



Never Saw Me Coming
How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System—and Pocketed $40 Million
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4.3 • 38 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Named Amazon Editor's Pick and one of the Best Books of the Month for August 2024.
A riveting true story of an unsuspecting woman who creates an ingeniously clever white-collar scheme that manipulates the Federal banking system out of millions—who eventually loses everything that is most important to her.
In Never Saw Me Coming, Tanya Smith shares her deeply personal and remarkable story of how she went from a precocious young girl to a money-grabbing, computer-savvy wiz. It starts out as a keen interest in technology and innocently acquiring phone numbers to Michael Jackson, as well as other celebrities, and moves to her successfully stealing and depositing $5,000 into her grandmother’s banking account. By the time she is 18, the risk taker has confiscated millions in cash.
The FBI is hot on her tail and hauls her in for an interview, demanding Smith let them know who she’s working for, “as these are not the kind of crimes Black people are smart enough to commit.” Their words, indicating that intelligence was determined by race, severely offended Smith. Up for the challenge, she proves the FBI wrong and over time steals $40 million dollars, while securing diamonds, gold bars, and other commodities. Her lifestyle attracts the wrong kind of people, even those who set out to kill her.
Law enforcement persisted, ultimately dubbing Smith "one of the single biggest threats to the entire United States banking system." She receives an outrageous prison sentence—the longest for a white-collar offense—and is eventually released by mounting her own brilliant defense.
Complete with unexpected twists and turns, Never Saw Me Coming is a gripping caper that reminds never to underestimate a woman.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This true-crime memoir is the unbelievable story of a teenager who learned how to con big banks out of millions. Tanya Smith recounts her origins as a Minneapolis teen tricking phone companies into handing over celebrities’ numbers—and how this skill led her to start swindling banks through jaw-dropping fake transfers. But don’t expect a dark tale of a young criminal’s tragic downfall. Smith is a formidably upbeat narrator, and her smooth-talking skills are on full display as she spins fascinating (and often funny!) anecdotes about the ins and outs of fooling the banking system. Still, Smith isn’t afraid to dig into the tougher aspects of her criminal life, from the emotional toll of prison to her experiences of racism at the hands of law enforcement. If you’re a sucker for a charming thief with some real self-awareness, dive into Never Saw Me Coming.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this rollicking debut, Smith reflects on the crime spree that led a judge to label her "a threat to the United States of America." As a preteen in 1970s Minneapolis, Smith was so infatuated with Michael Jackson that she tracked down his grandfather's phone number. Wanting more, she called the phone company and got transferred between departments enough times that her call appeared to be coming from the billing division, at which point she pumped employees for Jackson's home address. Using the same method, Smith conned utility companies, pretending to pay off bills for family and friends, and eventually learned to fake bank transfers and pocket millions of dollars. Her purchases of diamonds and luxury cars caught the attention of the FBI, who started investigating Smith when she was in her teens but refused to believe a young Black woman could organize such a sophisticated scheme. Her run of luck first ended in 1986, when she was arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison—then again in the early 1990s, after she'd escaped from prison and was arrested on new fraud charges. Smith is deliriously entertaining company, keeping her foot on the gas all the way through. It's a gripping real-life caper from a charismatic antihero.
Customer Reviews
Fascinating story written by a brilliant woman
Truth is stranger than fiction. I was hooked on her story and could not put it down.
I didn’t see it coming!
A page turner. Can’t wait for the movie!
Perhaps the Worst Book I’ve Read
This story is laughably bad. The book should be classified as fiction.