PROS- love your dedication to bringing this scammer to the light. Very informative and thorough investigation . Like the guests that brought more info to the surface CONS- perhaps two episodes too long. Felt that the investigation and victims were too soft. This scammer is a chronic liar. Nothing he says has any credibility yet it seems that lessons were not learned during secondary encounters

Great show, but by the end you kind of see why the host was scammed in the first place. He’s willing to believe anything the scammer is telling him. There’s no way he’s ever going to pay anyone back.

Well done! Great story!

I enjoyed how Mr Sayles laid out his reams of facts mixed in with an interesting story. The amount of effort he and others put into this is admirable. He seemed light at the end but I saw it as anyone who had listened to episode one through six already had a definite opinion on the scammers. How could you not have an opinion and episode seven pulled back so we could digest all we had heard. So thank you for all your hard work.

Don’t let the negative reviews put you off, this was a good story and I hope it gives future people who have to deal with Carl more of the puzzle pieces to his madness. I can’t believe one of the victims actually got any money back from him!! I do wish it was dug into more about the current wedding venue business, are vendors and employees being paid? Is everything above board?

I really like the first episode and cannot wait to listen to the next one, don’t know what all these 1 star reviews are about but really good so far! Give it a chance despite the bad reviews, you have literally nothing to lose and lots of good podcasting to gain! 😊

interesting story, but in the final interviews w/ the subject of this podcast the interviewer gave him too much room to lie. Justin Sayles (our lovely host) brought up the Robert Durst interview as inspiration, but his line of questioning was more like wide open field for Carl Bucho to hit balls in any direction he chooses, rather than a circling drain sucking him into admitting the truth. he presents a fact, Carl denies. he gives a name, Carl shifts blame. over and over and over. instead of getting into his head, making him feel comfortable, or setting him up to talk about NY or CA & what led him to the wedding business, he let Carl tell his story the way that Carl has rehearsed it, clearly edited & shined up so he can cope & move on from all the mistakes he’s made. I also wish the host would’ve examined the town in Texas & the wedding business community where Amy, Leah, & Lance/Carl + Brandon/Barrett live & work. tell me if Amy & Leah still run in the same circles as Carl, if they ever cross paths, if he’s out of sight and out of mind, or one degree of separation away. listening to the last episode, I feel like I’m that one that was led on a wild goose chase. I don’t feel closure, & I'm not sure how any of Carl’s victims will either when their best shot of getting him on the hook was fumbled so badly that now I’m wishing the best for Carl. so… good luck Carl Bucho. you’ve done it again.

The story was entertaining but the end was frustrating. Missed a lot of opportunities to press on his pathological lying - google drive? Paying newserati employees? Not sure why he didn’t ask in his last convos - don’t you know how this looks? You keep telling me your going to send me docs, pay the employees? All the excuses - there is benefit of the doubt and there is weak interviewing.

Don Quixote quest for answers which I think was unfortunate for the host and fellow victims. The real shame is everyone having any sympathy for the fraudsters. I guess that’s the magic of the con, find the naive, nice targets knowing there’s little chance of getting bit. Not bad for your first foray into journalistic investigation and podcast.

It’s a very interesting story, told well, but the host is annoying. His illogical naivety and pandering to the scammer seems either insincere or like something to take to therapy. The scammer is absolutely horrible and there’s ample evidence to his guilt but the host is constantly like “oh but maybe he’s not totally horrible” or putting things unnecessarily and overly in context so we don’t think he’s too much of a bad guy. The host seems desperate to be liked and the “nice guy”

Like others have said, this did not need to be 7 episodes. It should’ve been edited down to 3 or 4. Everything was so drawn out, the hosts verbiage started to annoy me, it was written like a book vs a podcast which should inherently be more conversational. I also don’t think the confrontations were satisfying, the host was far too nice in my opinion, I kept wanting everyone involved to go harder at this guy. I know I would if I were scammed out of thousands…

Amazing long enough with enough detail, and we even get a confrontation with the protagonist!! 😧 Amazing! Keep up the Good work!!

This is a fantastic podcast. The host does a great job telling the story and explaining the whole situation with everyone involved. I also completely disagree with everyone saying it goes on long, there are a lot of people in this story and it’s a lot to keep straight. This will probably go down as one of my most favorite podcast ever. Also love the hosts NJ accent 💕About to listen to the last episode as I write this now!

Loved this story. You should check out the case happening right now in Maricopa Co AZ, Owens V Echard. Former reality show star of The Bachelor was accused of impregnating a woman with twins, she went public and there has been a grassroots effort to prove his innocence/truth…leading to the discovery that this woman has done this to 4 other men that we know of, faked medical records, faked cancer, faked literally everything. Trial is set for June 10th. It’s bonkers.

It started out very interesting and then became so repetitive and mundane. It should have been edited down to 3-4 episodes max. Also, starting out saying it’s 7 episodes and isn’t complete until the end made it sound like there would be a plot twist or big reveal, but nothing. Don’t waste your time.

My ONLY issue is this series could have been edited down to five episodes. But that’s just me. Otherwise this is great reporting and storytelling. Incidentally, my antenna suspects the WS himself is responsible for a lot of the one star reviews.

This topic is good but it goes on waaaay too long …too many episodes with nothing new presented. Also the timeline was confusing and hard to follow. The host overdoes the “podcast voice” and gets on my nerves by the end though he means well. His overwritten analysis of every moment of this story is almost comical…just tell the story and don’t make this interesting scammer story into something deeper and bigger than it was. I would not recommend this - but I liked the basic story - could be a great article. No podcast necessary.

Another story of underqualified bros thinking they’re extra special and talented. Surprise! They’re not! The start up is smoke and mirrors which is why they got the job offers. I guess at least this guy got a podcast out of it? Good for him.

Brutal, brutal podcast with no ending. Frustrating to listen to, painfully repetitive and the podcaster’s main journalistic “skill” is being maddeningly ineffective and naive. The podcaster makes it all about himself, and the show is ultimately about nothing. But it is successful in one respect: We, the audience, are the ones scammed. Kudos. Point taken.

Halfway into the first episode. Interesting, but the narrator’s snide remarks reek of homophobia. Off putting.

The narrator kept saying to stay tuned through episode 7 for the full story and its climax. However, I could only tolerate 3.5 episodes. I just didn’t find the investigative journalism or storytelling to be good.

By the end I felt a bit icky about the whole thing. Seems like the guy is less of a conman and more of a delusional person that has some mental health and addiction issues. I kind of felt like he was being harassed by the end. If the host had a claim or evidence of a crime they should have contacted the police or FBI. Kind of felt more like stalking and harassing than a journalistic investigation.

There are no words to describe how much I enjoyed this! I discovered it 2 days ago and couldn’t stop. Thank you for sticking with this and seeing it through to the end. I kept wondering if Carl really believed he wasn’t Laurence. Had he disassociated so far from Laurence that he really thought he wasn’t the guy that did all those things? You did an amazing job on this.

Loved the investigation, the podcast is well done and kept me engaged throughout.. but really? How does this possibly not end with you turning all this over to the FBI? This guy is still walking around free doing this same thing… he deserves to be locked up. You just accept that “he’s a changed man?”.. come on..

Appreciate the effort for this first investigative podcast. The story wasn’t enough to keep me fully engaged for 7 hours, but look forward to see what is next from Justin!

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this podcast! I thought the moderator did a great job referencing events and loved the real life characters. Looking forward to the next one.

I am enjoying this podcast a lot. The host has kept me engaged and I find the story to have so many twists I didn’t expect. Most of the story takes place locally and I was surprised that a coffee house I regularly visit is owned by one of the victims. I have deducted one star for the lack of editing or prerecording coaching when victim/co host Amy and her colleague/friend speak. Their use of the word “like” in between every other word detracts from the overall quality of the podcast. It’s almost unbearable to listen to. Otherwise, great podcast!

Please do not waste your time. Host kept saying to listen until the end as if something groundbreaking would happen. Very anticlimactic and disappointing. Too long and unnecessarily drawn out. The scammer is given way too much benefit of the doubt at the end of the season. While it’s good to make people aware that scammers like these exist and are likely not going to be ever caught, it could have easily been done in two or three episodes. Wish I could get my hours back.

Listened to all of it hoping for an actually satisfying ending and was disappointed. The lead narrator talks way too much about giving this scammer benefit of the doubt. It was so annoying I nearly stopped listening. Kept hoping it would get better and it did not.

Listen this was a surprisingly good podcast. Please listen you won’t regret it, it has all the best ingredients comedy, drama and crime!

Loved this podcast looking forward to more from the author.

One decent episode (1), the rest drawn out to the point of torture. Don’t waste your time.

Please don’t tell me every time that I have to listen to the whole thing. If you do the job of keeping me interested, I will naturally want to finish. The other thing I couldn’t understand is how much the host gave Carl the benefit of the doubt. I lost interest pretty early on (so slow, so repetitive) but kept listening thinking something would eventually happen. Nope. Do not recommend.

How many times can you restate the obvious? Good enough subject matter but the writing is even more repetitive / mind numbing than other repetitive podcasts. Host tells you what’s going to happen next, 2 or 3 times, using slightly different phrasing. Then it happens. Then the host tells you what just happened and explains why it was important to the narrative value of the podcast. Would have made a riveting 1 hour long episode, didn’t need to be a series.

I wanted badly to like this story but I didn’t. The hosts tries so hard to make this a thrilling, gripping, edge of your seat podcast, but it’s not. And I ts certainly not worthy of 7 parts. It’s vaguely interesting but the overhype in the first episode left a bad taste in my mouth. Within the first 5 minutes he’s trying to talk you through the steps of making a podcast. Why? That’s not the point of storytelling. And rambling over and over about his chest hair?Who cares. It’s not an important detail and certainly doesn’t need to be brought up with the frequency that it is. The host’s rambling about mundane, irrelevant details is very distracting and personally it wasn’t interesting enough to make me want to binge listen. It missed the mark entirely for me.

All I could think is what a great storyteller! On the edge of my seat listening and wanting more! I’m typically a true crime podcast kinda girl; but wanted different storyline… KISS

The story was mediocre at best and definitely not worth a 7 episode podcast. The host REALLY wants to be a famous podcaster with a ground breaking show but this is just not it. He was trying WAY too hard to make the story relevant and the podcast interesting but it just wasn’t. He should have gotten a clue when his editors made him stop working on the show a few years ago. I don’t know why they decided to green light it again. Not every story is going to be interesting to others or worth a multi episode show. What Carl did was not great but get over it and move on. This podcast was nonsense and not a good use of time.

My biggest hang up with this podcast is the host. It’s just a very performative delivery by someone who loves the sound of their own voice. The scammer at the center of the story is never held accountable for their scams and schemes and that is disappointing. The host even essentially backs off after the subject cries abuse at the hands of his dad. Nothing he said is true so why are we believing him now? I don’t know. It just felt very anticlimactic. I might listen to another season about a different scammer but only if there’s another host.

Really enjoyed it!

Maybe I’m biased because I’m Houston and I work in the wedding industry and I’ve been scammed by a Houston wedding vendor, in fact I went to that very open house with my scammer (my boss), but I found this story fascinating. Especially how similar Carl’s behaviors were to my scammer’s behaviors. I’m also just fascinated by human behavior in general. I enjoyed every episode and I think it’s a great way for people to become familiar with the behaviors to save themselves from being scammed. Wish I had trusted my gut and wish I had been more familiar with the behaviors. It’s a great listen!

An inappropriate amount of time is dedicated to telling the story of how this podcast became a podcast. That's not a story. A more mature journalist would have had the restraint to tell the story without telling the story of telling the story. "I talked to an expert to find out, would this be a good podcast?" That's material for a bonus episode. Plenty of journalists spend years reporting a story having had to shelve it for long periods of time in the process. There's seriously a disclaimer saying "This story isn't complete until the end of the story." No duh?

it hooked me in the first few episodes, it’s a nice podcast to listen to while doing laundry or chores. i had to pause what i was going to hear the big ambush, but it was kind of a disappointment. very predictable. very george santos-like. it’s not as groundbreaking as i thought it would be and was honestly a pretty mundane story. the production of the podcast was good but the host is annoying

Great Podcast and investigation. Can’t wait for the next season.

I listened to this podcast while I was on a road trip, and it really sucked me in. I loved it and still think about it, 2 weeks later. I thought the host was very likable!

We get it, you wore a wire and had to shave your chest for it. Every time that came up in the last 3-4 episodes I started skipping ahead.

But they pretend it is. It’s a mundane story packaged as a thrilling mystery. Everyone involved can do much better- especially you, Juliet, and you, Mallory. I think the host might not be able to do much better.

I was confused by the end, Justin kept saying we wouldn’t know the whole story until the last episode, but i feel like I could have told you how it’d turn out after episode 1. An interesting tale, but predictable.

I don’t usually give up on podcasts halfway through, but way too much time was devoted to the process of tracking down the con artist when I wanted to hear more about his motivations and his victims.

This podcast was interesting and entertaining. The host does a reasonable job telling the story in a fairly professional way. It’s pretty well organized and you can follow the story. He’s not super irritating to listen to like some hosts, he mostly checks his ego at the door, and the sound quality is good. While the host has some room for improvement, I think he has the potential to continue to learn and could become a really good podcaster.

If you want to hear the host talk about how “crazy it is to wear a wire” for multiple episodes, over and over again, this one is for you! There’s no real story here so minutes are wasted with many unneeded explanations like referencing other podcasts, over explaining basic facts of the story, reading two epilogues…. By the end of the podcast, the host has given the scammer a platform to continue to share his lies which just feels offensive.