Last Saturday, I was listening to This American Life and I heard a really great story, "Hanging In Chad."
Three guys who go by the names Professor So and So, Jojobean and YeaWhatever spend part of each day running elaborate cons on Internet scammers. They consider themselves enforcers of justice, even after they send a man 1400 miles from home, to the least safe place they can bait him: the border of Darfur.
I'm fascinated by con artists. And of course, a story about conning a con is even more interesting, especially when it actually happened. Maybe I'm fascinated because I don't know if I'd ever have the audacity to pull off anything like this? In the genre, con artists must maintain the falsehood even though evidence against them is mounting. At a certain point, they crumble under the weight of truth. You have to admire their quixotic efforts to avoid the inevitable.
Four movies based on true stories about con artists and cases of fraud: The Hoax, Catch Me If You Can, Shattered Glass, and My Kid Could Paint That. All great movies.
