Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

Chuck Whitlock's Biography

Chuck Whitlock

A well-respected consumer advocate and speaker certified by the National Speakers Association (NSA), Chuck speaks to audiences across the United States about how they can protect themselves from being scammed. A nationally recognized expert on scams, he has shared his knowledge and experiences on numerous radio and television programs.

Chuck began his career in broadcasting when his book on white-collar crime, Easy Money, came to the attention of Oprah Winfrey's producers. After the first of several appearances on Oprah, Chuck created, produced, and anchored a regular news segment entitled Easy Money for KGW-TV, the Portland, Oregon, NBC affiliate. Many of his investigative reports were broadcast nationwide on the NBC News satellite feed.

Chuck received the National Headliner Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting as well as the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for Television Investigative Reporting for his independently produced segment “Medicare Sting” which aired on Inside Edition.  Chuck has also produced over 50 segments for Hard Copy focusing on scams, con artists, and consumer issues.  His book, Scam School (Macmillan), is about many of the scams and con artists he exposed on the air.

Chuck’s accomplishments also include:

  • Hosting The Scam Show with Chuck Whitlock, a nationally syndicated weekly radio show;
  • Creating a weekly newspaper column entitled Scam Alert for The Columbian;
  • Serving as an Investigative Correspondent for the nationally syndicated magazine series Extra; and
  • Acting as Executive Producer and Host of Telepictures' one-hour special entitled Extra Undercover with Chuck Whitlock.

The National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators awarded Chuck an Excellence in Consumer Education in Television Broadcasting Award for his undercover investigation of an illegal Canadian telemarketing boiler room for Extra.  In 2002, the Washington State Crime Prevention Association gave Chuck Crime Prevention Program of the Year award.

Chuck was the Executive Producer and host of Crimeline, a television show developed for Oregon Trail Television. Chuck was Co-Host and Investigative Reporter for Live & Learn, a television pilot developed for Fox Domestic Television. Selected segments of Chuck's "cons-on-camera" recently appeared in a British special Hoaxbusters, which has been sold to the Discovery Channel. Chuck also hosted a one-hour travel scams special for the Travel Channel and has worked on scam-related segments of 60 Minutes.

Additional media appearances include:

  • Today on NBC
  • Court TV
  • The View
  • CNBC'sSteals & Deals
  • CNN'sYour Money
  • The Other Half
  • The Rob Nelson Show
  • Regis and Kathie Lee
  • The 20th Century with Mike Wallace
  • The Charles Grodin Show on CNBC
  • The Maury Povich Show
  • Geraldo
  • Sally
  • The Jenny Jones Show
  • Home & Family
  • Crook & Chase
  • Save Our Streets
  • Joan Rivers' nationally syndicated radio show
  • Regular quest appearances on the syndicated radio show The Bottom Line
  • As well as appearances on many other affiliate stations and cable networks.