Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Check Scammer Explains How To Beat The Banks | Charlie Hartman
Thu, 28 Nov 2024
Charlie Hartman shares his life of crime on the run. Connect with Charlie Hartman: https://www.tiktok.com/@imcharliehartman?_t=8n5y1phlTm2&_r=1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMhHySYEfrJdD37Pq7TYL1A https://www.instagram.com/imcharliehartman?igsh=d3E4NjgyMmkwNWh2&utm_source=qr Get 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout. Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7 Send me an email here: [email protected] Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content? Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime 📧Sign up to my newsletter to learn about Real Estate, Credit, and Growing a Youtube Channel: https://mattcoxcourses.com/news 🏦Raising & Building Credit Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/credit 📸Growing a YouTube Channel Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/yt 🏠Make money with Real Estate Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/re Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: What is a PBL?
Okay, what's a PBL?
Punishable by life.
Oh, shh. Did you get in trouble when you were a kid?
Chapter 2: How did Charlie start his life of crime?
No, man. Dude, I was like the best kid, Boy Scout, everything. You know that thing, Matt, when they talk about like, oh, I started my crime way off when I was like stealing candy and stuff? Right. Like mine came from a Christian bookstore, right?
Okay.
So what ends up happening is my aunt, who's a divine Christian, was like, hey, do me a favor. I'm like 14. She's like, take this back to the Christian bookstore and return it for me and just get the money back. The guy knows who I am. No big deal. So I'm like, I'll go do it. And I go return it, get her the money back and everything.
And then like a couple weeks later, I noticed at Dollar General, I'm like 14. I'm out walking around with my friends. I see the same books in the Dollar General store. and then is in the Christian bookstore. So I'm like, wait, these are only a dollar here, but they're $30 there. So I went and bought four of them, went and returned them at the Christian bookstore and got the money back.
And that's what she was doing too? No, I was doing it. Oh, I thought you figured out that that's what she was doing.
No, no, no, no, no. She was returning a book. She's asking me to return a book for her. You're going to run down and return a book for her. And I'm like, I started figuring out like, oh, I can just scheme and scam this way.
Right.
And how old were you? I was like 14. Okay. So now I'm like gathering up all my friends and like we're like plotting and we're like going to like books a million. And we're like doing this like we did this for like a year. Like so I had like a whole organization of like scamming kids, you know, using my friends like to go to bookstores and start scamming people.
Did they ever figure that out?
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Chapter 3: What are warranty scams?
They give me the tracking number. Then I take the tracking number, call back again, and ask for a proof of delivery. Hey, here's the full tracking number. Can you send me the proof of delivery? Well, they'd be like, okay, well, how does that work? And they're going to send that person's name on it, right? Oh, no, that was just my assistant. He was just shipping it out for me.
Can you put my name and my address on it? They would alternate and put my name and address on it. They would either fax it to me or email it to me. Okay. Now I've got a proof of delivery that says Charles Hartman, my address, this. Oh, can you put a description of merchandise, what was inside of it too? Oh, yeah, sure. Oh, camera, Sony camera. And that was it.
Now I've got a proof of delivery from UPS. I give it to the company. The company says, well, I don't know. We must have lost it.
Right.
We'll just replace it. Or how much did you pay for it? Well, we paid $1,000 for it. It would either cut me a check or send me a check.
Right.
Okay. So between 16 to 21, I probably did well over half a million dollars in warranty scams.
right did you ever do they ever just mail out another one or what's that another they were
Oh, yeah, yeah. A lot of times they'll mail me a product, right?
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Chapter 4: How did Charlie's scams evolve?
Well, it's not cash because all I did was get a new headset. You actually get a – and I've never done it for $1,000. That would be – I'd rather have a check because now I've got to sell the product. But even if you sold it at a discount, you're still getting $600 or $800.
And remember, at this time, how old am I? I'm 16, 17 years old. That's a lot of money. Yeah, for a kid. I mean I'm just – I'm living life. Well, until eventually – The UPS driver, I had too many packages get delivered to my house. Right. And the UPS driver was, it was strange. It was like, all this electronic stuff keeps coming here over and over and over and over again.
And then I was like, he asked me one day, he said, what do you order? I said, oh, we have a wholesale business.
Right.
And it just, something didn't sit well with him. So he turned it into their investigation department. Investigation department turned it into the police department. They start watching. Next thing you know, I'm sitting there, I'm expecting an amplifier to come. Because car stereos was like, that was the thing back then, right? Like amplifier speakers.
And then they would replace them like there was nothing. You could get top dollar for it. You can either sell them to somebody you know or whoever. And I would sit there and all of a sudden I'm sitting there, I'm like, I'm waiting for this package because I got a guy waiting to buy it because that was the only thing. As soon as I knew it was shipped, I'd start looking for buyers. Right.
And, man, I'm sitting there waiting, waiting, waiting, and the next thing you know, like it doesn't come and it says, oh, package was held at the UPS center. We missed the thing. You have to come pick it up. That's not good. I'm stupid. I'm thinking, okay, no big deal. You know, I'll go up there and get it.
And I walk in, and the moment I walked in, I seen a guy stand over in the corner, and I'm like looking at me weird, and next thing you know, I came up to the corner and just gave him my ID, and next thing you know, they're like, Charles Hartman? handcuffed me. I'm like, and I'm at that time now I'm past 18. Right. So I'm like, so I'm like, I know I'm getting arrested.
So they arrested me and they take me downtown and they take me into the room and see, you know, use the interrogation, big interrogation. They're like, all right, tell us where your boss is. Tell us who the guy is. I'm like, I'm the guy. Right. What are you talking about? No, no, no, no, no. Who are you working for? Like, where's all the equipment at? Who are you working for?
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Chapter 5: What happened when Charlie got arrested?
He would put super glue on our fingers right here. Right. Kind of throw the, you know, the, the sin off and we put them on just randomly. We would do like small amounts, $436, $396. And we would just go and we would just bang checks in five, 60 stores in a row every Friday and Saturday and just make money.
But are you guys making the checks yourself?
Yes. Yeah, because he used QuickBooks.
And so he'd get the routing number and everything.
Routing and the count numbers. And what we would do is a lot of times we would find people that we knew that worked normal jobs. Hey, I'll give you $100. Let me take a photocopy of your check.
Right.
now now now we know what it is and they didn't have watermarks like they do now so it's like it's easy you get the logos put it on there next thing you know you print it plus these little gas stations they're not paying attention to detail like paper and certain things are right till they get hit a few times yeah then they start paying attention but by then you've already moved on to the next store and you're doing so i did that for like three years just like i had i
good luck, man. I had good luck. My problem was I started doing drugs.
Right.
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Chapter 6: What was Charlie's experience in prison?
Oh, this guy, this guy, this guy's our meal ticket. You know, he's going to, you know, and so I never get no problems. You know, I'm going to fit in how I get in because I know, look, I'm here for two years. I got to do this two years. I'm going to get out of here.
Yeah.
And, I mean, during that time, me and Nick had become really tight. What was he in there for? Fraud, forgery. Of course, your kindred spirits. Yeah, kindred spirits. We're just hanging out. He's telling me he goes in Vegas. He's just like, man, this is great. I was like, man, you've got to come hang out. You know how people are in prison. Oh, yeah, when you get out, you know. Yeah.
And after like a while, you're like, okay, sure, Nick. You know what I mean? So he leaves. He OESs. Two weeks later, I get an envelope from him. Hey, man, here's my address. I sent you some money on your books. Hey, man, if you ever need nothing, I'm here for you. Solid dude, right? Yeah. So I end up finishing my time. I know, me, Matt, I know that I'm not going to do probation.
Right.
Like, I know I'm going to fuck this up.
Right.
Like, I know this is not going to end well for me. I have a 20-year spending sentence, and this is not going to end well for me.
Oh, yeah, that's not good at all because if you fuck up, you could end up with doing the 20.
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Chapter 7: How did Charlie manage to get a reduced sentence?
The ticket. The ticket, man. You know what I mean? And so – So the guy was like, I was like, just follow the script. And I followed a script and start working. And next thing I know, I'm working like 18, 19 hours a day. Just like, I'm working all night. Like, cause sports gambling, like we had to cut my phone off cause it's dingy. Right.
Cause yeah.
And it's like, cause you know, you got West coast, you know, and then I'm working for like some of the best handicappers in the country. So I got clients calling me all the time, wanting to buy packages and services and different stuff. And now I've been there four years, and now I run my own thing. I run my own thing as an independent contractor now, and it's been an amazing run.
Through the guy you started with or separately?
Basically, I started with him and then kind of branched to my own and did my own thing. And he basically just backed me completely. It was like, yeah, he's like, you've outgrown this being here.
Right.
So you run your own thing. Yeah. This year I've made a half a million dollars doing sports betting advice. I mean, it's great, man. I mean, I found a way to turn my addictive personality into something that's legal to make money.
Um, and how, well, how do you get, do you add, do the advertising yourself or does he do it?
So, so, um, it's a, it's a joint operation. So like one of the services we work for is a multi, they do advertising and then they'll send clients and then they'll get a percentage of it. It's kind of like a franchisee.
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