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the realm is split in two, and

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and listen to the official Game of

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2:01

get your podcasts. What's

2:04

poppin' Congregation? It's your girl Lacey

2:06

Moseley, AKA Scam Goddess. Welcome

2:09

to an episode of Fraud

2:11

Fridays, where we release older

2:13

episodes from the Scam Goddess

2:16

Vault. That's right, Fraud Fridays is where

2:18

we bring back your favorite episodes from

2:20

behind the paywall. Enjoy this

2:22

episode from behind the paywall and

2:24

as always, stay schemin'. Scam,

2:29

corn, robbery,

2:33

and fraud.

2:35

Scam, corn,

2:38

robbery, and

2:41

fraud. Scam

2:43

Goddess. What's

2:46

poppin' Congregation? We are back with another episode

2:48

of Scam Goddess. I know my voice has

2:50

been different a lot lately. I don't want

2:52

you guys to get used to anything. I

2:54

will shriek again. Today,

2:57

we're gonna keep it smooth jazz.

3:04

Smooth jazz, my Venmo is. Did

3:07

that sound good enough for you, Venmo? I don't know. Guys,

3:10

let's get to it. I am so

3:12

what? Yes, excited for our guests. This

3:15

is the first time that I am

3:17

meeting this hilarious comedian, though I am

3:19

very familiar with a lot of her

3:21

work. We got the characters on here,

3:23

and even Netflix. We got

3:26

Space Force on Netflix. And

3:29

I'm saying we've got, but this is like things that she's

3:31

worked on. You know what I mean? And she's

3:33

got a lot of credits, honey. I won her IMDB in

3:35

the bitches full. Guys,

3:39

on the podcast today, we

3:41

have actress, comedian Aparna Nanchala.

3:43

Hello. Hello. How are

3:45

you? I'm good. It

3:47

does feel, it feels pretty, I

3:49

don't know, exciting to meet someone

3:52

on a podcast for the first

3:54

time. Right? It's kind

3:56

of weird experiment that's happening and

3:58

it's been wonderful. every single

4:00

time. Yeah, plus now it's like everything

4:03

is remote, so it really feels, you're

4:05

like, no, what's it gonna be like?

4:08

Right, because you can't get vibes, well you can't get

4:10

vibes on Zoom, but it takes longer. I feel like

4:12

the vibe check takes a little longer. Yeah,

4:14

exactly, everything takes twice as long on Zoom,

4:16

in terms of reading the other person. Right, the

4:18

vibe check is like dial up, you just

4:20

be there like, yay! Ah,

4:24

like just waiting, just waiting. Wait,

4:27

Aparna, do you have any relationship

4:29

with scams? Like, do you consider

4:31

yourself like a scammer? Do you

4:34

feel like you sympathize with people who are scammed and you

4:36

feel bad for them? Like, whose side are you on? And

4:38

you don't have to be on any one side, because I'm

4:40

not on any one side. Okay,

4:42

well I think I, I'm gonna

4:44

be wild and say

4:46

I'm on everyone's side, in that

4:48

I really admire people who

4:51

hustle really well and can just kind of

4:54

convince people of anything, but because

4:56

I don't have that ability at all. But I

4:58

would say I relate more to the people who

5:00

fall for scams, because I would say I am

5:03

one of those people. Oh really, you think you're

5:05

one of those people? Yes. Wait,

5:07

have you ever been scammed? I mean, all, like

5:09

I almost fell for one, but then I hung

5:11

up the phone, I fell for one of those

5:13

tax scams, where they're like, we are

5:16

the FBI and we're gonna come to your

5:18

house if you don't give us your credit

5:20

card info. And I was fully, was like,

5:22

they're gonna get me. I

5:24

gotta give them the information. That's

5:26

flavorful. I love that scam, but

5:29

I also love that you did

5:31

one of the things that's literally

5:33

on the website, which was

5:35

hang up. It's

5:37

like the first tip, it's like to avoid

5:39

scammers, they're like, hang up, and you did

5:41

it. But I did it

5:43

so late, like I did it like right

5:45

before I would have, it would have been

5:47

too late. Well, wait, Aparna, where are you

5:49

from? I'm from

5:51

outside Washington, DC. Outside DC? Okay.

5:54

Yeah. Do you feel like it was like,

5:58

like more urban area or like? more of a suburban

6:00

area. If it's outside DC, it's probably the burbs, right?

6:03

Yeah, fully the burbs. Okay, cool,

6:05

cool, cool. So I feel like you was

6:07

probably following a lot of rules. Yeah, yeah,

6:10

yeah, yeah. But this was in, I mean,

6:12

this scam happened in LA. Yeah,

6:14

but I'm saying that's where you came from,

6:17

right? Yeah, the FBI, all that shit was

6:19

just up the street when you lived outside

6:21

of DC. Yes, exactly. So I was like,

6:24

I got to respect that authority.

6:28

I love that. I love that. I hate authority.

6:31

I like it for everyone else though. There would be

6:33

chaos if we all abandoned it. But if everybody else

6:35

follows the law, I don't have to. Right,

6:38

right. That's a good way to live

6:40

in general. Honestly, that's the American way.

6:44

I am the exception to the rules. Right.

6:46

That's the whole reason. Oh my gosh, I

6:48

was tweeting about this because I feel like

6:50

such a pretentious

6:53

person to tweet about. Why are

6:55

the working class, why are we

6:57

paying all this money and taxes

6:59

and blah, blah, blah, because

7:01

everyone wants to be a billionaire and

7:04

nobody realizes that they're not going to

7:06

be one. And I have to find

7:08

the tweet. There's a guy named Preston

7:12

on Twitter who did a music video. I'll

7:14

find it. I'll retweet it on my Twitter

7:16

page for you all. Where he was like, every time I

7:19

see a broke person

7:21

like capping or like caving for a

7:23

billionaire, I imagine that this is the

7:25

beginning of their musical. I

7:30

want to be just like you, Duddy Moneybags. Cut

7:34

to act three. So

7:37

I get like, how do I

7:39

get on that tangent? I don't even know, bro. Oh,

7:43

just in that we all think we're

7:45

like the hero of the story and

7:48

things don't apply to us.

7:50

That applies to the chorus or

7:52

the background. And that was

7:54

the vibe check. And the vibes are good

7:57

because wow, I wasn't going to come back.

8:00

and I was just gonna leave it there. And that

8:02

would really piss people off. I'm

8:05

not, but that, I feel like I said a

8:07

false precedent because I'm not usually the person

8:09

who could keep track of all the threads.

8:12

Oh no, I'm fully leaning on you now. So. Okay,

8:15

great, great. Well, let's get

8:17

into our first segment. What's hot and fraud?

8:19

If you are a new listener, then what's

8:21

hot and fraud is just a segment where

8:23

we warn you guys about what's popping in

8:25

the scam community in the zeitgeist, okay? A

8:27

fraud. And sometimes we read your,

8:30

actually most of the time now, we read your

8:32

listener letters and we just get to hear about

8:34

what shenanigans you're getting involved in. As

8:36

always guys, if you wanna share a scam

8:38

story on the podcast, scamgotaspod.gmail.com. Snitch on your

8:41

friends and family. Just make sure your bag

8:43

is retired. Cause we don't wanna ruin the

8:45

scam if you got it fully in motion,

8:47

okay? And

8:50

also I'm gonna try to keep them

8:52

ethical cause I read one the other

8:54

day about returning Amazon books. And

8:57

you could just return Amazon books. But

8:59

what Amazon does is like Jeff Bezos

9:01

shows up to the author's house and

9:03

he's like, hey girl, hey

9:06

Roxanne Gay. Turns out the girls aren't hungry and

9:08

we're gonna have to charge you for it. What?

9:12

What do you mean? Yeah, like they take it,

9:14

like Audible takes it back from the author. They

9:16

don't just eat the charge. So if you get

9:18

an online ebook from like Amazon,

9:20

you can return it being like, I

9:22

don't know, I didn't like it. And

9:25

like, yeah. I shouldn't talk about this

9:27

again. Cause I told you guys. I

9:30

might have to take this out. Also, who's now

9:32

your returning audio books? I know it's the

9:34

nerdiest scam, but also I learned that it

9:36

really hurts authors. So guys, don't do that.

9:38

Authors are out here struggling to get their

9:41

coin. Jeff Bezos is playing them. You know

9:43

what I mean? Yeah, that

9:45

seems very cheap on Amazon's part.

9:48

Right? It's gross. They don't need the

9:50

money. They surely do not. Oh,

9:53

a recent thing I learned about Amazon before I read this

9:55

letter is that, and this is like

9:57

every store, apparently, when you

9:59

are... cash it out and they're like, would

10:02

you like to donate to the red nose

10:04

fund? Like, or would you like to round

10:06

your dollars up to $7 so we can

10:08

give some things to the cancer? And

10:11

like, you do it because you're like, Oh

10:13

yeah, I do want to donate, but they

10:15

take all of our donations and then they

10:17

file a donation in their name and take

10:20

the tax credit. So that's

10:22

so evil. That's like

10:24

next level evil where it's like, we're going

10:26

to seem like we're philanthropists, but we'll do

10:29

it by taking your money. Right? I just,

10:31

I never knew that. And when I found

10:33

that out, I was appalled. So now I'm

10:36

like, I'm torn. Do I just not give

10:38

them the extra quarter or do I just

10:40

like, fuck I can't. You

10:43

can't anymore. Now you know the

10:45

truth. That's now, now I realize

10:47

that's what Dwayne Reed is

10:49

doing because they do the same thing.

10:51

They're like, you want to round up your

10:53

purchase and we'll give a mask

10:55

to a child or whatever it is. It's

10:58

always to a child. But

11:02

that's the thing is like, I thought I was

11:04

doing this cute thing this whole time. And I

11:06

was like, look, these companies giving back. No, they

11:08

just playing us. I'm gonna start doing that myself

11:11

after this at the end of this podcast. I'm like,

11:13

do y'all want to donate a quarter to Chia Dream?

11:19

Get my text right offs popping. Okay.

11:21

And it will be vague. It will

11:23

be children. Just

11:26

children as a whole. Like look, kids

11:29

are cool. We like kids, right? Yeah.

11:31

Yeah. That's honestly the best human form

11:33

is when we're kids are nice and

11:35

innocent. We're cute. We maybe dance. Like,

11:37

yeah, it all goes downhill from there.

11:39

So guys, wait,

11:42

I said I was going to read a letter, right? Yeah.

11:44

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll do what

11:46

is promised. So

11:48

let's get into it. This I need

11:51

a fake name, Aparna. That's what I need from you. I'm

11:53

going to say Margo. Margo. Oh,

11:55

did you want a last name too? Oh,

11:57

a dummy one. If you got one. Margot

12:01

Fairchild. Margot Fairchild sounds

12:04

very rich. Margot

12:06

Fairchild invented a watercress sandwich. You're

12:10

right. Oh my god, watercress in a

12:12

sandwich. Right? And

12:14

reinventing the game. Right. Margot definitely

12:17

has a T every, you know,

12:19

Sunday where she demands a dress

12:21

code and judges everyone. I like

12:24

Margot Fairchild already. So Margot

12:26

Fairchild says, Hey, Lacey, this just happened to me

12:28

this morning and I had to tell you about

12:31

it. Wow. I

12:35

love a prompt emailer. Right.

12:37

Has the idea to email emails.

12:39

That's like not me. Two years

12:41

late on the emails. Same. Uh,

12:43

I'm, oh gosh, I'm really bad

12:45

with emails. Like bumping this is,

12:48

that happens to me. Everybody's bumping

12:50

all the time. Everyone is being

12:52

marked as unread. Oh

12:54

no, I do that too. There's so many

12:56

stars. I know. I

12:59

wish they had that for text message. Yes.

13:03

That's why I leave my red receipts on. That's

13:06

what your fortune is going to be. Marking

13:08

texts is on red. Oh, let me

13:10

call up, uh, Tim Apple. I'm

13:14

trying to get a coin from him. I can't believe

13:16

he hasn't done that already. But yeah, but yeah, we

13:18

get the same phone over and over again. Tim don't

13:20

got nothing for the girls. He was

13:23

like, look, I know my last name is

13:25

Cook, but we ordering out and Apple iPhones

13:27

have nothing for y'all anymore. We're not cooking

13:29

up there. Here's two free, two new emojis

13:31

that you don't need. Now spend

13:34

$900 for them. Okay. Now the iPhone can

13:36

turn into an explosive device. If we need

13:38

to do that in your home, it's like,

13:40

I feel like I was just trying to

13:43

get information and, and be all in my

13:45

business, but you're not giving me no features. No,

13:48

come on, Tim. Tim, what are you

13:50

cooking? Get to work. Get in the

13:52

kitchen, Tim. God damn. So

13:55

we got a prompt email from Margo Fairchild.

13:57

She says I was at work and I.

14:00

I received an email from my boss about

14:02

an urgent task. My boss asked me to

14:04

stop what I was doing and

14:06

text him my cell phone number

14:09

and he would give me all the details.

14:12

So she didn't read the full

14:14

email and she sent this

14:17

person herself. But

14:19

it's her boss, so you would think like,

14:22

okay, I can trust this person, I work

14:24

for them. Right, like the email probably looked

14:26

close enough. I've talked, if you are an

14:29

OG listener, you know that we've talked about

14:31

this scam before. It was happening to teachers

14:33

a lot and it's kind of now branched

14:35

out to any industry where

14:38

people can get on LinkedIn and

14:40

get your professional email address. So

14:43

then they get on the Gmail's or they

14:45

get on the whatever and they just put

14:47

like one little period or make one little

14:49

thing different. And if you're not looking carefully,

14:51

how would you know? How would

14:53

you know? And it's your boss, so you're like, oh, I

14:56

gotta do what they said. And

14:58

that's so interesting to me, because it's like,

15:00

how do you find out that this is

15:03

a subordinate employee? Like, were you on the

15:05

company website? Oh, good point, yeah. How

15:08

do they do that? Because they have to.

15:10

Do they look at your position on LinkedIn?

15:12

They're like, they seem like they're not in

15:14

charge. Like you click on the

15:17

company, like, it's like they suit, all they

15:19

suits look like they came from an express.

15:21

So I'm gonna guess that you are not

15:23

making as much money as your boss. No

15:27

shame, Margot, no shame. I'm sure

15:29

it's not what happened to you. I

15:32

had a friend who put in his LinkedIn

15:34

thing that he was the CEO of LinkedIn,

15:37

but he spelled it like a

15:39

little differently, but then people kept

15:41

contacting him being like, can you

15:44

help me get more visibility for

15:46

my business? Wow, imagine wanting

15:49

to get more visibility for your business and

15:51

thinking, I should contact

15:54

the CEO of LinkedIn because

15:56

he's definitely, he's definitely

15:58

gonna know how to get my algorithm. rhythm

16:00

poppin', okay? He's

16:02

gonna up my connections and

16:04

endorse me for life. Right,

16:07

that's like me calling Marcus Zuckerberg and I'm like,

16:09

look, I keep posting these thirst traps. I'm trying

16:11

to get into the 20% of likes. Like,

16:14

do you think I should show more ass or?

16:19

I love people who want help and they just

16:21

go to the, all the way to

16:23

the top. All the way to the top. We

16:26

joke about that on another episode with

16:28

a terrible problematic rapper, Lil Busey, who

16:30

literally was tweeting at a fake Marcus Zuckerberg account,

16:33

cause Marcus Zuckerberg doesn't have Twitter and he was

16:35

like, Marcus Zuckerberg, get me back on Twitter. Help

16:37

me, Marcus Zuckerberg. It's

16:40

like, Marcus Zuckerberg, no fucking fucking. Oh

16:42

no. But I love to,

16:44

I like the ambition of thinking that that person's so free. They

16:47

can definitely help you. So

16:49

we don't know how Margot got found out. We

16:51

don't know how she, so I

16:54

guess on LinkedIn you do give a lot

16:56

of information about your personal business life. And

17:00

then maybe that's how they got the information. Cause

17:02

I know I have a LinkedIn, but as an

17:04

actor, I never really felt it necessary. So I

17:06

just had it from college. I think it says

17:08

I sell class rings for about four. I

17:12

don't know why I thought they just came

17:14

from the earth or

17:22

something. From the earth. That's cause

17:25

you never seen them in the store. Cause

17:27

they're a scammer thing. It's a scammer job.

17:29

Anytime you got to set up a folded

17:31

table, you doing fraud. Okay.

17:34

That's all I gotta say. Because if you got to set up a

17:36

phone table, let me know you don't got no office. Your office is

17:38

everywhere. You moving too much. That's

17:41

just WeWork. And

17:44

WeWork was a scam. You're right.

17:46

That shit fell apart. The theory is

17:48

true. Cause they wasn't working up

17:50

in there. No, they were not. They

17:53

said WeWork. Well, y'all pay bills. We

17:55

just here. But

17:58

we don't say WeWork. So then they gonna think like. they

18:00

won't think about what we do. Right, right.

18:02

It's like, you know what, what are they really doing

18:04

for us? Like, we just went in space? No, no,

18:06

no, they're working. Because remember they said we, they

18:08

didn't say you work. So

18:12

we don't know how exactly, but this

18:14

scammer has figured out that this person

18:16

is employed by this boss and sends

18:19

it through this fake email. So

18:21

you know what, I think

18:23

maybe the way they, maybe

18:26

they didn't even know what Margot's position was,

18:28

maybe it's kind of like guys

18:30

on online dating apps sometimes where they

18:32

just message the most people

18:35

and then some people will answer.

18:37

But it's just a numbers game. It's like, we're

18:40

just gonna contact all these

18:42

people and say we're the boss and see

18:44

who bites back. You're right. And it has

18:46

to be a numbers game because we've seen

18:49

this scam pop up in several different industries.

18:51

So it's like, we're just somehow getting listservs

18:53

and then just being like, hey girl, it's

18:55

me, your boss. Hey queen, it's yeah, your

18:57

boss. Yeah, you're right. And then whoever is

19:00

a boss might not answer but they will

19:02

have an existential crisis because they'll be like,

19:04

I'm the boss. Yeah,

19:07

you get an email from you that's like, hey

19:09

girl, it's me, us. Just

19:11

need you to send me a phone number for me girl.

19:14

For you. That

19:16

could confuse me for a moment. So

19:18

Margot says that this scammer text me

19:20

and said that he was on a

19:22

conference call and couldn't talk, but he

19:24

needed me to get some gift cards

19:27

for our clients and asked if I

19:29

was near a CVS or a Walgreens.

19:31

I thought this was odd since he

19:33

knew I was at work but didn't

19:35

give our, and like we don't

19:37

give our clients gifts, but

19:39

occasionally maybe we did. So, you

19:41

know, maybe it could have been true. So she was

19:43

like, one, you should

19:45

know what's near the office because we work at

19:47

the same office. And

19:50

also like, if you aren't in the business of

19:52

giving gifts it doesn't seem like the one exception

19:54

would be like, well, we gotta

19:56

get them this CVS gift card. We

19:59

gotta get them. a gift card to Bass Pro

20:01

Shop. The girls need

20:03

the Home Depot and they need...

20:05

We'll make an exception this once

20:07

for Bass Pro Shop. And they

20:09

need it now. Okay? I

20:13

have never needed a Darden gift card

20:15

more than like, what? I

20:17

need to go to Outback, okay?

20:20

Yeah. Applebee's needs the business. Exactly.

20:22

Which recently I've seen a lot of

20:25

videos online about Applebee's and people turning

20:27

up at Applebee's. And I was like,

20:29

I did not know Applebee's was

20:31

the turn up spot. Like there's places

20:34

in cities where Applebee's turned

20:36

into the club on the

20:38

weekends. What? Yeah. You got

20:40

to pay a $5 cover charge to go into an

20:43

Applebee's. But is it like

20:45

Applebee's after hours or is

20:47

it Applebee's regular hours club

20:49

vibe? It's

20:52

like on the weekends, it's like the club.

20:54

Like they just become the club. Can you

20:56

believe this? And like maybe having the drink

20:58

specials, but I didn't know. I just thought

21:00

it was always like, I

21:03

don't know, a place where you take your

21:05

kids after the soccer game. Yeah.

21:07

Right? But they said eating

21:09

good in the neighborhood. And then on the weekends

21:12

they said throw

21:14

that ass in the circle in the neighborhood. I

21:19

like that they're doing a hard pivot

21:22

in terms of their brand. I

21:24

guess so. But it's so guys, maybe I don't

21:27

know. Maybe we need to go back to Applebee's

21:29

when they opened the restaurants. Y'all y'all been dying

21:31

to get to Applebee's, which I don't understand.

21:34

I would not die for Applebee's. Maybe

21:36

they felt like TGI Fridays was getting

21:38

all the weekend crew. They were like,

21:40

we got to change up our strategy.

21:42

Yeah. Cause TGI Fridays, the whole thing

21:44

is thank God it's Friday. Yeah. Yeah.

21:46

So they're getting the girls who are

21:48

like happy hour. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep.

21:50

And Applebee's was like, you're eating good

21:53

in the neighborhood. Also we got a

21:55

DJ playing Drake. So

22:00

basically, she's like, this

22:02

is weird. So she decided to get up

22:04

from her desk and see if her boss

22:06

was in his office. Margot said that he

22:09

was and he was on the phone, but

22:11

I was suspicious. So

22:14

this actually worked out because remember he was

22:16

like, I'm on a call. Right, right. I

22:18

guess in the office, like, what's the percentage of

22:20

likelihood that you are on a call? Like probably

22:22

high. Yeah, yeah. I

22:25

feel like when you work at offices, correct

22:28

me if I'm wrong y'all, because you know

22:30

how to work at offices. I feel like you get on

22:32

a phone a lot. It depends what

22:34

you do. I used to work in a lot

22:37

of offices. It depends where your job is. Some

22:39

people is like most of their time is on

22:41

the phone, but other people, their phone is getting

22:43

dusty. Right, like I'm trying

22:45

to think of the independent office jobs where you

22:47

just are like on the computer. Did

22:50

there have to be some? I don't know what they are.

22:52

Yell them at the radio. I can't hear you, but

22:55

I do want to know. So she's like,

22:57

okay, well he's on the phone. The

22:59

scammer said I'm on the phone. Okay,

23:01

cool, but he already had some weird

23:03

questions. So she told the person

23:05

that the scammer that she was talking to

23:07

that she wasn't near a store. And they

23:09

asked if she could look one up on

23:12

Google. They're

23:16

making her do a lot of work. Right, and also

23:18

I'm like, if you could just look it up on

23:20

Google, it means you could have did it yourself. Like,

23:26

guys, when you hear things and you question yourself,

23:29

like that's when you have to have a

23:31

confident moment and be like, how I feel is

23:33

correct. What I think is right. And just

23:36

stop. Like

23:39

you did a part, like you just hung up.

23:41

You were like, you entertained for a bit, like

23:43

Margot. But at the end you were like, mm,

23:46

just tell the FBI to pull up. Well

23:49

then that, when I hung up, they called me back

23:51

like 20 times in a row and I just couldn't

23:53

pick, like the more they called me, the more I

23:55

was like, this is not real. Yeah, the

23:57

desperation of them. You know what it is? Cause they got you

23:59

so. close. Yeah, I know. I

24:02

blue balled their scams. I

24:05

don't know if that's an expression. It is. It

24:08

is. I want to use it specifically

24:10

for scams. I blue ball. I think

24:12

it's scam edging. I'm

24:16

a scam edgelord. Oh, yes.

24:19

Honestly, a lot of people who

24:21

listen to this podcast are because

24:23

I'll like for scams

24:25

like they want to know. Oh,

24:27

or yes. What

24:30

if I knew that I throw that on a survey. Age

24:34

name demographic. Are

24:36

you an edgelord? You

24:38

know, we need to know. I

24:41

thought people would tell me. But yeah, it's like

24:44

they like to get it's like me like they like to

24:46

get close to the end of the scam because you just

24:48

want to know what the girls are doing. Exactly. Exactly. This

24:50

is fascinating. Now it's a case study. Right.

24:53

Right. So I fully

24:55

understand this. So Margo immediately went

24:57

back to her desk, she says,

24:59

and read the email address and

25:01

noticed that it was not from

25:04

my boss's company email. I forwarded it

25:06

to his real email and asked him to confirm

25:08

if it was him. So okay,

25:11

she's doing she's following

25:13

her gut. I like

25:16

it. Honestly, this is

25:18

capitalism because buying gift

25:20

cards, Margo, buying

25:22

gift cards don't sound like it's a part

25:24

of your job description. Yeah. But because

25:26

you need your job, Margo, I can tell you

25:28

need your job. You were like, I don't know.

25:31

Let me go and check. Okay. He I'm

25:33

going to appear through the window. Okay. He is

25:35

on the phone call. Hmm. All right. Let

25:38

me give him a Sherlock Holmes feather cap on.

25:40

Where's my magnifying glass? They're like, I gotta go

25:42

look for clues. Like she emails

25:44

him. She's like, this you like, like she's doing so

25:46

much work when she could have just been like, I

25:48

don't know. This seems weird. I'm not going to do

25:50

it. I can't believe I

25:52

still, I think I'm reeling that the boss

25:54

was on the phone. Like it feels like

25:58

a chills that he was on the like

26:00

they said he would be. Right,

26:03

so you're right. Well, so

26:05

she forwards the email, right?

26:07

Turns out it wasn't

26:11

the boss, duh. And it was a scam.

26:13

The person had been targeting people in our

26:15

company by using my boss's name. Don't know

26:18

if they got any of my other coworkers,

26:20

but I'm glad it wasn't me. And today

26:22

is payday. Love the show, thanks. Also, you

26:25

was gonna have to buy with your own coin? Like you

26:27

weren't even gonna. I'm

26:30

not buying. So the idea was she would

26:32

buy it and then she would get reimbursed

26:34

for something? Yes, I'm not buying nothing on

26:36

the company dime. No. And to

26:38

say the capitalism thing to round that up, because

26:40

I know I said it and then didn't fully

26:42

explain. Like we need

26:44

our jobs so badly that we're

26:47

willing to do so much

26:49

to keep them. And that

26:51

setup is wrong. Like I was

26:53

reading on Twitter, clearly

26:55

I'm on Twitter a lot. There was

26:58

a person who posted a text with their boss and

27:00

their grandmother unfortunately had passed away and

27:02

they had stepped out from work. And their manager texted them

27:05

and was like, hey, you're supposed to be here at

27:07

11 a.m. Like where are you, blah, blah, blah. He

27:10

was like, oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't

27:12

even think to call. My grandmother died. And

27:14

the first thing the manager said was, okay,

27:17

well, that's fine, but in the future, just like

27:19

as soon as you can give us notice. And

27:21

it's like. No. You

27:23

put that in there. No, humanity. No,

27:29

humanity. Like we're cogs in wheels. That's why I always say,

27:31

don't give two weeks notice unless you think you really gonna

27:33

need a reference for your next job. Like,

27:36

you know, when you quit, just be like, I quit

27:38

this bitch. Because that's

27:40

what they would do to you. They wouldn't be like, in two

27:42

weeks, we gonna fire your ass. Right,

27:44

right, right. It's like, why

27:46

doesn't two weeks notice work for the other

27:48

way? Right? Or even in

27:50

restaurants. Like

27:53

if a restaurant knows it's going under, they don't

27:55

tell any employees because they

27:57

know they might steal. So you just

27:59

show. You think you got a job and it's a

28:01

chain on the door girl and it's locked up forever Yes,

28:07

they do it in New York all the time I think

28:09

it happened to me I was going to the job and

28:11

I was like Do the job

28:13

house get off my J train

28:17

I think it happened to

28:19

me like you blocked it

28:21

out Wait a minute the

28:23

job left like they could have

28:26

called you before the shift started

28:28

like what? That

28:35

also just sounds like the beginning of like

28:37

a horror movie where you're like, did I

28:39

work here? What oh

28:41

see from the minds of

28:44

a partner and then Charlie, okay, get your

28:46

Jordan P along girl get your Lockdown

28:50

movie. It's not get out. It's locked out.

28:52

Yeah locked out. Oh Yeah,

28:56

no, so what I meant by that to

28:58

sum that up was just like look at

29:00

how far You know, she went because she

29:02

was like I need this job Even though

29:04

this is not my job description and also

29:06

sadly There are

29:08

people who would buy things are people who do buy things

29:10

for their jobs When it's like the job should be paying

29:12

for all the tools to get the job done Right,

29:15

right Yeah,

29:18

I almost feel like they're not allowed to make you

29:20

pay for stuff with your own money cuz it's like

29:22

it has to come out Of there you

29:24

would think that but in America, I know

29:28

all those holes I Mean

29:30

the teachers be bringing their own supplies for the church.

29:32

Oh You

29:35

gotta go buy your own construction paper to make the

29:37

bulletin board. Oh, no The

29:40

American education system the kiddo so I

29:44

Just find this very interesting. So thank

29:46

you so much for sending in this

29:48

story Margo. We love you I'm glad

29:50

you didn't get scammed. Yeah, I'm glad

29:52

you were really thorough. I Imagine

29:55

this just being like some espionage type shit like you

29:58

went and spied on your boss It's

30:02

really fun. So I'm glad that you didn't

30:04

get Stamm though girl. And as always, if

30:06

you guys want to write in and tell

30:09

us about your schemes and your scams, that's

30:11

scamgottaspodatgmail.com. We're gonna take a break for some

30:13

non-scam advertisements. We'll be right back with historic

30:15

hoodwinks. Scams.

30:19

Back in the 90s, Pepsi and Coca-Cola were

30:21

in a heated race to try and

30:23

win loyal customers by any means necessary. But

30:25

when Pepsi launched an ambitious promotion that

30:28

encouraged people to buy Pepsi and redeem

30:30

points for prizes, they overlooked their

30:32

own fine print in a major way. On

30:35

each episode of Wondery's podcast, The Big

30:37

Flop, comedians join host Misha

30:39

Brown to chronicle one of the biggest

30:41

pop culture fails of all time and

30:44

try to answer the age old question. Who

30:46

thought this was a good idea? Like,

30:49

who at Pepsi thought it would be a good idea

30:51

to advertise that people could earn enough points to redeem

30:53

a military jet as a prize? When

30:56

they launched their Pepsi points system, they

30:58

never imagined somebody might try to actually

31:00

snag it. But a

31:02

23-year-old did, and suddenly Pepsi owed him

31:05

a jet. Follow The

31:07

Big Flop wherever you get your podcasts. Cots!

31:13

And we're back. And it's

31:15

time for my favorite segment of

31:17

the show, historic hoodwinks. Yeah, yeah.

31:20

What if I did that every week? You guys would hate

31:22

me. I didn't

31:24

even try. But

31:28

guys, this time for historic hoodwinks, I'm going

31:30

to regale Aparna with a famous caper, con

31:32

man, and we're just going to get our

31:35

opinions throughout, you know, see, she's liking it.

31:37

You know, sometimes we love him, sometimes we

31:39

don't. That's just the way of the world.

31:41

So we have

31:44

Professor Han and his, I'm just going to call

31:46

him Professor Han, just so I don't butcher his

31:48

first name. Professor Han and

31:50

his research company, which he ran

31:53

out of his garage, defrauded federal

31:55

research funds for over $1 million

31:57

for their own personal expenses. They

32:00

mean him and his wife. Wow,

32:03

two person operation. And you know, we

32:05

like to keep it small. I

32:07

know. That feels like a key part of

32:10

a scam. You gotta keep the

32:12

circle tight. Right. And honestly, you should

32:14

scan with your partner. Like if you're

32:16

married to someone, you should scan with

32:18

that person because y'all got spousal privilege.

32:20

You know, y'all probably got a joint

32:22

bank account. Like it just feels like

32:24

that's who you should be doing robbery

32:26

with is like whoever you

32:28

choose to love. That does feel like

32:30

the natural pick, but then they're the

32:32

people who are scamming their partners. That's

32:36

the same thing to me. That's

32:40

not love. What

32:42

you mean? Love isn't like pen

32:44

and a routing number. Cause

32:47

that's what I want my vows to be. You

32:49

just recite your social security, your pen and your

32:51

routing number to me and your

32:53

favorite childhood pet. Your

32:57

mother's maiden name. Gotta

33:00

have that. If

33:02

we're really in love your grandmother's maiden name. So

33:06

before professor Han was a professor, he

33:08

was a young boy in China that

33:10

moved from place to place due to

33:12

religious persecution and poverty. He

33:15

worked as a farmer and construction worker

33:17

until he graduated high school. So, you

33:19

know, professor Han was out here hustling.

33:22

He really was. I can't believe

33:24

he hadn't even graduated high school.

33:26

He already had two careers. And

33:30

I told y'all if your kid has too many

33:32

careers in high school, they might be a scammer.

33:34

Okay. Kids who are that

33:36

interested in money, they like crime. I

33:38

know. Cause

33:40

most kids just ask for what they want. But you

33:42

know, if the kid is like, no, no, no, I

33:44

really would like to make money and

33:47

it's not necessary for the household. You

33:49

need to look into the job. I'm gonna

33:51

need a little more allowance this month

33:53

cause my business didn't come through. Right.

33:57

I'm doing Bitcoin. Yeah. In between

33:59

periods. at a sale Bitcoin, two

34:01

people. So

34:04

he works real hard, right?

34:06

At 20, Han earned

34:08

a bachelor's and master's degree

34:10

in meta allergy at two

34:12

technical universities in China. Wait,

34:14

meta allergy? No, I said

34:17

that wrong, it's metallurgy. Ha

34:19

ha ha ha. Yo,

34:21

I need- I thought it was

34:23

like a philosophical approach to

34:25

allergy. I'm still not saying it right,

34:27

I know I'm not. Metallurgy,

34:30

you know what, I was just gonna say, normally

34:32

I say it real quick, I don't know why I put so much thank

34:34

on it when I knew I did not know

34:36

how to pronounce it. I was like, and met-a-ral-o-gies.

34:40

Y'all know met-a-ral-o-gies, that's when

34:42

you met. And you

34:44

also need Benadryl for your allergies. Yeah,

34:49

I went to college, I swear. Anyway,

34:54

so he's double, you know, degreed up

34:56

from universities in China. He was the

34:58

assistant professor at a university in Beijing

35:00

for several years before he was accepted

35:02

into the doctoral program in materials science

35:04

at Oxford University. Ooh, Oxford, I like

35:07

how you smart. You

35:09

just already lived a life. Right, I'm

35:11

like, you went to all the schools.

35:13

Like, that's a lot of schools. But

35:17

yeah, now you say it like, also at 20, he

35:20

got a bachelor's and a master's. That's

35:24

not even four years of

35:26

college. Right, he was doing college.

35:28

Like, he came in there and worked college

35:30

hard. We love to

35:32

see it. That was his first scam. Right,

35:34

because then you can get it cheaper, I guess, if

35:36

you... Yeah, yeah, one year

35:39

less. Right, so then he

35:41

goes to Oxford where he got

35:43

his doctorate. So now he's Dr.

35:45

Hahn. Yes, Dr. Hahn. Dr. Hahn

35:47

was hired as a professor, Dr.

35:49

Professor Hahn. That sounds like a

35:51

cartoon show. It's

35:55

me. Coming to Adult Swim. Dr.

35:58

Professor Hahn. It's

36:00

definitely on Adult Swim. So

36:03

Han was hired as a professor in

36:05

the Department of Mechanical Engineering and

36:07

Technology at Purdue in 2007. So

36:10

now he's made it to the States and

36:13

he's at Purdue. Where is Purdue again? I

36:15

want to say, oh, is it,

36:18

I want to say Malibu. Oh,

36:21

I was going to guess like Kentucky or something.

36:23

Let me look at it. Let

36:25

me see. Indiana. Okay.

36:28

Wow. Okay. We

36:30

both got it. Pepperdine is in Malibu. Okay. That's

36:33

what I was thinking of. Okay. God, I

36:35

just sound so dumb on this episode. I'm

36:40

like, why are we listening to this bitch? She's

36:43

stupid. Usually

36:45

I have some facts for the girls.

36:47

I'll be having some things for y'all,

36:49

but you know, today I'm just, so

36:51

Purdue. Hey, we can't all be Dr.

36:54

Professor Han. Yeah, I'm not Dr. Professor

36:56

Han. Okay. I'm at 51 degrees. I'm

36:58

at 51 and maybe

37:00

two or three, you know, scam degrees.

37:03

So I think

37:05

I just liked Raman Malibu with Purdue. Anyway, so he

37:08

goes to Purdue in 2007. So

37:10

he's in Indiana. Han published more than 200 articles,

37:13

mentored dozens of Purdue students, led

37:15

colleagues in over 30 research projects

37:17

funded by public and private sponsors,

37:19

and was the go-to person for

37:21

solving light metal processing issues in

37:24

manufacturing. You

37:26

know, light metal processing issues. You know what those

37:28

are. No, I will explain what they are. So

37:31

Professor Hans had a small

37:33

business and

37:36

it was called Hans Tech, which

37:41

I don't know about that name.

37:45

We'll let you have it. Hans Technology,

37:47

Company of Technology. Well,

37:50

he didn't have a degree in naming

37:53

things, I guess. You're right. He

37:55

has his things. He has his metaturgy.

37:57

I have my naming things. I'll

38:00

have our lanes. So much of

38:02

the company's research dealt with

38:04

strengthening of the lightweight metals

38:06

used in aerospace defense and

38:08

automotive industries, according to the

38:10

Grant Award abstracts. So basically

38:12

that's like, when

38:14

we fly into space, like the girls need the

38:16

ship to be light, but they need it to

38:18

be strong. And

38:22

so like, is this a metaphor? No,

38:25

it's not. That was

38:27

me really giving you guys my

38:29

educated explanation of lightweight

38:32

metals and how you get them. I'm

38:35

also just very pissed off about space

38:37

in general. Like we literally just, Space

38:41

Force called back to your

38:43

show. But like, why are we going

38:46

to space? Like there's a pandemic.

38:48

Can we just fix that first? Like Elon Musk was

38:50

like, no, we go into the moon y'all. Elon Musk,

38:52

I'm convinced is a scammer. Oh

38:54

yeah. I feel like every billionaire

38:57

is a scammer. He had one good lane,

38:59

which was making the Tesla. And then he

39:01

started wiling. I feel like he's like the

39:03

Kanye of Silicon Valley where he was just

39:06

like, I can do anything. I

39:11

am part God. Right.

39:14

Cause that's how he ended up making that ugly

39:16

as Tesla truck is cause that's like the equivalent

39:18

of Kanye's new shoes that just look crazy. They're

39:20

just like, people will buy anything I make. I

39:23

am a genius. So now he's like

39:25

to the moon. And I'm like, girl, please

39:28

don't give this man money to go to the moon. If

39:30

black people said we wanted to go to the moon, y'all

39:32

would never give us money for that. Even

39:36

if we said we'd stay there, you'd be like, no, we

39:38

can't believe that black people would go to the moon. It's

39:41

too real. I can't even get a

39:43

joke. Oh no, it's fine. I have to

39:46

joke about it. That's how I stay alive. So

39:49

according to a Purdue webpage on

39:52

Hawn, he oversaw the metal casting

39:54

labs as well as research relating

39:56

to the product of metals. We

39:59

all. with these things are. You

40:01

know how I be in the metal cast and lamb,

40:04

okay? I imagine it just like

40:06

Grey's Anatomy, they suck a bunch of white coat

40:08

scientists just like getting horny for each other while

40:11

they're like fucking with the metals. Their

40:14

hands touch accidentally. Next thing you

40:17

know, they're in the scrap lodge.

40:19

I can't. Make

40:22

it out. They're really painting

40:24

a scene, I love it. I

40:27

want this for them. I want the

40:30

scientists, like we need a horny drama

40:32

about scientists, it's just like that. They're

40:34

just in the lab with the beakers,

40:36

but it's like somehow so sexy. I

40:40

want that. Yeah, I'm

40:42

here, I would watch it. I just

40:44

feel like every industry has to be sexed up. We've

40:46

seen the law so many times, we've seen the hospitals.

40:49

We've seen the law, we've seen police. Yep,

40:51

we've seen the police, we've seen firefighters.

40:55

Yes. Metal processing, we're coming for

40:57

you. We're gonna get there, 2021. The

41:01

horniest drama of all. So

41:05

basically we just talked about how

41:08

the Purdue webpage described his jobs.

41:10

Hans Tech, that's his company, was

41:12

also fortunate enough to be the

41:15

recipient of multiple grants from the

41:17

NSF National Science Foundation. Small Business

41:19

Technology Transfer and Small Business Innovation

41:22

Research Programs. So basically this is like, if

41:25

the girls are smart, but they don't have

41:27

the coins, then we come in and we

41:29

give them the coins so that they can

41:31

make the things that we need. So,

41:35

during his time at the university, Hans

41:38

received the 2007 Light Metals Subject Award.

41:43

What a niche award. Wow,

41:45

it's so specific. But

41:49

I would love to be a fly up on

41:51

the wall at that awards dinner. Right, do you

41:53

think they have an open bar? Are

41:56

they just serving red and white?

41:58

Is it in a Marriott? It's

42:00

giving Marriott. Dining Room, Airport Marriott.

42:02

Definitely Marriott Basement, right? Not

42:04

basement, they can't even get the dining room. That's

42:07

why they have the weddings, girl, okay? We

42:10

do these light metal subject awards down

42:12

in the basement. Near

42:14

the extra plates. Yeah, yeah.

42:17

I will say this gives me FOMO though, because

42:19

I will never win this award. Like to know

42:21

that there's an award that I truly could never

42:23

win. We're not in the running. Yeah, what's life

42:25

about, man? So I

42:28

was awarded more than $300,000 in grants. So

42:31

he got $300,000. Yeah, in

42:33

grants. Because of

42:35

that one award? Yeah, that's

42:37

what comes with it. When you win the award, they're like,

42:40

and here's the coin with the award. That's

42:43

like more than a reality show. Right?

42:47

Also like y'all are calling it an award,

42:49

but isn't it just a grant? Like

42:51

they do award you the grant, but I've

42:53

never, you can a plaque with it too

42:55

or something? Let them have this. Okay, you're

42:57

right. I'm trying to take too much away

42:59

from the scientists and they don't deserve that,

43:01

okay? They've been working. They

43:04

don't have a lot. They

43:06

don't get a procedural. I

43:09

will say if you're a scientist right now and

43:11

you're working on the vaccine, or even if you're

43:13

not, like get your Instagram popping

43:15

because the girls are horny for the vaccine.

43:17

Like I want to see you in the

43:19

lab, like, oh, we got cultures and I

43:21

want to see you posing. Give me fits,

43:24

okay? That's what I want. I

43:26

want you in a hazmat suit, giving the

43:28

girls fashion. Like this is

43:31

your moment to become famous. Cause I

43:33

think like- This is your time. Any

43:35

random profession, someone can become famous if

43:37

the stars all lie. Like

43:39

Joe the plumber, the most famous plumber

43:41

ever. It

43:45

just worked out he was on a political trick

43:47

campaign where they were- I would argue if

43:50

it's going to be anyone's year, it's going to

43:52

be the vaccine scientists year, 2020. See,

43:56

there's too many, like Moderna's working on it, Pfizer.

43:58

So who was the original girl? Like we need

44:00

a show, you guys are fight. Like I wanna

44:02

know who was like Eureka. Eureka,

44:08

I have it. That's

44:11

how scientists talk, right? Yeah, yeah,

44:13

definitely. They all have spiky

44:15

white hair. But

44:18

yeah, I wanna know, I'm sorry, if I

44:21

find the vaccine now, I'm tweeting immediately. Like

44:23

I want my credit. Yeah, that's

44:25

like on Twitter, like someone trying to

44:28

take credit for a joke that 500

44:30

people made. Right, which there are some

44:32

accounts that do that. I'm

44:35

not gonna say no names, honey, but they have millions

44:37

of followers. And I'm like, you'd be stealing jokes, you

44:39

stole my jokes. And sometimes you

44:41

know your jokes been stolen because it's so niche. You

44:45

couldn't have been thinking about this. You're like,

44:48

what? I love the idea that someone's

44:50

gonna come out of the woodwork after

44:52

the vaccine comes out and be like, this

44:55

was my vaccine. I thought of

44:57

this in my basement in 2017. Honestly,

45:00

if nobody comes out with it, I'm going to claim

45:02

it. I'm

45:05

gonna call Nobel and tell him I deserve the peace,

45:08

okay? Because

45:10

I did this. I better be getting my

45:12

medal soft subject award. I already forgot what

45:15

it was called. The

45:17

lightweight medal. Now

45:20

that you say that, I'm like, maybe that's how

45:22

I can sneak my way into getting that award.

45:25

And I also would like another award that is

45:27

unrelated, but I deserve.

45:29

So the scam. Han and his

45:32

wife, Shao, use some of

45:34

their funds to purchase a house in her

45:36

name for $116,000, which,

45:40

okay, yeah, they gotta be in Indiana

45:42

because you ain't getting no house for

45:44

that in Los Angeles. House, okay. Also,

45:49

they took long enough to mention his wife.

45:52

Right, right, because he was being

45:54

a bad boy, getting awards, working on the

45:56

farm. And so she... The

46:00

house is in her name, of course. And

46:03

she signed a lease with herself as the

46:05

landlord for 3,000 per month. So

46:08

she bought the house and then basically said, I'm

46:10

gonna rent it out and I'm

46:12

the landlord and I'm charging myself $3,000 a

46:14

month. Whoa.

46:17

It was later revealed that over $150,000 of

46:20

the NSF grant money, mind you, that's

46:23

just the grant money that

46:25

he got for the awards, right? The award

46:27

that we've known her of. So that's half

46:29

the money. Whoa.

46:32

Because it was $300,000. So $150,000 of that grant money

46:34

the company received was

46:38

used to pay office rent

46:41

at the location, which was their

46:43

home. You

46:45

know how office rent be at your own

46:47

home. Oh sure. You know. You

46:50

think that's what all the dentists are

46:52

doing where it's like the office is

46:54

just there, a different side of their

46:56

house? You know what I'm talking

46:58

about? I do know what you're talking about because

47:01

I'm from Texas and all the dentist office in

47:03

Texas look like somebody's house. Oh

47:06

my God, what if they live in upstairs? It's

47:08

all a scam. Oh my goodness. You might be

47:10

honest with them because they all do look like

47:12

you pull up. You're like, is this somebody's crib?

47:14

Like, are they about to do braces to me?

47:16

Like, do they know what they doing? You

47:21

are right about that. Hmm,

47:23

curious. Curious. I

47:26

definitely say my office is in my house. Do you say your office is

47:28

in your house? Yeah. I

47:31

don't know any artists who have a different

47:33

office somewhere else. Right, that's

47:35

classy. That's when you start making money,

47:38

money. Yeah. Oh, wait. So if your

47:40

office is in your house Aparna, how

47:42

much are you charging yourself rent for

47:44

your office? You know,

47:46

it depends. I'm on a month to

47:49

month, please. Not

47:52

a month to month. Like look, right

47:55

now I'm not, I'm getting coronavirus A

47:57

for my office rent. separately

48:00

from my house. I'm

48:02

sure somebody's doing that. So

48:05

they did not inform the NSF that

48:07

they were married, right? So

48:10

mind you, like basically he's

48:13

now treating his wife like

48:15

she's an employee too. So

48:17

the office is their house, the wife

48:20

is the employee. Like this is like...

48:23

This sounds like one of those

48:25

logic puzzles. It's

48:27

a happy scamily, you know what I mean? They

48:30

were like, we're keeping it in the family, okay?

48:32

I love you, you love me. It's a happy

48:34

scamily with a great big hug and

48:37

a fraud from me to you. Shout

48:40

out to Barney, one of the realest to ever do

48:42

it. One

48:47

of the original scammers. Right, one of

48:49

the original scammers, Barney, okay? He was

48:51

a purple dinosaur. That shit didn't make

48:53

no sense. And he was always trying

48:55

to get me to do shit. Clean

48:57

up, clean up, everybody do your shit.

49:00

Barney. He

49:02

had me cleaning and I thought that shit was fun. So

49:06

they didn't tell the NSF like, hey,

49:08

things are shady over here. Had

49:10

that information had been revealed to the NSF,

49:13

the National Science Foundation, rental payments for the

49:15

property would not have been allowed. So

49:17

that's why they didn't say anything because they were like, he's

49:20

basically giving the girls a Bill

49:23

Gates moment. Because you know, we all hear

49:25

about Bill Gates just being in his garage,

49:27

tinkering with control all delete. So

49:29

he's like, that's what I'm doing too. I'm in here

49:31

Bill Gates in it. So I

49:33

could have got an office with y'all's grant money, but

49:35

instead I bought this house where I Bill Gates it.

49:38

Okay. That's what

49:40

he puts on his tax forms. He's like, this

49:42

year I Bill Gates did. So

49:44

you guys know what that means. You

49:47

write it all off. So the couple's

49:49

two children who were minors at the

49:51

time, see a scamily, little

49:54

baby robbers. She loved to see it. They

49:57

also received salaries, these babies. of

50:00

$24,000 for their supposed roles

50:04

as Secretary and

50:08

technical assistant during funded

50:11

research projects. Oh

50:13

my God. You

50:17

know, I like this because

50:19

a lot of parents take out credit

50:21

cards in their children's names and fuck

50:23

up their credit. Your kids put you

50:25

on a payroll. They gave you the

50:28

Beyonce treatment. They're like, you're Blue Ivy.

50:30

You're out here getting checks. Yes,

50:32

yes. You're already making

50:34

money. Like Blue Ivy was the youngest

50:36

person to ever feature on a song.

50:38

She was an infant. They

50:41

was like, Blue Ivy get over here and cool on the mic. Get

50:44

to work. I feel like

50:46

her ultrasound already had a career. Right?

50:49

Like they just put this machine up

50:52

and they're like, she's just kicking in there

50:54

giving the baseline. I wouldn't be shocked. She

50:56

is the most employed baby. And that's why

50:58

I love her. Like I love

51:00

an employed baby. So we have two employed

51:03

babies here who are doing

51:05

the research and the technical assistant.

51:09

So shout out investigators, this is the wife,

51:11

their elder daughters started conducting research for the

51:13

company while in high school and continued a

51:15

consulting role when she left for college. Okay,

51:18

so at least one of the kids is

51:20

old enough that it's like, Yeah,

51:22

plus it's like her dad had like

51:24

three careers. Right,

51:29

she's on track actually. She's on track. Yeah,

51:31

cause he had like at least six degrees

51:33

by then. No, I'm playing, he had like

51:35

two, but. He was like, keep up. Right,

51:38

so kind of believable.

51:40

In return for working at Hans Tech,

51:42

Hans said the elder daughter would have

51:44

her entire college tuition paid for. So

51:47

he'd have turned paying babies

51:50

college into a job that

51:54

he's filing with a grant that

51:56

he got. Wow. But

52:00

that's some good mental gymnastics there though.

52:02

I know, I'm just impressed by the

52:06

ingenuity here. He

52:09

was like, if you work for me, I

52:12

will send all of your

52:14

money directly to produce admissions

52:16

office. Right. Like

52:19

a parent does. Like, I

52:23

love this guy. I think that this was great.

52:26

So shout out to investigators that her older

52:28

daughter's contributions to the projects made the

52:30

payments legitimate. So she's like, she was really

52:32

working. Like she, she was getting the medal.

52:35

She was seeing if it was light, you

52:37

know, she worked. The

52:39

daughter worked at substantial amounts on

52:42

paper involving grain refinement. She said,

52:44

oh, so she works

52:46

substantial amounts on a paper involving grain refinement.

52:48

So basically he gave his daughter a homework

52:51

assignment. Assignment, yeah. And

52:54

then was like, yay, college

52:56

tuition paid. One

52:59

paper, that's how you work here. So

53:01

getting caught. The National Science

53:03

Foundation grew suspicious of house research

53:05

in the lab. Began

53:08

an investigation with assistance from the

53:10

FBI. So this is how they

53:12

kind of got suspicious of Hahn,

53:15

Dr. Hahn, professor. So in

53:17

January of 2017, a woman named Patricia

53:19

Crowder sound like a hater. I

53:21

know. Patricia Crowder, it's

53:23

crowded in here. Like we need you to get

53:25

out. So

53:28

she bought the home from the couple

53:30

and then Crowder said about six months

53:32

after moving in, she was contacted by

53:35

the National Science Foundation. So

53:39

she bought the second home. Cause remember

53:41

they bought two homes with the grant

53:43

money. They really balled out. And then

53:45

they paid the rents for the office

53:47

in the home and the garage office.

53:49

Yeah, and the tuition. So the second

53:51

home, they're like, let's sell this home.

53:53

Like let's give it to the girls.

53:56

So they gave it to Patricia Crowder.

53:58

And then here comes the FBI. like,

54:00

hello? So

54:05

they came to the house and

54:07

they wanted to look around. They

54:09

wanted to know about smells and

54:11

stains and plugins and stuff like

54:14

that. What? They wanted to

54:16

know if I knew the people and I didn't.

54:19

So I'm guessing

54:21

what this is like, them being like, are

54:23

you a scientist? Are you, do you know

54:25

anything about that? Do you work for Hans

54:27

Tech in like the most chill way?

54:30

She didn't even have to probably do this. She

54:32

probably would have been like, FBI, go away. And

54:35

also to be like, we're here to

54:37

search for stains and smells. Like you're not

54:40

gonna let that person in. But like,

54:42

no, you can flash that badge as

54:44

quick as you want. This is no

54:46

for me. So guilty.

54:48

So the NSF gathered through

54:50

evidence that they could take this

54:52

to court. So both Han and the

54:54

company were placed on probation for two years

54:56

and sentenced to pay restitution of $1,351,956 to

54:58

the National Science Foundation and

55:04

$300,000 to the Indiana Economic Development Corps. And

55:08

Hans was also fined $25,000 and charged a

55:11

hundred dollars special assessment fee. The

55:15

hundred dollars is petty. I

55:18

know, that part is like, okay. And also

55:21

a hundred dollars for me, for

55:23

my troubles. And

55:26

so along with, he

55:28

got all of that and 200 hours

55:30

of community service. So Shao herself was

55:32

not placed on probation. That's his wife.

55:34

Nor was she made to pay a fine.

55:36

Though the company she represented was barred

55:38

from participating in any federal programs and

55:40

charged a $400 special assessment fee. I don't

55:42

know what the special assessment fee is.

55:46

Yeah, what does that mean? It's

55:48

so vague. Like the government loves to throw

55:50

in a charge. And it's like, what

55:53

are y'all- It's almost like they feel like

55:55

you're gonna be too tired at that point

55:57

to fight it. So they just add some

55:59

charges at the end. They're like, you're already

56:01

sick of dealing with us. Right,

56:03

they're like, let's sprinkle some fees for some little

56:05

razzle dance, you know. Let's

56:07

season this all up. You're right, because it's like, no one wants to

56:10

deal with the court system. So we're like, all right, $500 and

56:12

y'all never call me again? Great. Yeah.

56:15

Like that's their whole point is to be a pest. But

56:18

also, I feel like he, I don't know about you, but

56:20

I feel like at this point, I'm sort of like, I

56:24

don't really think he did anything bad. Like he's

56:26

sort of following this, not to generalize

56:28

all immigrants, but I have immigrant parents and I

56:30

feel like there is this thing

56:32

of like, save money any way you can.

56:34

And he just did it on a sort

56:36

of bigger scale. That's

56:39

true. And also, I mean, he was

56:41

researching, like he did know about the

56:43

light. He knew enough to win the

56:45

grant. He made his kids

56:47

do research. I

56:49

don't know y'all, this feels like, that's

56:52

why I'm glad that they didn't put

56:54

him in jail. So they say, though

56:56

Han reportedly made strides in his research,

56:58

even filing some patents and beginning the

57:00

process of commercialization, he still used the

57:02

funds that should have been given to

57:04

more deserving, more honest candidates. I don't

57:06

know. I agree with you

57:08

Aparna. Like if I'm doing all

57:10

this research for free, like I should have my bills

57:12

paid and my kids should be able to go to

57:14

college. Like, yeah. So

57:18

the lawyer contended that though. He said that

57:20

Han made a mistake and criminally received a

57:22

federal grant fund. He still, even though that

57:24

happened, right? So even though he did kind

57:27

of steal it, he still completed

57:29

useful research for the auto industry. Work that

57:31

could lead to cars being built with more

57:33

efficient metal that are lighter and stronger. So

57:35

he's still out here giving the Ford, you

57:37

know, built for a tough. Yeah.

57:42

Professor Dr. Han. I

57:46

think I like you. He was taking care

57:49

of your scamily. You were putting your kids

57:51

through college and you actually did some research.

57:53

I don't know. I feel like the

57:55

NSF, y'all are haters. Yeah, it's not

57:57

like he was using the money to like move. to

58:00

Mexico and get to see him. And also

58:02

if you gave him the money, why are

58:04

you following up so much? I

58:06

mean, follow up like, hey, have you made anything

58:09

new? Is this helping the research? But you don't

58:11

even follow up like, did you use it on

58:13

your light bill? Or like, I see you got

58:15

a gardener now. Is that, but be science money

58:17

you paying him with. I

58:20

don't know. Well guys, we're gonna

58:22

take a quick break with some non-scam advertisements and we'll be

58:24

back for the saddest part of the show when I have

58:26

to let a partner go. Robbery!

58:30

One morning you just walk in with a

58:32

bag of everyone's faves from McDonald's, drop it

58:35

on the counter and say, breakfast is on

58:37

me. Boom! That's the power of

58:39

saving money on the McDonald's app. Hope you can

58:41

handle all that. Save money with the app. A

58:43

participant in McDonald's must opt into rewards. And

58:47

fraud! And

58:49

we're back. And it's time for

58:52

scammer of the week. And this is where

58:54

we'll highlight one charlatan that we think is

58:56

worthy of our praise. But sometimes they're trash.

58:58

FYI. Sometimes we love them,

59:01

sometimes we hate their goods. So

59:03

this is Jennifer Alejandra. And she's accused of

59:05

scamming more than $160,000 from

59:08

Walt Disney World when she worked for

59:11

the company in a position involving resolving

59:13

guests complaints. Oh my gosh. I'm

59:16

intrigued already. Have you ever worked in

59:19

customer service? I,

59:21

yeah, I used to work at LL

59:23

Beans in, LL

59:25

Bean in returns and exchanges at the

59:28

mall. I bet that was pleasant. It

59:31

was pleasant. I think because their

59:33

clientele is like very wholesome

59:36

white people. They are. They're just like, oh,

59:38

I'm sorry to bother you, but the shoe

59:40

stabbed me in my foot when I was

59:42

hacking. Yeah, no, cause I used

59:44

to date a guy who like was really an LL

59:47

Bean to the point where he was like, come on,

59:49

you have to get some LL Bean boots with me.

59:51

And I was like, okay. I returned them sheets. But

59:55

I think you're right though. I think their

59:57

customer base is like extremely loyal where it's

59:59

like. I grew up on Bean and I'll

1:00:01

die on Bean. That's what it was. His daddy was

1:00:03

a Bean and he was like, I am a Bean

1:00:05

too. If you want

1:00:07

to be with me, you got to be with LL Bean. I

1:00:11

was like, okay, I guess I'll get with them.

1:00:15

This woman, Jennifer, her job involved

1:00:17

offering cash refunds to guests who

1:00:19

were unhappy with their experience for

1:00:21

any reason while visiting Disney. That's

1:00:24

a lot of power. Right? Too

1:00:26

much, but I like it. Her

1:00:28

role was also, it

1:00:31

gave her the opportunity to offer free tickets

1:00:34

instead of compensation. So

1:00:37

two years between March 2016 and July

1:00:39

2018, she

1:00:44

allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, issued

1:00:46

more than 40 fake refunds and directed

1:00:48

the cash towards the bank accounts of

1:00:50

people that she knew. Ooh.

1:00:54

Girl. I

1:00:58

know Mickey's somewhere smiling all you

1:01:00

girl. Okay.

1:01:06

So guests still received their refunds,

1:01:08

but money was stolen directly from

1:01:10

her former employer. In total, she's

1:01:12

accused of making more than 40

1:01:14

fake refunds varying from a few

1:01:16

hundred dollars to several thousand dollars

1:01:18

through a combination of checks and

1:01:20

credit cards belonging to her friends

1:01:22

and family. Wow. So now

1:01:25

that's gambling. She was like, hey

1:01:27

y'all, y'all trying to get these passes? Y'all. I

1:01:30

don't even know what they got

1:01:32

at Disney. I went to Disney

1:01:35

world so long ago. I haven't been to Disneyland.

1:01:38

Have I been to, I think I've been to

1:01:40

both. I think the last one I went to

1:01:42

was Disney world, like seven years ago.

1:01:44

Oh yeah. World is cute. They would scam

1:01:46

us by making us do, I think I

1:01:49

was scammed, but I think I actually was

1:01:51

scammed by Disney world. God

1:01:53

is coming back to me. So when

1:01:55

you were in choir in school, you

1:01:57

would, went

1:02:00

to school in Florida for a little bit. And they

1:02:02

would be like, oh, it's time for the choir's

1:02:04

annual trip to Disney World. And we all go

1:02:06

into Disney World. And we didn't have to pay

1:02:08

to get into Disney World. But we did have

1:02:11

to low-key work. We

1:02:14

had to go perform our songs for people.

1:02:18

At Disney World? Yeah, it was just

1:02:20

like vibes. We was just providing vibes. I

1:02:24

was like, did Walt Disney help me? Was

1:02:26

I supposed to be in there? I didn't want you to work. But

1:02:29

you're like, oh, is Disney World like, oh, OK, this

1:02:31

is our trip. You don't

1:02:33

think about it. Yeah, but they're probably like,

1:02:35

how can we get children to sing at

1:02:37

Disney World? And we don't have to

1:02:40

pay them. It's like contracting. You know what I mean? And then

1:02:42

at the fall or something, we can't. They can't sue us. Kind

1:02:47

of love capitalism. So

1:02:50

oh, no. So I have to tell you all the

1:02:52

end of this real quick. So

1:02:55

she's accused of doing all this shit. She

1:02:58

was working with her friends and family. Investigators

1:03:00

were able to track where her transactions went

1:03:02

after noticing that Jennifer appeared to be friends

1:03:04

with seven of the people on her Facebook

1:03:06

page. Yo, when

1:03:08

I tell you all the feds are

1:03:10

on Mark Zuckerberg's app. Oh, yeah. Y'all

1:03:13

got to stop posting. And

1:03:16

also stop giving so much of your

1:03:18

personal information. We've talked about this. If

1:03:20

you are doing crime with people, you

1:03:22

should definitely not have a direct link

1:03:24

to them. You know, it shouldn't be

1:03:26

like, had so much fun

1:03:28

doing that crime yesterday. And then someone

1:03:30

so hard at this. Why are y'all? I

1:03:33

know. Remember MySpace? I feel like it

1:03:36

would be like in your MySpace top

1:03:38

eight with all your crimes. All your

1:03:40

accomplices. Yeah,

1:03:44

don't put your accomplices in your top eight.

1:03:46

You got to just spread that out. Also,

1:03:50

the feds, again, are on Facebook. Sometimes I

1:03:52

see scammers or people like, oh, I got

1:03:54

a felony, but I still got that thing

1:03:56

on me. And it's like the gun and

1:03:58

the money. or

1:04:00

like they're posing with lots of hundreds like

1:04:02

all the way down their arm. And I'm

1:04:05

like, y'all the feds love Facebook. Okay. It's

1:04:09

made their job so much easier, I bet.

1:04:11

So easy, between that and 23andMe, they're done.

1:04:13

They can call it that. Damn, that's why

1:04:15

I don't do 23andMe because I got killed.

1:04:17

I got family with strikes. I don't want

1:04:19

them pulling my cousins in. But,

1:04:22

oh my God, that makes so much sense. Cause

1:04:24

I wonder how hard it was to be in

1:04:26

the FBI back before all this modern technology. We

1:04:28

was just on foot. I know. We were just

1:04:30

going door to door. Door to door being like,

1:04:33

does this person look familiar? Please

1:04:35

help. Right, please help. You're outside like,

1:04:38

you probably needed to use a stapler

1:04:40

gun a lot. And back in older

1:04:42

times, FBI. Totally. Instead of getting a

1:04:44

little kid with the missing dog. Right

1:04:46

then, like, low T, criminal.

1:04:48

Have y'all seen this man? Call

1:04:51

us. Yeah. That

1:04:54

was probably trash. Now they can just get online and be

1:04:56

like, gotcha bitch. So, one relative

1:04:59

didn't question a positive $18,567 when

1:05:03

it allegedly appeared in her account. What

1:05:05

she said went to be used for

1:05:07

bills and school books. Another friend allegedly

1:05:09

received $24,000. Jennifer

1:05:12

had been booked into the Osaka

1:05:14

County Jail or Osakola County Jail

1:05:17

on her first degree felony and

1:05:19

grand theft charges. Wow. Wow.

1:05:23

I mean, she was helping her friends and

1:05:25

family though. I know. That's

1:05:28

like the farthest reach

1:05:30

of when you work at the

1:05:33

Gap or something. You're like, you can use my

1:05:35

discount. It's like that. She took

1:05:37

the Gap discount. And

1:05:39

she said, this is how I win. Yeah,

1:05:44

you're right. She had too much dip on her

1:05:46

trip. She could have just been the girl who

1:05:48

gave out the Disney tickets. Y'all could be reselling

1:05:51

the Disney tickets from the low for the VIP

1:05:53

and all that. You didn't have to start giving

1:05:55

away 24,000. You

1:05:58

thought they weren't gonna start seeing missing their money.

1:06:01

That's the thing about corporations, they will always, they

1:06:03

may take some time, but they will be like,

1:06:05

hmm, bitterman. I

1:06:10

think we're missing some money. So

1:06:13

guys, I think I like Jennifer. I'm sorry

1:06:15

that she's- Yeah, I think I like her

1:06:18

too. I like that she's spreading the wealth.

1:06:20

Right, she was just redistributing. She was like,

1:06:22

if y'all don't pay taxes, I'ma pay them

1:06:24

for you. She was like

1:06:26

Robin Hood of Disney World. Right, I love

1:06:28

her. I love this for her. All

1:06:30

right guys, well, we've reached the end of the show.

1:06:32

We're gonna have to let a part of it go.

1:06:35

All right, we always ask, where do you wanna be found? Oh,

1:06:39

on the internet? Yeah, or wherever you wanna be found.

1:06:41

We don't want you to be found, places you don't

1:06:43

wanna be found. I'm

1:06:45

on, you know, I'm on Twitter, Instagram.

1:06:48

I think those are probably my most

1:06:50

posted plans. Like I have a

1:06:52

website, but it feels rude to even tell people

1:06:54

what it is because it has never been updated.

1:06:56

The first time I Googled you, I

1:06:59

saw your website and I was like. Oh,

1:07:01

it comes up. It's first, it's first. And

1:07:03

I was like, look at her be a

1:07:05

classy, with a website all classy. I don't

1:07:07

have a website because it just feels like

1:07:09

another thing to do right now. I don't

1:07:11

think people wanna go to people's websites. I'm

1:07:13

like, my website's Instagram. Yeah, exactly. Go to

1:07:15

my website there. Okay, and that's just your

1:07:17

name on all platforms, right? Yeah,

1:07:20

it's just a part napkin, but pretty much

1:07:22

you put it in a part and you'll

1:07:24

find it. A part napkin, guys, on all

1:07:26

platforms. Anything you wanna promote? I know you

1:07:28

have a special coming out. Not

1:07:31

a special, you have a show coming out.

1:07:33

I don't know what it says. Oh, yes,

1:07:35

yes, yes. A show in January. I was

1:07:38

like, I have a special? Cool. January, this

1:07:41

show, animated show called The Great North.

1:07:43

I do a voice on it, so that comes

1:07:45

out soon. Yes, and Shania Wery. So look out

1:07:47

for The Great North. I love

1:07:49

animated cartoons, so I'm definitely gonna give this

1:07:52

a watch. And as always, you

1:07:54

can find us at scamgotaspod@gmail.com, stitch on your

1:07:56

friends and family. You can find us at

1:07:58

scamgotaspod on all platforms. I'm talking

1:08:00

like an auctioneer. You can find

1:08:03

me at D-I-V-A-L-A-C-I-D Valacy on all

1:08:05

platforms. Congregation, stay schemin'. Scam

1:08:08

Goddess! This

1:08:11

has been an earwolf production in association

1:08:13

with Team Coco. Scam Goddess is starring

1:08:15

me, duh, Scam Goddess,

1:08:18

AKA Lacey Mosley. Scam Goddess is

1:08:20

produced by Chelsea Jacobson and engineered

1:08:22

by Marina Bayez with research by

1:08:24

Sherlyn Vera. Stay schemin'! Some people like to

1:08:26

deep clean every Saturday morning. Some

1:08:30

people like to deep clean every Saturday

1:08:32

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1:08:34

to spend a few minutes every day keeping

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things fresh with Lysol. Lysol's

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