The many masks of serial con artist Samantha Cookes

Carrie Jade Williams. Sadie Harris. Lucy Fitzwilliams. Jade Cookes. Samantha Black. Rebecca Fitzgerald. These are just some of the fabricated identities used by serial con artist Samantha Cookes. In 2024, her Walter Mitty-style life finally collapsed as online communities, journalists and a WhatsApp group of victims cross-referenced the inconsistencies in her story, joining the dots that authorities had missed. In March 2025, Samantha Cookes was jailed for three years for deception and...