ANATOMY OF A CON ARTIST

Con artists are everywhere. And they can puncture your social sphere as a new neighbor, or a new friend, or a new coworker, or a new love interest.

Johnathan Walton, a con victim turned con hunter, arms the reader with the many ways con artists can find clever and sneaky ways into our lives -- at first showing great kindness, often offering their own money to help you out, then painting a vivid dramatic picture of this new exciting person in your life, to isolating you from family and friends, to asking for some small help in return for all they seemingly have done for you, to using technology as well as your own hubris against you -- to continue to siphon away your money, your property, your heart and other prized objects including your sanity. To finally disappearing and counting on your shame and embarrassment at realizing what happened to you, from trying to bring this con artist to justice.

Fortunately for the reader, Johnathan Walton has no shame or very little anyway. Walton was torn apart by a charismatic con artist named Mair Smyth who convinced him she was heir to an Irish fortune, but whose cousins were keeping her from it. It sounds incredible we know but she was incredibly manipulative and persuasive. After befriending Walton and wowing him with her lavish lifestyle as well as convincing stories -- he gave her thousands of his savings to help her with her quote "barrister fees." When he finally allowed himself to realize he'd been conned, the woman had swindled nearly $100,000 from him and left him a serious mess in his relationship, work, and emotional state.

But what the con artist hadn't banked on is Walton's fortitude and background as an Emmy winning reality TV producer. If there is a secret online platform where con artists share tips and tricks there is a likely a new addition of category of people to avoidscorned Shark Tank producers and especially Jonathan Walton.

Because con artists don't outsmart you at all. They "out-feel" you. They use your emotions to gain entry into your life so they can rob you. After Walton brought his con artist to justice and has helped hundreds of victims of other con artists it inspired his true crime podcast, Queen of the Con, in which he shares riveting true crime stories from people who have fallen into con artists' webs and identifies the red flags to avoid being scammed and now he brings it to the pages of THE ANATOMY OF A CON ARTIST. Walton shares all he's learned, each chapter highlighting and exposing the tricks, decoys, and mind games con artists employ to entrap their marks

Walton is now entering Season 6 of Queen of the Con podcast with millions of downloads and he is also getting closer to a production deal for a scripted show based on his story. With Queen of the Con podcast super fan Renee Zellweger playing the con artist. And most satisfying for Walton he was instrumental in getting his con artis, Mair Smyth, extradited to Northern Ireland this past spring seven years after he started his crusade -- to face justice in the UK for the scams she committed there. His efforts have even garnered recent New York Times profile (see attached). He is truly a victim turned con hunter and in ANTOMY OF A CON ARTIST he'll share all his learned.

Each of the fourteen red flags of a con artist are demonstrated with a true crime story that Walton has investigated, showing how to actively avoid them and to open the reader's eyes. Have our friends at PRH Germany read and learn it's quite eye-opening!