While action-adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, crime, and animated films may rule at the box office, documentaries have been growing in popularity on online platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Max, and Amazon. Especially popular are true crime documentaries, featuring the latest investigation, legal ins and outs, and story of a tragic victim.
Now, two films I developed in this genre have joined this true crime category in a big way. They both feature scams and have interviews with victims, scammers, investigators, and lawyers who are part of this true crime world.
Conned: A True Story, based on the The Big Con published by American Leadership Books, is especially compelling as it features several victims who once had big dreams of Hollywood fame. They believed they had a once-in-a-lifetime dream of a big studio producing their film. They imagined red carpet introductions and film audiences worldwide seeing a dramatic film made from their book.
Then their Hollywood dream was shattered, when they realized they had been a victim of a big scam in which they paid $10,000, $20,000, even over $35,000, to get the materials a publisher claimed some big producers at a major studio needed to sign their film, and they were promised over $80,000 on signing.
So they overpaid for a treatment, script, logline synopsis, pitch deck, sizzle reel and other material that real producers do want to see, and they did receive very good professionally done material by a successful screenwriter. But then their material went nowhere, and the alleged deal never happened, because the publisher had created a phony executive from a real company to get them to pay more and more. So there never was a production deal. That was invented by the scammers.
I know all this because I was the ghostwriter, who wrote the legitimate materials they needed to get a deal from real producers. I learned it was a scam because one victim called to make a payment through me, since Paypal and other payment processors wouldn’t accept her money, since they thought the company to receive it was engaged in fraudulent activities. Once she explained what she was paying for and the supposed deal that was pending, I realized the company offer was a scam.
Among other things, a CEO of a major company like Newline wouldn’t meet with an unknown first-time book author or offer $80,000 to buy the film rights. And once I realized the company was scamming her, plus a dozen other clients I had written material for, I realized I was a victim, too, since they used my reputation to lure in customers and get them to pay for written materials and marketing services.
Even worse, some of them had really good projects that might be been turned into films by a legitimate producer – still another loss on top of losing $7000 to over $35,000 in the scam.
Eventually, I wrote about their stories in The Big Con, which led to a film based on their experiences, Conned:A True Story. It has just been released by Gravitas Ventures and is on Amazon Prime, iTunes, and other major online platforms. It features two of the biggest victims, Robert Newman, a very religious Christian who believed the book-to-film opportunity was a gift from God and lost over $35,000, and Brenda Heller, the author of a time-traveling teen and his robotic dog who travel back to Nazi Germany to pursue an evil scientist.
Now you can see the film on Amazon Prime, which describes Conned as featuring “True stories of scams: bank accounts wiped out, lives all but lost. The survivors reveal the dark secrets of the con.” Here’s the link where you can see a trailer and the complete film.
https://www.amazon.com/Conned-True-Story-Robert-Newman/dp/B0CH9X62XQ.
Then, that book and film led me to write a book about the latest scams and how to avoid them – I Was Scammed, which led to the film Con Artists Unveiled. It features scammers talking about how they did it; victims describing scams they experienced; and lawyers, investigators, and law enforcement officials talking about how to avoid being a victim and what to do if you are. As Amazon describes the film: “Hosted by world renown magicians, Evan Disney and Dan Sperry, featuring interviews with professional con artists, and their victims, with insights from law enforcement and psychologists, giving us a window into the underworld of con artistry.” You can see a trailer and the complete film at https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Unveiled-Evan-Disney/dp/B0CV3JBZT7
Besides being on Amazon Prime, both films can be seen on Apple TV as Conned: A True Story — Apple TV and Con Artists Unveiled — Apple TV, and other film platforms.
For more information about different scams and to schedule interviews, email or call:
Karen Andrews
Executive Assistant
Changemakers Publishing and Writing
San Ramon, CA 94583(925) 804–6333
