teenager in the early days of the internet, Celeste Mott is drawn into a secretive message board called "The Looking Glass": a place where self-proclaimed…
- The Journalist And The Voyeur: It’s Not So Easy When You’re The One Being Watched · 45 min · Episode 25Gay Talese thought he’d landed a once-in-a-lifetime story every journalist dreams about: a motel owner who built a hidden viewing platform so he could watch guests in their most…
- A Master's Puppet: Jeffrey Epstein's Money Man · 40 min · Episode 24The unsettling story of Leslie Wexner—the Midwestern retail billionaire who built Victoria’s Secret, then gave Jeffrey Epstein extraordinary access to his money and credibility…
- The Real Eddie: His Scamming Is Insaaaaane! · 30 min · Episode 23The rise and spectacular fall of Eddie Antar, the electronics mogul behind the Crazy Eddie brand. Who scammed his way from the streets of Brooklyn to Wall Street and then…
- The Mesh Mill: How Scammers Took Advantage of Women's Pain · 39 min · Episode 22Shortly after Christmas, Sharon gets a terrifying call. A stranger tells her the pelvic mesh inside her body has been recalled. It's a “ticking time bomb," and she needs…
- Harry And Rachel Part 2: When True Love Dies · 34 min · Episode 21For 563 days, Harry believed the love of his life was dying of stage-four cancer. Then Rachel’s husband called, and everything Harry thought he knew collapsed. A pattern emerges…
- Harry And Rachel Part 1: When True Love Lies · 28 min · Episode 20In 2001, Harry meets Rachel in Houston. And so begins a complicated and uncertain kind of love story. An on-again, off-again connection that would stretch across two decades of…
- Extra Credit: The Rise and Fall of a Frat House Ponzi Scheme · 36 min · Episode 19Syed Arbab looked like the next financial prodigy—a frat house day trader who turned beer-soaked bravado into a successful hedge fund. Except that wasn't exactly the whole truth…
- Master Manipulator and Commander: Trust Your Gut · 38 min · Episode 18She thought she'd met the real deal: a decorated Navy officer, stationed at the Pentagon, opening hospitals in war zones. But what begins as a whirlwind romance slowly unravels…
- The Vampire Catfish: A Message Board And The Boy Who Believed · 41 min · Episode 17Michael was 16, lonely, and stuck in a small Southern town when he met someone called Dennis on a vampire-themed online message board. What began as a thrilling, romantic…
- Goodfellas: The Country Bar Theme Scheme · 34 min · Episode 16When an Arizona reporter starts looking into a flurry of closures at country music-themed restaurants, he thinks it’s just another boring business story. But he uncovers a…
- Face Plant: The Woman With A Thousand Boyfriends · 39 min · Episode 15What's it like to have your image used as the bait in thousands of online romance scams? This is what happened to Janessa Brazil—whose image has been hijacked and used to con…
- The Velvet Sundown: The band that’s not quite Human, not quite machine. · 40 min · Episode 14They were a hot new band and storming up the charts. But something seemed off about Velvet Sundown. Was this the work of AI? When someone behind the band came out denying it…
- Engineering to Deceive: The Talented Coder Who Just Keeps Getting Jobs · 28 min · Episode 13When one tech founder tweets a warning about a seemingly prolific engineer named Soham Parekh, it sets off an avalanche. Turns out, Soham has been hired and paid by dozens of…
- Memoir Mystery: The Blockbuster True Story That Maybe Wasn't True At All · 43 min · Episode 12When the book The Salt Path was published, readers were moved by the story of a couple who, after losing everything, rebuilt their lives through nothing more than determination…
- The Author Trap: Inside The Scheme Selling Lies to Hopeful Writers · 36 min · Episode 11Brent Crane is being chased through a mall in the Philippines. He's on the trail of Page Turner, the company that has been accused of stealing $44 million from hopeful writers in…
- White Lies: The Scammer Who Left Brides In The Lurch And Couldn't Stop · 36 min · Episode 10Michael Esposito hired 50 journalists, promised them a dream job, and disappeared without paying a dime. Years later, he resurfaced under various new names, taking tens of…
- The de Kooning Job: Teachers Turned Thieves · 31 min · Episode 9In 1985, a priceless painting vanished from a university museum in Arizona. The FBI had no leads. 32 years later, it turned up behind a bedroom door in a suburban New Mexico…
- Gay Girl in Damascus: A Viral Kidnapping And An Internet Fantasy · 43 min · Episode 8The story of a Syrian-American blogger whose posts during the Arab Spring captured hearts around the world—including a woman in Montreal who believed she was falling in love. But…
- Fake It 'Til You Graduate: The Honor Student Who Conned a Town · 35 min · Episode 7In 2012, a Ukrainian man enrolled at a high school in Pennsylvania, pretending to be a teenage prodigy named Asher Potts. He made the honor roll and became a local hero. Until…
- Spine Collector: Where Have All The Manuscripts Gone? · 28 min · Episode 6For years, someone was tricking publishers into handing over yet-to-be-published manuscripts—from bestselling authors and total unknowns alike. There were no ransom demands. The…
- The Barefoot Bandit: Catch Him If You Can · 30 min · Episode 5Colton Harris-Moore was just a teenager when he began breaking into homes across the Pacific Northwest. But soon, he was stealing cars, boats... and then planes. This is the…
