Oops, That Cost. Subscribe

Oops,
That Cost.

Every con has a cost. We find out who paid.

True scam stories, drawn as cartoons. Every fact sourced.

3 new cases a week
See the casesOur truth promise
Cartoon still from Case #1: a fruit seller, labelled COMPOSITE, stands in a crowd on a Boston street under a stamp that reads Boston, August 1920.
Case #1, out now: Charles Ponzi, Boston, 1920. "He Started With $150 and Took $9.5 Million in Boston"
How a case works

One true con. Told start to finish.

Each case is a long episode of 8 to 10 minutes. Shorts are cut from the chapters.

5 chapters

Each ends on a cliffhanger

The case unfolds the way it happened: the pitch, the trust, the money, the collapse, the twist.

27 sources

Every fact sourced

That is how many sources sit on the fact sheet for Case #1. Names, dates and amounts come from court records, newspapers and history books.

1 ending

The con artist pays

Caught, convicted or ruined. We tell you what really happened after the money was gone.

Cases

The case files

Every episode on YouTube, newest first.

Hosts

Sam takes every case

Sam is your host on every episode. A different partner from the cast joins Sam on each case.

Sam, a cartoon man with a dark beard, navy blazer and light blue shirt

Sam

Host

Opens every case file and walks you through it.

Anna, a cartoon woman with a dark ponytail and a khaki trench coat

Anna

Case #1 partner

A journalist with a notebook on the Ponzi case.

Leo, a cartoon older man with white hair and a white beard

Leo

Case partner
Clara, a cartoon woman with a blonde bob and a cream coat

Clara

Case partner
Ben, a cartoon young man with curly hair and a lavender jacket

Ben

Case partner
Meet the hosts
Our truth promise

True means true

Sourced, every episode

Each case gets a fact sheet with its sources before we write a word of the script. Key sources are shown on screen.

Labelled on screen

Victims are real where the record names them. Where it doesn't, a composite person stands in, labelled COMPOSITE. Reconstructed scenes are labelled too.

No financial advice

These are stories, not tips. We never recommend investments, products, loans or apps.

AI voice, said openly

The narration is an AI voice made with ElevenLabs. The cartoons are drawn by our own animation code, not generated by AI video tools.

Cartoon still from Case #1: a woman in tears in a crowd under a card reading 500 checks, $0, with an on-screen source caption: Cunningham v. Brown, 1924.
From Case #1: the source sits on screen, bottom left.
Send us a scam

Know a con we should cover?

Write to us:

[email protected]
  • Tips on a scam or con with a paper trail
  • A con you lived through
  • Corrections

Corrections are welcome. If we got a fact wrong, tell us and we will fix it in the video description.