Each year billions of dollars are lost to professional scammers in China. After Kenny (a pseudonym) was swindled to the tune of $60,000 by a pair of fraudsters, he repurposed the skills he’d learned as a private investigator to chase down the cheaters and get his money back. When he was able to replicate that success with friends who’d also been swindled, he realized he had a calling in vigilante fraud recovery.

Kenny now heads International Recovery Service, where he hunts down scammers on behalf of the people they’ve cheated and takes a cut of the money he recovers. Using prostitutes, hackers, hidden cameras, bank records and a number of other tactics, he backs cheaters into a corner and compels repayment. Though he admittedly operates in a “grey area” of the law and was even hospitalized by thugs on one occasion, he can boast to potential clients what most police and lawyers can’t: An 88 percent success rate in recovering lost money. In today’s podcast Kenny talks about fraud in China, how his business works and he recounts some of his juicier scam-busting adventures.

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