December 20, 2021

EP. 117 — The Santa Claus Con w/ Larry Owens

What’s poppin’ con-gregation? This week, we have Larry Owens discussing John Duval Gluck, the conman who popularized writing letters to Santa Claus in the beginning of the 20th century. Plus, investors in an NFT project titled “Evolved Apes”  learn that the world of NFTs isn’t immune to scams. Stay Schemin’!

Research By Kaelyn Brandt 

SOURCES:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3dyem/investors-spent-millions-on-evolved-apes-nfts-then-they-got-scammed

https://nypost.com/2015/09/20/meet-the-con-artist-who-popularized-writing-to-santa-claus/

https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/the-con-man-who-saved-christmas/

https://ny.curbed.com/2015/11/30/9895926/the-strange-story-of-nycs-santa-claus-building-that-never-was

Recent Episodes

See All

June 16, 2025

This week, Laci welcomes Kevin Ninh, aka FlawlessKevin (Squid Game: The Challenge), to unpack the story behind the viral cryptocurrency SQUID — a scam that rode the wave of the first season of Squid Game on Netflix.

June 12, 2025

In this week’s Fraud Friday, Laci is joined by AJ Gibson and Emile Ennis Jr. (Confess Your Mess Pod) to discuss the Australian identity thief who had a clear obsession with conning cops.

June 9, 2025

This week, Laci welcomes Ira Madison III (Pop Culture Writer for GQ, Keep It! Podcast) to discuss Sean Kingston and his mom, accused of defrauding vendors out of 1 million dollars.