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Chameleon

Audiochuck | Campside Media

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.

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27 episodes
weekly
Avg 38 min
English

Episodes 27

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#45
Today · 39 min
Jacob and the Lion: A Cult, A Gangster And A Billion Dollar Tax Fraud
Jacob 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 stranded biofuel turned into a sprawling billion dollar scam where religious extremism, organized crime and green-energy policy collide.
September 17 · 43 min
The Four Mrs Wilsons: The Spy Thriller Author with a Real Life to Match
When 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 successful novelist and, quite possibly, a spy. We follow one journalist down a rabbit hole into the astonishing hidden lives of Alexander Wilson.
September 10 · 33 min
REVISITED: The Undead Tour: How The Fake Zombies Fooled America
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 Texans hit the road pretending to be the Zombies. This is the unbelievable true story of rock’s most brazen imposters… two of whom went on to form ZZ Top.
#41
September 3 · 37 min
A View To Deceive: An Artist Goes Undercover To Expose The Uber Rich
The 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 obsessed with those views, and the hidden world hiding behind them. She just needed to find a way in. Discover more about the Andi Schmied and her book Private Views: A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan
#42
August 27 · 50 min
The Artist of Cons: The Unbelievable but Totally Real Life of Milwaukee’s Most Interesting Man
As 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 was tortured, before working with he FBI and DEA.
#41
August 20 · 34 min
Lie in The Sky: Is Frank Abagnale Jr's story too good to be true?
Frank 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 became a bestselling book, a Hollywood blockbuster and a Broadway musical. But what if the greatest con Frank Abagnale pulled was convincing the world that any of it was true? Listen to Javier Leiva’s podcast The Real Frank Abagnale
#40
August 13 · 35 min
Cultivated: The Self-Proclaimed Prophet Hiding In Plain Sight
"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 prophet has spent years building a secret religious empire — fuelled by fear, manipulation, and systematic abuse. Listen to Mike King’s podcast Gardens of Evil: Inside the Zion Society Cult"
#39
August 6 · 38 min
The Archangel Made Me Do It: The French Mayor And The “Fortune Teller” Who Has His Ear
The 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 the whole town into a mind-blowing scandal that blurred the line between personal loyalty and political corruption.
#38
July 30 · 32 min
Big Man on Campus: The Hoops Phenom Who Tried High School Twice
A 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 ordinary freshman. In fact… He wasn’t even a teenager.
#37
July 23 · 38 min
Going Places: The College Art Students Who Fooled a Nation
In 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. But as the headlines pile up, it becomes clear the “holiday” is only the surface story. And the Art is aimed straight at the culture machine that’s reporting it.
#36
July 16 · 37 min
The Wannabe Pilot: Fish Swim, Birds Fly, and Randy Lies
His 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 him started to look more closely, their ideas about who this charming man was began to wobble. And if Randy has been taking such great liberties with the truth then what else isn’t true?
#35
July 9 · 39 min
For The Love Of Dogs: The Scam Shelters Abusing Animals For Clicks
A 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 of women around the world began comparing notes, they uncovered something much darker: a sprawling scam operation where animals were being tortured for clicks, sympathy and cash. And they started fighting back.
July 2 · 30 min
REVISITED: The Kid Who Couldn’t Stop Playing Cop
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 was 14 years old. This is the story of the teenager who fooled the system time after time. Was it a prank? A cry for help? Or something else entirely?
#34
June 25 · 42 min
Mother of All Stories Part 2: Mom On The Run
When 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 understand that the real danger had been much closer to home. Her mother spent decades pulling everyone around her into a relentless world of conspiracy. Then she disappeared.
#33
June 18 · 40 min
Mother of All Stories Part 1: A Daughter Falls Under A Spell
Heidi 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 battle with a historic and horrific conclusion. How does Heidi begin to untangle the truth when her own mother is as manipulative as she is convincing.
#32
June 11 · 38 min
Mr 10 Percent: The Suburban Dad Who Fleeced Global Soccer
He 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, the flamboyant soccer bureaucrat turned FBI informant whose corruption helped reveal criminal activity at FIFA — the organization responsible for world soccer, including the World Cup — from the inside.
#31
June 4 · 38 min
Fetal Attraction: The Reality Star And The Woman He Wished He’d Never Met
When 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 which, according to Clayton, was impossible. As the story exploded online sleuths begins pulling at loose threads. What they uncovered led to allegations of deception, forgery, and a pattern stretching back years. Listen to Stephani’s podcast Love Trapped"
#30
May 28 · 32 min
Laundry Man: The Wild Ride of the Pig Butcher's Banker
A 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 extraordinary wealth. When reporters start pulling at threads, they uncover an entirely new identity: this stock scammer seems to now be a key player in the industrial “pig butchering” scam economy. How does a small-time con artist end up orbiting political dynasties, buying yachts and private jets?… And what happens when
May 27 · 36 min
Introducing: Crimeless
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 scammed Newark, New Jersey into adopting the Hindu city of Kailasa as a “sister city.”
#29
May 21 · 40 min
Dumpster Fire Phoenix: The “Festival” Organizer Who Just Can’t Stop Himself
Fyre 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 most shared disasters of the social-media era, but by the time the truth had emerged, thousands of people had already bought into the dream. And if the organizer was right, could be persuaded to do so again. And again. And again.

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