Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
The Greatest Con Man In TV History - The Don Lapre story
09 Feb 2025
This is the story of Don Lapre and his late night infomercials
Full Episode
If you've ever watched TV late at night in the 90s, you might remember seeing this guy, Don. Our goal is to educate over 200 million... Well, one day, Don was suddenly found unalived. Why? So back when Don had nothing, his whole goal was to do whatever it takes to get rich. So he goes and he starts a dating service. But it quickly fails, and two months later, he files for bankruptcy.
Then he sets up a little credit repair company, and he charges people to help repair their credit. The problem with that is it's a scam. When people sign up with Don's company, he doesn't repair their credit. He only gives them information on how to sign up for new high-interest credit cards. Which would potentially put them right back into debt. So his customers get pissed. Because this is fraud.
So the state sues him, a judge orders him to pay his victims back, and his credit repair business is ultimately shut down. Oh, but that doesn't stop Don. He is determined to get rich. So he starts another grift, and that fails. Then he starts yet another where he's selling 1-900 numbers. Psychic hotlines and sh** like that. So he starts advertising these 900 numbers in the newspaper.
And this is where he learns that advertising whatever grift he's doing is gonna be the key to make him rich. So he does this and he really starts pulling in big numbers. Allegedly over $50,000 a week. So he's finally getting rich. But for some reason, this just isn't enough for Don. And he wants to take it further and make more. And that is when he gets into the world of late night infomercials.
And in these infomercials, Don always makes himself the star and he starts off by selling those same 1-900 numbers.
Another way to make unheard of amounts of money is by getting your own 1-900 line.
But then he starts branching out into selling other garbage. But where he really gets traction is when he starts peddling people bullshit advice on how to get rich. Basically, he's selling get rich quick schemes. And this grift is definitely shady, but it's technically not illegal. So it really works for him.
And he starts running these late night infomercials all the time, like every night of the week. And soon he's selling his get rich quick schemes to hundreds of thousands of people. And suddenly, just like that, he and his business are allegedly worth over $40 million. Dude is killing it. And by this point, he's a household name. He even gets parodied on SNL, played by a young David Spade.
Hi, I'm Don LaPree, and I have a question for you. And this success continues for years. And Don just keeps spending money and he keeps trying to expand his businesses. But over time, it slowly stops working like it used to. It seems like people are getting tired of his get-rich-quick schemes. And so his profit margin starts to fall.
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