Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Youtuber is in BIG Trouble // The Matthew Cox Fraud Story

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

Matthew Cox is a former Tampa, Florida-based mortgage broker who became one of the most prolific mortgage fraud con artists of the early 2000s, stealing an estimated $55 million by crafting elaborate synthetic identities and forging extensive loan documents. After his initial mortgage company collapsed in 2002, Cox escalated his crimes, leading to a three-year multi-state fugitive spree while on the U.S. Secret Service's Most Wanted list.

In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees can grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. So this popular YouTuber got into some big trouble. Now the guy's name is Matthew, and Matthew's 29 years old when this story starts and he's living in Florida, and Matthew has a problem. He's not making as much money as he would like to be. And he keeps bouncing around from job to job, but they're just not working out for him.

But one day, in the late 90s, he notices that his friends working in the mortgage business are driving fancy cars and living in nice apartments. And Matthew, he wants expensive things too. So he gets a job as a mortgage broker. And this is a good gig for him, like he seems to be a natural salesman. So he starts making a little money. And then he buys himself some nice things and whatnot. And I guess he overspends because before long, he's not making enough to keep up with his expensive lifestyle.

In fact, it's getting really bad. He's in a lot of credit card debt. His car's about to get repoed. And he might have to move back in with his parents. So he's like, he's kind of freaking out over this. But then one day, he and his boss at the mortgage company there at work. And his boss suggests that he alter one of the client's loan application. using Whiteout so that it gets approved by the bank.

And Matthew's like, wasn't that fraud? And the boss is like, nah, don't be a bitch. So Matthew alters the application. And this works. It actually gets approved by the bank. And Matthew ends up getting $3,500 commission from the deal. And after that, he can't believe just how easy it was to fool the bank. And the money he made from it?

Well, that was nice too. And since he got away with it, he's thinking, Why not just keep this going? So he starts altering documents for his borrowers, W2 statements and pay stubs and verifications of rent. And each time it works. The mortgage gets approved and he gets his commission and his clients are super happy. And he's making tens of thousands of dollars off of this getting mortgages approved for people who probably wouldn't otherwise qualify. But over time, it starts to become not in fact.

enough and he wants to go bigger. So he decides to create fictional people, like people he just made up from scratch, fake names, fake social security numbers, fake employment histories, fake everything, and then get mortgages for those fake people on real houses. And again, this works. Because it's the early 2000s now and it seems like no one in the mortgage industry checks for anything. Now, a normal person would do this scam, you know, maybe a few times, and then they'd probably get scared and stop. But Matthew, he does it over and over and over again, like a hundred times. Sometimes he'll steal a social security number and he'll use it to commit real estate fraud.

Sometimes he'll steal a social security number from a toddler, like a real life toddler, and he'll use it to buy a house. Sometimes he'll pose as a red cross worker and he'll approach. homeless people and trick them into giving him their personal information. Sometimes he'll create fake birth certificates. And some of these fake identities he makes, he'll name them after characters from TV shows and movies. He names some after the guys in the movie Reservoir Dogs,

Mr. Blue and Mr. White. He also names a fake identity, Montgomery Burns. And all of these applications get approved. However, then in 2002, it all catches up to him, and bam, he gets arrested. And he also gets convicted, but he only gets sentenced to probation. And only getting such a light punishment, well, this just makes him want to commit even more fra, because he feels like the system is just easy to manipulate.

And while he's no longer legally allowed to be a mortgage broker, he gets around this by calling himself a consultant. And he, like, mentors other brokers, and he shows them how to scam, and he ends up committing 11 million more dollars worth of fraud while he's on probation. And so by 2003, the feds, they're totally on to him and his consulting business. And so they start investigating him. Meanwhile, Matthew, he's not worried about it at all. He's like out here trying to date and smash and stuff.

So he gets on Match.com and that is where he meets this woman, Rebecca. And so he and Rebecca start dating. And by this point, he knows that the feds are on to him and his schemes. And so he decides that it's time to go on the run. And even though they've only been dating a few weeks, Rebecca decides to join him and go with him. So they flee, and they start going from state to state using stolen identities to commit more and more mortgage fraud. And they're real slick about this. I mean, they also take on fake identities themselves.

Like Matthew gets apparently $27,000 worth of plastic surgery, like a new nose, a hair transplant, a chin implant, liposuction. Dude literally gets a whole new face so the feds won't be able to recognize him. And the whole time he's on the run, he's on dating sites, he's trying to meet other women, partly because he's trying to smash on the side, and partly because he wants to recruit these women to help him open bank accounts or signed for properties under various aliases. It's all part of the scam. And this goes on for several years. And so it's now 2005.

And at this point, Matthew and Rebecca, they're running their schemes in Houston, Texas. But lately, they've been fighting a lot. And at one point, they get into a really big fight, partly over their stolen funds, and they end up breaking up. And about a year later, in 2006, Matthew relocates to Nashville, Tennessee.

And there he starts running his scams all over again. And he's also dating someone new, and they're living together. But around this time, the Secret Service puts both Matthew and his ex-Rebecca on their most wanted fugitives list. So now their faces are everywhere. Now, Rebecca is still living in Houston, and she's still hiding out. And she's living under a fake identity, but she's no longer committing fraud. In fact, she's now trying to go to cosmetology school, trying to turn her life around, so good for her.

But then, one day, kabo, the Secret Service buss in and bam, they arrest her. Here's a picture of her. Now, at this point, Rebecca, she doesn't owe Matthew anything. They've long been broken up. So she flips on him, and she tells the feds everything about all the crimes that they had committed together over the years. But Matthew, he's still all the way over. in Nashville and still in hiding, still living under a fake name. Now, the woman Matthew is dating and living with during this time is she's a single mom.

And sometimes she will hire this elderly woman to babysit her four-year-old kid. So after being around Matthew for a bit, this elderly woman starts to feel like something's off about him. And she starts getting suspicious. Later, once she's at home, she does a bit of Googling and boom. She finds out that he's a wanted man. Then she goes and she tips off the police. And so, bam, Secret Service go and they arrest him. Here's his mugshot. And so Rebecca, she ends up taking a plea deal and she ultimately gets sentenced to three and a half years in prison. While Matthew also takes a plea deal and he gets sentenced to over 26 years in prison.

But then, 12 and a half years later in 2019, Matthew gets out and he legitimately starts to turn his life around. Like he starts a YouTube channel and he becomes a YouTuber and he like vlogs about his post-prison life that he's been living. Then he starts a podcast where he like interviews former criminals and law enforcement professionals and they like dissect true crimes and stuff like that. And his podcast has over a million subscribers now, which is like pretty cool. So good for him for turning it all around.