4.5 • 980 Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2023
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Jerry Hsu, a retired engineer living in Florida, receives a phone call from someone claiming to be his cellphone provider. They are threatening to cut off his service because the Shanghai Police Department says Jerry is speaking out against the Chinese government and engaging in money laundering. As a Taiwanese immigrant, Jerry is frightened; there must be a misunderstanding. The person on the other end of the line is very persistent and convinces Jerry to work as a secret agent for the police, and he eventually wires up to $1 million from his bank account in order to protect himself. After Jerry transfers the last of his life savings and realizes this was all a scam, he shares what’s happened with his son, who is a filmmaker in New York City. The father-son duo then decide the best way to share Jerry’s unfortunate experience and alert other families is to create a documentary film. And in this heartbreaking yet -warming film, Jerry plays himself.
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0:00.0 | This week on the perfect scam. |
0:03.0 | I share a phone plan with my father and I noticed that there were many phone charges to China. |
0:09.0 | I guess that is reaching out to old friends or something. |
0:14.3 | A week later, my mother calls me and says, |
0:18.4 | something terrible has happened to your father. |
0:20.6 | You need to talk to him right away. |
0:22.4 | I can tell like she's been crying and just super angry and she is just saying I can't believe this happened. |
0:35.0 | Welcome back to the perfect scam. I'm your host Bob Sullivan. |
0:38.0 | Have you ever felt like you were an actor in your own play or movie? |
0:42.0 | Or have you ever thought someone should make a movie out of your life? |
0:46.0 | Well, that actually happened to today's guest, Jerry Shoe. |
0:50.0 | And I don't want to spoil any of the stories, so I won't say much now, other than, if you plan |
0:56.2 | to see the indie film starring Jerry as himself, well, this podcast does include some spoilers. My name is Jerry, I'm Kainto America in 70s. I work as an engineer for 40 years. |
1:22.0 | I support my family by working hard and save money but one year after I retired |
1:29.2 | but one year after I retired. |
1:33.0 | I received a phone call. |
1:36.0 | That's Jerry, starring as himself in the movie. |
1:40.0 | He's received a phone call and on the other end of the line is a man who says he's from Jerry's cell phone provider |
1:47.0 | He says they're calling because the Chinese Shanghai Police Department has accused Jerry of spreading rumors about the Chinese government. |
1:55.0 | They said, hey Jerry, we're going to shut down your phone in 30 minutes, 20 30 minutes, because we got a request from the Shanghai, Chinese Shanghai |
2:08.7 | Police Department. They said the union was used for a phone, and the phone was used to spread rumors and |
2:17.0 | spread the language against the Chinese government. |
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