I WAS SCAMMED BY MY BEST FRIEND

She swindled me out of $92,000, forcing me into bankruptcy and destroying my once sunny outlook. But I finally got justice

- Johnathan Walton

fell hard for one of the oldest cons in the book. But this scheme wasn’t cooked up by some fictional Nigerian prince soliciting me through a sketchy email. I fell under the spell of an immensely lovable woman who inserted herself into my life and became my best friend. She was also an international con artist on the run.

She snared me in an age-old con called the Inheritance Scam, ultimately bilking me out of nearly $1,00,000. She simultaneously destroyed my sense of self and darkened my once joyful outlook. As she was ruining my life, she was also scamming dozens of others around the world by impersonating psychics, mortgage brokers, psychologists, lawyers and travel agents and even pretending to be a cancer victim.

She was a true queen of the con, using disguises and plastic surgery to alter her appearance. I was a reality TV producer, working on shows such as American Ninja Warrior and Shark Tank, and I never saw through her masterful performances. She might have gotten away with cheating many more people if she hadn’t turned me into a vigilante. I started my own investigation, uncovered other victims and helped bring her to justice.

Today, she’s in jail, probably wondering how on earth she became the victim of one of her own victims.

Allow me to explain.

She introduced herself to me as Mair Smyth in May 2013, when she joined a group of angry neighbours in my living room to discuss what to do about losing access to our building’s swimming pool because of a legal spat with a neighboring building.

“I can help,” she told us. “My boyfriend is a lawyer who can get the pool back!”