Chameleon
Episodes
Laundry Man: The Wild Ride of the Pig Butcher's Banker
28 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A swashbuckling South African expat, Benjamin Mauerberger, rose up as a boiler-room stock hustler in Southeast Asia, then reappeared years later with ...
Introducing: Crimeless
27 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Join 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 ...
Dumpster Fire Phoenix: The “Festival” Organizer Who Just Can’t Stop Himself
21 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Fyre Festival was sold as the most exclusive party on earth — a luxury music festival in the Bahamas for influencers, celebrities, and the ultra-wea...
Catch Him if You Ken: The Dating Scammer Who Targeted Influencers
14 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The 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 ...
Whiteout: The Olympic Snowboarder Who Became A Cocaine Kingpin
07 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder should have been a footnote—a guy who raced once, finished 24th, and faded away. But in early 2026, Ryan Weddi...
High Stakes: Life inside a Vampire Cult
30 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
As 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 p...
The Journalist And The Voyeur: It’s Not So Easy When You’re The One Being Watched
23 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Gay 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 cou...
A Master's Puppet: Jeffrey Epstein's Money Man
16 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The unsettling story of Leslie Wexner—the Midwestern retail billionaire who built Victoria’s Secret, then gave Jeffrey Epstein extraordinary acces...
The Real Eddie: His Scamming Is Insaaaaane!
09 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The 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 ...
The Mesh Mill: How Scammers Took Advantage of Women's Pain
02 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Shortly 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...
Harry And Rachel Part 2: When True Love Dies
26 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For 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...
Harry And Rachel Part 1: When True Love Lies
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 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 str...
Extra Credit: The Rise and Fall of a Frat House Ponzi Scheme
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Syed Arbab looked like the next financial prodigy—a frat house day trader who turned beer-soaked bravado into a successful hedge fund. Except that w...
Master Manipulator and Commander: Trust Your Gut
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
She 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 whirlwi...
The Vampire Catfish: A Message Board And The Boy Who Believed
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Michael 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...
Goodfellas: The Country Bar Theme Scheme
19 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When an Arizona reporter starts looking into a flurry of closures at country music-themed restaurants, he thinks it’s just another boring business s...
Face Plant: The Woman With A Thousand Boyfriends
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What'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 bee...
"The Velvet Sundown: The band that’s not quite Human, not quite machine. "
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
They 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 b...
Engineering to Deceive: The Talented Coder Who Just Keeps Getting Jobs
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When one tech founder tweets a warning about a seemingly prolific engineer named Soham Parekh, it sets off an avalanche. Turns out, Soham has been hir...
Memoir Mystery: The Blockbuster True Story That Maybe Wasn't True At All
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When the book The Salt Path was published, readers were moved by the story of a couple who, after losing everything, rebuilt their lives through nothi...
Introducing: 13th Juror
16 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When Liberty German and Abigail Williams, two young girls from a small Indiana town, tragically lost their lives in February 2017, a nationwide manhun...
The Author Trap: Inside The Scheme Selling Lies to Hopeful Writers
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Brent 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 mil...
White Lies: The Scammer Who Left Brides In The Lurch And Couldn't Stop
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Esposito hired 50 journalists, promised them a dream job, and disappeared without paying a dime. Years later, he resurfaced under various new ...
The de Kooning Job: Teachers Turned Thieves
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 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 i...
Gay Girl in Damascus: A Viral Kidnapping And An Internet Fantasy
25 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The story of a Syrian-American blogger whose posts during the Arab Spring captured hearts around the world—including a woman in Montreal who believe...
Fake It 'Til You Graduate: The Honor Student Who Conned a Town
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 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 b...
The Spine Collector
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For years, someone was tricking publishers into handing over yet-to-be-published manuscripts—from bestselling authors and total unknowns alike. Ther...
The Barefoot Bandit: Catch Him If You Can
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Colton Harris-Moore was just a teenager when he began breaking into homes across the Pacific Northwest. But soon, he was stealing cars, boats... and t...
The Undead Tour: How The Fake Zombies Fooled America
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A 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 T...
An Admission of Lies: The Man Who Fooled Princeton
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A gifted, mysterious young man with a tragic past and talent for long-distance running is admitted to Princeton. He dazzles everyone from admissions o...
The Follieri Affair: Who Conned Anne Hathaway?
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
He dated a Hollywood princess and claimed to be the Vatican’s man in America. But Raffaello Follieri wasn’t all he appeared to be. He convinced so...
The Kid Who Couldn't Stop Playing Cop
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 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 w...
Introducing... Chameleon: The Weekly
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Introducing Chameleon. A new weekly show about scammers, con artists, and imposters hosted by Josh Dean. Every week, a new twisty, jaw-dropping story ...
Chameleon
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are you obsessed with cons, frauds, and imposters? Well, then, Chameleon is the show for you. Every week, veteran journalist Josh Dean (co-creator and...