The Biggest Fraud on TV

On September 9, 2001, British presenter Chris Tan welcomes eight contestants to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Everyone is eager to get rich, but to sit on the bench you first have to earn the finger faster. Put these words in the order they appear in the title of Agatha Christy Thriller Nile about death the correct answer is death on the Nile all of these were correct most almost all uh who was the fastest Charles Ingram in three 3.97 that's so Fast Grand Major Charles Ingram has been a contestant twice before he finally gets his chance, confidently taking his place, but this confidence doesn't last long.

Ingram is often unsure of his answers after only seven of 15 questions, he only has one of the three wild cards left, but somehow he manages to answer. correctly again and again and then the time has come only one more correct answer separates you from 1 million a number one followed by 100 Zer is known by what name Google Megatron gigabit nanomol I don't think I've heard of Google, but seconds later despite that you've never heard of Google completely changes your assumption. I really think it's a Google. The tension in the studio is almost unbearable. You just won 1 million.

Only two people achieved that before him. An incredible race against all odds, perhaps too. Incredible, in fact, Major Charles Ingram cheated, he may very well be the

biggest

fraud

ever to appear on television, he and his accomplices have been tried and convicted, his heist has been publicized and fictitious, but to this day today they maintain their innocence, we did not. We really didn't cheat 20 years later there are still many open questions and behind the Ingram case lies an even stranger story. The story of a clandestine organization that systematically exploited the program for years. How they did it?

Fern while Ingram celebrates his victory. in front of the camera there is confusion behind the scenes the showrunners are discovered a sound technician already called his CEO Paul Smith while Ingram was still answering questions Smith told him to continue with the show Ingram receives a check with his earnings from tant but the check Celador holds the company behind the program for 8 days to process it. Meanwhile, Smith and the technicians review his material. Ingram often seemed clueless as to how this guy, after pocketing a £4,000 Joker, snatched a million from him. the probability of simply guessing a 1 in four seven times in a row plus a 1 and two is 0.003% no way, they look at their speech pattern when thinking about their answers Craig David I just can't I don't think To be honest, I've never heard of Craig David, there's something interesting going on here, no matter the question, Ingram goes through the four possible answers, often chronologically repeatedly, emal is a cheese from which country France might be.

I guess it could be Italy, so um. or maybe it's the Netherlands, that's how the question works Jo no I, that in itself might be quite normal behavior, it seems quite rational to go one by one if you're not sure, but then who was the second husband by Jacqueline Kennedy Adnan? kogi Ronald Reagan Aristotle Anassis Rupert Murdoch Okay, um, I'm not sure I thought it would be Aristotle Anasis, why wait? someone coughed a moment ago at the correct option. Aristotle Anasis. Aristotle Anasis was married to Kennedy, huh? and then. It happens again, but the reason I think it's Cricket is and again I think it was Hine.

The studio obviously has cameras and microphones for the candidate and the host of the show, but it also has cameras and microphones pointed at the audience for the reaction of the show, the technicians begin. watching what's happening in the crowd while Ingram reads the options who's coughing and always at the right time what American platform was founded in 2012 and is known for its creative and interactive online lessons a cookie B bilingual C bicycle D brilliant ya know it bright is a great way to learn new skills in a variety of topics such as mathematical programming and artistic artificial intelligence.

You can choose from thousands of interactive lessons without getting bored or overwhelmed. You can customize your content to suit your needs and work on exercises at your own pace, for example there is a course on statistical fundamentals, so if you want to know how likely you are to win a million on the program by just guessing or if all of these coughs could be random, that might be a good starting point. If that's not your cup of tea, there's a vast library of other things and new lessons are added every month to try out everything shiny has to offer free for a full 30 days, visit shiny.org Fern or click the link at the description.

Also get 20% off an annual premium subscription last night on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was a sensation in the UK when the show was just 4 years old and at its peak was tuned in by around 19 million of people. a third of the entire population was obsessed with this, as was also the case with Charles Ingram and his wife Diana, his brother Adrien Poll had been on the show four times before in the hot seat once and won 32,000 a few months later he managed to me I went on the bench and also won £32,000.

I remember talking to her in the bar after her and I said very happy, she said only 32 and I told her that's a lot of money. She said yes, but she should have done more. I should have beaten my brother and all, keep in mind it's incredibly hard to get a spot on this show. Thousands, if not millions, of people try it. The selection process is brutal, but this family made it in again and again. They knew the system inside out. and how to play it Adrian even had a mockup of the fastest first-finger console at home.

He and Diana wanted to publish a book with advice on how to get on the show, but it turns out they weren't the only ones who knew the system and some were much better at exploiting it Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is not broadcast live and has a set runtime. , so when Charles finally gets his chance, filming stops for the day after the 4,000th question and I remember we said God, that poor old man, you know? He has such a good chance of getting the 32,000 that you know they are going to the Moon on a rocket.

I mean, there was just no way this guy could get much further. The ambitious Diana is frustrated with Charles. That would make sense because Charles is a smart man. man, has university degrees in engineering and management and will later be accepted by Mena that night as the couple head home on the M4, their frustrations probably intensifying as they think about the chance of immense wealth slipping through their fingers. . won't let that happen Diana and Charles call Tewin Wok. He is a Welch College professor and fellow game show enthusiast. Adrien and Diana have been training Twiin and helping him participate in a program that he is supposed to be a candidate for tomorrow, so he will be in the studio.

Charles Diana and the twins are talking on the phone for 5 minutes. They are supposed to come up with a very simple but effective plan. Charles reads the answers. Whoever knows the answer gets handcuffed when he shows up. Do you have a strategy? Well, actually I have a strategy. I was a little defensive on the last show, you know, I kind of started talking myself out of answering answers that, frankly, I should have known and did know, so this time I'm going to do the counterattack, this counterattack obviously works, although he repeatedly says he has no idea or has never heard of certain options, moves to pivot 180 seconds later Craig David I just can't.

I don't think I've ever heard of Craig David, to be honest, I've just never heard of him. Craig David So now I'll go Craig David yes you just won 32,000 I don't think it's Paris I think it's Berlin I'm going to go for Paris he thought it was Berlin Berlin Berlin you changed your mind to Paris which brought you 500,000 I don't think I've heard of Google. I don't actually know what Google is, but I really think it's a Google. You just made 1 million behind the scenes. A total of 192 wives have been recorded by the microphones in the study many of them when a correct answer was mentioned Paul Smith is convinced then this cannot be a coincidence and calls the police then makes another call Mr.

Ingram we did not meet I am celado CEO right, um, I think he should get right to the point and actually say what a pre-prepared statement is. I have to tell you that we have suspicions after watching the recording of the program uh from last Monday and subsequently studying the tapes carefully that there were irregularities during the Tipping of the program in which you participated. My God, that doesn't mean I have to tell you that these suspicions have been forwarded. to the police and therefore the program will not be broadcast or authorized at this time. payment of the check, yes, well, I mean, you know, I completely deny it, obviously, um, good Lord, I'm doing well, thank you for letting me know, okay, thank you, regards, bye.

A year and a half later, the case went to trial and quickly changed. in a table frenzy the story of a huge

fraud

was too sensational in the end the three defendants were found guilty two documentaries were made the ingrams never accepted the verdict we didn't cheat on that show there was no plan to cheat on that show I earned that money perfectly honestly, fairly and directly and as I sat in the center of the studio I didn't notice any coughing. I didn't fully realize that, as for the victims, I've heard a lot of people say that.

This is a victimless crime. Well, actually there are victims. The three defendants were the victims. We should not have been found guilty based on the evidence presented in court. We were found guilty for a very good story. Why did you cough? So Diana. I think I needed it. To clear my throat, the Cuffs were just a coincidence, according to them, Wituk suffered from a persistent cough all his life. The coughing images presented in court had been edited by the guard to accentuate the Cuffs. Also, why wouldn't three smart people have found a smarter way? to cheat at least code the fists if the answer is C fist in D and so on wit he supposedly handcuffed 19 times to hint at the correct answers failed when he was in the dock why was he so aware when he was supposedly helping Charles and why ?

Would you join such a plan? How could she have made sure she got his share of the money and perhaps most importantly was the coughing in the audience, even audible on stage? People cough like crazy. Everyone is coughing in the studio because they kind of locked away everything I had. I had no idea it was so loud in the studio that night, it was like a crazy host, people were shouting, they were applauding the 2014 book. The bad show casts a lot of doubt on the judgment. Similarly, he did the show's quiz, but playing Devil's Advocate didn't.

What is chronic disease? It would also be a brilliant cover if it was just a guy who was constantly coughing and who would suspect that these coughs are simple clues, yes, but they are also brilliantly hiding in plain sight in general. What is the probability that 19 important wives, the reason I think they are only? It was a coincidence that Liam Shaw did a fascinating statistical analysis to answer this very question and I remembered the case from when I was a child and I was very interested in the statistics of the probability of coughs coming after correct answers, so I wanted to investigate that . for me, so I tried to do that because it was closed and I couldn't leave the house, so I found a way to entertain myself, basically the possibility of the 19 wives of the week being coincidental within the time period that the program is incredibly low if these were your only wives and I said that half of all those 192 coughs were technical, then in the statistical tests I ran I found that the probability of having at least 19 coughs would be about 8%, this ignores the fact that Diana probably two UC, at important moments the analysis I did was just for fun and is quite silly, but what it convinced me of is that there is no real dispute about the fact that there is some kind of association between cough and the correct answers by looking at Shaw's mathematics.

The handcuffs probably weren't random, but this was clearly a case of judgment by the media, according to the New York Times. The actual trial should have been much longer and more critical. They are not sure if there would have been enough evidence to prove guilt and justice. While the Ingrams were in the spotlight, another group quietly tinkered with the show for years. Petty Spooner was the first person to appear on multiple versions of the show. He won $250,000 in Australia, £250,000 in the UK and €1,000 in Ireland. He knew how to get ahead. WhoDo you want to be a millionaire?

And I didn't hide it in England. 7 million people found out that the population is much smaller and since most people wait until they see the show before calling, I made my calls. in one night 215 in one night yes, I'm pretty boring BL, their runs were Eyes Cold focused with decisive and confident responses. The last convict transported from Britain arrived at Freem Manle in which year 1868 to 1848 B 1858 C 1868 D 187 8. played in a lock in C 1868 had to leave even before it arose was not right, let's lock him up in Petty, you won a quarter of a million dollars, dropped out of college and lived off pop exams before turning professional after the bombing. in the Irish version, Spooner met Keith Bergus.

Bergus had helped people get into the program for a fee. They came together to take the business to the next level. Burger and Spooner built an underground syndicate called Consortium. They provided a service to get people in reliably. program and to maximize their profits, the first step was to receive the call, they would spend thousands of pounds and many hours dialing the program's premium rate registration lines once they played recordings of their clients leaving messages with their name and number two position, Once the client received a call from the show's producers, they responded that he or she was not home at the time, a member of the Consortium would come to the client's home to assist with step three of approaching potential contestants. .

I had to answer the two closest questions over the phone: How tall is Big Ben? 96 m is correct, but 93 or 100 are sufficient. Spooner discovered that these questions were always taken from the national statistics database office and were asked in a rotational step. four make quick fingers reminiscent of Ingram Consortium clients would practice with patterned doorbells step five pretend to a friend okay, this is without a doubt the craziest part once a client was in the hot seat and used the phone to a friend Joker, the Consortium would reroute this call to a safe house, a neutral person called The Voice would answer a phone with a mute button in the room, a pile of data laid out on the floor, Petty Keith, a guy named John, a cultural expert pop, poppy in front of a computer with Google open and crack.

The bricklayer, whoever the Consortium was, got 200 spots on the program between 2002 and 2007. 55 clients made it to the bank and won 44.2 million, or 26% of all the money earned on the program during that period. They only stopped because the producers no longer give people second chances if they're not home, so the second step failed. 25% of the profits went to Keith Bergus and Patty Spooner. They published a book about their operation in 2021. Nothing they did was illegal, there were no consequences. For them, Spooner even met Paul Smith in 2020 and explained to him how they did it in 2003, while the Consortium was raising cash, the lives of Charles Diana and the twins were destroyed, the Ingrams faced constant harassment and humiliation in public, their cat was shot to death with an air. gun vomit bags were thrown at them in their house broken windows their three daughters were bullied at school Charles resigned from the army the family went bankrupt who resigned from his job as a teacher and perhaps most absurd of all he had to register his name to stop a company not name Cuff Medicine after him