Cosmopolitan Meet the Scammer Who Traveled the World by Swindling Her Closest Friends

From: Team Cosmo - Sunday Mar 19, 2023 07:02 pm

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Meet the Scammer Who Traveled the World by Swindling Her Closest Friends

Trudging around Tokyo Disneyland, Lauren Wells glared at her friend Sabrina, dressed in a Princess Tiana costume, flitting a few paces ahead. It was May. The park’s flower gardens were blooming. And Sabrina’s life—or at least the life she pretended to have—was crumbling. Lauren knew it. She suspected Sabrina did too.

But for now, that day, Lauren kept quiet, letting the charade play out a little longer: Sabrina like any of the other Disney adults enjoying the rides and attractions, the cinnamon sugar of overpriced churros dusting the front of the green-and-cream dress and matching cardigan she claimed to have made herself. Obviously an Amazon purchase, Lauren thought bitterly.

In a couple of days, the two women would be back home in Seattle, and Lauren was deciding what to do next. She just had to make it through this one final vacation, the last of many with a best friend she never really knew.