Australia's Honest Con Man

Bollywood Swindlers

nickjohnson — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:55:14 +0000

Bollywood loves stealing from Hollywood films.

Maybe not as much as other countries (I’m looking at you Turkish Batman)

Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena lifts from the best (House of Games) and the worst (Confidence). IMDB describes the film as:

Meet Arjun Verma, a conman who plays the biggest odds and wins. Trained in the belly of Bombay, he knows how to score with women, money, and the law. His playground is his alone - AND NOBODY F***S WITH THAT.

My favourite spam

nickjohnson — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:27:56 +0000

Someone tries to post the following comment on the blog. The original was chock full of Urls to penis enlargement sites.

HELP! I’m currently being held prisoner by the Russian mafia and being forced to post spam comments on blogs and forum! If you don’t approve this they will kill me. They’re coming back now. Please send help!

Sham Funeral

nickjohnson — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:59:54 +0000

At first glance, it appears like your stock standard insurance fraud, but Faye Shilling has just pleaded guilty to one of the cleverer swindles.

Shilling, and her accomplice who has pleaded not guilty, schemed to defraud insurance companies by claiming out on policies for fictitious people.

In order to make the claims believable, Shilling, who is a phlebotomist teamed up with a mortuary worker to hold fake funerals for the fictional dead.

They pulled in over a million dollars before getting caught last year.

Clowns. Putting the fun into funerals.

Failblog Scam

nickjohnson — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:14:56 +0000

Good News / Bad News

nickjohnson — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:25:30 +0000

The good news is that they have made a musical of the Frank Abagnale Book and Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can.

The bad news is that they have made a musical of the Frank Abagnale Book and Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can.

The Real Hustle Around The World

nickjohnson — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:00:28 +0000

Just received word that BBC3 in the UK is showing a series called “The Real Hustle Around The World”

Robert Webb takes an entertaining look at the six different countries that have made their own versions of the hit show The Real Hustle. Featuring the best and worst scams from Russia, America, Israel, Belgium, Germany and Australia.

If you get a chance to watch it, you might just catch me, Adam and Clare, swindling suckers in Sydney.

If you enjoy it, please email Channel 9 and ask them to show the full Australian series.

Swindling dancers with a fake audition. Notice the neckerchief.

Short Measure Men

nickjohnson — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:28:37 +0000

Thanks to Julian for sending me this brilliant magazine article about short weight and short measure men and the techniques they use to swindle their customers.

Click on the image to enlarge

Ed McBain’s The Con Man

nickjohnson — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:57:27 +0000

Ed McBain, noir thriller writer and creator of the 87th precinct series of books wrote ‘The Con Man’ in 1957. The novel tells the parallel stories of a con artist and the investigation into the deaths of two girls.

Reissued many times over the years, the book has a some great covers.

Facebook con artist

nickjohnson — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:27:14 +0000

Turns out your IQ drops when you get on facebook.

Reviews Are In

nickjohnson — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:28:23 +0000

Some friendly people posted their review of my show, Scamapalooza on the show’s website

Nicholas J Johnson in Scampalooza is funny, talented and informative!! We learnt a lot from the 30 second scams. The show was entertaining from start to finish – the crowd laughed so much, it was like being at a Melbourne Comedy Festival performance. Thanks for a great night - Jackie

As well as

really really entertaining and extremely funny. 30 second scams were cool and educational! u have really inspired me to be a con artist as well as a magician now! the crowd didn’t get bored one second of the show amazingly entertaining from start to finish! i’m sure no one would regret it and absolutely no one would think it was a waste of money. i loved the last one with the milk crate LOL that was hilarious. also well done with the audience participation level!! big big well done to nicholas J johnson.. Im sure now everyone knows why your called Australia’s Honest Con Man because u are the ULTIMATE CON MAN!!! WELL DONE!! - Sam

Nice to be like.