Banksy and Art World Fraud

What's popping Conggregation? It's your girl Lacey Mososeley, AKA Scam goddess. Welcome to an episode of Fraud Fridays, where we release older episodes from the Sam goddess vault. That's right. Fraud Fridays is where we bring back your favorite episodes from behind the Paywall. Enjoy this episode from Behind the Paywall and as always Stay scheming. F Sca C F Scam Goddess. Hi, welcome to Scam Goddess. As you've heard, I'm here with James Mastriiani. Yes. Oh my gosh, I've known James for oh a few years now, like quite a few Ohere here? It take longer than that. That's as long as I've been in LA. That's as long as we could have known each other. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow, I thought for sure It seems like so long ago, I guess. I know. It really does. Maybe I just know you well enough that it just It seems like we've been friends for a while. Yeah, that's something a scammer would say to guys. I've known you since childhood. Yeah, we've known each other so long. Believe that. Now, what I saying about the social security scams Sam. Yo. Well, James, you have to tell me like what's your relationship with scams? Have you been in any scams? you you know, I am as an adult, really I'm not really a scam type of person I Damn shade. You call a not adult. No right, I'm a child. No, I'm saying you're an adult with loose moral fiber Um, no, I You know, My parents have been the victims of scams because my parents are like older and I feel like a lot of scams target older people. For sure, for sure. But you know, honestly, I just don't think that I'm be very good at it. likeike U just in general scamming. Why not? Like do you have an experience where you tried? I do actually. ye. I had so but this is like a um So this is a scam I tried to pull when I was in high school. Oh, okay. And I was seventeen. And so just a little bit of backstory So first of all, I should say audience. We're just getting We call our audience the congregation. Okay, the congregation. Yes. I would just like to say first of all, we don't know each other And this story makes me sound. Not great. Okay. so I would say give me a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. Okay, you're seventeen. I'm seventeen years old. With a booming deep voice. Exactly what. Booming deep voice. And so a little bit of backstory my so growing up, my mom was disabled. Rrian. She was in a wheelchair. and so Um, if u You know, for a lot of people that are in wheelchairs, you have to have like very specific types of vehicles. Yeah. and handicapped passed So you got to park in the front of every Everything Font, front line at every amusement park. Which Oh, here's a minor scam we used to do because my mom couldn't go on rides. Right. But we would use her to get to the front of the line at an amusement. lever lever U, and then just like sort of let her sit there. I think I your mom having to sit there while you' on Slash Mountain is hilarious and maybe a little szad. I think your mom probably was also proud that she loved it. Help her kids. Absolutely. Yeah. it helped make her, you know, it felt her like made her feel needed, I guess. Yeah. But Um, when My mom's insurance approved of a new disabled van. I got my mom's old van, which was a nineteen eighty eight dodge conversion van with a wheelchair lift out this side. right? Gosh for a kid, this must have been a dream. Oh my god, it was a dream. And at this point like I'm a big stoner and so I turned it into this big And you got a van Exactly I turned it into this big smoking van. like I took the seats out and replaced them with bean bag chairs put up like beads and black lights and all this stuff And this story is also just seeping with white privilege. because there's no like I should have been arrested multiple times for all of this. But so one night we're in my basement, my parents used to go to bed very early and I used to have friends over to come and hang in my basement and smoke. You were that friend who like host things and stuff. Absolutely. Oh man. ever My parents are to asleep at, you know eight thirty, comeome on over, we'll get high, we'll chill. What kind of sleep is this? They don't hear shit? No, mean I could crack my ass upstairs and my mom's like, hold that. Yeah. Oh was a petty sleeper. That's really funny. No, my parents deep, deep sleepers And well,ll get we'll get to that part of the story. So I we were all smoking weed, but we decided like and so I'm all high and shit and we're like, oh man, you know, we're only seventeen. We're like wantan to get some booze, right? So Let's take this party to the next level. Exactly. Let's take this party to the next level. And I was like, we're trying to come up with an idea, like how do we get some booz, right? We're not twenty one None of us have fakes, rightriot. This is when the scam comes in. This is where the scam comes in So I'm like, okay I think I have an idea And so my mom had two different wheelchairs She had a regular wheelchair and then she had a really dope like a like a scooter wheel. Yeah like an electric one. An electric one. Yeah at which she used to keep charged in her bedroom So I tell my friend like pull my van around front and lower the ramp And I'll be right back And I went upstairs and I went into my parents' bedroom while they were sleeping And I unplugged her electric wheelchair. And I slowly start scooting it, you know, out of the bedroom. So you're like doing it it's like right Exactly. like back the was? one hundred percent. Like I would go back a little bit and then they would stir and I would just freeze Because I'm also like, if my parents wake up right now And they see me in the middle of their bedroom in the dark, highest shit, sitting in my mom's wheelchair One, if I'm there at them, I'm like, Is like is he here to kill us? Like what is the fuck's going on? It's totally Menendez your pare. Exactly. It's so freaky And so, you know, I'm doing this thing. I'm slowly backing it out and I'm going backwards too and I'm trying to back my way out dark in the dark And so I finally get it out. And I grab a blanket because in this in my head, this is going to help make it better. So I pull it into into the van. I'm like, all right, here's what we're going to do Pull up to the liquor store, right? Make sure that the owner sees you lower the wheelchair ramp or yeah, the wheelchair ramp out the side I put this blanket on my lap because I thought it made me look more disabled And I was like, there's no way that they're going to ask me for ID if they think that like I'm disabled, right? And I'll just go in, I'll grab a couple bottles And it' be it'll be great, right? So this youthful teenage boy is now has a blanket over him in an electric wheelchair. I don't have to say, James that you are a scammer because the confidence level of saying I'm going to go unplug an electric mobile vehicle R, thenen I'm going to back it up in the dark. I'm also high, so I'm a little impaired and all this so that my parents don't realize that I'm doing it. L that's like an extreme amount of confidence Yeah. And so now you're also the one who's the most confident enough to roll into this convenience store and play the sympathy card to buy alcohol Yep. Okaykay. Yeah. I guess that's true. Maybe I am a scammer. And so I go in and Immediately, and I don't know why this makes me laugh, but I guess it's just that age of like the kind of alcohol you drink, but I picked up a bottle of Captain Morgan's and a bottle of ninety nine bananas. It was like the two that I got for us. I used get faded on some ninety nine Oh ye. abbsolutely. I didn't like it. O. ninety nine bananas. ninety nine berries was really bad Um, but I used to do the same shit. And so I take, you know, I take the wheelchair up to the counter and I put the and so I'm like pretending to be like kind of frail And I put I put the Oh, it gets worse. It gets worse Conggregation, it gets worse and I'm so sorry for this Um, and so I put the bottles on on the thing And by the way, I'm the only person in the liquor store. Wow. Okaykay. Nobody el distractions. No distractions, which I wish there would have been. I feel like if it would have been busier, it would have been easier, right? Yeah. L if you had some friend other friends had come in and maybe bought snacks or something Yeah. Yeah So I go home in and I put the bottles down And the guysy' like, u, hey, um I got to see some ID And in my head I was like Immediately, this is what he asked me So I'm like, okay pretretend you didn't hear of. So you trying to make yourself de? Oh it gets worse. It gets worse. So I pretend not to hear him and I just push the bottles further towards him and I put some cash on the thing And he goes, Hey, man, I'm sorry, but I got to see some ID. I got to make sure you're over twenty one And so this at this point, I'm like, okay, I have to double down So I then Put on an affectation. No that I am mentally disabled. No J. I still remember the exact thing that I said And so congregation please stick with me here and this is fl We all we all stray guys. Okay. We all stray. I was seventeen. This is not twenty fourteen. noody was woke yet. nobody was woke. Nobody's woke. belieelieve me, I feel terrible about this. And I looked at him and I said Please No I was so much pain. Just like that. Tip. Horrible. But I do have to say the dedication to not just bailing on this. Oh, I know. 'ause I think I would have just reversed that joint and been like, right.' like out of the store. Absolutely. And so he looks at me for a moment And he goes I know who you are He goes, and there's like an old middle aged white guy and there was this restaurant next door called Frish's. He was like I've seen I've seen your van I've seen you and your friends smoking weed outside the restaurant all the time. I know you're not in a wheelchair. and I know you're not old enough to be in here So I'm going to give you Two seconds to get the fuck out of my store. Otherwise I'm calling the police petty is fuc. he knewing exactly whole fucking time he knew. He was just like, I'm gonna let this dumb fucking kid. I'm gonna let this dumb kid just do this whole bit I'm maneuvering my way through these narrow ass liquor aisles in this wheelchair and I immediately Fess up And I was like, I'm so sorry I shouldn't have done this. I just My friends and I were just trying to have a good time and he was like, get the fuck out. And but The funny thing is. I was like, yes, absolutely. And I started I started moving the wheelchair And I got it stuck In the door on the way to the exit. like try to here please And I couldn't maneuver it. and I had to get up out of the wheelchair and try to like drag it through this narrow door. while this dude is staring daggers straight through me And I just sheepishly like pulled back into, you know, back in van. James when the jig was up, why did she just get out of the wheelchair and push it out of the store? Because it's heavy as fuck Like it's it's this big motorized wheelchair. L you can't really push it and you have to like use the handle and then because when it got stuck, I had to like use the handle and then like maneuver it through the door because it was like a wide wheelchair. Okay. I appreciate this man's petty for letting you do all of this before he told you. He even let you do another Or he let you dig yourself into a deep asshole before he finally was like, I know who you are. James, I think that this scam would have worked if you had gone somewhere that wasn't a place that you go all of the time.. You can't go to your local No. You' hang out in front of this place, Jay. Literally, the liquor store was next to the restaurant where like four of my friends worked Oh And so we would just go get free food there and get high around back, you know, almost every day. So for some reason. So you insulted that man's intelligence? Absolutely. I insulted a lot of people's intelligence. I insulted my own intelligence I insulted my mother who you know has to endure the suffering of being disabled and I exploited that to try to get ninety nine bananas for me and my friends. H never heard this story. Wow. So you put the chair back? She never noticed. She's never noticed. I took the chair home. I took it back. I put it right back where it was, plugged that shit back in. I think you got enough punishment from the liquor store, man. Yeah, yeah, I think I think I would love to hear his version of that story. I'm sure he loves that story because he goaded you on. like he probably saw from the second that you came in knew exactly what you were doing. saw you pick up the liquor bottle. saw you driving around the store. He was like, Okaykay. ID, please. I know. He knew like he probably saw the van And immediately was like, what are these fucking idiots trying to do 'Cause he my van was so recognizable. The outside was completely graffitied. Like Jam It was just tagged up completely Jam. So so there's no way you wouldn't know what this van was Yeah, all you needed was some you needed a consultant. You had look, you had confidence, you had gumption. You just needed somebody to get you with the logistics. like your friends, none of them were thinking they were all just along for the ride. You needed one friend to be like, okay. But we got to park the van across the street And also we can't go to the place that we always are. I know, I know. I think without those two major factors, you would have gotten your lips around some ninety nine bananas. Probably. Yeahah. I needed some scam goddess smartness. Yeah. Well we knew each other back then, James. I know. I know. I'm sorry. That's right. We've known each other that long. Sy G. So this is our segment. What's hot and fried? guys we don't want you to get scammed, at least not by other people, okay? Now if I call you and I need you to spit in a cup or give me a lock of your child's hair, you mail that to me, okay? becausecause it's for a good cost. But if anybody else is trying to run game on you, we just can't allow it. So this is a segment where we'll talk a little bit about a fraud, a scam, a hoodwink That's really popular right now So today we're going to talk about romance fraud. Guys, we've talked about romance fraud before, but the reason that I want to bring this up is because we actually got some legit numbers on romance fraud. James, do you know that romance fraud makes up about hundred and forty three million dollars domestically in losses. What? Okay, so first of all, what is romance fraud? So romance fraud, which I already told you guys love is a scam. Stay woned. Look it's one we all participated in, it's still a fucking scam. Yeah. But romance fraud is where people talk Things like Bumble, Tinder, Christian, Mingle, grinder. And they talk to people who are looking for love and commitment as a means to defraud them out of small or large amounts of money. Interesting. Yes. So in twenty eighteen romance scams were the most expensive type of fraud scam and that's where we got that one hundred forty three million dollars And this actually comes from the Federal Trade Commission because you can report if you guys get scammed. you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Will you get your money back? Probably not. But maybe you're gonna to save somebody else.ike come on guys Good, right? Yeah So some of the biggest scams are often military men on Tinder. whichich I think is a good one because it's like Men who are saying they're deployed fighting for their country overseas. Wow, that's fucked. And so it's like, how can you really say who's in the military or not? Yeah. Yeah. a lot of people in the military. And like that feels like it could easily appeal to like any sort of like MGa type of person on Tinder. Oh you know, like like an Uber patriotic type of. If you're scamming MGa people, Shout out to you. Yeah. Keep doing that sh. Yeah why not? I will never discourage it. and I will never report you. But I wantanna read one of the reports of somebody who actually got scammed by this. All right guys, so I'm on the Federal Trade Commission website. and they actually have consumer information because this is so popular. People getting scammed by online lovers or whatever So their advice is, one, never send money or gifts to a sweetheart you haven't met in person That seems obvious, right? Yeah. That seems super obvious. Take it slowly. Ask questions and look for inconsistent answers. Check the person's photo using a search engine like search by image Google. If the same picture shows up with a different name, that's a red flag Oh yeah. that makes sense Talk to someone about this new love entrance and pay attention if friends and family are concerned That seems impractical All right Maybe I don't know. I feel like if well No I guess it. Yeahah. I'm trying to think of like if I were talking to some like I'm talking to somebody on hinge or whatever U arere you gonna tell people that you matched with someone on him? How would they know if How would somebody else know if they're a scammer? I think because what they're saying is is like, maybe you don't realize this shit is weird, but if you say it out loud to somebody else, That's true.' be like, Oh y, I'm talking to this new man. His name is John Doe, He in the milary. He's saying he needed six thousand dollars for his medical bills I said, let's faceime before I send the money. He said, I ain't got no faceetime out here in Baghdad.. And I was like, are we still in Baghdad? He was like, Yes, we are. We definitely are for sure. That's really funny. That makes sense. Yeah. He said they're trying to get garbage up to tear down that wall. And I was like, okay I'm here in Hanoi, Vietnam, and I've been stationed here for forty years. Yeah Yeah, they never brought all of us back. They never brought us back. They didn't tell you, but we're still fighting in the vehicle. So y'all remember Normandy whereere? Yeah he's still at Normandy. So I wired him six thousand dollars. Oh my. Yeah. so maybe your friend will be like, Hey girl, that war's been over for a long time let's open up the history book, shall we? And then The last one is if you suspect a romance scam, cut off contact right away, then report the scam to FTC, which is ftc dot gov slash complaint and notify the dating site where you met the scammer too. So guys, if this has happened to you, you don't have to tell us, but also you should tell us email scam Godddess Pod because we'd love to hear about it. But yeah, it's crazy. So the website went further They made an instructional safety video for people who are online dating, and it's right behind you Jam' Heo Looking for love in all the right places Like popular dating sites, mobile apps, and social networking sites Ron seems like a perfect match for the He'ase thoughtful And says he can't li without you. looks like a serial killer. He says he's from the US, but works out of the country He says he wants to visit, but says he can't afford it He asks you to send him money Last month it was medical bills for his sick aunt. How much leveless money? to fix his car. Next month That end didn't look sick at all. Ron wants your money. Don't send it. The person pretending to be Ron is a scammer. He'll tell you anything to get you to wire cash right away. He'll never run out of excuses. If an online love interest asks you for money Walk away no matter how compelling the story. Report scans at ftc. gov slash imposters. It's so funny to and maybe this says a lot about my own personal relationship to my family, but like A sick anunt is not going to get me to give you money. Like why an ant? Too far away. Yeah, it's like thinking about all my aunt like all my aunts like, I can't, I mean, you know, I don't want them to be sick, but also like So you wouldn't even help your own sick aunt is what you're saying They could be like your sister's like. I mean, I don't have the money first of all to help a sick aunt. Second of all, why I haven't talked to anuntts in years That'd be yeah. So because of your own close not close personal relationship with auntts, you will be giving no money for. If somebody was like I have a sick annt, I'd be like Yeahah, Maybe a sick mom, like whyy do you choose an aunt? Why not? BeCacause I think auts, like you said, aren't people that you have to materialize. If it's the mom, it's like you should know where your mom is. but if it's your sick aunt, you can be like, o, she's like in Albuquerque. I don't have any pictures. Oh it's just far enough removed to I see you're sitting. That was a college excuse. I remember like in college, if I couldn't get a paper done in time, you'd kill off an aunt. You know what kill off an aunt. You like, I'm so sorry professor, but my aunt died. And so I can't turn in this paper. Yeah. And see if I were your professor, I'd be like, Lacey I think I've talked to my aunts once in the last ten years So you still got to do the paper and it's not good enough. Oh listen I've been killing off the same anunt for so many years.. And when your mama do the funeral program, it said easy phhotoshop on that sunset dayate. You know, it'd be like sunrise, a birthday and then sunset whenever I needed to. That's so funny. But also what struck me about this video is that One, it's a woman who they're warning about these scams. And I'm like, so are they not including men in romance scams because is that just like culturally normative for women to like scam men out of money pretending that they love them Oh, interesteresting. 'ause like it's about a woman. And I'm thinking about it. and I'm like, I know so many women who are out here just getting shoes and bags and boob jobs and range rovers from dudes. and no one calls that a scam. Yeah, That's interesting. You know what? Maybe it's because the woman's not getting anything in return because everybody knows that dick is trash. Right Dick is trash. I do think, you know, I wonder if it's, you know, maybe it's not the word scam in that situation, but it's more the idea of like some people enter into a more transactional relationship as opposed to a relationship of like mutuality, right? Yeah you' right. Some like rich old dudes or just be like, hey, like you said, love can be a scam where it's this thing of like You know This' a transactional relationship, I'll pay for your apartment or whatever. L Yeah. Yeah. You're right. And then I think for the most part, the women are actually like materializing. Like they're showing up. They're just like using, I guess, a fake photo. like, okay, that makes sense. Becauseuse I was actually gonna say, I think I almost was the victim of this. reallyally of a romance scam Maybe like so I very briefly used Tinder a few years ago. and this instance is what got me off of Tinder. I haven't used it since. I had a woman like match with me on Tinder. And we started talking from the beginning, I was skeptical because like she was just way too enthusiastic and like, you know, I'm thirty five. I pretty I know my place in the world. I know' not I know I'm not attractive enough to have a woman over the internet be that enthusiastic. Like I'm almost six foot. Maybe if I was six three, maybe that would be a thing where But it's not I'm not tall enough. I'm not handsome enough. I'm bald. I know I know my place And I was not gonna agree with any of this. And she was being really enthusiastic. and she was like, What did she do that was like showing you like over enthusiasm? She wanted to meet that night. She wanted to come see my place. She wanted to and I was like, you know, I don't know if I feel comfortable I was like, maybe we meet at a bar for a drink or something like that. And I was like, I'm not really big into like haaving somebody come straight over to my place, anything like that U and then I changed the subject and I was like, so what do you do for a living? And Her response was, that's what I want to talk to you about. And I was like, what We don't huh? What do you mean? We don't know each other? What do you want to talk to me about? And then she was just like started talking about her living situation and started talking about her she was like a chool teacher and, you know, she just gotten laid off and like And I was like, Wh the fuck is this heading Kind of got freaked out And I just deleted the app right there because I didn't ask any more questions. I was like I don't know what kind like is impossible to come to your house immediately and talk to me about her Maybe she was homeless and she was like, o this is out like I'll just get on tinder and I'll find somebody and I'll go to their house that night and then I'll sleep at their house and I'll live there. Oh, which is a different. different kind of scam, I guess. I don't know. It has to work. because I'm sure there's some people on Tinder who are just like, o, I just really need the company. Yeah. Was she cute U I mean, if that was her, you know what I mean? Like I't know about that arm in the beginning. Well, I don't know if it was her. I don't know, like she was cute, but I don't know if like I'm assuming that that was not her. I didn't do the Google image. Image search. L FTC told you. Yeah Gotta do that Google Iage search. I know. Now I wish I knew then Well, James, so that's our hot and fraud right now guys. If you're on dating apps, any dating apps, theyd put Christian Mingle on here as a warning. like all the dating apps. Oh man. Just beware. L if people are trying to get money from you and you've never met them. Yeah. Not a good look. Also if anything is happening with anybody's aunt, never believe them. Don't believe them. Yeah. Nobody's aunt has ever had anything bad happen to them unless your aunt raised you then Itsust not good enough. Not good enough N too far away from Milie from the tree, says James ! All right guys, we are gonna get into the biggest segment, the craziest segment of the show. Historic Hoodwinks.. All right, so I kind of picked this one with you in mind because James runs a very dope podcast and also it's a live show called I'm to Fing Hi, whichigmatize Weed. And it also is a very fun show where comedians get high and do comedic challenges. I've done it. It's super fun. It's also very fun to listen to while Hi. That's great. Gotta have you back on for a live show Ohh my gosh, even though when I'm at a high live show, it's just me like holding onto the chair for a dear life. You're so funny. so you kill it every time. J just putting the mic in my bosom and being like, are you talking to me? I need to talk now. All right guys. But so there's a new scam out right now, which is Instagram Weed fraud So people are doing fraudulent Instagram drug deals. Okay. Basically how this works is the one that we're gonna to talk about in like more detail is this guy named Naggio Belum. He's a writer and a comedian and a resident connoisseur on the Netflix show Cooking on High. And He's been a recent victim of a fraudulent Instagram drug deal scam. So basically a friend sent this guy a screenshot of an Instagram program. So basically his whole this could happen to you, James. because this guy's whole business is kind of like surrounded around weed or being a connoisseur or being like you one of the first movers in entertainment in weed And someone made a fake Instagram profile of him And so one of his friends screenshot it, but it had been up for a minute because the account had twelve images on it that were stolen from Bum's real account. And the bio offered pot for sale with shipping available to any location Wait, can you say that again? Pot Pot for sale was shipping available to any location. So it's like you go on his Instagram, you see photos of the guy and it says, we sell the weed. We'll send it anywhere. In the country. Yeah It says any location. So I guess that means like in the world Papa New Guinea.ans you can get your weed wherever.. So Balum obviously had a friend who noticed this. and so he notifies Instagram and he posts screenshot on his own profile and says like, please don't follow this guy and please report this guy, et cetera, et cetera. But this was happening for at least six months because the imposter had multiple direct messages from people who had wired him money for we that they'd never received No way. So he had been running this, which is weird because it's like if you know this guy's on TV, why do you think that He had o, he had twenty thousand six hundred followers though.. Why do you think that this guy wouldn't have more followers than that? Way more followers and then Also Yeah, like why would he Well, I guess I could see him getting in the business of, I guess distributing, but that yeah. And there's one I could see myself falling for this. This is terrifying. This is terrifying. The show is terrifying. So there was one scam victor in particular who contacted this guy after sending an imposter over three thousand dollars for two pounds of weed that never arrived And this guy was getting an average of three to five messages a week So he was doing this. Okay, so first of all, two grand wo pounds of weed? Is that what? Three grand. Three grand for two pounds of weed is likeike an amazing deal That already is like yeah. Yeah. I mean, most of the time a pound of weed is like three to four grand. You hear that guys? Yeah. Just so you know how much a pound of weed got. Yeah. becauseuse I don't That's crazy. Yeah. So I guess people would probably that's why they're like, Ohh I'llay for this deal. Of course. Too good to be true. If somebody who was like two pounds a weed for three grand, yeah, that is an amazing deal. Yeah.especially if it's good shit. Right. That's like how any timee you click on a news article ' online news is fucking struggling. There's always like ads for shit on the side. It's like, Louis for Tom Bay thirty dollars That's what almost gets me. I'm like, thir it do all alost.ot need that Louisuonag. That is not real. Yeah. But yeah. so he pays this much for it and never gets any money. Also, I think wire transfers are just a weird method for paying for sh. I've never had to pay for anything with a wire transfer. I've only received a wire transfer once in my life and it was from my parents when I was in London. So I'm like, I don't think they're real I would do you do it at a bank? I've never done you do it like Western Union Union shadiest money place ever. It almost like is this is me being ignorant because I don't know, is Western Union also a payday loan type of place or it is. It's just like where you can go do isn't it am I wrong? T about a scam. I feel like it's a shady scam organization. The cops should just loiter around Western Union and just randomly like pick people up. Right But So Instagram got contacted about this story and an Instagram spokesperson noted and an Instagram spokesperson noted claiming to be another person violates the platform of community guidelines. And Instagram says we care deeply about the quality content on Instagram. and we take spam and inauthentic and other abusive behavior very seriously. Being verified is a great new way to know if the person is legitimately that person, but not everybody can be verified Which is true. Like you have to have like fill a certain amount of qualifications to be verified. And this guy was on TV and had fifty seven thousand followers and wasn't verified. So people were taking advantage of that Crazy. Why wasn't he very fifty seven thousand followers? BeCacause it doesn't have anything to do with how many followers you have. Do you have to like I guess apply or have a PR agency apply for you or have enough credits and things online that Instagram starts to get curious about if you are really the person. Yeah, sure. So there's one person on Reddit 'cause there's a whole subreddit about this guy who tells his story of buying weed through Instagram. So some of you out there might be familiar with popular social networking app called Instagram For the past few months, there have been accounts popping up on Instagram that claim that they will ship weeed to you out of places like Washington, California, etceter. These profiles may look very convincing with pictures of large amounts of weed uploaded or orders getting shipped out. How it works is this person will leave their phone number or kick messenger ID. If you gott to get on kick for anything you already need to know like it's not on the up and up on the profile and you can contact them and ask them to place an order. Prices are usually advertised as fairly low and reasonable. Like you said, that was really cheap for these two pounds of wheat. Now there may be some profiles out there that are actually genuine and will ship you the product. I've had wheat shipped to me before, no issue. so I know it's done every day. But most are just plain scammers looking to get your money leave you with nothing. Here's how my experience went. I kicked a dealer asking for one of his best indicas. He said the price was one eighty an ounce and that I only owed him half upfront to ship it. He claimed that after the payment was shipped I would get a tracking number and his phone number to keep contact and track my package. The next morning, I Western Union Tim. Western Union ninety dollars and two hours later saw that Western Union tracking had picked up the payment. I texted him asking him for a tracking number, no response. I waited two hours, texted again, notothing. After that, I started calling him An hour later, I realized he had blocked me from his Instagram page, blocked me on kick, and somehow blocked my number from contacting his phone. That's like the easiest one to do. Now, I know what you're all thinking. Wow, you're such an idiot to give this guy your money. expecting to send you Weed. Yes, that was a naive mistake on my part, but I've had success in transactions in the past Please don't do this. You will get screwed over and you will feel like an idiot. Oh man Yeah, absolutely. And that's a good deal too. one hundred eighty for an ounce. That's. Yeah, it's a really good. Isn't that like, I feel like that small potatoes though to be like here, send me half of this amount. So you're just getting ninety dollars from everybody you scam Yeah. Is that enough It depends how many people you scam in a day. Yeah. I mean, if you can, if you scam ten people, ten people a week, that's nine hundred dollars a week. That's nine hundred bucks a week. Yeah, that's yeah. mayaybe that's pretty good And I wonder too, if the strategy is like, if I scam ninety bucks out of people They're going to be looking for me with less urgency. R than if I scam like three thousand three thousand. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. And then that just becomes your job. I'm sure just every day, like got to set up a new Instagram profile, got to create more hot email email addresses. You're blue collar scammer. B coll I'm middleass scammer. Yeah. I'm a middle class scammer right? yeah. They probably survive the longest because I feel like when you start getting into bigger deals, that's when people start getting their eyes on you. And when you scam rich people, theyd be mad. Oh yeah No one's more mad about getting scammed than someone who has a lot of money for some reason, which makes zero sense to me. Yeah. They have so much so many more resources to lose And they're still more mad. And they also have more time, I feel like. If I'm a rich person, I have more time to hire someone to look for you and get angry with you. That's true. Hey I'm into it. That's crazy Isn't that insane? Yeah But I mean I don't know. I think buying anything online, although I do have a friend who buys like acid on the Dark Web and they've never had a problem. Yeah. I've bought drugs on the Dark Web as well How do you get to the dark web? Is like WW. dark Web I've never known how you actually get to the dark web and I want to go. I should say I don't know if this is the dark Web or not where I go is this aillgal website where I can purchase different types of drugs? And I use Bitcoin to get it. And so I go It sounds dark we. A Bitcoin ATM machine, which is down the street for me and I get some Bitcoin and then I buy, you know, the drugs. and The one time I thought I was getting scammed And I kept emailing them and being like, hey Wh where are Iss the product? Where's my stuff? Where's the product? Where's the product? Yeah I don't want to get caught up. Where' the b? Where are the things that I order? I had been watching the movie Blow all weekend and Johnny Depp and no And they never got back to me. and I was like, fuck, I got scammed. And then one day in the mail, they were there. And I was like, oh, okay, I guess they just have terrible customer service. But it worked Look, we don't pride ourselves in customer service here, okay? Yeah. You'll get your things when you get your things. Yeah, Just relax. We're not gonna respond. yeah That's very like that's interesting to me because like I remember when I was in Brooklyn And is weed leegal in New York? yet no,? Yeah no. So when I was in Brooklyn years ago, it was probably extra even more illegal. But I had a weed delivery, like a courier service that would like come to my house and there was always like some guys or a girl on a bike a bike. I've heard of this. Yeah. And like one time it was like during prride, I think, and it was like so busy. And so I like ordered and they like couldn't get to me. And I was like, what is this? I've been ordering from you guys for years. Yeah. And they're like, you know what, mana'am, we're so sorry, we're gonna give you thirty percent off of your next bur a legal drug company that is running themselves like a good customer service. Yeah excellent customer service. I didn't have to email the Dark Web a bunch of times like, Hey, it's me again. You know who? Yeah. Wait, what's your alias on there? Bea I know you don't go by James. No, I don't Do you have to have an alias or is it just like you just don't communicate with any? Everything is through like it's all through Bitcoin. like it's you don't use a name, like it's just my address. There's no like name. Is Bitcoin even like becoming like a successful form of currency? Is it just a good currency to do like skety stuff with? I think it's that. I think it's like people are hoping that it becomes a thing, but I just don't think it will. I think it's like right now, I think it's just a way to shit anonymously because it's untraceable. That's the that's the thing about it is like you can't trace it. so I don't know, yeah I know some people got rich real fast from it when it when it exod. Yeah, they bought it and then it like exploded and now it's like normal again. But that feels like a scam, maybe. Oh hell yeah. Yeah. online e currency is definitely a scam. 'ause like where did it come from? Yeah. And we just all gave you money for it. And then you told us how much it was worth? Yeah. What? Even capitalism in general feels like it's just constantly walking the line of scam No absolutely. Everybody's just towing that line of like, how close can I get to fucking people over? I mean, that's why we had to have like antitrust laws and things like that because otherwise like people, I mean, we're still Amazon's going own all of us pretty soon.. And it's fine. I willingly give Facebook all of my information now I'm like, you have it anyway. Yeah. What You want my retina cont? hold on. Let me open my eye up. shhit. Let me open my eye up. You need me take my contact out? fuck. All right, damn it. Mark Zuckerberg, I just wna send I just want to post about my comedy show tonight. I know Oh my God. I'll give them whatever they want. Booty hole right now. booty hole. Who do I have? I have no use for it. Let me open my booty hole up Oh gosh, I need these likes. Yeah. This week, our scammer week goes out to a mystery person. We actually do not know who this person is, but there is a weed grower at the Capitol building of Vermont who has planted thirty four cannabis plants in counting that have been found growing in the flower beds of the Vermont Capitol. I love it. Y. And we actually we had so much media. We have another video. We'll describe it to you guys So this is a weed plant. Yeah. and it's like it really is hidden in a garden And they look like they're growing very well. Yeah Weeed is hard to grow. Right. Doesn't it need like a lot of water? A ton of sunlight, a ton of care, yeah. And these are like on the main street in front of the Capitol So the plants are too immature to test them to see if they're like THC plants. Right And they also have confirmed that the plants are not in the state's horticultural plant They asked just some random police officer who had no information. Yeah. He was like, I don't think they meant to plant these. So there's all these weed plant honestly the I love that. That's like that's a great scam that hurts nobody. Right? Like it's like, let's go plant and you know, if you're for leegalization, I guess it's kind of like a message, but I like that. That's right. Oh right because it's in the it's at the capitol building. like being like, hey guys're already, there's so much weed out here. Just let us grow it. Yeah. And also like it's kind of like, it won't bother you. Look at how much weed we have growing right next to you and it's never bothered. And you have no idea it's even there Yeah. That's a good point. Maybe it is like an artistic statement too. But how is the plant growing so well? I don't know. That's a really good question. Be they need a lot of water, right? Yeah, they need a ton Well, I guess it depends on if they're trying to grow it to some sort of like to actually have the flower be good That's when you have to put in a lot of work. It is a weed, so it'll just grow. but if you want like good bud with like, you know, good THC and high quality, you got to put in so much work Okay. So maybe it's someone who's like planted it, and then they're like, we' just use the capital as water. I'm sure they waterered those those plants looked so healthy. They looked great. They looked refreshed. So I'm sure that they're watering them so so much It's they're like the green, I guess the plant version of Banksy, it feels like. Wait, explain that to me. So Banksy is, you know, the anonymous person that goes around graffiting all these different sort of like social justice. Which ones like that that obey guy No I'm not the own babs I should know who Banksy is. I know such uncultured swine right now. Oh yeah,ah, yeah. I mean he has yeah, he has very, very he's British, but he's anonymous. Nobody knows who he is. So no one's caught Banksy Payton sh. No I find that hard to believe. Some people think that Banksy is more than one person moreore than one people, more than one person. Mengy is a group. It's an artist band, but he also famously Oh, he had a great scam What, where he tried to somebody tried to sell a Banksy original at a at an auction And when it's sold and they tried to bring it off the wall, it ripped in shreds That was the whole purpose of it. But the funny thing is it actually upped the value of it Yeah, it was like an original Banksy. So it was really an original. Yeah Oh, here we yeah. watch. it's pretty interesting And again again. Conosaurs could only watch in horror as an expensive piece was shredded before their eyes No sooner did the gavel come down to mark the sale of Banksy's Girl with Balloon for a record one point four million dollars, did the picture start to slip out of its frame into shreds below? The anonymous artist claims to be behind the stunt. On Instagram, he posted a photo of his prank with the caption Go going gone In a later post, he explained how he did it A few years ago, I secretly built a shredder into a painting. Yeah. B. Yeah, pretty That is rude as fuck. Yeah. If I pay a million dollars for something Banksy, you can yeo ass. That's when the scene became a brawl. Like this story would have went completely differently. Like, no, you need to go paint it again. I would love it if it was Lacey that unveiled Banksy because of this. Like nobody knows who Banksy is Lacey gets fucked over, get You can't scam the scam god in. No. She will unveil you. I would ruin his whole mistake. I would spend the rest of my days trying to figure out who the fuck he was, where he lived, so I could air his ass out on Instagram live. Yep, that's really funny. Lacey is going live with Banksy right now Crazy. And of course some art buyer was like, o, this is even better 'cause that. Of course, yeah, I'm sure it raised the value. Yeah. But also if you're an art collector, that's already a flex of like, I'm about to spend a ridiculous amount of money on yes, yes, art has value. I make art has so much value. I wanna be paid a million dollars to come perform somewhere, please But we all know it's a flex to be like I' spending a million dollars on a piece of paper. Oh, absolutely. such a flex. So I think it is probably even more of a flex if you're non phased by ripping apart I guarantee you whoever bought that is like That's such a conversation piece. Everybody that comes over there like, oh, this is the banksie I purchased. He shredded it. Yeah see the millions of views on YouTube. Absolutely. The one very angry black woman who beat him Yeah. Also, did Shebeies know this was gonna happen Oh, that's a good question. Were they in on the scam? I don't think so. If I remember Crok, I don't think so. I would have loved if Souherbeyes was in on this scam because Subherbeess feels like a scam organization. L they have to be involved in like so much crime I'm sure. But like the sexiest kind of like white collar crime that you want to make movies about. Yeah Money laundering and like all that shit. ye. It's money dry cleaning, you know what I mean? It a different level. Yeah. Yeah, we're not actually touching the money with our hands. No. We don't touch money Iven't juded money in fifteen years Yeah You're right, Like money to them is just electronic, right?ight that They have enough of it. it just exists. Right C out Butt art is also a beautiful game of fraud. so I'll take it. I'll take it. But yeah, this guy is planting these weed plants. Shout out to this mysterious weed growower because I will probably never know who you are. I mean, I would first probably look at the gardeners. Butah again like if I was someone who was gardening the Vermont, I wouldn't We sm have Sedwed on that ye. Yeah I It's probably a protesor or somebody that's trying to send a message. I feel like. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right about that. likeike being artistic I mean, I wish that I had a garden that they could toss some weed seeds in.'d be I'd be very appreciative. I don't whereere do you get weed seeds? You can get them online. You can get them online. you can, you know, some dispensary sell seeds, some dispensary sell clones as well, which is like sort of a little baby plant that they've cloned off of another plant. so you're already starting with something and you sort of like transfer it over. Yeah. I' tried to grow a clone one time. Really? It didn't go well. It didn't go well. I don't think I could do it either. a. I killed a succubus. so and that's really hard to do. You killed a sucubus or a su sucubus uckus A succubus is like an old timey word for like a woman who is Pomiscuous and like Oh, seduces men. is like a succubus. Oh wow. yeah, no, no, no, I kill the succ you limb. Yeah. Lacey kill a succubus. I am a sucus. Oh my gos. Well James, this is so amazing to have you. Man, this show is great. I love than you for having me. This is I feel like Honestly, just being on this show and hearing about all of these things, I'm like, holy shit, scams are fucking everywhere. Yeah, no, scamming is a job. It's a profession. It's one of the oldest professions and it needs more respect. It needs yeah, it really does because now I'm thinking of like, oh wait Is government a scam? Oh yeah, government is one of the biggest scams.. I mean, think about taxes. They literally are like, hey, we know you made money, give us some and you better give us the right amount. othertherwise we're gonna to put you in jail. Yeah. But also we're not gonna tell you how much you need to give us. And we're not gonna to tell you what we're going use it on. We'll pretend like we're gonna to use it on this. We're actually never gonna to tell you exactly where your tax dollars are going. Yeah. L so no worry, but hand them over Yeah. That's true. It's crazy because and then they start taking a lot of money from you. like, but then I think that they should take more money from the people who have an insane amount of money. We all think this like. But I will say that like as a black person, I was always wondering like, well, if the police are gonna to keep killing us, could we stop Our money's not going like O can I get a refund for the police? spepecifically, it's like here's your money from just the police taxes because we know that they are harming you. Yeah. That's completely fair. They're protecting and serving everyone else but you. so here's your money. I also feel like, you know, we sell we spend all this tax money for them to create like all of these big weapons of war to sell to other countries. and we don't get any of that money back. You just sold all these airplanes and tanks and shit. I don't get any of that. Where is my cut of the AR fifty? I invested to have those war machines made. Where's my investment? Wh don't get any return on that? You sold that shit to, you know, Saudi Arabia and I don't get any of it. I don't get anything. don't get anyil. I don't get a discount on gas. No gas is very expensive. Yeah, V very expensive I guess sometimes they do discount us on gas. and like the price went down. here you go. Yeah. OPEC will throw us a little yeah A little something and keep us quiet for a month that's our gas prices get lower. Its keepe us keepeeping us quiet. Oh my goodness. Well, James, where can people find you? Oh man, people can find me. So please check out Im two Fing High. It's you know on Instagram and Twitter at I'm two Fing High U we do a live show at the Uppright Citizens Brigade every month and you know, we're a podcast as well and check out Florida Girls on pop TV and you can I'm on All platforms JMA, eleven, eleven Yeah.. And guys as always, you can find us at scamgdesspod at gmail. comot Tell us about how you've been scammed or if you tried to run a scam like James, then.