Tales of scams, frauds and missing doctors

In a world filled with scams, scammers and pyramid schemes, who can help us make sense of it all? Podcasters!

Money is at the heart of most scams, and none more so than in the story of a new cryptocurrency said to rival Bitcoin.

The Missing Cryptoqueen is a BBC Sounds podcast that looks into the life of Dr Ruja Ignatova, the face and founder of cryptocurrency, OneCoin.

Ignatova fronted the OneCoin drive for investment, and persuaded millions to join her financial revolution by buying into the money of the future. But prosecutors in America describe her business as nothing more than a pyramid scheme.

OneCoin launched in 2014 and, by early 2017, had received more than US$4 billion in investments. But then, in late 2017, Ignatova disappeared.

Presenter Jamie Bartlett and his producer Georgia Catt take listeners through the organisation’s incredible backstory and try to track down

OneCoin’s missing leader.

The journey takes them all over the world, and there are interviews with financial experts, OneCoin insiders, and people who lost thousands in the scam. It’s a gripping tale, and an unbelievable scam organised by a woman who is still on the run.

Meanwhile, the Scam Goddess podcast launched in early October.

Each week, self-proclaimed Scam Goddess, comedian Laci Mosley, digs deep on the latest scams and what’s hot in fraud.

You might recognise Mosley from trailer-park TV comedy Florida Girls, and she is legitimately funny on screen and podcast. In each episode, she is joined by a guest comedian and together they recount the tales of newsworthy scams, with hilarious commentary and footnotes.

Within the pod there are repeatable segments like ‘‘historic hoodwinks’’ and running jokes like the ‘‘despo-meter’’, keeping this podcast light.