Unravel - Snowball: Scammers gonna scam

The Premise (from Apple Podcasts):

Snowball tells how an average family's encounter with a charismatic Californian con woman cost them everything. Unravel True Crime is a podcast where, each season, some of Australia's best journalists investigate unsolved crimes. ⠀⠀

Series or standalone:

Series

Begin listening to:

The Girl with the Dragonfly Tattoo

Format:

Investigative reporting

Sound/production quality:

Very good

Rating/age suitability:

Adult

Approximate length of episodes:

40 minutes

Curricular ties:

N/A

Similar recommended pods:

N/A

Podcast Librarian’s Review:

Continuing the trend of long-form true crime investigation with a personal twist, the host of this pod is the brother of a victim. This isn’t a murder pod; it’s about an American woman who managed to continually scam different people out of large amounts of money with seemingly no remorse. She hasn’t really been punished for her crimes, either. New Zealander host Ollie’s brother Greg had a relationship (personal and business) with Lezlie, the subject of the pod. She scammed Greg and his parents out of a large sum of money, picked up, and moved on to do the same elsewhere. It’s a pretty wild story and gets even nuttier in the 4th episode when Ollie reveals the contents of Lezlie’s email inbox. This is where my one complaint comes in because the voice actors were pretty unconvincing—the female actor who was supposed to be speaking in a Californian accent was particularly cringe-y. But the penultimate episode made up for that because Ollie actually tracked down and confronted the con woman herself. The pod left me satisfied but also scratching my head about how con artists can continue to get away with it, especially when they are easily tracked down. If you’re in the mood for some compelling non-murder true crime, give this a listen. Note: Because of occasional language and themes, this is not one to listen to with young kids around.