The Biggest Fraud on TV
fern・16 minutes read
A contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire cheats with the help of accomplices coughing to signal correct answers, leading to a major fraud scandal and the contestant's conviction. Another group also manipulates the show for years to win millions, exploiting loopholes in the selection process and call-in registration lines before the operation ends abruptly.
Insights
- Major Charles Ingram infamously cheated his way to winning £1 million on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire by having accomplices cough to signal correct answers, leading to his conviction despite maintaining innocence.
- A group led by Patty Spooner orchestrated an elaborate scheme to secure spots on the show and maximize winnings, with clients answering specific questions to qualify, resulting in 55 clients winning 44.2 million before the operation ceased.
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Recent questions
How did Major Charles Ingram cheat on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
By using coughing signals from accomplices in the audience.
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Summary
00:00
Millionaire Cheating Scandal Rocks British TV
- September 9th, 2001: British host Chris Tant welcomes eight contestants to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
- Contestants must win "fastest finger first" to sit on the hot seat.
- Major Charles Ingram wins fastest finger first in 3.97 seconds.
- Ingram, unsure of answers, uses his last Joker early on but continues to answer correctly.
- Ingram wins £1 million by guessing the answer to a question about Google.
- Ingram is later revealed to have cheated, along with accomplices, in a major fraud.
- Ingram's cheating involved coughing from accomplices in the audience to signal correct answers.
- Ingram's case leads to suspicions of an underground organization exploiting the show.
- Ingram's case goes to trial, leading to his conviction despite maintaining innocence.
- Another group, led by Petty Spooner, also gamed the show for years, using tactics to maximize winnings.
16:18
Contestants' Deception Leads to Big Winnings
- Clients would spend hours calling the show's premium rate registration lines to leave their name and number, then pretend to be unavailable when the show producers called back, leading to a Consortium member visiting their home to assist in the process.
- Potential contestants had to answer a specific question about Big Ben's height, sourced from the Office for National Statistics database, to qualify, with the Consortium securing 200 spots on the show from 2002 to 2007, resulting in 55 clients winning 44.2 million, but the operation ceased due to producers discontinuing Second Chances, leading to 25% of the winnings going to Keith Bergus and Patty Spooner, who later published a book detailing their activities.
