Reality / Crime
A team of hustlers - Alexis Conran, Paul Wilson and Jessica-Jane Clement, try out some notorious scams on ‘marks’, filmed with hidden cameras. The aim is to reveal how scams work so that the viewer can avoid being ripped off by the same con.


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Self - Host
Self - Host

Self - Host
You've Got A Friend was a 2004 reality comedy show on MTV, produced by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg. It was launched near the same time as their reality prank show Punk'd, and although successful in ratings, was cancelled at the end of the first season so they could focus on its more popular counterpart. The show filmed contestants having to tolerate a 'friend' for 48 hours, while filmed on hidden camera in their home and different public settings. The 'friend' would be a trained improvisational comedian, who would progressively torment the contestant, their friends and loved ones. The catch was that the friends and family of the contestant were unaware of the folie à deux. If able to endure the embarrassment caused by the irreverent demands of the friend, the contestant would win a cash prize.

Candid camera show in which unsuspecting members of the Irish public as well as some celebrities are accosted by such bizarre characters as the irascible Jake Stevens, Clifford the Orangemen and the desperate bride. All comic roles are played by comedians P.J. Gallagher, Maeve Higgins and Patrick McDonnell.