Shelly Harmon 43:13

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A popular teen is found dead at a local party spot. I don't even know how to describe it. It was horrific.

As investigators dig into the case, they'll uncover a slew of suspects. And shocking allegations will cast a dark shadow on this small town. There was cult activity. In fact, the rumor was that it was some sort of ritualized killing.

Her body was burned beyond recognition. As authorities navigate a twisted investigation, the body count rises. When they looked down in there, there was a dead body hung up on some lumber or a tree or something. A trail of blood links two murders. But will the killer walk free? Very few of these cold case files ever come to fruition. I want the world to know there's somebody out there

that murdered two people. The Prescott National Forest provides Prescott, Arizona residents with endless recreational activities. People rode their dirt bikes out there and would go shooting out there during the, you know, daytime. On the evening of September 29th, 1988, one target shooter is just finishing up for the night. As he makes his way back to his truck, he comes across one of the area's many fire pits.

So there was a pile of garbage bags there, and a portion of it had been burned. And he saw what he thought was a stick poking up out of the burned area. But as the gentleman moves closer, he makes a horrific discovery. He realized it was an arm, at which point he had to go to, I believe he went to a drugstore to call 911. 911.

Within minutes, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office responds to the area just outside of Prescott City limits, known to locals as Gordo's Pit, where they quickly locate a body. You could tell that there was stuff that had been dumped on top and had been set on fire. It was incredibly brutal and demeaning. The body was burned beyond recognition. I don't even know how to describe it. It was horrific.

Investigators look around for clues but have little success. A lot of the other stuff that was around was hard to discern whether that was trash or associated with the homicide. The scientific testing that we do now with DNA, we can learn very quickly from a lab whether it's related to our case or not. Back then they didn't have a lot of those tools.

It could have been the murder location and the dump site, or it could have just been the dump site, but there was no way to determine if that was the murder site. As investigators continue assessing the scene, the victim is transported to the coroner's office. The medical examiner, he labeled it homicidal violence, but he couldn't determine what actually caused the death. Because of the condition of her body, there was no way to determine more.

What was found at autopsy were heat-killed fly larvae, as he documented it. So from the time the body dies, there's a period of time before the larvae can grow to a certain level, and then they were burned. The general's area of the scene was fairly clear. It was likely they were killed at another location. While the cause of death is unknown, the coroner is able to identify the victim.

There was a dental records comparison made and it was determined that the victim was Pamela Pitts. The night Pamela Pitts was last seen was the night of September 16th, 1988. Pam was missing, you know, 13 days. Pam was originally reported as a missing person within the city limits of Prescott. So the Prescott Police Department had an investigation into her as a missing person.

The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office alerts Prescott PD about the discovery and both entities' joint forces. Once we know who the victim is, the first place you go is to the people that they knew. You go to the family. They came to my house in the evening and came in and sat down and said they had recovered a body and that according to the dental records that it was Pam.

Pam's family is devastated by the news. It was like, I don't even know how to describe that. It was not only heartbreaking, but mind-boggling at the same time. So I was trying to balance all that stuff and figure out who in the heck could have done this to my daughter. 19-year-old Pam Pitts was known for her bright smile and zest for life. Pam was a wonderful kid. She was always doing something, always wanting to have fun.

She was the type of person who could make friends with anybody. She was outgoing and just excited about life. The oldest of four, Pam loved nothing more than her family. She was my sidekick. She was awesome with all the kids and she was an awesome mentor.

Pam was a pretty amazing big sister. And she took me under her wing. She would guide me through life, basically. She was always there. I could count on her. I was able to confide in her. By age 19, Pam was ready to leave the nest and moved in with her new friend, Shelly Norgard. I think she met Shelly by mutual contact with other friends.

They became really good friends and they did a lot of things together. They had some friends in common. Shelly was always kind of awkward. I don't recall Shelly ever talking about her background. It had always been a mystery to me where she came from and, you know, where her parents were. It seemed like they were never around or in the picture. It was just Shelly and Shelly was just there.

For 18-year-old Shelly, living with Pam was finally her chance to have a family connection after years of struggling with her own. From what I've seen, it almost appears as though Shelly had some abandonment issues in the way that the divorce happened and the mom left.

And then there was pressure between her and her dad. Her dad was pretty strict. He seemed to be a stern taskmaster. And she made it really clear that she did not want to have to move back with him if Pam was to move out of the house. After moving in with Shelly during the summer of 1988, Pam got a job at a local restaurant to make ends meet. Though she had many interests, she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do with her life. She talked about going to beauty college.

and that was one of her goals. I figured she'd get into something like that, beauty college or fashion design or something. She was very artistic. In August of 1988, a month after the move, Pam reconnected with an old flame named Bobby Kitchener. We were taking it slow. She was reinvigorated about hanging out with me again, which was very exciting to me because I still had a lot of feelings for her at the time. Her life really changed

revolved around friends and family and hanging out with people and having a good time. But on September 16, 1988, the popular teen vanished without a trace. Shelly called, and she said, wanted to know if I knew where Pam was. And I said, no, I don't know. She goes, well, I'm not sure where she's at. I haven't seen her. She...

took off and didn't come home last night. At first, Paul wasn't too concerned. But when Pam failed to show up to work on Monday, he became worried. She just wasn't that kind of person that she would just disappear, no contact, no nothing. And so at that point, I said, something's wrong. So I called the police department about it.

And now, 13 days later, it seems Paul's worst fear has come true. They came right out and told me the condition of Pam's body at the time they found it. That her body had been set on fire and burned beyond recognition. When I got that information, the first thing that goes through your mind is who could do something like this? And why would somebody do this to Pam?

Coming up, as investigators search for a killer, they unearth a bitter feud. She said that everything is wrong in my life, she's responsible for. And a shocking statement raises a red flag. Did you ever make a statement to anybody about how to dispose of the body by fire? I probably did. At that time, anybody was a suspect, as far as I can say. September 29th, 1988.

The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office and Prescott Police are searching for the killer of 19-year-old Pam Pitts, a Prescott local who'd gone missing nearly two weeks prior. It just knocks the wind out of you and breaks your heart. Speaking with homicide detectives, Pam's father Paul says not long after he reported Pam's disappearance, he learned some troubling news. I found out from the police, actually,

that Pam's car was at home this whole time. Her purse and all her personal belongings were in the house. Shelly never pointed any of that out to me. I know that if it was somebody I lived with and they were gone, but all their personal belongings were there, I wouldn't have left that detail out. There's obviously some suspicion going on.

According to Paul, Pam and her roommate Shelly Norgard's friendship had recently become tumultuous. They were having issues over money within a couple of months. What she told me was that the rent wasn't getting paid, and she told me, she says, I'm ready to move back home, Dad. She said, you okay with that? And I said, of course I'm okay with that. And I said, when do you want to do this?

And she says, well, I haven't told Shelly yet. But she said, I'm going to let her know. I'll tell you how it goes. Paul says he was happy with Pam's decision to move out, as he had heard of Shelly's reputation around town. From the other kids that had contact with her, they said that she was not very trustworthy, that she told a lot of stories and lied a lot, and that she wasn't an honest person.

With Pam and Shelly's relationship seemingly on the rocks, investigators have their first person of interest. But when they sit down with Shelly on October 5th, she paints a very different picture. Pam and I really started to get close when I graduated, and we got to know each other. We started to go out a lot, and then we moved in together, and there was not a night that you could not see us together.

Shelly explains that rooming with Pam was great at first, but after a while, the two got into a financial bind over the rent. We sat down and we talked about it, and we got everything resolved.

Investigators pressed Shelly for her alibi the night Pam disappeared. Did you work Friday? Yeah, Friday the 16th. And did you see Pam on Friday night the 16th? No. Shelly's story is she got off work. She went and got Ray Clarks, her boyfriend. They went to Jack in the Box to meet friends. And they went out to some other Embry-Riddle students' apartment to watch a movie.

So between about 4 o'clock and 7 o'clock in the morning, she just drove around. I do that a lot. Very seldom do I sleep.

Sensing Shelly may be waffling, detectives keep pressing her for more information.

Because she started crying, they took a break. And then they never started over again. They basically just had her sign a document saying she doesn't know anything or who killed

After releasing Shelly, investigators turned to the next closest person in Pam's life, her boyfriend, Bobby Kitchener. According to Bobby, he had spent the evening of September 16th with Pam. I had been downtown and she was in my car, her and I together. And on the other side of the courthouse was a parking lot. And we would hang out there and talk with friends and watch the other people cruise by.

Bobby tells investigators he left Pam with their friends and headed to work around 9.30. She told him at that time that she was just going to spend the evening at home, so that's the last time we know for sure that Pam was around. We want to look at boyfriends, you know, because they would have been in Pam's inner circle, and so they were able to determine that. Bobby Kitchener, he had an alibi.

After striking Bobby from the suspect list, investigators circle back to confirming Shelly's alibi and bring in her boyfriend, Ray Clerks, for questioning. They ask Ray for his timeline for the night of the 16th. And he basically tells them he doesn't know what Shelly did after 1130 because that's when she went home. So then the detective immediately says, well, she told us she went home at 230 in the morning.

And Ray says to them, well, that could be, it might have been 2.30. Ray says he can't remember exactly which night they're referring to since it was weeks before. But he assures investigators he has no idea who could have killed Pam. He basically told them he was tired of talking to them and didn't want to talk to the cops anymore. So that pretty much put an end to Ray's involvement.

With Ray unable to confirm Shelly's alibi, detectives speak to more of the friends she was with on the night of the murder, exposing a shocking revelation. They said Shelly was angry and she was looking for Pam on the night of the 16th. While they're conducting these interviews, they learn Shelly said, have you seen my roommate? She's doing bad things, everything that's wrong in my life, she's responsible for, and I'm trying to find her.

It did not sound like the relationship was as happy as she had made it out to be Thursday night. Shelley's friends also remember some unusual things she had said in the past. She would make comments about how she knows how to get rid of a body. The best way to get rid of somebody is to first make them a missing person and then either burn them beyond recognition or to drop them in a mine shaft.

It was well known that Shelly had some pretty strong theories on how to make people disappear and get rid of the evidence. Alarmed by these allegations, detectives immediately bring Shelly in for another interview. Do you have to make a statement to anybody about how to dispose of the body? By a fire? By a fire? Be very clear. What kind of a statement would you make? Burn the body. Burn the body? Why? I guess to get rid of the evidence.

Coming up, as investigators zero in on Shelly, new theories emerge. I heard Satanic Cult was involved. Kids who were out of that party talked about this possible fight. And a horrific discovery throws investigators a curveball. It was a white male in a state of decomposition who had been dropped down in the vertical mine shaft.

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quince.com slash snapped. October 1988. It's been a month since the body of Prescott teen Pam Pitts was found burned and dumped in a forest. Now, investigators wonder if bad blood between Pam and her roommate Shelly Norgaard could have led to her brutal murder. At that time, anybody was a suspect as far as I can say.

Investigators obtain a warrant to search Shelly and Pam's apartment. There were searches of that residence. It was difficult to determine that anything happened there in the house. There was simply no evidence to point to anybody. You know, there was no physical evidence. There was no DNA evidence. There was nothing. They also had what they believed was a pretty solid alibi from Shelly in that she was with all these people throughout the night.

Still at a loss for where Pam was actually killed, investigators decide to look closer at the site where Pam's body was found. And they catch a break when they learn there may have been witnesses in the area on the night of the 16th. A couple weeks later, they learned about the party that occurred at Gordo's Pit from the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators interview local teens to see if anyone saw Pam at the party that night. They eventually found a couple guys that said they had seen Pam at the party.

But some of Pam's friends tell detectives that they believe more ominous events than just parties were taking place at the popular hangout spot. I heard a satanic cult was involved. There were a lot of rumors. One of them was about it was a satanic worshiper sacrifice. You know, back in the 80s, that was a big thing. In fact, there was cult activity that was confirmed by an investigator.

The rumor was that Pam was somehow used in some sort of ritualized killing. - There were about 30 people standing around the pit site and they all saw what happened. - It was more like they were bragging about it.

While rumors run rampant in the town of Prescott, investigators run down every lead. But months pass and nothing materializes. That was a complete and total thing that came out of the rumor mill, I guess you would say, in this thing. These are all the stories that fell apart. They looked into them, couldn't corroborate them, and let them go. ♪

But in the summer of 1989, after reviewing past witness statements, investigators finally uncover a promising lead. A small number of those interviews talked about this possible fight between Melinda Perry and Pam Pitts.

The way I thought the way it would happen, she went up and was talking to Pam before her and then they started to fight. And during the fight, Pamela got thrown on the ground. She just kicked her head like a kid four or five times before anybody pulled her off. And then when someone pulled her off, she got up and she was bleeding. She fell down the ground.

Investigators immediately haul in 18-year-old Melinda Perry for questioning. Detectives press Melinda for her alibi.

Friday night, there was a party at the American Motel, okay? I guess there was too many people there and they were being too loud. So the landlord or the land manager or whatever came and told us to get out of there, all right? You were there? I was at the motel. All of a sudden, after a year without a suspect, they have a good suspect, they kept asking her questions and doing interviews and she kept telling them, but she wasn't telling them what they wanted to hear. They wanted her confession.

Authorities still aren't convinced she didn't kill Pam. And in August of 1989, Melinda is summoned to appear before an investigative grand jury. I think their theory was that they could put her on the stand and under oath compel her to tell the truth. I tell them I never fought Pamela Pitts. I was never in a fight with Pamela Pitts. After that, I felt I was free to go. You know what I mean?

But not long after, Melinda is arrested for perjury. Somebody told them that I kicked her head. I kicked her head until she passed out. And they booked me for three counts of perjury, said that I had lied on the stand. It was determined that Melinda Perry had made inconsistent statements to the grand jury. Investigators interrogate Melinda once more, but she doesn't waver. I was scared, to say the least. You know, I was a kid. I didn't know what to do.

Eventually, Melinda's perjury charges are dropped. Her whereabouts were pretty well documented for that weekend. And obviously that charge didn't hold up. For two years, I fought that and then they had to close the case. They didn't have any evidence of that. I left. I left Arizona. I went to Nevada that very day. It was just traumatic for me. Though investigators head back to the drawing board, nothing sticks.

I would say about three years it had gone fairly stale, cold. It becomes a cold case when you run out of leads, you run out of people to interview, and you have no more evidence to analyze. I mean, at that point, you need something to trigger it again. Very few of these cold case files ever come to fruition. You know, I was willing to do whatever it took and wait as long as I had to wait for something to break in her case.

Suddenly, on May 25th, 1991, a shocking discovery dredges Pam's case back into the light. Prescott College students are exploring a cave and then it led to a vertical mine shaft. And when they looked down in there, there was a dead body hung up on the lumber or tree or something.

The sheriff's office came in to begin the investigation. It was a white male, young male from what they could tell in a state of decomposition, who had been wrapped in a waterbed liner, like a waterbed mattress liner, and then dropped down in the vertical mine shaft. After retrieving the body, the coroner quickly determines the cause of death. The autopsy revealed that he'd been shot in the head.

He was in a state of decomposition, so it had been some time, several weeks. The Yavapai County Medical Examiner was able to determine through dental records that the deceased individual located in the mine shaft was Ray Clerks, boyfriend of Shelly Norgaard. Ray's family actually ended up reporting him missing. He was supposed to have showed up for a wedding in California.

And didn't. And that really alarmed everybody because apparently he was very responsible, he was going to be a pilot, and he would just not miss something without letting people know. According to Ray's missing persons report, filed on May 28, 1991, Shelly and Ray had been living together at the time of his disappearance three days prior. The detectives recognized that, hey, this is the second roommate missing.

that Shelly's had go missing and turn up dead. Maybe we ought to look into Shelly a little more. When investigators notify Ray's family about his death, they are clear on who they believe is responsible. Ray was planning on moving back to California and was not going to take Shelly with him. And then the relationship was going to end, basically. Investigators have heard the story before.

You have two individuals, Pamela Pitts and then Ray Clerks, who have decided that they're going to leave Shelly Norgaard in a physical way and in an emotional way. She doesn't want that. She's angry. Coming up, new evidence finally connects to an all-too-familiar suspect. One print was recovered from one of the flashlights. That, of course, put her in the mine shaft. I was like, "Oh, my goodness. Finally."

After discovering the body of 24-year-old Ray Clerks, incriminating physical evidence now suggests his girlfriend, 21-year-old Shelly Norgaard, is responsible for his death. Shelly Norgaard's fingerprints, or one print, was recovered from one of the flashlights that they located in the mine shaft. So that, of course, put her in the mine shaft. ♪♪

With evidence mounting, investigators head to the home Shelly and Ray shared with a search warrant in hand. The big thing with that case was Shelly's car. When they walked up to the car, they immediately noticed the smell of death in and around Shelly's car. In the trunk, they found evidence that a dead body had been stored there. There was blood present, and it was the same blood type as Ray's.

The evidence is enough to place Shelly under arrest on June 4th, 1991. After a couple years of it being in the court, she eventually pled guilty. So as a term of her guilty plea, she had to provide a statement on what happened to Ray. Shelly tells the court it all started when Ray broke things off. They were out watching stars, stargazing, I guess, and he was laying on top of the car.

And when he told her that he was going to take the dogs with him, she lost her mind. Shelly shot him in the head while he was laying on the hood of the car. Shelly says after that, she panicked.

She says then she was so shocked by what she'd done that she got a blanket out and covered Ray up so she couldn't see him anymore and then put him in the trunk of the car and basically drove the car out in the woods and left it there for a couple weeks before she could get a four-wheel drive truck to come transfer the body to the top of the mountain to drop him in the mine shaft.

It was midway through the trial in 1993 that she decided to accept a plea deal. The charge was dropped from murder in the first degree to murder in the second degree. And so her sentence was 20 years in Arizona State Prison. News of Shelly's confession and plea quickly spreads to the family of Pam Pitts. I felt that

She got off easy. She should have gotten life or the death penalty. That's how I felt about it. I was glad that she was in jail because, you know, at least then she couldn't kill anybody else. Pam's family hopes the sentence will buy some time for investigators to finally connect Shelly to Pam's case as well. She might have been afraid that he was going to tell on her or let that secret out at some point.

Though investigators are suspicious of Shelly, their hands are tied. The issue you had is there's still no evidence. Regardless of whether Shelly killed Ray or not, it doesn't still indicate that she killed Pam without something more. 18 long years pass with no new leads on Pam's case. It just went kind of cold for a long time. Just really cold. At first...

You want revenge. You know, you want to find this person and you don't care what happens to them. But, you know, as time goes on, it's not about hate and revenge anymore. It's about justice for your daughter. In March of 2011, 23 years after Pam's murder, a cold case team reopens the investigation. When it was handed to me, I didn't know anything about the Ray Clerks murder. I think the lieutenant intentionally kept that from me so as not to taint my thought processes.

But it doesn't take long for Detective Dart to get up to speed. I remember looking at it going, wait a second, wait a second. Shelly killed somebody late in 1990? What? Now I've got somebody in this case who's capable of murder. Not to mention Shelly was the only one who seemed to have a motive to hurt Pam. She was making that very clear on the night of the 16th that Pam was behind all the bad things in her life and she was going to find Pam and she was going to deal with it and she was going to take care of the problem.

In February of 2011, investigators re-interview Shelley about Pam's case, hoping the added pressure will cause her to incriminate herself on recorded jail calls. Shelley was due for release within a few months. So I talked to Shelley for about an hour.

Unfortunately, investigators cannot find anything against Shelley in the 97 phone calls she made between the interview and her release in May of 2011.

She got released from the Department of Corrections and she got a job. She meets a man. They end up getting married, moving in together. Her name now is, instead of Sherley Norgard, is Sherley Norgard Harmon. She kind of assumed, I guess, a new life, you would say. Investigators continue efforts with Pam's case, but department moves and heavy caseloads cause delays.

Finally, in the spring of 2017, six years after Shelly's release, investigators hit pay dirt. I remembered, hey, what would ever happen to those calls? So I actually listened to all 97 of them myself. She called her dad and told him the detectives were here. They're still looking into the Pam Pitts case. He asked her, are we okay? You can tell he's concerned about what's going to happen. And they talk about Shelly's going to get an attorney.

And then the line just goes silent. When I heard that, that hair stood up on my arms and I was like, oh my goodness.

Finally. Something. So that statement, in the context of them talking about the night Pam went missing, that was enough with all the other circumstantial evidence we had to get an indictment on Shelly. On June 2nd, 2017, investigators make their move. I went in, identified myself, told her where I was from, and you could just see this look, like, almost like defiant resignation. I'd like to talk to you about 1988.

Am I under arrest? You may be. I may be, but I need to see a lawyer. Okay, then. You are under arrest for murder of Pam Lopez. Coming up, as the trial looms, prosecutors face an uphill battle. A lot of our witnesses are either dead or just simply don't remember. It's kind of a long shot. And Pam's family makes a tough choice. You can't tell me that this was, ooh, this was an accident. I don't believe it.

That's something that is extremely personal and shows a lot of hate for somebody.

June 2017. After serving 20 years for murdering her former boyfriend, Ray Clerks, Shelly Harmon now faces charges for the 1988 murder of her former roommate, Pam Pitts. My favorite part of the whole thing was being able to meet with Pam's dad and tell him that the arrest had been made. That was the best feeling I've had in my entire career.

But as the case heads to trial, it faces a number of setbacks.

The problem remains that it's a 30-year-old case, and a lot of our witnesses are either dead or have dementia or just simply don't remember what all happened back then. So to try this case, to say it was a 50-50, it's kind of a long shot that we actually get a conviction out of it. Prosecutors are forced to present Pam's family with a Catch-22.

So they tried to have this plea agreement set up. The defense said that the only way that she would change her plea to guilty would be if she didn't have to do any more time. Knowing that she would not confess and tell the actual truth, I felt that it was best just to go with the guilty plea.

On March 1st, 2021, nearly four years after her arrest, Shelly stands before the court and gives her version of the events that transpired on September 16th, 1988. She said she had gone out looking for Pam.

at the party and when she found her, she just wanted to talk to her. They had gone off from the side of the party and got into a heated debate and started getting into a fight. She goes, "I don't know what happened. I hit her and I knocked her down and I just got on top of her and I couldn't stop hitting her and I just kept hitting her and hitting her and then she stopped breathing."

And she heard voices coming, so she got up and left. That was essentially her confession. She would not talk about the body or what happened after she killed Pam, so we did not get any of that. You can't tell me that, "Ooh, this was an accident." I don't believe it. I think she went so far as to pour gasoline on her body and set her on fire. And that's something that is extremely personal and shows a lot of hate.

for somebody. Following her statement, Shelly is released from custody at the age of 50. She got credit for 20 years for the time she served in prison for Ray Clerk's murder and the three or four years that she sat in county jail waiting for trial in the Pam Pitts case. And for the confession that she killed Pam, she got to walk out. I look at it and I go, well, the mean thing is, is she did confess to it. And...

She did get convicted. And it was justice for Pam. Did it look like we wanted it to look like? No. In terms of, you know, I would like to have seen her get the maximum sentence for what she did. But you have to take the sometimes small victories that you get and hang on to those and cherish those. I want the world to know that there's somebody walking the streets. There's somebody out there

that murdered two people, two people that she so professed to love, a boyfriend and a best friend. - Though two lives were taken, Pam and Ray's memories live on in the hearts of all that knew them. - Ray had a lot of potential. You know, he wanted to be a commercial airline pilot and that was kind of ran in the family and that family was extremely tight. So the tighter the family it is, the more it hurts when you lose that.

I want Pam to be remembered as a young lady who loved life and couldn't wait to get out there and live it. It's a shame that it got cut short like it did, but I know she would have been quite the fireball if she was alive today. Shelly Harmon was released from custody in the spring of 2021 following her trial.

Scammers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. And we're the host of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims, and what's left once the facade falls away.

We've covered stories like a Shark Tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment but soon faced mounting bills, an active lawsuit filed by Larry King, and no real product to push. He then began to prey on vulnerable women instead, selling the idea of a future together while stealing from them behind their backs.

To the infamous scams of Real Housewives stars like Teresa Giudice, what should have proven to be a major downfall only seemed to solidify her place in the Real Housewives Hall of Fame. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Scamfluencers early and ad-free right now on Wondery+.