Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - America's Funniest Con Man - The Steve Comisar story

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Steve Comisar, born December 30, 1961, is an American con artist known for a series of high-profile frauds. In the 1980s, he notoriously sold a "solar-powered clothes dryer" for $49.95, which was merely a length of clothesline. Throughout his criminal career, Comisar amassed an estimated $10 million through various scams, earning him the moniker "the Jeffrey Dahmer of fraud." Despite multiple convictions and prison sentences, his fraudulent activities persisted over decades.

This is your fix. I am your host, Stasi Schroeder. Welcome to Tell Me Lies, the official podcast. What's the most unhinged thing of season three? Stephen, because he's so evil. I do think he is misunderstood. You see everyone base consequences. It's intoxicating.

The writers just know how to trick you. There's always a twist in this show. Tell Me Lies, the official podcast, January 6th, and stream the new season of Tell Me Lies, January 13, on Hulu, and Hulu on Disney Plus. So this podcaster apparently conned people out of millions of dollars. So the guy's name is Steve, and he's in his 20s, he's from Beverly Hills, and Steve has been trying to make it work as an actor for years. But unfortunately, he just can't catch his big break.

So one day in the 80s, he decides to make money in a different way. He's going to scam some people. And so he starts out by just picking up the phone and cold calling people, and he gets into telemarketing fraud. And unfortunately, for him, it doesn't go great. And bam, he gets caught and arrested. Here's a mugshot. Cool hair, bro.

Then, around the 1990s, Steve decides to get a little more creative with his schemes. He comes up with something that's so stupid, it's genius. He puts ads in magazines, saying that he's selling a revolutionary solar-powered clothes dryer. And he's selling it at the incredibly low. price of 4995. Here's the thing about this solar powered clothes dryer. When the customers receive their order, they open the package and they're shocked to find all he sent them is a simple clothes line, like when your grandma would hang in the backyard and dry clothes on it. Which, to be fair, I guess that is technically a solar powered

clothes dryer, but you know, not worth spending 50 bucks on. And so the customers are understandably upset. And when people start to complain to Steve, he responds that they had received exactly what he advertised. And technically, he's not wrong. Anyway, he claims that he made over a million dollars from this scam

before his business is finally shut down. Now, I have my doubts about whether or not he actually made a million dollars, but that's what he says. Anyway, after this, Steve definitely isn't going to stop. I mean, that was too easy. So he keeps the cons going. and he gets involved in some investment scams,

and he gets people to invest in oil wells that don't actually exist, and bam, he gets caught and arrested again. Here's another mugshot. And so he gets sent to prison, and now suddenly, old Steve has a lot of free time on his hands, sitting in a cell all day. And so he decides to write a book called America's Guide to Fraud Prevention, and he writes it under the name Brett Champion for some reason.

And this book actually gets published. And this is where he starts to sell himself as this reformed con man who is now trying to help others not get scammed. A few years later, in 1997, he's out of prison at this point. Like he's done his time. And suddenly, things are starting to look up for Steve. Like he starts going by his new name, Brett Champion, which definitely sounds like a made-up name. But as Brett Champion, he somehow convinces people that he's a fraud expert. and he starts appearing on TV shows as a fraud prevention specialist.

And like here he is on The View, here he is on Dateline, here he is on CBS, here he is on some other talk show, here he is on The View again. And so the talk show circuit is really buying into his story. And so it seems like he's turned his life around and he's changed his con man ways. He's got a new name, he's got a new career, and now he's out here helping people not get conned. What a great guy! Until

A few years later in 1999 I guess he gets tired of being a fraud prevention specialist and he's like I'll think I'll go commit some more fraud myself and he comes up with a whole new scam he starts cold calling people

and claiming he's producing a TV show like a quiz game show and that he's looking for investors and he asks these people to invest in this show and he says that former pro football player Joe Namath is going to be involved, and that this is going to get such good ratings, and it'll be such a huge hit, and they're all going to be so rich. But unfortunately, for these investors, there is no quiz game show, and former pro football player Joe Namath, not involved. And any money these people give Steve

doesn't go to produce anything for TV. It goes right into his pocket. And eventually, he gets reported for this scam, and bam, he gets arrested again. And this time, he gets convinced. And this time, he gets convicted and he's no longer legally allowed to use the name Brett Champion. He's also no longer legally allowed to call himself a consumer fraud expert. And he also spends a few more years in prison. Then soon enough, he's out again on probation and does he stop his scamming ways and live a good, clean, wholesome life? Absolutely not. He's apparently having way too much fun. And if you can't Believe it, bro gets right back on the phone, cold calling people trying to scam them again, trying to get them to invest in another TV show that doesn't exist.

And that is when he meets this old guy over the phone. Arthur. Arthur's 84, he's retired, and he's lonely, making him the perfect target for Steve to con. And so Steve tells Arthur that he's this big time executive producer for television, and then he's producing this new hot TV show called, of the 21st century, which is a terrible name, by the way, but that he's producing this series and it's going to be a huge hit and that Arthur should invest.

And unfortunately, Arthur believes him and he does invest. He gives Steve a little money. And over the course of a few months, he gives him more and more money. And eventually, poor Arthur has given him pretty much his life savings. Over half a million dollars. And now Steve is like, I'm rich, biotch. And he's living a pretty good life on this money. He buys himself a new Corvette.

I think this is actually a picture of it here. And then he uses some of this money to pay court-ordered restitution to his previous victims that he conned. So he's using new stolen money to pay off the old stolen money. Bro is a menace. Now at some point, Arthur or someone around him gets suspicious of all this. And they get the FBI involved and the FBI starts wiretapping Steve and eventually, Damn, they arrest him.

And so now it's 2003, and Steve is around 42 years old, and he's back in prison once again. And now is this the point where he stops scamming people? Of course not. Steve's not going to let a little thing like prison stop him from being a con man. In fact, Bro has a new idea. He hears about this woman on the outside who has a brother who is convicted of murder and who is serving a life sentence. And Steve decides to send a letter to her and extort her. So he writes her this letter saying,

Hey, I have information that could exonerate your brother. And he tells her that his ex cellmate actually confessed to that murder. And he graciously offers to testify on her brother's behalf if she'll pay him $100,000. Now, what the hell does he think he's going to do with $100,000 while he's in prison? I don't know. But this is what he's going for. And so this sister is like, nah, I ain't paying you. And that pisses Steve off.

And he starts sending her all kinds of threatening letters telling her that she better send the money. And of course, this woman's not playing his game. And he gets even more mad. Then, through some prison connections, he sends a couple of goons to this woman's house to threaten her. And they do. These goons show up to her house and they threaten her and her husband pay up or else. Now, I have no idea how Steve thinks this won't all be traced back to him, because of course, the feds end up getting involved, and they investigate all this. And so, bam, Steve gets arrested.

Well, he doesn't get arrested because he's already in prison, but he does get in trouble. He actually ends up getting more prison time. I think he gets 20 years combined for all the shit he's done. Then, in 2018, he gets out. And I don't know if he's still conning people, but he has a podcast where, he talks about a lot of this stuff. So good for him? I don't know.