Fraud by the book

By March 2006, Rebecca Hauck had been on her own in Houston for nearly a year since the day fraud artist Matthew Cox drove out of her life.

Rebecca Sue Hickey, as she was known to her friends, had been living in this apartment, going to cosmetology school, and working as a bartender, when one day, the Secret Service came calling.

Rebecca Hauck: I just felt like, I was scared but I felt this big relief, like “You know what? Let’s start it. This is the beginning of the end. Let me just get this done.”

'THIEF OF HEARTS' More on Matthew Cox's fraud by the book Read an excerpt of Cox's manuscript  Keith Morrison blogs See some of Cox's murals and art Tips on spotting mortgage fraud Producer Shane Bishop blogs

Two-and-a-half years after Rebecca Hauck and Matthew Cox began papering the South with phony mortgages, stealing from property owners, and banks, and title companies from Florida to Georgia and South Carolina—one half of this Bonnie and Clyde duo—Bonnie at least was in custody.

And once she was caught, Rebecca admitted everything. She pleaded guilty to fraud, identity theft, money laundering and conspiracy. She was sentenced to almost six years in federal prison. And was ordered to pay back more than $one million.

She sat down with us for an interview at the federal detention center in Atlanta.

Hauck:  I wanna believe in love but you gotta love yourself. You can’t let somebody else manipulate you the way that…

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: You just turned over your life to him.

Hauck: Oh completely, my body, my life my spirit—everything to him.

Morrison: Are you a victim?

Hauck: I feel I am. But I also know that I’m responsible for what I did do.

Morrison: ‘Cause you know as soon as you say in your orange jumpsuit, I’m a victim, you can just hear all across the country, millions of people saying...

Hauck: Whatever. Yeah, I know. Sure I’m an adult, I made a bad decision that I know and I have to... I’ve hurt people too because of it.

Morrison: Do you know how many lives you and he have impoverished? How many financial lives you’ve thrown into turmoil? And how many people have been screwed up for years?

Hauck: Yes.

Morrison: How many people’s credit has been destroyed? How many insurance companies had to pay out? What kind of chaos you’ve created? Do you know that?

Hauck: Yeah. I think about it a lot.

Morrison: But did you at the time?

Hauck: No because he would make me believe that’s why the title companies are there/is to pay the people off. They’re not gonna be in trouble—a penny from every person he would say, and I believed him.

Of course, Rebecca Hauk is not the only woman who fell for Matthew Cox.

Alison Arnold: I trusted him with my life basically.

There was, remember, Alison Arnold, who seemed to realize a little sooner than Rebecca just how much trouble she had helped cause. She chose to turn herself in to the FBI and offer a full confession, pleading guilty to numerous charges, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud and identity theft.

The result?

She was ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution to her victims and she was sentenced to two years behind bars.

Morrison: Has it been worth it? This price you paid?

Arnold: Yes its worth it, because before turning myself in I was living more in prison than I do today. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to be Matt living under a completely different alias and damaging more people. Hurting more people. Stealing from middle class America.

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