The Real Hustle
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| The Real Hustle | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Reality |
| Starring | Alexis Conran Paul Wilson Jessica-Jane Clement |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 20 and 2 Specials (as of March 23rd 2007) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 mins |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC3 |
| Original run | February 9, 2006 – Present |
| Links | |
| Official website | |
| TV.com summary | |
The Real Hustle is a BBC Three television series made by Objective Productions demonstrating confidence and magic tricks and distraction scams performed on members of the public by presenters, Alexis Conran, Paul Wilson and Jessica-Jane Clement. Series 1-2 were narrated by Dean Lennox Kelly. Series 3 is narrated by Steven Jackson.
The show highlights ways in which money can be extracted, with a view to educating the viewer in how to avoid becoming a victim. Various terminology is explained, and the marks are fully informed of the cons/scams straight afterwards and repaid any money they'd lost. The show is a spin-off documentary of the BBC drama series Hustle.
Contents |
[edit] Example scams
- Fake customs officers trick a car of young men into giving up the alcohol they have brought into the country.
- The Hendon Mob are beaten at poker by the introduction of a cold deck of cards and some expert card shuffling.
- People are sold a magic trick believing it can remove black dye from paper they believe to be cancelled banknotes.
- A deposit is taken on a car multiple times from different people who turn up to buy it.
- A computer keyboard is replaced with one containing a key logger and bank details are obtained
- A skimmer device is placed on a cashpoint with a pinhole camera inside it records the information on the user's cards magnetic strip along with their pin; the data is then put on the magnetic strip of an e-top up card which is used to withdraw money from the victim's account
- People have their mobile phones bluesnarfed. Once the device has been overtaken, the hustlers cause it to phone a premium number which the hustlers have registered to them
- The team pose as car clampers and clamp unsuspecting victims' vehicles. They arrange a release fee with the victims which is at a much lower rate than paying the fine officially and pocket the money for themselves.
[edit] Series 1
[edit] Episode 1
Air date: 9th Feb 2006
The team perform the classic monte scam at the beach, bag a £600 necklace from a jewellery shop, carry out a proposition bet in a pub using three pints and three shots as well as the keylogger scam, revealing the art of the pickpocket using mustard dip and the flat rental scam...
[edit] Episode 2
Air date: 16th Feb 2006
Scams include overcharging for worthless packages, a proposition bet involving a shot of whisky and a shot of water, selling forged lottery tickets, stealing a laptop from an airport, the window tap and conning aspiring popstars into handing over £500 to produce a tacky demo tape.
[edit] Episode 3
Air date: 23rd Feb 2006
The team reveal how fake customs officers are committing daylight robbery by stripping unwitting travellers of their supposedly contraband possessions. Other scams include a pool proposition bet, the jam auction, a fairground scam, the art of the pickpocket with "mind my bag" and the wifi scam.
[edit] Episode 4
Air date: 2nd Mar 2006
The team continue their swindling spree by tricking a barman into paying a reward for a supposedly valuable ring using "the honeytrap" in the ring reward rip-off. Then they con punters at a car-boot sale into buying worthless scraps of paper, perform a proposition bet in a cafe, show the postman scam in the art of the pickpocket and deceive three professional poker players.
[edit] Episode 5
Air date: 9th Mar 2006
A team of professional con artists demonstrate more scams, including how to sell a hire car over and over again. They also show the process involved in duplicating bank cards, the ease with which counterfeit notes can be used and how `blue-jacking' phones brings dividends.
[edit] Episode 6
Air date: 16th Mar 2006
Alex Conran, Paul Wilson and Jessica-Jane Clement demonstrate more scams practised by professional swindlers. They claim compensation for damaged goods after orchestrating an accident, use other people's phones to call premium-rate lines, and make unsuspecting drivers pay for false parking tickets.
[edit] Episode 7
Air date: 23rd Mar 2006
Alex Conran, Paul Wilson and Jessica-Jane Clement demonstrate more scams practised by professional swindlers. They obtain credit cards in a victim's name just from items found in rubbish bins, and confuse shopkeepers into giving them too much change.
[edit] Episode 8
Air date: 30th Mar 2006
Show eight is the last in the first series and features the Psychic Scam, which shows how a hustler can cheat you with fake psychic powers, a demonstration of rigged dice game, a sneaky bar bet, a pool hustle and a romp through the rules of the real hustle - what we have learned throughout the series.
[edit] Series 2
[edit] Episode 1
Air date: 7th Sept 2006
First in the new series sees the team conning a delivery man into giving them his goods, making sure a couple of people in a cafe overhear a phone conversation about an expensive plate, a bar proposition bet involving not touching a drink and getting someone to buy a car before making off with the car and the cash!
[edit] Episode 2
Air date: 14th Sept 2006
This week's proposition bet involves the circumference of a beer glass being longer than its height. Stealing a victim's bag and then obtaining her PIN via a fake customer service line. Stealing unattended purses with a hollow dummy bag.
[edit] Episode 3
Air date: 21st Sept 2006
How to steal someone's car by pretending to be a valet parking service, pretending to have an injured leg so as to steal watches, another proposition bet where you lift a shot glass using two coins, a shop selling hugely marked up beauty products, and a waitress skimming credit cards.
[edit] Episode 4
Air date: 28th Sept 2006
Using distraction techniques to access car boots; getting free drinks by inviting marks to copy you; how a fake phone shop on a busy high street can con you out of your money; bogus security guards picking pockets instead of searching them, and a restaurant scam that guarantees a very, very, very cheap meal.
[edit] Episode 5
Air date: 5th Oct 2006
How to steal a car with a clever bit of role playing and how a mock auction can con members of the public into buying cheap goods.
[edit] Episode 6
Air date: 12th Oct 2006
How to con members of the public into giving away credit card details via a fake charity scratch card.
[edit] Episode 7
Air date: 19th Oct 2006
Laptop memory upgrade con, picking pockets in a cafe, best of three coin toss con, hacking wireless network and selling cheap knives with an infomercial.
[edit] Episode 8
Air date: 26th Oct 2006
Paul, Alex and Jess set up an exclusive fashion store, but what their customers don't realise is that their vintage purchases are just worthless second hand clothes. Alex works his charms as a fake waiter and Paul dupes another punter into buying him a free drink. One woman learns never to let bogus workmen into her house and the Hustlers expose an ATM scam that could leave your bank account empty.
[edit] Episode 9
Air date: 2nd Nov 2006
This episode uncovers a car clamping scam that could leave you £50 out of pocket. The hustlers show us how simple it is to sell non-organic produce as organic with a marked up price, and Paul shows us how easy it is to con the public out of their cash in an origami scam that leaves you with a worthless £10 note.
[edit] Episode 10
Air date: 9th Nov 2006
Alex and Paul set up a market stall that sells fake showbiz memorabilia and dodgy autographs, while Jess sells non-existent bus tour vouchers to unsuspecting tourists. Plus, three ways you could be short-changed after buying something.
[edit] Series 3
[edit] Episode 1
Air date: 15th Mar 2007
Alex and Paul sell games consoles at cheap prices to get some lads to give them their cash. Also Jess and Alex use a hotel to steal someone's credit card details just by overhearing their name and room number.
[edit] Episode 2
Air date: 22nd Mar 2007
Alex drops a wallet full of Euros in the Drop Swindle. Jess fills a bag with leaflets in the tourist information centre and sells them to marks as discount packs. Paul gets free drinks by putting a 10p through a hole in a £10 note which only seems large enough for a 5p. Alex pretends to be a concierge and makes off with luggage outside a hotel. Alex and Paul get a dog from the dog's home and sell it for £200.
[edit] Specials
[edit] The 12 Scams of Christmas
The Christmas special. Air date: 17th Dec 2006
Putting a shop's money in a Christmas card, short changing the bar, leaving the sealed card as security while leaving to get more change, eventually the barman opens the card to find the £20 note has gone.
Two proposition bets - moving an olive without touching it and balancing coins on a glass.
Free giftwrapping service - but what's in the box?
The big toy - you order a games console for Christmas but do you get your money's worth?
Setting up a bogus till in a department store
Getting a locksmith to let you in to someone else's house
Stealing luggage at the airport by distraction techniques
Bag of 4 designer perfumes for £20 - but are they what they seem?
Bad Santas collecting for charity and organising a charity raffle
Never pay by cheque!
[edit] The Real Hustle Special
A one hour extended episode with some new and some repeated material. The new cons are: selling fake jackets in a motorway service station, using confidence techniques and sleight of hand to steal the takings from a pub, using a sharp knife to take belongings from bags, and taking other people's luggage from an airport carousel.
[edit] Quote
- At the end of each show: "If it sounds too good to be true... it probably is"
[edit] Criticism
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The show has been criticised for giving potential hustlers ideas for cons, which they can practise on members of the public who may not have seen the show.[attribution needed]
The show states that "all the people in this show have been hustled for real." However, critics say that all the cons seem to work too "flawlessly". Consider that the footage is shown in different angles with an exceptional view, and the images rarely come from small hidden cameras. Some people who were the 'marks' reported that they were told what to do, they saw cameras were around them and they did several takes before the shot was so perfect.
However, there is evidence to suggest that at least some of the 'marks' featuring in the show are indeed unaware of the scam they are participating in (though friends or relatives appearing alongside the mark may be).[1] A recent recruitment advert (on a casting website) for the planned third series of The Real Hustle seeks people interested in setting up their "unknowing friends and families" (emphasis added) in cons and scams.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Account of one mark who featured on the show (includes photos)
- ^ "StarNow casting site." Advert on the StarNow casting site for series 3. 11 December 2006. Accessed 18 December 2006.
