Even healthy minds are prone to false beliefs, and today we'll cover a particular type that is draining billions of dollars from people's wallets.

Welcome to the Carlet Psychiatry Podcast, keeping psychiatry honest since 2003.

I'm Chris Agin, the editor-in-chief of the Carlatte Psychiatry Report.

And I'm Kelly Newsom, a psychiatric MP, and a dedicated reader of every issue.

Let's start with a scenario. You have a private practice in Chicago. A woman calls you and says she was referred by a colleague that she had heard you work very well

with college students and wants to see if you'd be a good fit for her son. After some questions,

she decides you are the one. Her son will be in Chicago for the summer and she wants to make

sure he has weekly therapy established. In fact, she believes he won't keep up with it unless she pays in advance.

And she's going to pay your private rates. Money is not an issue, she gently reminds you.

You ask her to send $8,000, but when the check arrives, it's for $12,000. You call her up.

She's distressed and embarrassed and ask if you could send her the $4,000 difference first

so the check won't bounce. You hesitate, but she's been very kind and easy to work with. You send

her the check, and when it clears, you deposit hers. But the $12,000 bounces and she is nowhere

to be found. Most likely, this woman doesn't have a son. This is a

common scam. In recent years, scams have grown up. They are as personalized as the ads we see on

social media, and there is a scam for everyone, every woman, child, and man, and gender unspecified.

This isn't even the only scam that targets mental health professionals.

Last year, a very believable voice called my emergency line saying the city had been trying to reach me about a fine for missing jury duty,

and that if I didn't pay, I would be arrested.

Apparently, it's common for doctors to skip jury duty, and someone had been calling every

emergency line in the city, or more likely the country, hoping for fake payouts.

But this podcast is not about us.

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