Loved Inventing Anna on Netflix? 10 scammer films and series you can watch this weekend

Let’s be honest. The real fun of watching true crime financial fraud stories like Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna, is all about watching real people get duped out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s a guilty pleasure right after watching people humiliate themselves on reality competition shows.

So, if you are also feeling that void after watching The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna, don’t worry, because we have a list of 10 scammer stories you can binge-watch over the weekend to scratch that "I can't believe this really happened" itch.

1. FYRE: THE GREATEST PARTY THAT NEVER HAPPENED

Streaming on Netflix and Hulu (different versions)

In 2017, over 5,000 people paid anywhere between $1,200 to $12,000 (Rs 89,964 to Rs 8,99,676) for a luxury music festival set on a Bahamian island. The music festival was billed as a one-of-a-kind experience, a rival to something like Coachella, and was endorsed by a number of supermodels from Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner to Hailey Baldwin-Beiber at the time.

But when the attendees reached the island, the luxury experience is not what met them. Both Netflix and Hulu have their own versions of the documentary, and both show the behind-the-scenes of the Fyre Festival and everything that essentially went wrong.  

At the time of the release of the documentary, viewers were getting a kick out of watching rich kids pay thousands of dollars to scam artists.

And fun fact, Inventing Anna also featured the character of Billy McFarland, the disgraced CEO who planned the entire event. In Episode 5, we see Anna temporarily living in an apartment with McFarland after running out of money and even mocking the name 'Fyre' for lacking creativity.

2. THE INVENTOR: OUT FOR BLOOD IN SILICON VALLEY

Streaming on HBO Max and Disney Plus Hotstar

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, is a documentary about the Silicon Valley billion-dollar company, Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes, a black turtleneck-clad (like Steve Jobs) hotshot CEO, claimed to have made a breakthrough invention – a small blood testing equipment that will take only a drop of blood to run several complicated tests at once, and give the patient a detailed result on everything wrong with their body.

An invention we still don’t have. 

Unlike Inventing Anna or the Fyre documentary, this is no laughing matter, because Holmes literally played with the lives of people, by giving them false results.

The fascination with Holmes doesn’t seem to have ended yet, because Hulu is coming out with The Dropout starring Amanda Seyfried in March 2022. There is even going to be a movie on the disgraced CEO with Jennifer Lawrence playing Holmes on Apple TV plus.

3. HUSTLERS

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Hustlers is a film based on a real story starring Jennifer Lopez in the lead. Fun fact: This is another story adapted from Jessica Pressler’s reportage, the same reporter who broke the Anna Delvey story, and is portrayed in Inventing Anna as Vivian Kent.

Hustlers follows a group of exotic dancers who swindle hundreds of thousands of dollars from their rich, Wall Street and sleazy male clients.

4. DIRTY JOHN: SEASON 1

Streaming on Netflix

Dirty John is an anthology series, with Season 1 based on the true story of John Meehan, a criminal. It is similar to The Tinder Swindler in the way that it explores a love gone wrong theme, but is more eerily chilling. Here, we are not only dealing with a narcissistic man with a penchant for good living, but a man with a history of crime and abuse.

Out of all of Meehan's exploits, the series shows his relationship with a businesswoman Debra Newell and how it became a nightmare not only for her but for her family.

Fun fact: Julia Garner who plays Anna Delvey in Inventing Anna also plays a role in the series.

5. THE PUPPET MASTER: HUNTING THE ULTIMATE CONMAN

Streaming on Netflix

The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman, is a documentary series about a real-life conman Robert Hendy-Freegard who posed as an MI5 spy to con his victims out of their money in the early 2000s. The documentary uses interviews of law enforcement officers and victims to chalk out how he defrauded people and remained on the run.

Robert Hendy-Freegard was eventually captured in 2005.

6. JEFFREY EPSTEIN: FILTHY RICH

Streaming on Netflix

Okay we know we have veered off the financial con drama/docu-series here. But this one is an interesting documentary series told from the victim’s recollections of what happened in the Epstein sex ring and trafficking. It sheds light on how Epstein and accomplices hunted for their victims.

7. NO GOOD DEED: A CROWDFUNDING HOLIDAY HEIST

Streaming on Hulu

No Good Deed: A Crowdfunding Holiday Heist is a docu series that follows a group of journalists who uncover a crowdfunding scam. In 2017, an American couple started a GoFundMe crowdfunding scheme saying that they wanted to raise money to help a homeless veteran and a heroin addict. The scheme soon went viral with over 14,000 people all over the world donating to the cause.

But as the journalists learn, it was all just a sham of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It will make you do your research when considering donating money to a GoFundMe cause.

While you can stream these series and films right now, we are waiting eagerly for these last 3 stories to release:

8. WECRASHED

To be released on March 18, 2022 on Apple TV

This TV series starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway follows another real-life Silicon Valley startup flop of WeWork. We Work, a co-working space, went from just one building to several in the world, including in India (Bengaluru - where else) and became a $47 billion company, only to fall in less than a year.

As of today, WeWork has got a new lease of life. Its founder Adam Neumann was ousted as the CEO in 2019, is still a billionaire, and holds some shares in the company.

9. BAD VEGAN: FAME. FRAUD. FUGITIVES.

To be released on March 16, 2022 on Netflix

Bad Vegan is a documentary on the true story of Sarma Melngailis, a celebrity restaurateur who ran the vegan fine dining restaurant Pure Food and Wine. The restaurant was once trooped by the likes of Owen Wilson and Alec Baldwin. However, Melngailis with all her success wound up a fugitive after meeting her partner Shane Fox alias Anthony Strangis, a career criminal. Strangis cons Melngailis by promising to help expand her restaurant business to even making her and her pet dog immortal.

10. UNTITLED DOCUMENTARY ON A BITCOIN SCAM

Forget banks, loans and cash, the director of hit documentary series such as Fyre on Netflix, is set to make a yet-to-be-titled documentary on one of the biggest Bitcoin scams in the world. Remember the recent arrest of the TikTok girl Heather Morgan and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein in the $4 billion bitcoin heist? Yes, that’s what the documentary will be based on.