Victor was stressed.

Last June, his graduate engineering program had moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic — and he was nervous that he was going to fail a crucial exam. Victor knew if he failed he’d have to take the course again and, worse, tell his family he’d flunked.

So, he went searching for any way to pass this test.

“I started looking online on sites like Craigslist,” he said. “And I came across this dude that said that he would take college exams.”

For only 50 euros, a little less than $60, this guy would feed Victor answers during the exam. It seemed like a no-brainer.

But when test day rolled around, Victor’s personal cheater didn’t deliver the goods. He’d been scammed.

Most people would be upset, maybe even try to get their money back or track the scammer down. Instead, Victor felt inspired. Inspired to become a scammer himself.

Soon he’d made his 50 euros back and then some.

“If guys that are trying to cheat the system get cheated out of their money because of their maliciousness,” Victor said, “then it’s their loss and my profit.”

This whole season we’ve been looking into scams. Both literal scams and how the world is set up to leave people feeling cheated. On today’s show, the last of our season, we’re going to the other side of the equation. We’ll talk with Victor about how he set up his scam, how he covered his tracks and how he feels about what he did.

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