It's October 2013, and two police officers in Dublin spot a distressed young girl outside the General Post Office. She’s crying and unable to speak, using her fingers to show she’s 14 years old. They take her to a nearby children’s hospital while trying to figure out who she is. Local media starts speculating about possible sex trafficking as interest in her case grows.

As a month goes by, police decide to release her photo to the public and are quickly flooded with calls from Australia. It turns out this isn’t a vulnerable 14-year-old girl in distress; the woman in the Dublin hospital bed is actually 25-year-old Samantha Azzopardi, a serial con artist. And as the years go by, this wouldn’t be the first alias she’s used to trick her victims.

Paula Bycroft from CJZ Productions is the Executive Producer of the Australian documentary series Con Girl, which details the life and crimes of Samantha Azzopardi. She helps us to tell this story.

You can watch Con Girl here. There’s also a Con Girl podcast series you can listen to here.

THE END BITS

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Listen to the episode of No Filter about Samantha Azzopardi here. 

Find out more about Mamamia's charity partner RizeUp Australia here.

CREDITS

Guest: Paula Bycroft

Host: Gemma Bath

Producer: Tahli Blackman

Audio Producer: Thom Lion

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Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.