Scamfluencers - Rosie Keo & Samantha Barbash: In the Club, We All Scammed | 236

Episode Date: October 19, 2026

Back in the 2000s, Rosie Keo is a scrappy young single mom barely making rent – until she meets Samantha Barbash, a seasoned dancer who shows Rosie that the real money isn’t on the pole��it’s in the wallets of the men sitting around them. Together, they build a lucrative business fueled by drugs, charm, and a scheme their clients never see coming. But as their operation grows, so does the tension between the two women. And before long, Rosie discovers that eventually, last call comes for everyone.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A heads up to our listeners. This episode contains descriptions of non-consensual drug use. Please listen with care. Sachi, I've read your memoir one day will all be dead and none of this will matter. So I am a bit of a scholar when it comes to your life and I have an idea what you're going to say. But remember that feeling in adolescence seeing a group of like really hot baddies and thinking, what is that like? Sarah, first of all, thank you so much for the plug.

Yeah, I do remember it. It's like indelible in my memory. When you see hot women who are like in charge. Yeah, like 20 to 25 in charge and terrifying. It is such an inspiring life event. I hope that I make other people feel like that. You know what I have to tell you? I was at dinner a few weeks ago and our waitress was like, oh God, maybe like a lick of 21. years old, like a baby. And we were, whatever, she was giving us her food and we were chatting with her here and there. And then when we paid our bill, she, like, leaned into me and she said, you're the coolest person I've ever seen. Okay, so it's over. What more do you need? You need nothing more in life.

I was with Albert. And I turned to look at him and I was like, nothing you ever say or do will be as powerful as what just happened there. And he was like, why? I was like, you don't get it. Yeah, it is like a feeling unlike any other. And I feel like I did get a glimpse of it because I skipped a lot of class in high school and hot girls would skip class a lot. So I did learn nothing, but I do feel like I got a bit of insight into how awesome girls like that are, you know? Yeah, they walk among us.

Well, today I'm going to tell you a story about a group of women who wielded the power of their looks and their smarts in the world of strip clubs. Their sisterhood thrived on taking advantage of their rich clients, but as they got deeper into their victim's pockets, their scam spun out of control. It's November 2013 in New York City, and Dr. Ziyadh Yunnan is on a date at an upscale restaurant. Ziyadh is 39 with curly brown hair and deep brown eyes. He's a cardiologist, so he's not hurting for money,

but until recently, he's been too busy to date, but not anymore, and his date tonight, Karina, is gorgeous. Straight dark hair with blunt bangs and a killer body. He doesn't know how he got so lucky, and amazingly, he didn't even have to try. Karina texted him out of the blue saying they'd met before. Ziat doesn't remember meeting her, but she's so stunning that he went along with it. At dinner, she tells him she's a nursing student, and they start vibing. Later, when Karina introduces him to her sister and cousin, who just happened to be nearby,

Ziyadh doesn't question it. The more the merrier. But when he downs his last gulp of wine, he notices that it tastes a bit strange. And as the night wears on, he starts to feel fuzzy and warm and his vision blurs. The next morning, Ziyadh wakes up alone in his hotel room with his head pounding. The girls are gone, but Karina left him and. note thanking him for such a great night and saying she hopes to see him again. He's a bit confused. He can't remember anything after paying the dinner bill, but whatever

happened must have been good. A few days later, Ziyadh takes Karina out to dinner again, and once again, he wakes up the following morning with no recollection of what happened the night before. It's weird, but he hasn't felt this way about a girl in a long time. So a couple days after that, he takes her to a Van Morrison concert at Madison Square Garden. After the concert, they head to the Ace Hotel and meet up with Karina's cousin and sister. Karina buys him a drink and a shot and Ziyadh happily throws it back. And that's the last part of the night he remembers. Oh, okay. I mean, having that experience with somebody once is bad enough, but then I think having it twice would be disqualifying?

Yeah, extremely scary. And the morning after the concert, he wakes up to a voicemail from Amex. They want to verify some charges, specifically the more than $140,000 he spent at scores, a strip club in Manhattan, over the last couple weeks. Each charge lines up perfectly with his dates with Karina.

He can't believe it. He's upset, betrayed, and about. Above all, furious. Karina totally scammed him. What Zad doesn't know is that he's far from the only guy in New York who's woken up to this nightmare, and that Karina isn't working alone. Her crew, run by two formidable former strippers,

isn't just making money, they're taking it. And they're bringing in far more money than a trip to the champagne room ever could. He lurks in shadow. He slips into dreams. He casts no reflection. Audible presents Bram Stoker's Dracula, a new full-cast audio thriller, starring Jonathan Bailey as Dracula and Ella Pernell as Mina Harker.

Don't miss the year's best new audio thriller. Listen to Bram Stoker's Dracula only on Audible. I'm Lauren Malloy, the host of the podcast My Mom's Murder. For 30 years, I thought my mom died of natural causes. That's what everyone told me. That's what I believed. Until one day I got a phone call that changed everything. A woman claiming to be my mom's best friend told me my mother was murdered

and that no one had ever investigated it. So I did what the detectives wouldn't, pulled the threads, knocked on doors, and confronted the contradictions. And what I found, it's worse than I imagined. Something happened to my mom. Someone killed her. And I won't stop until I find out. who. The system may have given up on my mom, but I never will. Listen to my mom's murder wherever you get

your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all 10 episodes early and ad free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. From Audible originals, I'm Sarah Hagey, and I'm Sachi Cole. And this is scam influencers. Back in the 2000s, Rosie Keo was just a scrappy young woman looking to make enough money to support her daughter, until she met Samantha Barbaugh. Samantha was an older, more street smart dancer who showed Rosie that the real money wasn't on the pole. It was in the pockets of the men sitting around them. Together, they built a crew, flipped the script on an industry that has long exploited women, and started taking what they wanted from clients and non-consensually drugging the clients so they couldn't complain. But the more money they

rake in, the more their partnership starts to crack. Two dominant personalities can only share a throne for so long, and Rosie will discover that your best friend can become your biggest liability, that eventually, last call comes for everyone. This is Rosie Keio and Samantha Barbash. In the club, we all scammed. It's 2001 and 17-year-old Rosie Keo is waiting tables at the New City Diner in Nanuette, a suburb of New York. It's a late-night shift and a steady stream of bartenders and dancers are coming in from Lace, the strip club across the street. Tonight, one of Lace's managers looks her up and down and leaves a very generous tip, along with a piece of advice.

He says she should apply for a job at the club. She'd make a lot of money with a body like that. The suggestion gives Rosie pause. She's intrigued. Rosie was born in Rockwood. Rosie was born in Rock County, just 20 miles outside of the city. Her parents were refugees from Cambodia, and by the time she was three, her dad split. Her mom worked multiple jobs to stay afloat. They lived paycheck to paycheck, which Rosie found humiliating. But it also inspired her to make her own money. In grade school, she bought blow pops and bulk at Costco and sold them to her classmates

for a tidy profit. Yeah, this is what Mamdani should be funding with small. business grants. A hundred percent agree, and I have no further questions. It should just work that way. Yeah. So when Rosie turned 14, she got her first real job at Dunkin' Donuts, and that's when she had her first encounter with a man who wanted something from her.

One of her regulars, a grown man, would flirt with her even though she was barely a teen. So during one of his visits, she jokingly asked him for $500, and he gave it to her, no questions asked. She was both excited by this huge payout and creeped out. She was worried he expected something in return. The whole experience freaked her out enough that she looked for a new job so she wouldn't have to see him again. Now at 17, she got this gig at the New City Diner. She dropped out of high school to work as many hours as possible.

And because she never wants to be home, where her family has crammed seven people into a two-bedroom apartment. Rosie really wants to get her own place, and she's willing to cut corners to get there. A friend and fellow waitress teaches her an easy scheme. Only charge customers for about half of what they ordered, and in return, they'll leave a huge tip. It screws the restaurant over, but, hey, that's not her problem. Oh my God, baristas do that to me.

I just realized that's what they're doing. Yes. I'm like, yeah, they're not charging me for this. I'm going to give a $4. Oh my God, that's genius. I'm so happy to be here with you when you found that out. Okay. Rosie's impatient.

And now, as she gazes through the diner window at Lace, the club across the street, she thinks that maybe the manager was right. She could make good money there. She decides to give it a try. And in her new line of work, she'll meet a lot of other like-minded women who know what it means to hustle in every sense of the word. It's 2006, and Rosie, now 22 years old,

is sitting at the bar at Flash Dancers, a strip club in Times Square, and her new place of work. Her six-inch heels are hooked onto the lower rungs of a bar stool as she grips a highlighter. Rosie leans over a psychology textbook, taking meticulous notes. She's been stripping for about five years now,

but she's also taking classes at Berkeley, college in New Jersey. She's not going to be a stripper forever. And that's partly because stripping isn't the easy money some people think it is. At strip clubs, girls are actually independent contractors. They have to pay to work there. It's similar to how a hairdresser rents a chair in a salon. Rosie gets to keep her tips, plus a cut of what she earns through lap dances and private room bookings. But she has to pay house fees after every shift. At Lace, she owed $30 to the club, $15 to the DJ, and $10 to the house mom, the mother figure who provides dresses, shoes, G-strings, and other supplies. The fees added up. So after a few years at Lace,

Rosie took a higher-paying job at Flash Dancers. The club charges its dancers an intimidating $250 house fee, but it also features a private champagne room, which means it's much more lucrative than clubs with just a stage in a pole. And clubs in the city have way more customers with much bigger wallets than the ones in the burbs. Flash Dancers is full of Wall Street types ready to blow off some steam, plus a big portion of their paychecks.

But the more time she spends around these men, the more disillusioned she becomes. It's always a married guys who pursue her the hardest. She also notices she tends to attract the sad guys, the ones who want to save her from all this. At first, it disgusts her. But then she sees it as an opportunity. She starts putting on a fake personality for her customers,

pretending to be a broken and battered girl who's been hurt one too many times. And it works. This is such a thing with men who are into strippers. Like, it's really important that they're going to like pretty woman hurt. It's important that she's suffering, that he finds her in a stupy. of suffering. It's so gross. And also a state that he wants to change, knowing full well

what she wants. It's like, listen, I'm going to change you and it'll make you better. Honey, she wants to be a stripper, let it go. Well, Rosie is making about $2,000 a week and can finally buy the things she's always dreamed of, like Chanel bags and Lubiton pumps. She's attending college for health care management, but it can be hard to take her studies seriously. If she can earn more money stripping than she'd ever make working an office job, what's the point of school? And then there's the cocaine. Some of the other girls at the club were doing it,

so when her friend offers her a bump, she thinks, why not? She quickly becomes addicted. Sometimes Rosie misses her shifts, which means having to pay the club fines for not showing up. Between the coke, the strict schedule, and the management, Flash Dancers is starting to feel. like a cage. By 2007, she's kicked the Coke habit and is starting fresh at Larry Flint's Hustlers Club.

That's where she meets Samantha Bar-Bash, stage name Samantha Fox, with two exes, of course. Samantha is in her 30s with the look of an evil queen, dark arched eyebrows, straight black hair, and filler-plumped lips. She's been working, as a hostess only, according to her, since she's been working as a hostess only, she was 19. By strip club standards, she's old. But it also means she has a lot of wisdom to share. At hustlers, she often helps younger dancers find their footing and hone their act. She coaches the girls on how to work in groups to maximize their payouts. In a one-on-one situation, a client is usually able to keep his wits about him. But when he's surrounded by three or four gorgeous

ladies pying him with drinks, that's another story. Samantha's number one, trick to keeping customers happy is to ply them with pills and powder. Get them high enough, and they'll sit in the champagne room for hours, swiping their credit cards without a second thought. Well, Sarah, this is just good mentorship. Yes. This is leading children through nature. This is educating the next generation. This is making sure that you don't pull the ladder up after you. Yeah, and the biggest drug of all, horniness. Well, you knew who would have known? You know, these men just don't want to leave that room for many reasons.

Nothing stronger than wanting to have sex with someone that you can't have sex with. Well, Rosie is relieved when Samantha takes her under her wing and introduces her to all her regulars. Like one guy who works at a big investment company and spends a hundred grand on each visit. Thanks to Samantha and her crew, Rosie is making more money than ever, and all it takes is getting her client high out of their minds. But right as her stripping career is really starting to take off, she's hit with a surprise that will change her life

and her priorities forever. Months after starting at Hustlers, Rosie is pacing back and forth in her bathroom at home. She watches the clock, counting down the minutes. And when she finally checks the pregnancy test in her hand, it's positive. She's shocked.

She wasn't exactly planning on becoming a mom. Rosie's been dating her boyfriend for five years, and at 25, she's been stripping for almost a decade. She's burnt out and decides she's ready to leave stripping behind. On their fifth anniversary, they get engaged, and she officially walks away from hustlers. But her pregnancy does not usher in a time of domestic bliss.

Three months in, Rosie finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her. On top of that, she's diagnosed, with gestational diabetes and falls into a deep depression. The betrayal confirms everything Rosie suspected for years. Men will always let her down. So Rosie has her baby, a little girl, and now she's looking out for more than just herself. She needs to provide for her daughter too.

Rosie knows she only has one option. Go back to hustlers. What she doesn't know is that while she's been gone, the club has changed. And she'll have to be a little more creative if she wants to make money. Let's rewind for a minute. Because while Rosie is focusing on motherhood back in 2009, Samantha Fox is at Hustlers looking out at a half-empty club.

Last year, stock market crash gutted the industry. The majority of their Wall Street clientele have either lost their jobs or tightened their belts. Hustlers isn't pulling in the numbers it used to, and the dancers are really feeling it. But Samantha is a fighter and has been one her entire life. Samantha's not the most reliable narrator, but as she tells it, she ran away from home when she was 17 and gave birth to her son a year later. She then wound up in an abusive relationship that ended with her ex-husband attempting to kill her.

She freed herself out of that situation and through her work as a dancer, built a life of her own. And Samantha didn't just reinvent her life. she reinvented her look. She's been into cosmetic surgery since she was young, plumping her lips and going under the knife to get her ideal look. She even got a license to practice medical aesthetics, and now she dreams of running a med spa one day. Samantha has big plans,

and she's not about to let a recession take it all away from her. So she decides to take matters into her own hands. She scrolls through her phone, finds her old client's numbers, then sends each one a flirty text with a picture attached. Sometimes the photos are of her, but she also uses picks of the younger girl she's mentoring, Marcy Rosen and Karina Pascucci.

She'll do whatever it takes to make the club full again. And it works. When a client takes the bait, Samantha sends one of her dancers to meet him for dinner, somewhere sit-down but cheap, like TGI Fridays, and order drinks. Lots of drinks. As the client gets wasted, Samantha and the rest of her crew show up and suggest going to a strip club together.

This is where Samantha ups the ante. She's struck deals with several strip clubs in the area. She brings the clients in, runs up their credit cards with as many charges as possible, and gives the clubs a cut. This is a really well-oiled machine, I have to say. Yeah, very industrious in a recession. She's finding ways to get people to. spend money. Yeah. But every now and then, a client pushes back on going to a club or gets strict with his credit cards. That's when Samantha relies on a tried and true method to open up their

wallet, drugs. She starts spiking uncooperative clients' drinks with a little bit of MDMA and petamine. After years of being at the mercy of club managers and Uber wealthy clients, Samantha finally feels like she's the one calling the shots. Now, she has to be a lot. the power and her girls are getting paid. And when Rosie reappears, she'll prove to be the missing piece who can take this operation from the main floor to the champagne room. You stepped out for your morning jog. Except it's not your usual morning jog. You started listening to an epic sci-fi book on Audible. 30 chapters later, you've accidentally run a half marathon. You lost track of how far you've run somewhere just past the city limits. You can't stop. You have to

find out what happens next. Then it's over. The universe seems bigger. You feel different. You feel like you have no idea where you are. Audible. Stories that speak to you. On January 24th, 2023 in Duxbury, Massachusetts, Patrick Clancy called 911. He had found his wife, Lindsay, badly injured, and his three children dead and dying. What followed would become one of the most searing and complicated cases in recent memory, raising hard questions about motherhood, mental illness, and how far our justice system will go to understand what really happened. I'm Candice DeLong, host of the podcast Killer Psychie. In our latest episode, we take you inside the case of Lindsay Clancy, the postpartum psychosis

defense, the courtroom battle, and the trial that just ended in a stunning mistrial. Follow Killer Psyche wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Killer Psyche one week early and ad free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. It's 2011 and Rosie is walking into hustlers for the first time in years. The place has far fewer customers and she remembers. members. Young dancers she doesn't recognize click past her in Lubiton heels. The only familiar face is her old friend Samantha, who's still running the place. Rosie looks around and notices

that, despite the thin crowd, Samantha's new crew of younger strippers is making bank. Rosie wonders, how are they pulling in so much money every shift? She watches closely as Samantha crosses into the champagne room. Through the open door, Rosie can see several girls surrounding one guy who's laid out on the couch. He looks really out of it, which makes Rosie suspicious.

She's used to seeing the clients share a bump with the girls, but she's not used to seeing them fully unconscious in the champagne room. That's when Rosie finds out how Samantha supercharged her work-in-group scheme, by fishing for men, bringing them to the clubs, and feeding them a special car

cocktail spiked with ketamine and MDMA. She realizes they're swiping the credit cards of unconscious clients, and she wants in. You know, Sarah, obviously, we're, like, very on board with the early threads of this scam because they're working in a place that is, by virtue of what it is, exploitative, and they get, you know, the least amount of profit for the most amount of labor. The trouble is, is that their scam is, like, going into this new layer now where they're going out into the world and like catching men to put them in this unsafe situation to take their money. And that is fundamentally different. And unfortunately, not something we can root for, though we do

try to root for women at all times. Yeah, that's where the lines do get extremely blurry and kind of, in a way, drawn in the sand as to how far they'll go to get that coin. Rosie doesn't have a problem with this. And she doesn't want to just join Samantha's crew. She wants to be. She wants to wants to help make it work more efficiently. So she gets to work. She creates a schedule for the girls and keeps notes on each client, including their preferences and credit limits.

She also encourages the girls to go after new, richer clientele and take them to more upscale bars. Then Rosie goes fishing herself. She heads to a swanky bar wearing business casual attire looking like she just left the office. She sits down, nurses a glass of wine, and starts scanning the place. She's looking for nice watches and wedding rings.

Sometimes she'll send a round of shots to groups of men. She's playing a part again, but this time she's not a down-on-her-luck stripper who needs men to rescue her. Now she's a working professional who's looking to blow off some steam. After a few drinks and some flirty banter with a man, she'll make a fun, seemingly spontaneous suggestion.

Let's go to a strip club. She pretends she's never. been to one before, and also that she's into women. It works pretty much every time. Then it's off to hustlers where Samantha and her girls are ready and waiting. They ply him with more drinks, along with their special spiked cocktail. By this point, they've started drugging every single client into unconsciousness to make things easier. Once he's out, they take his credit cards and run them roughly every hour all night long. Since the charges go to the club, the girls get their payout just like they would from working a normal shift. But now, every

shift is very lucrative. The club takes its usual percentage, but it's also seeing increased traffic and higher receipts every night. The girls get their cut of the tips, and Rosie and Samantha take the biggest slice of the total earnings for themselves. We don't know exactly how much the management at Hustlers knows about the scam, but it's safe to say they're not turning away paying customers. I imagine it was very good for business. Yes, I mean, it seems to be running really well. But it's not always easy.

Sometimes a client calls the next day complaining about blacking out and high bills. So Rosie or Samantha get on the phone and remind him they were having a blast the previous night. Most of the clients are so confused or embarrassed, they decide it's not worth it to press charges. But in the rare case where a client pursues a dispute, Rosie and Samantha have a sure-fire defense. The club security cameras always show the client walking in willingly, staying for several hours, then leaving on his own accord. Rosie and Samantha agreed to split their profits 50-50. But when two strong-willed women both want to be in charge, Things can get difficult.

And when a squad is fighting with each other instead of focusing on their scam, mistakes will get made, and people will get caught. It's the holiday season, and Rosie and Samantha are riding high after teaming up to drug and dash. The girls are all exchanging Christmas gifts,

and Samantha and Rosie decide to go big for their favorite girl in the squad. They surprise her with a brand new pair of lubotons, a reward for her. all her hard work. Rosie feels like she and Samantha are really in a groove. They complement each other perfectly. Samantha knows how to deal with strip club managers

and command the respect of a team of working girls, while Rosie thinks strategically and is the financial whiz. They're a real dream team. You know, if these two had put their minds together and done almost anything else, they would probably own several businesses right now, but here we are. Yeah, it's hard to think about what could have been.

Mm-hmm. Also, around this time, Samantha and Rosie cut ties with hustlers allegedly over disagreements with management about payout amounts. They need a new venue, so Rosie introduces Samantha to Carmine Vitolo, who manages a strip club in Queens called Roadhouse. Rosie is up front with Carmine, and he's more than happy to get involved. He charges the cards himself sometimes, and helps them figure out how much to withdraw.

But for Rosie, the best part of all this is she doesn't have to strip anymore. She gets to go to work and slacks in a blazer instead of a sexy dress and platform heels. She tells her neighbors and friends that she owns a modeling agency. She's making more money than ever and doesn't have to deal with other people's reactions when they find out she works as a stripper. But it isn't all smooth sailing. Rosie has to deal with the occasional customer winning their credit card dispute. The team once pulled more than $10,000 out of a client in one night,

divided up the money and deposited their checks the next day, only to find the money missing from their accounts days later. But the most unsettling thing for Rosie is a shift in her relationship with Samantha. She's pretty sure it's because Samantha doesn't like that Rosie is her equal now. Samantha preferred it when Rosie was just a trainee at hustlers and she seems to want full control back. Rosie starts to suspect Samantha has been dipping into her cut of the money thinking she won't notice.

Despite their setbacks, Rosie and Samantha forge ahead and the cash keeps piling up. But Rosie is about to learn that some of the guys they're scamming are actual human beings and she'll have to decide if men's feelings might actually matter. It's early September 2013. Rosie and Samantha walk into an upscale restaurant

and a bushy hamlet on Long Island looking for their next victim. The day before, Samantha sent a flirty text to an old client named Fred, and he's waiting for them at the bar. Rosie buys him a drink, but once they get to talking, she feels something unexpected,

a genuine human connection. Something about this guy awakens her empathy for the first time in years. His life is falling apart. He's separating from his wife, and he's raising his autistic son on his own. Rosie lets her guard down and opens up to him about her daughter, and the two of them bond over being single parents. But their connection doesn't stop Rosie from running the grift. Before Fred knows it, he's passed out in the champagne room at the roadhouse,

and Samantha and Rosie are charging $17,000 on his credit card. Rosie feels a pang of guilt, but Samantha tells her not to worry about it. She says that if they didn't take advantage of him, someone else would. I mean, is that true? It's a story you can tell yourself, I think, if you think that's how the world works. It has the contours of truthiness, but it does have the mouth feel of a lie. That does not sound true. And a pretty sick outlook on the world, yeah, in many ways.

Like, hey, listen, if it's not me, it's some other broad. No, not necessarily. That is someone who's going through the world believing that there is always harm. Yes, it's just about who's going to dole it out. Well, a few days later, Fred reaches out, panicked. He pleads with them to return at least some of the money. He says his mortgage payments are on those cards and he could lose his house. but Samantha and Rosie ignore him.

Fred isn't the only client giving Rosie's second thoughts. Her suspicions about Samantha have started to seriously sour their relationship. Recently, the two got into a huge disagreement over a client, a banker named Rick. Rosie wanted to keep him in their Rolodex long term, meaning they'd run up his car just a little bit each time he stopped by. He could be a cash cow they'd milk for years. But then Samantha found out Rick had a $50,000 credit limit and decided to max it out in one night against Rosie's wishes.

Rick was furious, of course, and never responded to their fishing text after that. Sachi, can you read what Rosie had to say about this incident with Rick? She said, quote, That's the problem with these girls. I see the forest. They just wanted a $50,000 tree. Oh, see, and she writes poetry. This is a real waste of potential.

Yeah, and also, like, regardless of a scan, that is a very smart outlook for anything in life. Yes, it is. You know? Mm-hmm. I'm going to write that down. So Rosie is starting to feel like this whole scheme is spiraling out of control. Rosie thinks it might finally be time to leave. She told herself a while ago that once she made $100,000, she'd get out.

But the more money she makes, the more she pushes the goalpost. She wants to wait for a half a million, then a million. She can't stop chasing the promise of another gold mine. Later that fall, Rosie and Samantha are sitting in Rosie's white escalade outside a hotel on the Upper West Side. Their scam has become so well known in the clubs that other strippers are starting to copy them, so they've decided to try something new, bringing the strippers to the clients. They fish for guys at fancy bars and steakhouses while they're going to. the girls wait in the car. Once the client hops in, Rosie drives, and Samantha books a hotel room

on her phone. The girls climb over Rosie's daughter's car seat to flirt with the client and offer him bumps of coke. At the hotel, the strippers and client head up to the room and get the party started. Once the client is knocked out, they grab his credit card and run it down to Rosie and Samantha, who speed off to roadhouse or scores and run it up. The scam is a lot of. The scam is a is now a well-oiled machine. Wow. I don't know if this makes sense, but I feel like the beginning of their scam was so elegant. And over time, it's just gotten clunkier and crueller and more capitalistic and nihilistic. There isn't even like any romance in this. They're just like getting the car.

Yeah, it feels like it's getting further and further away from like the initial thrill of using their skills in this way. And it's now just about like means to an end. just get the car to the club and charge it, you know? Yeah. And also, while the girls are upstairs with clients, Samantha often kills time and the escalate by shopping on her iPad, scrolling the Gucci website and adding things to her cart. Rosie feels like she can't rein in Samantha anymore.

The shopping, the flashiness, the acting like she's invincible. It's all drawing way too much attention. Rosie is right to be worried. But it turns out she should be less, worried about her well-paid partner and more concerned with a disgruntled employee. A few months later, in 2014, Rosie, Samantha, and their crew are working a client at the Sheik-Gonzavort Hotel in New York City's meatpacking district. As the client gets a lap dance on one of the queen-sized beds, his head rests against a giant mahogany headboard. He's having the

time of his life with Marjorie, one of the girls, while Samantha and Rosie supervise. Normally, they would be downstairs in the car, but Marjorie's behavior tonight is making them suspicious. She seems nervous and keeps urging Rosie and Samantha to drug the client. The more they tell Marjorie to wait, the harder she tries to persuade them. Finally, Marjorie's had enough. She grabs the entire bag of ketamine and throws it in the client's drink herself. Rosie and Samantha are shocked, and neither one knows what to do now.

But as soon as a client passes out, there's a knock at the door. Two men enter claiming to be hotel security and demanding to search everyone's bags. Rosie and Samantha panic, but Marjorie seems relieved. That's when it clicks for Rosie. Marjorie must be working with the cops.

It feels inevitable that they were going to, going to get caught from someone on the inside, because I think these men were always going to feel too ashamed to ever come forward, right? Yeah, and also, I think the more they bring in different girls, the less control they also have of what these girls are capable of. Rosie knows Marjorie has a long rap sheet and could easily be persuaded to participate in a sting operation. Maybe she's even wearing a wire right now. Before she can think about it further, the men finish searching everyone's bags. When they don't find anything, they leave. Afterward, Rosie and Samantha speed away from the hotel in their escalate. Rosie keeps checking her mirrors. She has a hunch they're being followed,

and she feels like this is the beginning of the end. Rosie is sure law enforcement is on to them, and now she and Samantha have to worry about their own girls turning on them too. But before they can tighten their grip on the team, one of their victims is going to find the courage to admit what happened to him. And that is about to make their whole scheme front page news. Ghosts aren't real. At least, that's what journalist Tristan Redmond always believed. Sure, odd things happen in his childhood bedroom, but ultimately he shrugged them off. Until he discovered that he wasn't alone, that everyone who lived there after him also had bizarre experiences they couldn't explain. And it gets even

weirder. It just so happens that his wife's great-grandmother was murdered in the house next door. Is this ghost somehow connected to her murder? He decides to go where no son-in-law should, digging up a cold case and asking questions that nobody wants answered. Like, could his wife's

great-grandfather have gotten away with the perfect crime? This is a podcast about family secrets, overwhelming coincidence, and the things that come back to haunt us. For the best bingeable series, Like Ghost Story, listen to the Audible True Crime podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can get all episodes early and ad-free right now.

Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. He lurks in shadow. He slips into dreams. He casts no reflection. Audible presents Bram Stoker's Dracula, how you've never heard it before, with a new full-cast audio thriller starring Jonathan Bailey as Dracula. Ella Pernell as Mina Harker, and an A-list cast, including Maggie Gyllenhaal as Van Helsing,

Amy Lou Wood as Lucy, David Johnson as Dr. Seward, and many more. When Mina's fiancé Jonathan Harker vanishes in Transylvania, Mina pieces together letters, diary entries, and chilling testimony to hunt the predator stalking those she loves, only to discover Dracula's already hunting her. Audible's Dracula invites you to welcome literature's most shadowy figure into your home. Listen to the new audiobook adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, only on Audible. I feel like a legend. Dr. Ziyadh Yunnan sits at his kitchen table trying to eat breakfast to settle his nervous stomach.

This is the Ziyadh we met at the very beginning of this episode. It's been six months since he was drugged by Rosie's crew. He's about to take a bite of his cereal when he see something he's been dreading, an article in the New York Post about him. When Ziyadh got the call from Amex about the charges, he was devastated. Not only had he been drugged and robbed, he now knew the hot girl he'd been dating was lying the entire time. Hurt and angry, he protested the charges.

But then, SCORE sued him for non-payment. They claim he's lying about being drugged because he returned for more dates with Karina. Plus, they have him on tape walking in and out of a club. Sachi, can you read what a score spokesperson said about Ziyadh's claims? They said, quote, within two weeks he was here four times. So if he was drugged the first time, I guess he liked it. Oh, that is abhorrent. That's so evil.

And I know, you know what, I got to say, it's very rare that I apply the lens of like, well, if it was a woman, we would never do this. But if it was a woman, we would never. Like, that would not be logic that I think a reasonable person would apply, I would hope. This is not fair logic to apply to someone

who is the victim of a pretty brutal crime. Of course. I mean, the saying he liked it is really insane. It's like really nasty work. Mean. Well, the New York Post got a hold of the court documents

and the article exposes everything, including that Ziyadh owes more than $140,000 after multiple nights partying with strippers and his claims that he was drugged. A few days later, cops knock on his door. They saw the article and believe it's related to a case they've been building against Rosie and Samantha. Ziyadh is embarrassed, but he summons the courage

to tell them his version of events. The dates, the spiked wine, the amics charges the next morning. The cops tell Ziyadh that his story matches another unnamed victims. someone who, months ago, brought a recording of Marjorie's confession to law enforcement. They're hoping Ziyadh can give them enough clues to find whoever is behind this. Zad's story is bringing Rosie and Samantha's scam dangerously close to the spotlight. They'd bet their livelihood on one assumption, that their victims would be too embarrassed to go to the cops. But Ziyadh's courage has shattered that bet, and now that the cops have identified a pattern,

It's only a matter of time before they narrow in on their suspects. It's June 2014, about two months since the cops visited Ziyadh, and Rosie is sitting in the back of a police car. She's just been arrested for her role in this scam. True to form, she jokes with the arresting officer that she'll take him out for a drink when this whole ordeal is over. Samantha is arrested too, and shortly after, Marcy and Karina are as well. The next day, the girls are reunited in the same cell at Rikers Island where they await their trial. The cops have persuaded more victims to come forward, and they seem to have a strong case. Rosie is frustrated when Samantha insists they fight the charges.

Samantha thinks that if they all just stick together, they can prove their innocence. But Rosie knows there's no coming back from this. She and Samantha start arguing as an officer passes by. When he asks which one of them is the ringleader, Samantha and Rosie point to each other. Rosie got into all this so she could provide for her kid and build a better life. She's not about to let Samantha or any other girl bring her down. So she decides to talk to the cops.

Maybe she should feel guilty, but she has a daughter to think about. Sachi, can you read how Rosie justified the idea of Samantha going to prison? She said, quote, she'll have a crew in jail. I was watching Orange is the New Black. She'll be like red. She'll be like V. Girl. That is so funny, the idea that she's like wish fulfillmenting what might happen to her in jail.

Like, you'll be iconic. She's like, she'll thrive and she will be diva boots down in prison. She is so funny for that. The crazy thing is, Rosie knows about how dark life can get more than basically any other person. Yeah. And she's like, you know what? This girl's going to go far in prison. It'll be awesome.

Diva boots. But you know what? Samantha is one of those people he could be like, yeah, you're going to run shit. So who knows? Also, Samantha doesn't learn that Rosie has turned until a few months later in November 2014. She's standing outside Manhattan criminal court

before a hearing when Carmine Vitolo from the roadhouse walks past her. He mutters, Keo talked. Samantha must be livid. But all Rosie and, ever hears from her after that is a single text saying, quote, we heard she took a deal. Good luck. Yikes.

And with that, Rosie and Samantha's friendship is officially over. Their partnership was always a fraught one, and in the end, they'll each do what they've always done best. Continue to look out for number one. It's February 2015, roughly eight months after Rosie was arrested. Jessica Pressler, a journal, for New York Magazine sits across from Rosie at lunch. Jessica is in her late 30s with a brown bob.

Icon. She takes notes as Rosie shares wild stories from her scamming days for about an hour. Jessica finds Rosie pretty remarkable and not the monster the courts are making her out to be. After the bill is paid, Jessica accompanies her to criminal court. Rosie has to make an appearance today. Jessica's worried that Rosie is about to get buried. in this trial. But when she turns to check on her,

Rosie is on her phone scrolling through Yelp reviews for caviar. Oh, how could you stay mad at these girls, you know? They're doing it all. You know, once you get a taste of luxury, it's really hard to go back. Yeah, who could blame her? In March 2016, Rosie pleads guilty to grand larceny and attempted assault in order to avoid prison time. She gets five years probation.

Samantha, Marcy, and Carina plead guilty to assault, conspiracy, and grand larceny. Samantha also gets five years probation, but Marcy and Carina get sentenced to probation, plus weekends in jail for four months, seemingly because they'd had previous warrants for arrest. For his part, Carmine Vatolo pleads guilty to petite larceny and gets three years probation. Little larceny. Little Larsonie. So cute. That December, after months of interviews with Rosie and Samantha, Jessica's article, The Hustlers at Scores, is published in New York Magazine.

It earns her a National Magazine Award, and the story gets so much publicity that just two months later, Adam McKay's production company buys the film rights. In 2019, Hustlers' premieres in theaters starring Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu. Samantha claims the movie paints her in a bad light and that she was never a stripper, only a hostess at strip clubs. She tries to sue the production company,

but her lawsuit is eventually dismissed. Rosie, however, seems content with the movie's depiction of their grift. So much so that when she writes her tell-all book, the sophisticated hustler, the preface is written by Lorene Scafaria, the movie's director. Not to be outdone, Samantha writes her own tell-allel

all book, underscore, Breaking My Silence. They're both firsthand accounts of what happened from two different points of view, but it's hard to know how much of either is truthful. After all, in Samantha's book, she claims she's never touched drugs in her life, and that drugging the clients was all Rosie's idea, but the rest of the squad's testimony says otherwise. Even after the case ended, scores didn't drop their lawsuit. against Dr. Ziyadh-Unan until 2018

when a judge finally ordered it to be dismissed. Zad no longer owes the club hundreds of thousands of dollars and he might be dating a little more carefully these days. According to Rosie's memoir, she's now a stay-at-home mom to her daughter. She's been taking medication for her bipolar disorder which she was diagnosed with back in her 20s. As of 2019, she's living with her ex-fiance again.

She and Samantha are not in touch. In 2019, Samantha told Fox business that she opened up a med spa specializing in cosmetic procedures after her arrest. In 2020, she claimed to be in the process of opening her own lash bar, though that hasn't materialized yet. But she's keeping busy. In 2025, she sued the clothing brand sheen for using photos of her on a graphic tea and skirt, but not before telling customer service she'll see them in court over the website's live chat. As of this recording, her lawsuit against Sheen still hasn't been resolved. In both of their tell-all books, it's interesting what Rosie and Samantha leave out,

namely how close they were for years and how important their friendship was. Samantha claims she never liked Rosie and that she was a co-worker at best. Rosie claims she always felt smarter than Samantha. and that Samantha was lucky to have her around. But it's telling that they co-ran the scam for over three years. Either way, during their run, Rosie and Samantha were a dream team. And despite their differences, they shared a real knock for scamming. Turns out, if you go looking for a best friend at a club called hustlers,

that's exactly what you're going to get. Sachi, this was one of those stories where it's hard. hard not to root for these women to a certain extent. But the thing about scammers is that when you see that money rolling in, you can't really have any guardrails at a certain point. You just kind of go crazy. Well, I think what we've learned through doing this show is that a good scam is a temporary scam, because if you try to do it for too long, you're going to get too big for your britches, and it's all going to fall apart. And then you'll have no one to blame but yourself. It's one of those things where I think because these women had experienced a lot of difficulties in their lives for whatever reason

and found themselves in this position where they're putting themselves at risk being sex workers, not getting a lot in return. It's kind of like why not just scam because the system's also very broken. It's just not sustainable, especially when the scam is so involved having to court these men, spend time with them, turn it on, turn it up, and then drive it. them enough, the goal also shifts where it's like it's less righteous in a way. I don't know. It's hard to parse like why and where exactly it went wrong. I think it feels like the difference between you come into the strip club. We're going to skim a little money off the top. Don't we deserve it?

To me, that feels fair. That's part of the service. But then when they leave that enclave and they're just catching random people, they just stole too much from too many people too brazenly. Of course they got caught. Yeah. This scam had a level of intimacy and also like a type of role playing because the thing you kind of hear from people who work in those environments

like strip clubs and whatnot, it's like everyone's kind of playing a role, you know? These men are talking to these women, these women are being very sweet to them for work and there is a transaction involved but also like it's hard to not believe in the sincerity of someone who's kind of like arousing you in that way

and speaking to you a certain way. But I think they violated the fantasy in a way where they knew that shame would be the big response to it. Because anyone who goes to a strip club knows you're not supposed to believe the interaction. You know it ends there. And I think just because of like the dynamic

where like these men feel like they have that advantage because they're the ones who can offer, as Rosie says, like a better life, stability. I think a lot of the shame also comes from being like, I wasn't in control of that situation that I'm supposed to be in control of because I'm the rich one and they're the stripper. Yeah, that's very true. Certainly these women got away with it for so long

because these men, A, were not going to admit that they got caught like that. And B, probably didn't even realize it because they were like, yeah, these stupid women would never pull it on me. I'm a big man. Like it is really, they had the benefit of a lowered expectation. I don't think anybody thought they were smart enough to crack this either. This is a really clever plan. It was extremely clever.

People aren't thinking of these women as observers of gender dynamics and class dynamics and all these different things with jobs and stability. I don't think society has treated them like they are smart women who could do something sophisticated and that kind of worked in their benefit until it didn't, of course. But all things considered, they got off pretty easy. really did. Honestly, it's a pretty gruesome crime on it. Like, I know they made a funny little movie out of it, but Jesus Christ. Drugging people is insane. It's such a crazy violation. And I don't know. I guess it's kind of hard to prove the extent of their crimes because, again, I guarantee there could have been so many men to build a bigger case that were just kind of like, you know what, I'm actually good. I'm not going to get involved. I don't want my name to be associated with getting scanned by strippers. Yeah. And so many of them married. Oh, yeah. Well, that's the other thing. I mean, they're not even going to be able to really go after these women because some of these men are committing their own moral crimes, frankly, in being there and they're not going to admit to their wives or their families what they were up to. Yeah. I mean, this is a story that happens through shame. So it's the shame of having to do sex work in the first place, the shame of a deregulated market, the shame that men have that they, you know, engage in.

in this kind of sex work, but for some reason, they're embarrassed about it, which is ridiculous. If you're going to buy it, buy it. But all of this works because nobody really wants to talk about this and no one wants to deal with these people

who are considered in the margins. You know, it's the benefit of a subculture. You know, you get privacy, but then you, you know, have privacy. If you pay these women a livable wage, they won't steal from your credit card. That's what I've learned. Strippers should be paid more.

Strippers and teachers should be paid more. Also, if you are engaging in an industry that is ripe for getting scammed, you should want for them to be getting paid more money because that means you're less likely to get scammed, you know? That's true. You want better regulation. You want it.

In some ways, the lesson could be use cash only. If you had a limit of cash you had, maybe this wouldn't have happened. You used to not get got like this because you only had so much money in your pocket, and that's why you would then leave the bar and then get shived outside. And someone would take the $40. in your pocket. Back at the good old days when the son of Sam killer really ran New York, you know? Or so I hear.

Follow scam influencers on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of scam influencers ad free by joining Audible. For Audible originals, this is Rosie Kio and Samantha Barbash. In the club, we all scammed for scam influencers. I'm Sarah Hagey. And I'm Sachi Cole. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at scamfluencers at audible.com. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were the hustlers at scores by Jessica Pressler, the sophisticated hustler by Rosie Keough, and underscore by Samantha Barbash. Madeline Cook wrote this episode, additional writing by us, Satchie Cole and

Sarah Haggy. Olivia Briley is our story editor. Our senior producers are Sarah Eni and Ginny Bloom. Our associate producer is Charlotte Miller. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Fact-checking by Kalina Newman. Sound designed by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance provided by Augustine Lim. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Frieson Sink. The executive producer for Audible is Jenny Lauer Beckman. The head of Creative Development at Audible is Kate Nevin.

The head of Audible Originals, North America, is Marshall Louis. The chief content officer is Rachel Giazza, copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC. Sound recording copyright 2026 by Audible Originals, LLC. There are books that change how you see the world, and there are books that change how you see yourself. In a new podcast series, a great book with Barack Obama,

President Obama sits down with a series of surprising and sharp guests to explore six books that have shaped his life and perspective on the world. From Song of Solomon and The Fire next time, To all the pretty horses and Gilead. The president is joined by guests like Tom Hanks and Tanahasi Coates to reflect on how these timeless stories shaped his thinking on everything from fatherhood to leadership and discover together what they tell us about the world we live in and the world we want to create. Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of a great book with Barack Obama,

ad-free right now. Plus access each audiobook discussed in the series. Download the Audible app today.