On February 11th, Inventing Anna, the buzzworthy series from Shonda Rhimes, hits Netflix. A chronicle of the life and crimes of notorious scammer and socialite Anna Delvey, the new show features Ozark’s brilliant Julia Garner as Delvey, a wealthy German heiress who ran in New York’s most elite social circles. But as her dear friend and unsuspecting victim Rachel DeLoache Williams would soon learn, it was all a ruse. Delvey’s identity as a generous, affluent young woman with a glamorous pedigree was all her own invention, an elaborate con that would leave countless bills unpaid and Williams more than $62,000 dollars poorer. This whirlwind memoir is the only way to adequately prepare yourself for the wild tales sure to unfold in the streaming giant’s original series. In her own voice, Williams details every instance of greed and deception that shattered her trust—and the journey to bringing her former friend to justice.

When it comes to female con artists, there are few figures more notorious than Elizabeth Holmes. The enigmatic founder of Theranos, a corporation that claimed to make a remarkable healthcare discovery, is a standout not only for her crimes (she was recently convicted of defrauding the company’s investors) but for her presence: a slight woman with blonde hair and wide blue eyes, clad in a black turtleneck and statement lip, her voice deep, husky, and shockingly low-pitched. In Bad Blood, journalist John Carreyrou details the startup’s meteoric rise and crashing fall—and the Stanford dropout at the center of the scandal who had amassed billions before the company’s claims were exposed as little more than fiction. Hear the story that inspired Hulu’s upcoming series The Dropout, which stars Amanda Seyfried as Holmes, set to release on March 3, 2022. (Also be sure to keep an ear out for Apple TV+’s recently announced direct adaptation of Carreyrou’s nonfiction triumph, led by Jennifer Lawrence.)

Given con artists often concoct scams to gain wealth or opportunity, you might be tempted to assume these kinds of crimes are perpetrated only by those who would otherwise not have such privileges at their disposal. The Varsity Blues scandal of 2019 proves that’s simply not the case. More than 50 people of considerable means were exposed as having some involvement in the bribery of college officials, the fabrication of athletic and academic achievements, and the falsification of documents asserting a student needed special accommodations for admission testing, all with one expressed purpose: to ensure their children would be accepted into top American universities. In Unacceptable, journalists Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz detail the deceit perpetrated by the likes of actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, along with assorted white collar professionals and business execs, who wielded their influence to unfairly obtain what they felt entitled to.

Of all the scams targeting women, perhaps the most prevalent are perpetrated by the diet, health, and wellness industry. Take a gander at any given social media platform and you'll find ads for laxative teas disguised as “cleanses” and overpriced placebos claiming to melt away fat aimed at women. Australian alternative wellness icon Belle Gibson took this kind of damaging deception to all new heights. Gibson purported to suffer from terminal cancer that was cured without chemo, radiation, or medication through her strict adherence to a holistically minded, healthy diet. But Gibson was never diagnosed with cancer. Instead, her entirely fabricated medical history misled countless people around the globe—including ill folks desperate for anything capable of staving off treatment complications, terrible pain, and death—all while Gibson amassed fame and fortune.

The basis for the 2018 Academy Award-nominated film of the same name starring Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? dazzles as a true crime account of forgery, due in a large part to the fact that the author and fraudster are one and the same. Lee Israel’s shocking, fabulously transparent account follows her turn from respected writer and biographer to a con artist particularly gifted at forging letters written by literary greats the likes of Dorothy Parker and Noël Coward. In a bright, incisive tone, Israel unapologetically details how, when faced with dire economic straits, she set her sights on profiting off her research and writing skills by crafting forgeries authentic enough to fool memorabilia and autograph dealers alike.

Tori Telfer, the author of homicide deep dive Lady Killers, turns her lens towards a less violent side of the criminal underground in Confident Women. A thorough, unflinching look at women throughout history who have swindled their way into fame, high society, and large sums of cash, this provocative and fascinating listen offers a glimpse into the sheer self-assuredness—and unmitigated gall—central to the pathology of criminal perpetrators. From Jeanne de Saint-Rémy’s faux friendship with Marie Antoinette that netted her an extravagant diamond necklace to the Fox sisters, phony mediums who unwittingly founded the spiritualism movement, to Cassie Chadwick’s infamous swindle where she purported to be the illegitimate child of tycoon Andrew Carnegie, the bold and inventive scams concocted by these women are presented in a light, entertaining tone sure to keep you engaged.