Scam Inc from The Economist

4.5 (74)
BUSINESS
COMPLETE SERIES

**Winner of the Peabody Award 2026** A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful. The Economist’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts with the collapse of a bank in rural Kansas to uncover a global, underground scam economy built around human trafficking, corruption and money laundering. Can it be stopped? To listen to the full series subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. Winner of the Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award 2026; Two Gold Signal Awards for Money & Finance and News & Politics; Lowy Institute Media Award Winner 2025; Bloomberg News Jealousy List 2025, New York Times Best True Crime 2025; Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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4.1 (206)

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Babbage is The Economist’s weekly podcast on science and technology—named after Charles Babbage, the grandfather of computing. Explore the science changing the way we live from AI to genetics, particle physics and space travel with Alok Jha. This award-winning podcast features in-depth interviews with top scientists and special episodes investigating wellness trends. Published every Wednesday. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about Economist Podcasts+, including how to get access, please visit our FAQs page here https://myaccount.economist.com/s/article/What-is-Economist-Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Sue-Lin Wong

Host

4.5

out of 5

74 Ratings

Fascinating and terrifying in equal measure

05/06/2025

9stevo

Everyone in the world should listen to this. It is absolutely worth a few hours of your time. It’s. Unfortunately you don’t need an economist subscription to listen but it’s well well worth it. I ended up binging the whole thing in a few days. Fascinating, terrifying; an exceptional piece of recorded journalism. Kudos to you Sue-Lin you should be very proud of this piece of work.
Investigative journalism at it best

03/06/2025

Hear_here

This show really combines the best of top journalism, comprehensive investigation, gripping storytelling, and expert podcast production. I hope there will be more to come as the story is far from over unfortunately. I know they are looking into this and this show has probably become a great tool for acquiring subscribers. But I do hope they will find a way for all to share this with family and friends as this topic could touch everyone’s life.
Chilling & gripping

15/04/2025

Annajsays

Hats off to The Economist team. A brilliantly produced show doing just what global journalism should do - connecting the dots.
This is the scam

15/05/2025

CC EC1

They tell you AFTER you’ve listened to the first one that you need to subscribe to listen to them all. Deceitful in the extreme. Ruined my impression of the Economist, where I actually used to subscribe for years and had a good impression of.

**Winner of the Peabody Award 2026** A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful. The Economist’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts with the collapse of a bank in rural Kansas to uncover a global, underground scam economy built around human trafficking, corruption and money laundering. Can it be stopped? To listen to the full series subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. Winner of the Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award 2026; Two Gold Signal Awards for Money & Finance and News & Politics; Lowy Institute Media Award Winner 2025; Bloomberg News Jealousy List 2025, New York Times Best True Crime 2025; Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.