We've gone from homicidal mania to con-obsessed.

The latest trend in the growing genre of true crime is the swindler, says TV critic Caroline Hainer.

- Strictly speaking, you could say that the swindler is the new murderer, she says.

"The scammers are part of our culture now"

During the first half of 2022, several series centered around con artists have premiered.

Among other things, Netflix's "Inventing Anna", which depicts the rise and fall of con artist Anna Sorokin.

And Disney plus "The dropout", which is a fictionalization of the career of entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes and how she defrauded investors of millions.

Also more documentary portrayals such as "The puppet master: The hunt for a master deceiver" and "Bad vegan: Fame.

Fraud.

Fugitives.”

has appeared.

Until a few years ago, it was the murderer who was the focus of true crime with series such as "Making a murderer" (2015), "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" (2015) and "Conversations with a killer: The Ted Bundy tapes” (2019).

But now it is the swindler who takes on the role of popular culture's favorite criminal, says Hainer.

- Many murderers that we have seen portrayed are part of our pop culture nowadays.

We know the names of many of them and we will know these fraudsters who are now portrayed as well.

They are simply part of our culture now, she says.

Nothing new to portray fraudsters

But the swindler itself is nothing new and has been depicted in various forms before, Hainer underlines.

In films such as The sting (1974), Gold (2016) and Focus (2015), the con man has a central role.

- What you see now, unlike then, is that it is based on real cases to a greater extent.

That's why we want to look

What is it about the impostor that makes us want to watch?

- Many of the main characters are eccentrics, they are very funny characters.

And you can actually love and hate a character at the same time.

She also emphasizes that fraud is a milder form of crime than murder, but that there can still be more pleasure in seeing the scammer get caught.

- A murderer can get a punishment, but it will never cure the crime he committed.

Whereas in the case of fraudsters, there can be actual satisfaction in seeing them exposed.