Maria Santos is a crime correspondent whose work blurs the line between investigative journalism and immersion reporting. She has posed as a mark to infiltrate romance scam call centers, spent weeks embedded with fraud investigators, and interviewed dozens of convicted con artists in federal prison. Her stories for ConFraud are character-driven narratives that reveal the mechanics of deception — how trust is manufactured, how victims are selected, and how entire criminal enterprises are built on nothing but confidence. Before joining ConFraud, she was a freelance contributor to national magazines covering organized crime. She holds a degree in criminology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.