Hollywood Con Queen, Part 1
The Perfect Scam
AARP
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2020
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Joe Scarnici works around the globe as a celebrity photographer, so when he gets a call from a man who proclaims himself the assistant of billionaire Christina Ong, he's intrigued but not shocked. The assistant says Joe was recommended to Ong by one of his past clients, Martha Stewart. After speaking about the project, a photo shoot of Olympic athletes in Southeast Asia, Joe decides to sign on. A contract is signed and he flies to Indonesia, where he becomes entangled in a complex scheme that has plagued the entertainment industry for years.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week on the perfect scam. |
| 0:03.4 | My friend comes out with his phone and he shows it to me and he goes, |
| 0:06.7 | this is a scam. |
| 0:07.8 | So I'm in shock on the phone with this is a |
| 0:15.0 | is a scam and a photo of the driver and I'm like that's the same guy. |
| 0:19.0 | Welcome back to AARP's The Perfect Scamp. I'm Michelle Kaczynski. This |
| 0:28.4 | scam I have to say is mind-blowing. You know it's one thing to fall victim to a scam another to lose |
| 0:34.9 | tens of thousands of dollars but another thing entirely to end up traveling to the |
| 0:40.8 | other side of the world for it. |
| 0:43.0 | This is a scam you might have gotten wind of recently. |
| 0:46.0 | The FBI is now involved. |
| 0:48.0 | The scammer is praying on Hollywood. |
| 0:51.0 | On the people who make Hollywood work, photographers, makeup |
| 0:55.0 | artists, even chefs, some of the hardest working people who rely on sometimes |
| 1:00.0 | last-minute gigs that are creative, unpredictable, and often expensive. |
| 1:06.3 | One of those people is Joe Scarnichie, a photographer who's built a name for himself getting |
| 1:10.8 | those perfect shots. A six foot four father of two with |
| 1:14.6 | Hollywood star good looks. He did never expect to be one of the faces or |
| 1:19.6 | voices of this messed up dangerous psychologically twisted scam but he tells it best. |
| 1:27.0 | I'm a commercial and editorial photographer I work you know the Golden Globes the Academy |
| 1:34.7 | Awards the Super Bowl I'm going to my fifth Olympics. I'm definitely a working |
| 1:39.1 | photographer I'm very lucky to do what I do. So you're very used to getting booked at a moment's notice, |
... |
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