You're listening to WALT.

HOOOOOOOM!

Homemade Radio.

A journey to a place of trust.

That's my favorite phrase from my notes on a conversation that I had not long ago with

reporter Jayong Fan.

It's how she describes the early stages of her work when she's just beginning to investigate

a story.

If she's gonna convince a source to really talk to her, she told me.

She first has to show them that she knows how to listen.

I first encountered Jayong's writing in a piece that she wrote for the New Yorker, where

she's a staff writer.

The article was about ghost scams.

Jayong had noticed a trend in these crimes, which are often committed in the Chinatown

community.

The targets tended to be middle-aged to elderly Chinese women.

The way the scam works is that one of these women is approached by a stranger.

And this stranger tells the woman that she's somehow been captured by an evil spirit.

If she wants to avoid a terrible fate, the stranger warns her.

She should allow this stranger to take temporary possession of whatever valuables she might

have, like cash or jewelry, so that the stranger can bless the valuables and remove the curse.

And then, when the victim hands over, say, a bag of jewelry, the scammer takes it and

...