Interview · moment 12 of 17
The Fake Airbnb Scam and Jail Time Details
from The Gift · #97
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minGuest
Michelle clarifies the medium took deposit checks for apartments that didn't exist, briefly went to jail for it, and the group discusses the strange overlap between fraud skills and cold-reading skills, plus his estranged relationship with his imprisoned father.
- 43:02The medium spent a brief stint in jail for a white-collar crime involving $3,000.
- 43:22His early scam involved offering free apartment rentals, then taking $1,000 checks and never making the apartment available.
- 43:51He showed up at other people's apartments, not his own, taking thousand-dollar checks and disappearing.
- 44:38Tim recaps: the medium spent his early 20s taking deposits for fake apartments that didn't exist, before getting caught quickly.
- 45:07Tim notes that unlike humans, psychics claim they cannot predict their own futures.
- 45:33The medium's troubled upbringing provides context, though it doesn't excuse the fraud.
- 45:54The medium embraced doing an expose in a musical partly because he deals with skepticism about his legitimacy all the time.
- 46:31The medium has had no contact with his father since the day he went to prison, roughly 12 years ago.
- 46:57The medium was about 14 when his father first went to jail, then had limited contact before the father was returned to prison.
- 47:44The medium's siblings don't have psychic gifts and were also heavily abused, with their stories coming out in an upcoming project.
- 48:01The medium will perform cold reads throughout the musical as interludes between scenes.
mediumfraudAirbnb