The Irish Heiress: Ep. 3, The Real Mair
33:11 Share

Hi, it's Andrea Gunning, the host of Betrayal. I'm excited to announce that the Betrayal podcast is expanding. We are going to be releasing episodes weekly, every Thursday. Each week, you'll hear brand new stories, firsthand accounts of shocking deception, broken trust, and the trail of destruction left behind. Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio. I've spent almost a decade researching right-wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters. But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil. They're just some weird guy. So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the weird little guys trying to destroy America.

Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, and welcome to Haunting, Purgatory's premiere podcast. I'm your host, Teresa. We'll be bringing you different ghost stories each week, straight from the person who experienced it firsthand. Some will be unsettling, some unnerving, some even downright terrifying. But all of them will be totally true.

Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all.

Dr. Joy here. I invite you to join me every Wednesday on the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, a weekly chat about mental health and personal development, where my expert guests and I discuss the unique challenges and triumphs faced by Black women through the lens of self-care, pop culture, and building the best version of you. So if you're looking for more ways to incorporate wellness into your life, listen to the Therapy for Black Girls podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister, or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams.

For two years straight, I'm helping Mayor Smith battle her wealthy and hateful Irish family for millions in inheritance that's rightfully hers.

Why do you think she did have this inheritance coming? And my buddy, fellow reality TV producer Evan Goldstein, witnesses my whole crusade from day one. Well, she had a ton of evidence, or what I took for evidence. She would show me emails from her barristers, which are lawyers in Ireland. Oh, she had like paperwork she'd show you. Well, emails. Oh, yeah, but still. There's like a paper trail. It's not just her telling you. Exactly. Exactly.

By the beginning of 2017, I loan Mayor almost $70,000 to help clear a legal path to claiming her share of a 25 million euro inheritance, the equivalent of nearly 30 million U.S. dollars.

At this point, I know Mare for almost four years. Then suddenly, one day, out of the blue, she's arrested for the second time. I know exactly what's happening. She's being screwed over by her Irish family. Yeah, it certainly looks that way. But in this town, looks are deceiving. I'm Jonathan Walton, and this is Queen of the Con, Episode 3, The Real Mare.

It's February 2017. Mayor Smith is sitting in Los Angeles County Jail again. This time though, she tells me goodbye and she meets with authorities to turn herself in. Mayor says she's serving a 30-day jail sentence for the most bizarre reason I've ever heard. Inadvertent money laundering.

Shortly after Mayer explains it to me, I call up Evan and tell him what happened. And he's punishing her with a 30-day jail sentence.

Her family is behind this, man. They're not going to make it easy for her to get her six and a half million dollars. That's for sure the inheritance. So Mayor tells me it's just a slap on the wrist from the judge. It's not a felony. So she's still eligible to get the inheritance. So 30 days in jail. While Mayor is sitting in jail for 30 days, a couple of weeks go by and I do what any family member would do. I schedule a visit.

I log on to the LA County Sheriff's website. I enter her name and date of birth, and then bam, it brings up the location of the jail with a link to the jail scheduling website, showing the days and times I can choose to visit her. It also brings up something else, something really disturbing. It brings up the reason she's in jail. Felony grand theft.

There it is on the sheriff's website, plain as day. It says she's in jail for felony grand theft. Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. Mayor told me she's serving 30 days in jail as a slap on the wrist because the judge is mad at her for charging my credit cards to pay her $54,000 court fee. She swears it's not a felony, much less grand theft. Hey dude, I gotta leave. Will you cover for me? Yeah, what's up?

I'm producing a show called Booze Traveler for the Travel Channel in 2017 when I find all this out. And my buddy Evan is the show's co-executive producer. I can't explain now, but it's kind of an emergency. I gotta go. Is everything okay? I don't know. I don't know. I'll call you later. I get in my car and hightail it down to the Los Angeles courthouse where that Pacific Islands case against Mayer is being prosecuted. Records are on the first floor. First floor, one call.

I ask the criminal clerk to pull all the records for the people versus Mary Ann Smith, case number SA-087840. Thank you so much. You're welcome. I appreciate it. You know the expression, lies are like rats? When you find one, it means there are a thousand others hiding? Sifting through the pages and pages of court records, my hands start trembling, because I'm finding rat after rat after rat.

Mair is lying to me about everything regarding this case. Nothing she said about the Pacific Islands case was true. She lied about everything, man. Everything. No one froze her bank accounts. That was a lie. The $54,000 that I let her charge my credit cards was willing to pay a $40,000 restitution guilty plea agreement.

I guess she just kept the extra 14 grand for herself as like scam money. Jesus, dude. She's a fucking criminal, man. She pled guilty to stealing $200,000 from Pacific Island. Oh, she pled guilty for that? Yes. Yes. She was taking customers' vacation payments into her personal PayPal account for like two years and they caught her red-handed. Jesus Christ. She scammed me, dude. She fucking scammed me.

I go home and collapse in my husband's arms. I'm not crying, I'm wailing as the reality of what happened washes over me like a slow moving hurricane. How could I have let this woman scam me out of $70,000? It's so unreal, I don't even feel like I'm in my own body.

The next day, still a mess, but trying to function, I call up the district attorney's office and I explain to them that Mayer scammed me to get the money to pay her $40,000 guilty plea agreement. They say, sorry, there's nothing they can do. That case against Mayer is already adjudicated. Welcome to the criminal justice system. This is so fucked, Jonathan. I know. What are you going to do? I don't know. I mean, I want my fucking money back.

Do you even think her inheritance is real? You know, if it is, it doesn't matter because she's disqualified from getting it anyway because she's convicted of a felony. I got to try to contact her family in Ireland. Are you going to go to the police? I don't know. I don't know. I just want my money back, you know? She gets out of jail in two weeks, so I'm going to pick her up and confront her about it. Maybe she'll confess. I want to see what she says.

Somehow, those two weeks fly by in what feels like two days. Mare is released from jail. She calls and asks if I can pick her up and take her to where her car is parked. So I drive down to the LA County Women's Jail in Linwood. And there she is, standing on the sidewalk out front. She looks gaunt and pale. It feels weird. To be free.

During the drive home, I'm playing it cool. I can't let her know that I know she tricked me out of 70 grand. I'm just pretending everything's A-OK as I hit the record button in voice memos on my iPhone. We're talking about our neighbor Sherry.

Before I hit record, Mayor tells me Sherry, the strip club manager, called her 14 times while she was in jail, and that Sherry personally knows a lot of the inmates she was serving time with.

I had already been keeping my distance from Sherry since Mayor told me years ago Sherry was wanted for murder in Canada and she's hiding out in our Los Angeles apartment building. And now, after serving 30 days with some of Sherry's criminal cronies, Mayor wants nothing to do with her. But I'm still playing it cool like things are fine as we head north on the 110 freeway into downtown Los Angeles.

I mean, I'm fuming inside, thinking about all the money she scammed me out of, but sitting right next to me, she has no idea my head is ready to explode. All that theater I did in college is finally getting put to good use. As we pull into the parking garage where her car is. I'll just, I'll drive in. Just because it's only, they don't charge for like two minutes. Okay.

Mayor doesn't want me to take a ticket and drive in because she doesn't want me to get charged for parking. Ironic, isn't it? She wants to save me 20 bucks for parking after conning me at a 70 grand. She's a real fucking giver. So I pull in, quickly park and carry a box of Mayor's things she asked me to keep an eye on while she was in jail to her car. I unfold a piece of paper I had written some stuff down on to prep for this moment. Okay.

So, unpleasant stuff. You've been lying to us the whole time about everything. Your plea was $40,000, not $54,000. At the court record. No one waived your right to a jury trial. Jury trial was scheduled the whole time. That was a lot. That last $4,000 you needed that came out of nowhere, that was a lot. You gave three checks, one for $33,000, one for $3,000. You needed a check for $4,000.

You've been scamming us out of money this whole time. I have not, sorry. You have. Yeah, you're not going to, you're busted. Okay. So, from here on in, we're not friends. Okay. So I only want to see you or hear from you when you have a payment for us. Until this money is paid off, you're busted. Good luck. Bitch. Bitch.

As I drive out of that parking garage, I'm so angry I can't see straight. I wanted her to admit she lied to me to get the money, but she wouldn't. And what's weird is, she seemed so believable. Her eyes filled with tears at one point. I really wasn't sure what to do next.

After your entire world is flipped upside down,

From unbelievable romantic betrayals. The love that was so real for me was always just a game for him. To betrayals in your own family. When I think about my dad, oh, well, he is a sociopath. Financial betrayal. This is not even the part where he steals millions of dollars. And life or death deceptions. She's practicing how she's going to cry when the police calls her after they kill me.

Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio. I've spent almost a decade researching right-wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters.

But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask. I've collected the stories of hundreds of aspiring little Hitlers of the suburbs, from the Nazi cop who tried to join ISIS, to the National Guardsman plotting to assassinate the Supreme Court, to the Satanist soldier who tried to get his own unit blown up in Turkey. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil. They're just some weird guy. And you can laugh. Honestly, I think you have to.

Seeing these guys for what they are doesn't mean they're not a threat. It's a survival strategy. So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the weird little guys trying to destroy America. Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We'll be bringing you different ghost stories each week straight from the person who experienced it firsthand. Some will be unsettling. When she was with her imaginary friend, she would turn and look at you and you felt like something else was looking at you too. Some unnerving. The more I looked at it, I realized that the thumb looked more like a claw, like a demon.

Some even downright terrifying. The things that I saw, heard, felt in that house were purely demonic. But all of them will be totally true. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you live and get your podcasts.

Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling, as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life and marriage. I don't think he knew how big it would be, how big the life I was given and live is.

I think he was like, oh, yeah, things come and go. But with me, it never came and went. Is she Donna Martin or a down-and-out divorcee? Is she living in Beverly Hills or a trailer park? In a town where the lines are blurred, Tori is finally going to clear the air in the podcast Misspelling. When a woman has nothing to lose, she has everything to gain. I just filed for divorce. Whoa, I said the words.

That I've said like in my head for like 16 years. Wild. Listen to Miss Spelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session, 24 hours. BPM 110.

120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm.

Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I come home and play the recording of me and Mare for my husband and for my buddy Evan. I remember, like, I think I called you obsessively because I was scared because you're like, okay, I'm going. And I'm just like, oh shit. Like, who knows? It could go any way. We were sitting literally right where we're sitting now in my barbecue area.

Do you remember? Yeah. Or do you drink too much? You don't have a good memory for these things. Just all that strong Irish whiskey. We were sitting literally right over there when I brought the recording back and played it for you. Because I was desperate to hear what happened. And, well, first, I was glad that you came back. Thank you. And second, I remember hearing it and thinking, like, how do you start a conversation like this? You know, you're picking her up from jail, confronting her that you stole...

Almost a hundred grand. How do you get there? You know, how do you start and I remember hearing your voice you were very I don't know if hesitance the word but you had a tone of voice that was very Not your normal talking voice not like us talking now It was like so it almost sounded hesitant at first and you're like I know and this is from memory I know I know everything you're lying and tears like filled her eyes immediately and

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, she's a cry. Dude, she could give Demi Moore a run for her fucking money. She could cry. Did she ever cry in front of you? No. Oh, she cried in front of me all the time. Well, to get money. So at that point, when tears filled her eyes, in my mind, I'm like, those are fucking fake tears. I know that now. That's not real.

As the days pass, I play that confrontation over and over again in my head and on my phone. You've been scamming us out of money this whole time. I have not, darling. You have. Okay. Her complete lack of remorse every time I hear it at the quarterback infuriates me more and more. She never even apologizes. And you know why she never apologizes? Because she's not sorry. She's not fucking sorry at all.

And when that suddenly dawns on me, I realize she's never going to pay me back. So I go to police the next day and explain what happened. You gave her the money. It's not a crime.

Yep, that's what I have to deal with. It's the reason most scam victims never go to police in the first place. The cop is so sure that no crime has occurred because I willingly gave Mayer all that money, he doesn't want to even take a police report. He fights me on it. But she lied to get the money. Isn't that a crime? I mean, it's no different than those scammers who say they're calling from the IRS and trick the elderly into sending the money. That's a crime.

Listen, I'll take a report, but I don't think there's much we can do. So I give the police officer a detailed timeline listing all the amounts of money Mayer tricked me out of over the course of our four-year friendship. $5,800 here, $3,200 there, $4,000 over here. I also hand him pages and pages of bank records, text messages, and emails that prove she lied to me to get that money.

His demeanor suddenly changes. Now he seems impressed that I'm so anal-retentively organized. It's the TV producer in me. The cop then leans in and offers me the most profound and life-changing advice I'll ever receive from anyone in law enforcement. Look, you gotta call every day.

What do you mean? Every time you call about your case, it's taken from the bottom of the pile of new cases and placed on top. The more times you call, the more likely it'll be assigned to an investigator. Ah, okay. That's what you want. You want it assigned to an investigator. Okay, all right. I'll call every day, man. Thank you so much. So, I go home. And for the next week, I call about my case every day. Every single day.

You've reached the Los Angeles Police Department Central Division. We're sorry we can't take your call at this time. Please leave your name. Big surprise. My case is not getting assigned to an investigator. It's just sitting there, in limbo, maybe forever. Hi, my name is Jonathan Walton. I'm trying to check the status of the police report I filed. It's incident number 170319003617.

So after three weeks of getting nowhere, I flip the script and I start my own investigation. My TV producing skills kick in and I begin treating this whole thing like prepping one big reality show for air. I pay to sign up for a bunch of criminal databases.

Then I sneak into a local law school library and use their LexisNexis system to do multiple background checks. I then hire six different private detectives in the various cities where my research shows Mare has a history. And I very quickly uncover that Mare Smith is not from Ireland at all. Your perp is American. She was born in Bangor, Maine in 1969. There is no Irish family.

There is no inheritance. She's actually been sued by a bunch of people all over Los Angeles. Hey, uh, we're showing several felony charges for fraud, grand theft, and passing bad checks through multiple states. I mean, this woman really is a piece of work. I share Mare's criminal past with everyone I know who knows Mare, but getting through to them isn't easy. I couldn't have communication with you. I was told specifically, if you talk to Jonathan, you cannot be my friend.

Remember my neighbor, Sherry Cooper, who Mayor and I talk about in the car? The one Mayor claimed is wanted for murder? After I confront Mayor for scamming me, she tells Sherry not to talk to me. She convinces Sherry to block my phone number and block me on Facebook. She made you out to be kind of like just not quite stable. Just don't talk to him, leave him alone. And remember, for the past four years, Mayor never wanted me talking to Sherry either. She told me...

That you guys had murdered someone in Canada and you were hiding out in a light. You were on the run from police in Canada hiding out. That's a good one. I wished I was that interesting. I was legit scared of you.

I quickly figure out the reason Mare doesn't want me and Sherry talking to each other. Because while Mare is scamming me out of thousands of dollars, she's also scamming Sherry out of thousands of dollars too, using a different story. She essentially scammed you by telling you a lie about me. Right.

Mayor tells Sherry that she desperately needs $5,000 to pay me back for bailing her out of jail. She makes it seem like I'm broke and I'm having a mental breakdown because I don't have my money. Sherry has no idea the politician already paid me back the very next day. And since Sherry and I aren't talking, remember, I think she's a murderer and she thinks I'm crazy.

We both avoid each other like the plague. So Mare scams Sherry out of $5,000 under the guise of paying me back. And her husband Andre has no idea. I never asked him when I lent her the money. You like did it in secret? No, not in secret. That's my money. My accounts are my accounts. His accounts are his accounts. Yeah, we're the same way. I went and I took my money and she was crying that you were whining at her because you didn't have your money. I'm like, here you go.

That was $5,000 even. And she was like, wow, thanks so much. And she goes, I'll get it back to you, you know, in the next couple of days, as soon as the politician pays, John. And it never happened. No, well, it did happen. That's the thing. The politician paid me back the next day.

But she invented that story that I was desperate for money. I was desperate to be paid back and I couldn't make my rent and yada, yada, yada. But the politician gave me cash literally the next day. Yeah. And that was crucial for her to scam me because I had confidence in loaning her more money because she paid me back the next day. That was the first money I loaned her.

And she paid me back the next day. Wow. So I never... When she came for more money, I had no doubt. Like, sure. Like, I trust you. Right. Like, you're a woman of your word, you know? And that is not a singular thing. In every con, you always see a little bit of your money first, back. You know, whether it's an investment con, any kind of con. They let you... They call it wetting your beak. You get to wet your beak a little. Oh, wow. And looking back...

I wouldn't have given her any money if she never paid me back that $4,200 the next day. Because I'd think, well, you already owe me $4,200. When am I going to get that back? But because she demonstrated she could pay me back the next day, I'm like, oh, I feel comfortable. She said her and the politician had a bank account, but it was all frozen. And she had a bank account sitting there, but it was frozen. And I was like, okay, fine.

I called her, I emailed her, I begged her, I hounded her. Always an excuse. Always an excuse. I'm doing the best I can. And Mare really is doing the best she can at that point, scamming my neighbor Sherry and me. I suddenly start wondering if Mare is possibly scamming any other neighbors in our building. I offered her the money. You did? I did. Yep, she sure is.

Hi, it's Andrea Gunning, host of Betrayal. I'm excited to announce that the Betrayal podcast is expanding. We are going to be releasing episodes weekly, every Thursday. Each week, you'll hear brand new stories, firsthand accounts of shocking deception, broken trust, and the trail of destruction left behind. Stories about regaining a sense of safety, a handle on reality after your entire world is flipped upside down.

From unbelievable romantic betrayals. The love that was so real for me was always just a game for him. To betrayals in your own family. When I think about my dad, oh, well, he is a sociopath. Financial betrayal. This is not even the part where he steals millions of dollars. And life or death deceptions. She's practicing how she's going to cry when the police calls her after they kill me.

Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio. I've spent almost a decade researching right-wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters. But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask.

I've collected the stories of hundreds of aspiring little Hitlers of the suburbs. From the Nazi cop who tried to join ISIS, to the National Guardsman plotting to assassinate the Supreme Court, to the Satanist soldier who tried to get his own unit blown up in Turkey. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil. They're just some weird guy. And you can laugh. Honestly, I think you have to. Seeing these guys for what they are doesn't mean they're not a threat. It's a survival strategy.

So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the Weird Little Guys trying to destroy America. Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ...ghoules and girls, and welcome to Haunting, Purgatory's premiere podcast for all things afterlife. I'm your host, Teresa. We'll be bringing you different ghost stories each week straight from the person who experienced it firsthand...

Some will be unsettling. When she was with her imaginary friend, she would turn and look at you and you felt like something else was looking at you too. Some unnerving. The more I looked at it, I realized that the some looked more like a claw, like a demon. Some even downright terrifying. The things that I saw, heard, felt in that house were purely demonic. But all of them will be totally true.

Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you live and get your podcasts. Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life and marriage. I don't think he knew how big it would be, how big the life I was given and live is in

I think he was like, oh, yeah, things come and go. But with me, it never came and went. Is she Donna Martin or a down-and-out divorcee? Is she living in Beverly Hills or a trailer park? In a town where the lines are blurred, Tori is finally going to clear the air in the podcast Misspelling. When a woman has nothing to lose, she has everything to gain. I just filed for divorce. Whoa, I said the words.

That I've said like in my head for like 16 years. Wild. Listen to Miss Spelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session, 24 hours. BPM 110.5.

120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm.

Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Remember attorney Tina Mensch, who signs on early in the fight to get our pool back and becomes good friends with Mayer? I got that story that her bank accounts were frozen, that her PayPal account was frozen, that she was having these issues, and that it's not really my job to question people's money problems. So...

I did get the district attorney story and that her accounts were all frozen because of the Pacific Islands stuff. Yeah. And that's how she tricked you into giving her some money. Yes. She...

It said that it was going to cost her like $2,000 to get her PayPal account reactivated. I offered her the money. You did? I did. She was my friend and I had it. And I really didn't think anything of, I mean, it's not chump change, but it's... It's what you do for friends. It's what you do for friends, right. She insisted that she would pay me back. She still has not.

And remember that crazy earlier experience Tina has with Mare? After they both are apparently drugged during a night out at a downtown Los Angeles bar, Tina wakes up the next day with bruises on her forearm and can't remember how or when she got home. And Mare claims not to remember anything either. But now looking back, we think... Pretty sure she drugged me.

And why would she drug you? So that we could have a bonding experience. It's a trauma bond. You know what? You fucking nailed it. Yeah. That's exactly what it is. Yep. It is a trauma bond. That would get you closer together. Right. And this was before the 2000. Yes. Significantly before that. Yeah. This has made you closer friends quicker. Like when you go through an experience like that with someone, you're both drugged, you're both almost potentially raped. I don't know what happened. I mean, I had a giant bruise on my forearm. It went...

From, for the audio, I mean, you can describe it, but it went from here to here. Your entire forearm. Entire forearm. Black and blue. Like, black and blue as if I had blocked somebody. Yeah. Wow. It is a trauma bond. Yeah, I got chills. Yes, that's what she was doing.

At this point, it's becoming so clear Mayor Smith is a master manipulator and a bona fide con artist. I mean, she scams me and she scams two other neighbors in our building. I start wondering how many other victims are out there. And so it begins. I systematically start contacting everyone Mayor has ever introduced me to or talked about during the course of our four-year friendship.

I was buying my first house and we closed in December of 2016. Remember Michelle Thompson-Dacosta, one of Mare's early psychic clients who was impressed by her spot-on readings? Well, Mare figures out a clever and caring way to get her hands on Michelle's social security number. Why was she helping you with your mortgage anyway? So she told me, guess what?

I was a realtor and I owned a mortgage company in Ireland. So I know exactly what they're looking for. I can help you out. And I was like, "Oh, okay, perfect."

I had opened new bank accounts to kind of shift, you know, instead of using a bank account I had since I was 16, using a new bank account. That would be my main account that they got those records out of. And so have her look at it before I sent them in. So I would send them to her. And I remember thinking the first couple of passes at sending over my bank records to make sure all my documents were together because I was just like, oh my God, pulling all these documents is becoming too much for me.

I was redacting my social security number. From her eyes? Yes. And I was also redacting my bank account number. And then the final time she helped me, I didn't. I said, eh, it's Mare. Right. It's like your best friend. You trust her. Yep.

This is in November of 2016. Michelle sends Mare her final set of bank records with her social security number clearly visible. And the very next month, a new credit card in Michelle's name gets applied for and approved, unbeknownst to Michelle, and is sent to Michelle's new home that she hasn't even moved into yet. And then someone starts charging up a storm. In February, I check my mailbox at my new house.

and I see a credit card statement. First of all, I've never gotten this credit card. So I open the credit card statement and it's a PayPal credit card, which if you know her, you know she loved PayPal. - She scammed me through PayPal. - Okay. - Yeah. - Bitch loves a PayPal, okay? So I'm like, a PayPal credit card? I would never. I'm like American Express or nothing. So I look at it, it had all this information. So I decided to try to log on. So I go in.

And you know where like if you start entering stuff and it's like, you can ask what your like username is, stuff will pop up. So it popped up and it started with an M and then it was like @gmail.com or whatever hers ended up at. And so then I called them and was like, this isn't me, blah, blah, blah. But also looking at the charges, it was notorious mare. It was taxis, Ubers, food,

As soon as Michelle tells me that, I think about all the times Mayor wined and dined my husband and me at fancy restaurants. Was she paying for our meals with someone's stolen credit card?

So how much money total was charged to a credit card that you did not take out but was in your name? I would say it'd probably be about $2,500, which seems pretty cheap from here. But I mean, you stopped it. You found out about it. And that was, I want to say, either the first or second cycle on that. So as soon as I called, they got rid of it. ♪

So Michelle reports Mare to police and moves on with her life. And her credit card fraud case against Mare gets added to the pile of millions of credit card fraud cases reported every year in this country and quickly disappears into oblivion. After talking to Michelle, I get a really bad feeling thinking about how many other potential victims are right now getting scammed by Mare Smith and how can I stop her?

The police clearly aren't doing anything, so I decide I will. Why did you start a blog? Why was that like your first instinct to go that route? Well, you know, we're living in the digital age. I wanted to warn people. I wanted to warn people. That was my sole intent, especially with Bob. Months before our confrontation in that parking garage, Mayor texts me a picture of the guy she's dating, a guy named Bob. I knew he was an engineer in Newport Beach.

And I knew they were dating by the time I confronted her and, you know, she got out of my life. And I knew he was probably, if he wasn't currently getting scammed, he was about to. Because I just had a feeling she was probably going to scam him. I don't have Bob's phone number or email address. I don't even have his last name. So I start an online blog to warn Bob. I post his picture, the one Mir had texted me months earlier, asking if I thought he was boyfriend material.

He's a good looking, successful guy. I approve wholeheartedly. So my first blog entry under that picture I post reads, "I know his name is Bob. I know he's an engineer in Newport Beach, and I know he's getting scammed by Mayor Smith. If you know him, warn him." She's not that great looking. She doesn't photograph that well.

But in person, she's magical. There's a charisma. Yeah, she does. She has she definitely has an aura about her. Yeah, she definitely has like and I think so much of it just comes down to confidence. You know, like she walks the walk. She exudes confidence. And I think that's that's attractive to a lot of people.

My buddy Evan's right. Mayor Smith is very attractive to a lot of people. People like Bob, the engineer in Newport Beach. And while I hope and pray Bob finds my blog and avoids getting scammed by Mayor, I have to be realistic. I mean, there are 23 million people living in Southern California, and the chances of Bob actually finding my blog are infinitesimal. And then one day, my phone rings. Hello?

Yep, it's Bob calling. And he's got a lot to say about his new girlfriend, Mayor Smith. Next time on Queen of the Con. She invited you to the Golden Globes with Jennifer Aniston. Yeah, Jennifer Aniston invited her and she said, I want to take you as my plus one.

Mayor's latest con is one for the record books. She was trying to get a hold of his property. She was trying to get her name put on both of the deeds. And to do that, she needs to wreak havoc. They were abusing the kids, like this pedophile ring kind of thing. For exclusive photos and other bonus material, follow at Queen of the Con on Instagram. And if you're enjoying Queen of the Con, tell your friends about it and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thank you.

Sound design by Baked ZD Media. Mixed and mastered by Elliot Herman. Audio engineering by Elliot Herman. Studio engineering by Chris McMasters. Voice acting performed by Manny Faxas, Jorge Farragut, Carol Marin, and David Teitelbaum. Legal counsel for AYR Media, Gianni Douglas. Executive producer for iHeartRadio, Chandler Mays.

Does money stress you out? Let Facet flip your financial chaos into clarity. We feel way more confident and secure in our finances. And with that comes a sense of freedom. Financial planning from Facet is here to help you improve your life today, tomorrow, and every day after that. Facet was really the place where we saw all of the tools and the people coming together. Visit facet.com, F-A-C-E-T.com to learn more. This ad is sponsored by Facet. Facet Wealth is an SEC registered investment advisor. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities, nor is it investment, legal, or tax advice. These testimonials are from current Facet members who are not competent.

Hi, it's Andrea Gunning, the host of Betrayal. I'm excited to announce that the Betrayal podcast is expanding. We are going to be releasing episodes weekly, every Thursday. Each week, you'll hear brand new stories, firsthand accounts of shocking deception, broken trust, and the trail of destruction left behind. Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio. I've spent almost a decade researching right-wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters. But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil. They're just some weird guy. So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the weird little guys trying to destroy America.

Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey y'all, Dr. Joy here. I invite you to join me every Wednesday on the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, a weekly chat about mental health and personal development, where my expert guests and I discuss the unique challenges and triumphs faced by Black women through the lens of self-care, pop culture, and building the best version of you. So if you're looking for more ways to incorporate wellness into your life, listen to the Therapy for Black Girls podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, and welcome to Haunting, Purgatory's premiere podcast. I'm your host, Teresa. We'll be bringing you different ghost stories each week, straight from the person who experienced it firsthand. Some will be unsettling, some unnerving, some even downright terrifying. But all of them will be totally true. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.