Fraud Friday: The Airbnb Bamboozler w/ Lamar Woods

In this week’s Fraud Friday, Laci throws it back to Episode 7 and kicks it with writer, comedian, and actor Lamar Woods (Single Parents, New Girl) to talk about personal Airbnb scams and Airbnb scams on a larger scale. Stay schemin’! (Originally released 11/11/2019) CONgregation, catch Laci's TV Show, Scam Goddess, now on Freeform and Hulu! Keep the scams coming and snitch on your friends by emailing us at [email protected]. Follow on Instagram: Scam Goddess Pod: @scamgoddesspod Laci Mosley: @divalaci Lamar Woods: @prophmatic Research by Sharilyn Vera SOURCES: https://www.vice.com/en/article/nationwide-fake-host-scam-on-airbnb/?utm_source=vicetwitterus&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_858978

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

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• 1:00Speaker 02

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• 1:27Laci Mosley?

  What's poppin', congregation? It's your girl, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. Welcome to an episode of Fraud Fridays, where we release older episodes from the Scam 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 schemin'.

• 2:09Laci Mosley?

  What is up congregation? It's your girl, Lacey Mosley, and we're back for another installment of Scam Goddess. Did I say my name? It's Lacey Mosley. Sometimes I don't say my name, so I just had to check. Guys, I'm so, so stoked for this guest today. You have seen his work everywhere. You see, and he has a movie called This Is It's a Party. It's a Party. The film, which is on Showtime, right?

• 2:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:37Laci Mosley?

  Yes, which is super cool. He's a writer. He's been for New Girl, for Single Parents. Like, he's been for so many amazing TV shows, and he's so hilarious. He's a part of an amazing comedy team called White Women Improv. Lamar Woods.

• 2:51Speaker 04

  Yeah. What up, Lacey? What's good?

• 2:54Laci Mosley?

  Oh, my God, what's poppin'? It's so good to have you.

• 2:56Speaker 04

  I know, I couldn't wait. As soon as I saw the poster for this podcast, I was like, I gotta do this show. So, because that shit looked tight.

• 3:03Laci Mosley?

  Listen, organized religion is a scam. My mama said I gotta stop saying that on air.

• 3:07Speaker 04

  Oh, on air or on the podcast?

• 3:09Laci Mosley?

  Well, in general, she was like, please do not say this anymore. We're a Christian family. She worried I'm embarrassing her, like, because her church friends be trying to listen to my podcast. I'm like, Mama, this is not for, you know, Christian ears.

• 3:21Speaker 04

  There's a lot of scams happen.

• 3:22Laci Mosley?

  We talking heathen shit on here.

• 3:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 3:24Laci Mosley?

  Gang, gang.

• 3:25Speaker 04

  I like religions. I studied religion in college, so I'm all about.

• 3:28Laci Mosley?

  Oh, wow. What school did you go to?

• 3:30Speaker 04

  I went to Georgia State.

• 3:31Laci Mosley?

  Oh, OK, that's a very black school.

• 3:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, it is. How'd you know that? A lot of people don't know that.

• 3:37Laci Mosley?

  Oh, because my cousin was a Morehouse. So, all the Georgia schools I was very familiar with. Because I would go down there. That's where I would get my HBCU experience, because I went to a predominantly white institution. We called them PWIs.

• 3:50Laci Mosley?

  But I would go to like Atlanta homecoming. I was twerking on stage with Gucci Man. Uh, this is before he went to prison unfortunately, so the not the skinny fine ones.

• 4:00Speaker 04

  Twerk don't count if it's pre-Gucci prison twerk.

• 4:03Laci Mosley?

  He was still making good music then.

• 4:04Speaker 04

  No, he was great, yeah.

• 4:05Laci Mosley?

  But he did not, his glow up had not happened yet.

• 4:08Speaker 04

  No, I know what you mean. Well, I always wanted to go to the HBC, like the, you know, Morehouse and down there. But then I was like, uh, you know, I only got intercepted to Georgia State. So I was kind of bummed out, but then I got there, I was like, oh, there's hella black people down there.

• 4:21Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 4:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was dope.

• 4:23Laci Mosley?

  I love it. We try to get as many black people on this podcast as possible. Apparently we started to get some reviews that the podcast is too urban, so we made it. Yes, niggalicious.

• 4:33Speaker 04

  Oh man, I would love to get that review.

• 4:35Laci Mosley?

  Right, I was like, we made it guys.

• 4:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 4:37Laci Mosley?

  I was like, we started with Paul F. Tompkins and it was touch and go. I love Paul F., I love Paul, but everybody's like, what is this show?

• 4:45Speaker 04

  They was like, everybody was like, oh shit, that's my boy Paul F. Tompkins. And then it just got real black after that.

• 4:50Laci Mosley?

  They came for the Paul.

• 4:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 4:52Laci Mosley?

  And they were like, wait a minute, Negroes.

• 4:55Speaker 04

  That's how I see Paul. He's kind of a good fish for, you know, it's like you put a Paul out there and then you get a bunch of black folks out there.

• 5:02Laci Mosley?

  Right, right, exactly. Paul is dapper as hell too, and the blacks love Paul. The blacks love him.

• 5:08Laci Mosley?

  Shout out to the king. They do. Shout out to a king. But Lamar, what's your relationship with scams?

• 5:16Speaker 04

  Uh, my relationship with scams, I think mostly it's like pyramid schemes, because I feel like that has been...

• 5:23Laci Mosley?

  That's your scam of choice?

• 5:24Speaker 04

  No, I just, I feel like I kept getting involved in them when I was younger. Because I used to work in the mall when I was a kid, when I was in high school.

• 5:31Laci Mosley?

  Right place for scams.

• 5:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. Then then I would wear nice clothes because I worked at JCPenney's. And then I would sit in the mall at lunch, you know, eating the, um, uh, the...

• 5:40Laci Mosley?

  Food court.

• 5:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, at the food court. Is that what that's called?

• 5:43Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 5:44Speaker 04

  And then, I feel like, I don't know, I feel like I just looked like this helpless young black man, you know, so like...

• 5:49Laci Mosley?

  Were you wearing like a suit and tie?

• 5:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh lord Jesus. So they would come up to me, be like, hey man, let me sit down, talk to you, brother. And then start asking me questions, and you know, I'm trying to be nice, and then they start, you know, they say, you know, do you want more out of life? Because they know I ain't making no money at JCPenney's. And then they would, you know, get me to come to this house. I went to this house at night and it was like all these people there, and then I'm like, this ain't no real company. And it was like we were selling credit cards, but it was like not no major credit card. It was weird, so...

• 6:16Laci Mosley?

  A credit card company being run out of a house?

• 6:19Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 6:19Laci Mosley?

  You ain't supposed to call nobody landline.

• 6:21Speaker 04

  It was the customer service, but that was my first introduction to scams and it never really left. I felt like I kept getting approached and then for some reason I was so naive.

• 6:30Laci Mosley?

  You were going pretty far along with it. If you made it to the house where they were doing the credit card.

• 6:35Speaker 04

  I was actually scared because to come on this podcast, I'm probably the person who's the most, I don't know if you have like scammers come on, but I'm definitely like the victim.

• 6:44Laci Mosley?

  You're a mark?

• 6:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm a mark. Is that what they call it? Yeah, because I I'm so, I believe in the good in all people.

• 6:50Laci Mosley?

  Oh, this is beautiful.

• 6:51Speaker 04

  I'm always giving people the benefit of the doubt. So the guy's like, you know, we're gonna get you some work and get you a better opportunity. I'm just assuming that he's gonna do that for me.

• 6:58Laci Mosley?

  You don't know how excited I am.

• 7:00Speaker 04

  Are you gonna stand me? What's gonna happen?

• 7:02Laci Mosley?

  We have it. Listen, I got a credit card company and it is run out of my house.

• 7:07Speaker 04

  Oh, well, I don't know about this. Wait a minute.

• 7:10Laci Mosley?

  We work in the garage. We got great benefits.

• 7:14Speaker 04

  I don't know. I don't know about all that.

• 7:15Laci Mosley?

  We haven't had a mark yet. We've had a lot of scammers and a lot of people who say that they aren't scammers. And then by the end they're like, oh my God, I, you know, I'm a charlatan. But I haven't had a genuine mark yet. You have this beautiful glow in your eyes. Oh.

• 7:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm too trusting. Like, I got, I was doing one where we're selling like car wax at the gas station. You ever see those people? They sell car wax at the gas station and it's like, you're like, what is this? Because it's like, first of all, why are we selling, why are we independently selling this like item? And then at a place that sells it inside the gas station? And then we have to go up to strangers in a car and then do tests? You have to like test it? Have you ever seen this? You know what I'm talking about?

• 7:54Laci Mosley?

  We're selling, so y'all were selling it for cheaper.

• 7:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:57Laci Mosley?

  This is a, this is an opportunity.

• 7:58Speaker 04

  We had to do the demonstration in front of them and then we would keep how many, depending on how much we sold, we would keep, you know.

• 8:04Laci Mosley?

  How much would you demonstrate? Like, could I get my whole car waxed as a demonstration?

• 8:10Speaker 04

  See, that would be, see how scammy you are? You just flipped it on, uh, on those guys, yeah.

• 8:16Laci Mosley?

  How do you get involved in that job? Is it in the Craigslist ad? Is it a newspaper? It's on Craigslist?

• 8:20Speaker 04

  Well, basically, when I, that was when I moved to LA. When, basically, like, you know, when you come out here and you need a job, I would go on Craigslist. And it would say, "Marketing." Because I had a business degree, or, well, actually, I had an associate's degree in business. And then, I would go on the, you know, on the Craigslist, and it would say, "Marketing." And I'm like, "That's what I want to do." You know what I mean? Or like, you know, something specific to business. So then I would call them, and then they would, everything would seem legit, and set up like a real...

• 8:48Laci Mosley?

  Right, and then you would get to the house, and then that...

• 8:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, and I'd be like, "Whose house is this?" Yeah, and if you're like, "Where you going, Lamar?" It's like, "I gotta go to this residential area for work."

• 8:58Laci Mosley?

  Look, that's just what WeWork is. WeWork is just like, one house where everybody get a bedroom, and do whatever cons that they work on.

• 9:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, is WeWork a scam?

• 9:06Laci Mosley?

  WeWork is a scam. They just got bought out because that shit wasn't working no more. And WeWork...

• 9:11Speaker 04

  We don't work.

• 9:12Laci Mosley?

  We don't work, actually.

• 9:13Speaker 04

  I know.

• 9:14Laci Mosley?

  That's a scammy-ass name, too. It was like, "WeWork." That'll make people think...

• 9:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, because the best thing, they make you feel like you're a part of it, you know? I went to a WeWork, and I'm like, "Wait, this don't make, I can do this at home."

• 9:24Laci Mosley?

  You can, but WeWork it, okay? That's why, at home, you home.

• 9:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, I, uh, but yeah, so I'm a, I'm pretty, like, susceptible to scams, but I probably shouldn't have put that out there like that.

• 9:36Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, you probably have advertised yourself in the market.

• 9:38Speaker 04

  That's probably something I shouldn't do.

• 9:39Laci Mosley?

  And my congregation, there's a lot of scammers. They will hit you up.

• 9:42Speaker 04

  Oh, no, is it a real, like...

• 9:44Laci Mosley?

  Yes, they will hit you up, and they will try to run scams on you, Lamar. So just be careful. If anybody hits you up, tell them they need some, uh, milk for their baby, or, you know, anything sus. Just don't go with it.

• 9:56Speaker 04

  I will, I'm gonna call you. How about you be my scam, like, like guru? Like, I'll call you, and like, you let me know, "All right, this is a scam."

• 10:04Laci Mosley?

  Okay, cool, yeah, because I don't want you getting scammed. I just want you getting involved in my scams, right? So, which actually brings us to the first segment, "Hot and Fraud", which is where we warn our listeners about hot new scams on the street, and then we see if we want to get them involved in ours. So this is actually a scam that, okay, guys, on the internet, you know, we all see like a juicy gossip story. It goes viral on Reddit. We're all talking about it. I have recently learned that these are scams. So sometimes people will make up viral content, like especially on Facebook, and then get it on Reddit, get it everywhere, and put it in a private group so nobody can actually tell the origin of where it all came from for real,

• 10:48Laci Mosley?

  just to drive traffic to like a new website, a new business, a page, or anything like that. And one of the most recent ones that everybody was really talking about and kept tagging me in is the wedding scam.

• 11:02Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 11:02Laci Mosley?

  Okay, but the story is still fun, so I'm still gonna read it to you guys.

• 11:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, really?

• 11:06Laci Mosley?

  But it is a con.

• 11:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 11:07Laci Mosley?

  So, this is the first message that comes from the bride. "Hi, invitee to this wedding." This is the bride. And then it has like the pertinent information blocked out. "After much reflection and tear-filled conversation with our closest family members, we've decided to cancel our upcoming winter wedding. We will further notify the group when we are in a better place to reschedule. We thank each and every one of you for your generous donations to our money fund. Can you believe we have raised over $30,000? Unbelievable! Don't worry, the money you've donated will not be spent in vain, but rather used towards a honeymoon in the coming months. After we regain financial stability and hold calm in our hearts after our honeymoon, we will announce a new wedding date and reopen our money fund for any further gifts. Weddings are expensive!

• 11:51Laci Mosley?

  We are blessed to have generous family members with these large donations. Please stay tuned, and in the meantime, we'll be updating our gift registry on Amazon if anyone would like to give us something to take on our honeymoon. If you have any ideas where we should go, please DM me and Edward."

• 12:06Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 12:07Laci Mosley?

  "As mentioned, we'll keep you updated with the new money fund and the new wedding in the works. Don't be too sad, new wedding's gonna be a hit. Love you, Pam."

• 12:15Speaker 04

  Pam? I knew Pam wasn't gonna get married. Pam! Did it say weddings are expensive? Was it written that way? Or did you say?

• 12:27Speaker 04

  What? That was written really believable.

• 12:29Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 12:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 12:30Laci Mosley?

  And, and, but here's the crazy thing, though. That like, there are crowdfunds happening for weddings. This is not actually that bizarre. And if the wedding just didn't happen, I would probably be pissed if I gave you my fucking coins. And I'm expected to get a chicken or a fish plate.

• 12:44Speaker 04

  Right.

• 12:45Laci Mosley?

  And I'mma dance, you know? And hopefully find like a bachelor there. I'mma find a man. Like, you fucking up all my bags. I was supposed to come, get a meal, get drunk, find a new love interest who's like all full of whimsy because he just watched two niggas get married. Then we was gonna at least make out. He was probably gonna touch my boob. Now, I'm not gonna have none of that.

• 13:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's a real shame.

• 13:07Laci Mosley?

  I would be mad.

• 13:08Speaker 04

  So, uh, so I don't understand. So it's basically like, we're all, you were, is it sent to people that were invited? Like, people in their life?

• 13:17Laci Mosley?

  So this is a private Facebook group.

• 13:18Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 13:18Laci Mosley?

  Now, I'm telling y'all that I think this whole thing is a scam in itself. But I just thought the concept was so fascinating. And I get why these are so like, we are so interested in them. Because like, these do happen. And people use GoFundMe money for the wrong reason all the time.

• 13:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:33Laci Mosley?

  It's like, no one can actually tell you what to do with the money.

• 13:37Speaker 04

  Yeah. It's crazy that GoFundMe's been corrupted like that.

• 13:40Laci Mosley?

  I mean, is it?

• 13:43Speaker 04

  I don't know. I feel like you're right, though. It's like, like, I mean, people be just texting you now, like, hey, man, I'm hurting, like, you know?

• 13:50Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 13:51Speaker 04

  I gotta GoFundMe. And I'm like, wait, how does, like, are you asking me for money?

• 13:54Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 13:55Speaker 04

  Just through you?

• 13:56Laci Mosley?

  But I'm asking through a website link so that it is less personal.

• 13:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 14:00Laci Mosley?

  And more professional. And you also feel badly.

• 14:03Speaker 04

  Right. Now I feel like I'm doing some good by sending it to them.

• 14:06Laci Mosley?

  Right. And also, it, it, it's crazy because it's like a mass text for just hitting niggas up. Like, I remember when you had to like, really grovel. You had to grovel for some coins. You'd have to text people, or you'd have to call them. And you had to call them when they're vulnerable, like at 8:00 PM, right after supper. You had to call.

• 14:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, I am vulnerable right there. Every time at 8:00 PM, I'm like, I hope no one asks me for nothing because I will give it to them.

• 14:28Laci Mosley?

  Because you're a little tired. You're just... So you probably got the itis and I know that you probably have a little empathy in your heart for me, you know what I mean?

• 14:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's right.

• 14:36Laci Mosley?

  So I'll call you up and be like, oh, you know, then I gotta tell you the long ass story. I gotta tell everybody the sob story. How many times you have to tell? I know, but I felt, I sound like a baby boomer right now, but I know baby boomers are mad about GoFundMe because now everybody can just look at your sob story, they can look at the news. You got some news clippings? Oh, bitch, don't have a link to like a KTLA or ABC or something? Now you got some legitimacy or a video? People got videos on GoFundMe.

• 14:59Speaker 04

  And that one's tough because it's a wedding and you, it tugs on your emotion because, you know, weddings are so emotional, it really kinda, like you feel sad, you know, it's like, damn, like the wedding, they not gonna be able to have it. Like, what can I do to help, you know?

• 15:11Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 15:11Speaker 04

  I feel bad that, I just remembered I didn't get a wedding gift for my friend. Because I was in the wedding, I didn't, I was supposed to donate to the honeymoon.

• 15:20Laci Mosley?

  You got undercar lights. How you gonna not get your friend a gift to their wedding?

• 15:24Speaker 04

  How you gonna put that out there like that? Just tell the world I got undercar lights.

• 15:28Laci Mosley?

  This nigga got undercar lights and he on his skin, been on niggas weddings.

• 15:31Speaker 04

  No, I forgot, but I will do it today.

• 15:33Laci Mosley?

  I will do it today.

• 15:35Speaker 04

  Even though I think they already came back from the honeymoon, so I will donate, I will give them some.

• 15:39Laci Mosley?

  A gift is a gift.

• 15:42Speaker 00

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• 16:12Speaker 05

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• 16:26Speaker 06

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• 16:48Speaker 05

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• 18:05Laci Mosley?

  Okay, so this goes on a little bit.

• 18:09Laci Mosley?

  People start to respond to this. And one person says, "I took off a week of work, donated a hundred dollars and now you're telling me that you're going to use 30,000 fucking dollars for a honeymoon before a wedding? Are you insane? You got your lump sum and you say hasta la vista to your family and friends? 30K is a financial... And like, these are hot,

• 18:28Speaker 04

  Hasta la vista.

• 18:29Laci Mosley?

  Hot, spicy, white people angry words. Hasta la vista.

• 18:33Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, they pull the big guns out.

• 18:35Laci Mosley?

  Wait till I hear malarkey. That's how you know they're pissed. That's how you know they're mad.

• 18:39Speaker 04

  Malarkey.

• 18:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, she took a week off. How she get to take a week off of work for a wedding? That's crazy.

• 18:46Laci Mosley?

  Because she was, I'm telling you, she was about to go get her life. She was gonna get her nails done, her hair did, everything did. She was about to get a... She was going to the bachelorette party, was going to probably see some sexy men wagging dick around there. Then she was gonna go to the... It was about to be a horned up week for this woman. And she just fucked that all up.

• 19:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, now she ain't getting no, her horned up, where's that horny energy go?

• 19:07Laci Mosley?

  You're right, to this angry message. Um, this is my favorite part of it. She says, "You're gonna need a few months to regain financial stability, and then the cherry on the cake is you have the motherfucking Christ on a bike's audacity to request more gifts?" Christ on a bike!

• 19:27Speaker 04

  I love that, oh my god. There's nothing more audacious than Jesus Christ on a bike.

• 19:33Laci Mosley?

  Nothing.

• 19:35Laci Mosley?

  The man can walk on water.

• 19:36Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:38Laci Mosley?

  He don't need no bike.

• 19:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, if he can turn water into wine, but he need a bike? Nah.

• 19:43Laci Mosley?

  So this goes on, and like, people are like threatening her, and they're like, "Send us our money back, run me my coins." And then she's like, "Somebody put this on Reddit and it blew up, and, and now I had to go to the hospital." She goes, "I had to go to the hospital."

• 19:55Speaker 04

  Wait, who's, who's saying that?

• 19:56Laci Mosley?

  The bribe.

• 19:57Speaker 04

  Oh, so she had to go to the hospital?

• 19:58Laci Mosley?

  So after this goes viral, she's saying, "I had to go to the hospital because I had a panic attack, and the hospital cost me $780." Seven hundred and sixty-five dollars. Then she says, "Thank god you'll be forced to pay for that with the money fund." And she's like, "Do not contact me." Then she goes, "And you can foot..." She says, "I can't believe that I've had to endure all of this because of your slanderous attacks for my own family and friends, and now you can foot the $2,000 bill. I don't care." The bill went up in the second paragraph, $2,000. It was 765 in the first paragraph.

• 20:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, that was, uh, that, that was crazy.

• 20:33Laci Mosley?

  And now it's $2,000. And then by the end of this, she's like, "In the meantime, please consider donating any spa or personal care items to my home address if you care about me at all. We've lost close to $3,000 from the money fund due to medical expenses." So in the fourth paragraph, it's now $3,000.

• 20:50Speaker 04

  Hey, so as, as you read it, you just, your pockets shrink as you keep going. So I, all right, so let me ask credit, cause, you know, I don't really know, that's, that's a pretty good scam, if, you know, what, what do you think? Is that like a good scam, or is that, would you see this right through that, right away?

• 21:06Laci Mosley?

  So it all kind of starts to look a little fishy when you look at the comments, the timeframe, the, the way that things are written.

• 21:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 21:14Laci Mosley?

  And also the fact that there's like no likes or like angry faces on anybody's comments. There's no way for us to tell that there was any real interaction happening between the people. Um, but it was just slowly being released by someone.

• 21:27Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 21:28Laci Mosley?

  Um, and then the whole story was the first story on this website's page ever.

• 21:33Speaker 04

  Right.

• 21:33Laci Mosley?

  Um, so it seems as though they were just trying to drive traffic with this fake story. But it's a good one because I was entertained. Like y'all, I like this scam. Like please.

• 21:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, that was entertaining. I felt like I could see the wedding too. I was, I mean, I was seeing everything. Like the relationship and how it fell apart and like her in the hospital, I was picturing that panic attack.

• 21:52Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 21:52Speaker 04

  Is this a heart attack? It's definitely a heart attack. And then the fiance is like, no, baby, this is a panic attack. And they don't even know what to agree on. And he's like, look, I'm just going to the hospital because I don't, I can't help.

• 22:03Laci Mosley?

  Take from the money fund.

• 22:04Speaker 04

  Right. But we, we, we can't think about it right there because your heart rate is at one seventy.

• 22:08Laci Mosley?

  It's okay. When we go to the hospital, then we'll tell everyone we went to the hospital and that they need to donate more money or and or spa supplies.

• 22:14Speaker 04

  That's a good idea. And that's why I'm gonna marry you.

• 22:17Laci Mosley?

  I love you. I love you so much.

• 22:18Speaker 04

  I love you too.

• 22:19Laci Mosley?

  And your rich uncle. We thought we could never get anything out of him. Cause there's one guy who's like, I paid for me and my whole family. He donated twelve thousand dollars. I was like, twelve thousand dollars is what it costs you and your whole family to go to the wedding? How many motherfucking family members you got?

• 22:30Speaker 04

  So crazy. Wow.

• 22:32Laci Mosley?

  But people are like very particular about that. One of my best friends is about to get married and she was saying like, I'm only giving plus ones to people who have been in a relationship for five years or more. And I was like, damn, so I'm just have to bring my lonely ass to your wedding? Like by myself? Can I pay to bring aside, Dennis?

• 22:47Speaker 04

  Five years is a long time. I mean, that's basically like they should be getting married. I mean, they're on the verge of that.

• 22:52Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, she's like married or you have to be in a relationship for five years. So either I gotta be Carrie fucking Bradshaw here, big, breaking my heart.

• 22:59Speaker 04

  Right.

• 22:59Laci Mosley?

  And my back. Oh.

• 23:01Speaker 04

  What if it's somebody you dated for five years, but y'all broke up, but then you're looking up and.

• 23:06Laci Mosley?

  We're, right. We're fucking right now. Come on.

• 23:10Speaker 04

  I know. Yeah. He's like, no, y'all not, they, they, y'all not committed. That's, that's don't work. But, uh, my cousin, she got, when she got married, she, she said the rule was they can't be, if you bring a plus one, they just have had to have met them at one time. So if you're in their life, if they're in your life enough, they should have met, met you. So that means if you can't be having those people you keep in the side or you're not bringing them around, but you don't bring them around your friends then.

• 23:32Laci Mosley?

  What if I pull them up on FaceTime?

• 23:35Speaker 04

  In the moment, like at the wedding? You're like, this is him. He's on his way. And you're like, oh.

• 23:41Laci Mosley?

  Technically, you've met. See, that's how I get around that scam. I'll be like, but he already here, y'all. Like, I get it, it's your wedding, you don't want to feed people. But also, I'm like, can there just be an option? Why not just slide you the $55 for their plate or something? Because this is like...

• 23:53Speaker 04

  I know, yeah, just give, I'll give you an extra money for a plate. That actually seems like a good idea.

• 23:57Laci Mosley?

  But these are millennial problems. It's time for my favorite segment of this show. I say that every week. Historic hoodwink. So this is where I'm going to regale Lamar with a famous scam. And we're just going to break it down and talk about it. You can make as much commentary as you want. This one, guys, okay, y'all all tagged me in this on Twitter. I got tagged in this scam so many times on Twitter that I'm doing this episode early and releasing it early. You guys are killing me. I love you so much. Also, leave us five stars, guys, because angry white men are ruining my review. Don't let angry white men scam me out of a five-star rating. Thank you so much.

• 24:30Speaker 04

  Please don't.

• 24:31Laci Mosley?

  Right, I'm a black woman, y'all gotta help me, okay? Trump is president, my life is too hard.

• 24:35Speaker 04

  You know, Trump, that's the biggest scam.

• 24:38Laci Mosley?

  He is, and I can't even talk about him. He's, oh, God. Oh, I could do like a 20-part episode on Trump. I just can't praise him for that shit. Maybe when he's out of office.

• 24:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, you should do like the day after he's out, like a scam goddess.

• 24:52Laci Mosley?

  Tea glizzy, first day out, yes. Okay, so this is a historic hoodwink. And it is about a nationwide Airbnb scam. Have you ever used an Airbnb?

• 25:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've used it.

• 25:05Laci Mosley?

  Where, what city?

• 25:05Speaker 04

  I've used it in, actually, Spain, actually. When I went to Spain.

• 25:10Laci Mosley?

  Oh, wow.

• 25:11Speaker 04

  Airbnb in Barcelona.

• 25:12Laci Mosley?

  Oh, in Barcelona?

• 25:13Speaker 04

  Barcelona, yeah, it was very nice, it was cool.

• 25:16Laci Mosley?

  I feel like the Airbnbs that I've had abroad have been pretty nice, actually. I think I used one in Paris once, and it ended up being a bed and breakfast. And like, they had the best croissants, which is like the most American thing to say. But it was like...

• 25:29Speaker 04

  So they had, they had some good croissants in Paris.

• 25:32Laci Mosley?

  Listen, boy, them croissants in Paris.

• 25:34Speaker 04

  You would not believe, tell me how Paris was, man, the croissants.

• 25:38Laci Mosley?

  So they doing something different to them over there, okay?

• 25:40Speaker 04

  But yeah, I did an Airbnb there and I did an Airbnb, that was, why do I feel like that was the only time? I don't, oh, I did one in New York one time, in Brooklyn too, so that, yeah, that was a.

• 25:49Laci Mosley?

  Okay, Brooklyn feels like that's where it would probably get a little scamery, you know what I mean?

• 25:53Speaker 04

  Oh, it was, I mean, I don't want to stop your thing, but I'll tell you.

• 25:55Laci Mosley?

  Well, oh, yeah, it did end up shady?

• 25:57Speaker 04

  Man, it was so wack, it was like, so in the picture it said, it was like artist loft, right? And it was like all white and it looked beautiful, like you could see the whole city. And I was like, oh, I want to stay here. So then, when I got there, it was definitely.

• 26:12Laci Mosley?

  It's like a homeless man peeing in a box?

• 26:13Speaker 04

  It was like that, it was like, first there was a person, the person was not leaving. I mean, I think that might be normal to New York Airbnbs, but like, she was in there. And it was also, it was like completely in the hood and it was like rats everywhere. I saw like three rats when I walked in.

• 26:28Laci Mosley?

  Oh yeah, that's the rats neighborhood, like you stepped into their home. They were like, who is this thing?

• 26:32Speaker 04

  It was so gross.

• 26:33Laci Mosley?

  We told her no cell letters.

• 26:34Speaker 04

  And they were like, yeah, they were like, you're not supposed to do that, uh, that's illegal. So then, uh, I get aside and they have one of those cats and I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm terrified of cats.

• 26:46Laci Mosley?

  I thought you were gonna say allergic, not terrified.

• 26:48Speaker 04

  But yeah, so, and, but I can tolerate them, but this was the one that doesn't have any hair. It was like all bald.

• 26:56Laci Mosley?

  Dr. Evil cat.

• 26:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, it was disgusting, no offense if you like cats, but then.

• 27:01Laci Mosley?

  We do love cats, I have a cat, I love cats.

• 27:03Speaker 04

  I'm sorry.

• 27:03Laci Mosley?

  It's okay, it's okay.

• 27:05Speaker 04

  But for, but just keep in mind, I was paying to be at this place, so it's like, I had to, it was like, I was in a small room and the cat was all over me and then I, I had to get out of there.

• 27:15Laci Mosley?

  The cat was all over you, they didn't even just like put the cat in another room, they just let the cat roam into your room?

• 27:20Speaker 04

  Like she, she was like, okay, this is the place and then left and then left me with the cat. And I was just sitting in the house, in this, in this apartment.

• 27:27Laci Mosley?

  Lamar, you got scammed to watch this woman's cat.

• 27:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, and then.

• 27:30Laci Mosley?

  She scammed you into watching her cat.

• 27:31Speaker 04

  But then I left, so that cat was alone. That cat was alone all night.

• 27:37Laci Mosley?

  Oh no.

• 27:38Speaker 04

  So I got out of there, I was like, I'm out of here, and then I just got a hotel somewhere.

• 27:41Laci Mosley?

  That's so bizarre that no one wants an Airbnb where there is another person, like I don't want a roommate on Airbnb.

• 27:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, I know, why would I do that?

• 27:48Laci Mosley?

  I don't want a roommate in my. I don't get damn home, I don't want one on vacation.

• 27:52Speaker 04

  That is so true, Lacey. That's exactly what I felt. And also, like, I don't wanna pay to be and around animals like that. I mean, I, like, even if I love cats or whatever, I don't wanna go into an Airbnb and there be animals in there. That seems like, um.

• 28:06Laci Mosley?

  I feel like you should talk about it. So this Airbnb, you should mention it. This Airbnb, very similar, kind of like, um, what we call a bait and switch in the scam game. The scam game. I said scam game. Um, but we call this a bait and switch, which basically means like you're offered one thing and you get something else, which is exactly like what happened to your story in Brooklyn. Like you were offered a beautiful loft and what you got was is a roommate and a cat.

• 28:31Speaker 04

  Well, now it sounds like a cool deal. It's like, hey, I got you a roommate and a cat.

• 28:34Laci Mosley?

  And three rats.

• 28:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 28:37Laci Mosley?

  So, basically, these two people decided that they were gonna go to a music festival. And this was a big story that was in Vice that everybody tagged me in on Twitter. So, the scam came about 10 minutes before we were set to check into this Airbnb. This is in Chicago. Says, "I was sitting at a brewery just around the corner from the rental on North Wood Street, and the man on the other end of the line said that our planned visit wouldn't be possible. A previous guest had flushed something down the toilet, which had left the unit flooded with water," he explained. Apologetic, he promised to let us stay in another property he managed until he could call a plumber. So I think that this scam is perfect, cuz like, what's the one thing that could not be functioning at a place that you would be like, okay, I can't stay there? And that's like plumbing and or water.

• 29:22Laci Mosley?

  Like, if you say you ain't got water, I'm gonna be like, okay, bet, like.

• 29:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's like, you know, our biggest fear, like with earthquakes, it's like water, like not having water in the place. Yeah, that's like, that's like an apocalyptic.

• 29:32Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 29:34Laci Mosley?

  But then it's also one of those things of like, it can be broken and it can be fixed real quick. It's not like you said the bitch burnt down. Like, you can't come back from saying something burnt down. You can't be like, okay, are you actually staying in this Airbnb?

• 29:44Speaker 04

  This kitchen is charred, but, you know.

• 29:46Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it had actually burnt down, so you can't stay here. You can't call the next day and be like, you know what, we got everything back up and running.

• 29:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, you're right, though. It's like plumbers are on deck, constantly.

• 29:56Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 29:57Speaker 04

  I know plumbers ready to go. Everywhere I go, I see a plumber with a wrench, ready to fix some shit. But they, you know, it would clearly.

• 30:03Laci Mosley?

  They sleep like that. You know what I mean? I was dating a plumber, I was like, baby, please put the wrench down. I'm trying to make love. He was like, I never know when they gonna call me.

• 30:13Speaker 04

  Damn, Lacey, all you fucking plumbers out here.

• 30:15Laci Mosley?

  Plumbers make good money and they loyal. These Hollywood men are not loyal, okay?

• 30:21Speaker 04

  I be fucking these plumbers because my toilet stay working.

• 30:23Laci Mosley?

  Listen, I ain't never backed up.

• 30:25Speaker 04

  Never had no problems.

• 30:26Laci Mosley?

  Laying all the pies.

• 30:27Speaker 04

  Actually, that makes sense because, yeah, if you date me, I probably can never fix your toilet.

• 30:31Laci Mosley?

  You can't fix my toilet?

• 30:33Speaker 04

  Nah.

• 30:33Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, see?

• 30:35Speaker 04

  I offer a lot of things, but fixing plumbing is not one of them.

• 30:38Laci Mosley?

  That's a shame, truly. So, so this is a good excuse, right? So, they basically decide in a quick pinch that like, one, we don't have enough time to get a hotel right now. There's a lot of people in town, the rates are very high. Obviously, like, if it's 10 minutes before you about to pull up at the joint, like, you really don't have a lot of options. So, the Airbnb guy goes, "Don't worry, there's an upside here." He goes, "I have another rental place that is available right now and it's in the area." And he said that it's right off the blue line, it's spacious, and he says that this place...

• 31:17Speaker 04

  It says right off the blue line.

• 31:19Laci Mosley?

  You know, that means something else. He says it's about three times bigger and that's the good news. Now, as if, she says, as if he could hear me calculating in my head how much of a hassle it would be to, you know, find a hotel and whatever, he's like, you know, "I don't have a lot of time. You have to decide immediately if you want to change the reservation." She asked to talk in person, he said, "I'm very busy at my job employment."

• 31:41Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 31:42Laci Mosley?

  At my employment and I cannot speak on the phone and you have to hurry up and decide now. So, always put a time constraint on this thing.

• 31:48Speaker 04

  Wow, that's real scammy.

• 31:49Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 31:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, time constraint.

• 31:51Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, because you need duress, like, because if you, people are in their right mind, their Despo meter is low. Like, they're not going to be desperate enough to fall for the scam. But if you got them on the brink of homelessness...

• 31:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, then it's, it's like, I got it, you gotta make a choice.

• 32:02Laci Mosley?

  Flavor, tastes just right.

• 32:06Speaker 04

  Delicious.

• 32:07Laci Mosley?

  Season to perfection, scale.

• 32:15Laci Mosley?

  I love your laugh. Okay.

• 32:17Speaker 04

  Oh, man.

• 32:18Laci Mosley?

  So, the bad news went unstated, obviously, and that was that they had unknowingly stumbled into a nationwide web of deception, this is what she calls it, that appeared to span eight cities and nearly a hundred property listings. An undetected scam created by some person or organization that had figured out just how easy it was to exploit Airbnb's poorly-written rules in order to collect thousands of dollars through phony listings, fake reviews, and intimidation.

• 32:43Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 32:44Laci Mosley?

  So, considering Airbnb's lax enforcement of its own policies, this is how they started to turn up, because it's just like Uber and Lyft, where like, yes, we are a company, but we're also a scam, because this is just like, niggas in they own cars picking you up.

• 32:57Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 32:57Laci Mosley?

  Or, or these are people's houses that you're staying in, it's a scam.

• 33:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's, yeah, it's like, wait, are you saying this is something I can't get on my own? You know, it's like, they created a business out of something that you could just do on your own.

• 33:10Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 33:10Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:10Laci Mosley?

  Because now, it's like, we, look, we put all the scammers in one place for you. Now, that's, now, we're hands-off, that's all we, may the buyer beware.

• 33:19Speaker 04

  Tell me if this was a scam, because one time, so I did a Airbnb up in, uh, it was in, um, for Thanksgiving, I had, I rented a house, and then I couldn't get in, I guess I didn't really get scared, but I was like, they have like a code to get the key. This, and so, but the code, the code was wrong, so I was out there for like, a long time, because I kept calling the person, like, I'm stuck out here, I can't get in the house, and I had, and he had to come in and break the key, break the lock open to get me in there, so I don't even know.

• 33:48Laci Mosley?

  So, he renting out properties that aren't his.

• 33:49Speaker 04

  That's what it, it could, because I was like, it took him a long time, and I'm like, first of all, how come you don't know the password? You should know the password to this lockbox. And, I was out, but I was out there so long, like you're saying, I was under so much duress. Yeah, it was after, it was, it was right around eight o'clock, too, that's why I was real vulnerable.

• 34:05Laci Mosley?

  Yes, you know what, it was nighttime, I'm guessing he, you probably heard your calls and was like, okay, I gotta wait till it's not too hot, I can't be breaking into my, my Airbnb during the day.

• 34:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, but we did have Thanksgiving in there, so, at the very least, if somebody would have came in, they would have been, you know, thankful that.

• 34:20Laci Mosley?

  Right, I'm so thankful that you stole this apartment.

• 34:26Laci Mosley?

  I love it, yeah, that sounds a little sketchy, Mar, anybody, anytime somebody gonna break you into they home, you know, we're looking out, but. So basically, they pop the address into the new Uber and they take off. But when the driver approached the drop off location, they noticed something odd. The exact address didn't exist. Great. You know, when an address doesn't exist.

• 34:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 34:48Laci Mosley?

  Fantastic.

• 34:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, if it's not on the map.

• 34:52Speaker 04

  So it's like, these numbers don't are on the map.

• 34:54Laci Mosley?

  So you're sending us an address. See, I'm sending you more of a vibe of where the house is.

• 34:57Speaker 04

  That's like when you type it in the GPS and then it does this thing where the map just like turns into like a big ass road.

• 35:04Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 35:05Speaker 04

  It's like, it's like, I don't know what this is. It just breaks the map, the GPS.

• 35:09Laci Mosley?

  Right. Like, don't drop a pin to the location. Like, tell, like, give me an address.

• 35:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:14Laci Mosley?

  I love it. I truly love it. He's like, it's more of an essence. Like, you'll know when you get to the house, you'll feel it. You'll feel it. You'll know. It's like, mm, this is where we're staying. You know what I mean? Um, I can't explain it. So. So after walking up and down North Kenmore Avenue, they were able to have, find a guest house hidden in a back alley that had a keypad on the front door.

• 35:35Speaker 04

  Keypad, yeah.

• 35:35Laci Mosley?

  So this is how you know they're desperate because they just kept walking up and down the street. At this point, they're like, I don't know, the backyard?

• 35:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:42Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, let's just go in other people's backyards.

• 35:44Speaker 04

  I can imagine what that must have been like, just that feeling of like.

• 35:48Laci Mosley?

  And you'll know these are white people because if these were black people, they would've been shot on sight. You can't be walking around in no neighborhood back and forth looking lost as a black.

• 35:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:56Laci Mosley?

  I got too much melanin for that.

• 35:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, I don't know how you would get through that, going through a backyard like that. Yeah.

• 36:01Laci Mosley?

  No, I would, they were absolutely, the cops would be called immediately.

• 36:06Speaker 04

  And they wouldn't believe the story either. They'd be like, well, you understand, they told me this address. What was the address? I don't know.

• 36:12Laci Mosley?

  I don't know the address. They told me it was a vibe. They told you the address was a vibe. Yes, that's what he said. We was supposed to be staying here. We were supposed to be staying at the other place, but the toilet burnt down and now we here. You know what I mean? Yeah, it doesn't even, they would be in jail. You know what I mean? And then you would have a place to stay.

• 36:27Speaker 04

  Right.

• 36:27Laci Mosley?

  And bread and water.

• 36:29Speaker 04

  That, oh yeah, that's a truly Airbnb.

• 36:31Laci Mosley?

  Prison.

• 36:32Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 36:34Laci Mosley?

  So they get in the house and the pantry has, I don't know why this is the first detail they give about the house, but they say the pantry has a single bottle of.

• 36:43Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, they are white.

• 36:44Laci Mosley?

  They are white.

• 36:45Speaker 04

  The first thing is like, hey, let's go check out the pantry right away. Alright.

• 36:49Laci Mosley?

  So not the bedroom, so I'm not like getting like, like.

• 36:53Speaker 04

  What's the first place you check where you're going to an Airbnb?

• 36:56Laci Mosley?

  The bedroom.

• 36:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, like where am I gonna sleep?

• 36:58Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, where am I gonna sleep? Especially if I'm going with other people, I have to Real Housewives it and really make sure I nene leaks it and get the best room.

• 37:04Speaker 04

  I think the pantry is the last place I go.

• 37:06Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I'm not expecting anything to be in there.

• 37:08Speaker 04

  They got fruit snacks in here.

• 37:09Laci Mosley?

  Right, they're looking for like fresh persimmons, like what do you think this is, bruh?

• 37:13Speaker 04

  We gotta make sure the right snacks are here before we can.

• 37:15Laci Mosley?

  So they go, the pantry housed a single bottle of soy sauce. Okay.

• 37:19Speaker 04

  Oh, that is sketchy though.

• 37:22Speaker 04

  That's weird as fuck. Like they took everything out.

• 37:26Laci Mosley?

  Why is that the only thing in the pantry? It is weird.

• 37:29Speaker 04

  Maybe we should be looking at the pantry first, cuz that would've told me right away to get the hell out of there.

• 37:33Laci Mosley?

  What kind of people are living there?

• 37:36Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 37:36Laci Mosley?

  You're right about that, cuz if I open up and it's just soy sauce, I'm like, all these people order Chinese takeout.

• 37:41Speaker 04

  Was it a bottle of soy sauce or like packets? Cuz that's, packets is even strange.

• 37:44Laci Mosley?

  Packets is even sketchier.

• 37:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 37:46Laci Mosley?

  Cuz then why you keeping them in the pantry?

• 37:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, I mean, I understand why they would be in a pantry, but I don't understand why they would be the only thing left in a pantry.

• 37:54Laci Mosley?

  It was just a bottle of soy sauce and it was, and I guess it just doesn't get old, but it is a bottle.

• 37:57Speaker 04

  Okay, great.

• 37:58Laci Mosley?

  They said the couch looked nothing like the one in the photos. The bedrooms were filled with a large number of bizarrely arranged beds.

• 38:06Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 38:06Laci Mosley?

  Okay. The whole place felt grimy and there was a hole punched in a wall. Ooh.

• 38:12Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 38:12Laci Mosley?

  The only decor was a giant wooden cross and a few pieces of generic Chicago themed artwork. And the dining room was like Overstock.com bar stools that looks like they would turn to dust if you sat on them.

• 38:27Speaker 04

  Wow. Man, this person's a really good writer.

• 38:30Laci Mosley?

  I mean, she writes for Vice.

• 38:32Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 38:33Laci Mosley?

  Excellent writer, uh, what's her name? Shout out to a queen, uh, Ally Conti.

• 38:37Speaker 04

  Oh, what's up, Conti, Ally Conti?

• 38:38Laci Mosley?

  What's up, b- what's this Conti?

• 38:39Speaker 04

  I like your descriptive words.

• 38:41Laci Mosley?

  Right, you better give us these agitials. Come on through.

• 38:44Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 38:45Laci Mosley?

  So, um.

• 38:46Speaker 04

  The Chicago art, the artwork is interesting. I know, I think I know, they're referring to those paintings that are like, they're just like the skyline of Chicago. Yeah.

• 38:55Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, that kind of basic shit. But what's crazy is, is like, why even make an attempt at decorating if it's already that bad?

• 39:02Speaker 04

  Yeah. I mean, well, they, it's not much of a decoration if that's, if they're just putting up skylines of cities.

• 39:08Laci Mosley?

  They were like, let's go to Ross, get a couple of Chicago paintings on sale.

• 39:12Speaker 04

  Them shits is probably like $10. Or I mean, I guess you could probably get them at the gas station.

• 39:16Laci Mosley?

  Oh yeah, you can get them at the gas station. You're right about that. See, I don't know Lamar, you might be a scammer.

• 39:20Speaker 04

  Maybe I am. I feel like I've become more scam-like through this podcast.

• 39:24Laci Mosley?

  That's what we want to happen. That's the goal.

• 39:26Speaker 04

  I'm gonna walk out of here and scam somebody.

• 39:27Laci Mosley?

  Start doing fraud. I love it. I'd love to see it.

• 39:32Speaker 00

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• 40:03Speaker 05

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• 40:17Speaker 06

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• 40:28Speaker 05

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• 40:33Speaker 07

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• 40:39Speaker 05

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• 41:00Speaker 01

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• 41:43Speaker 01

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• 41:56Laci Mosley?

  So with the first day of my vacation basically gone, I decided to let the whole thing slide. Because like, what do you do at that point? Like, you just need a roof over your head. You're not gonna be there long-term.

• 42:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, and they had been walking. So, wait, so they didn't even call the guy, call the person, or they don't have his number?

• 42:11Laci Mosley?

  The guy said he couldn't be talking on the phone and that...

• 42:13Speaker 04

  Because he was at work.

• 42:14Laci Mosley?

  He was at his employment. You know, the house that he works at making credit cards.

• 42:20Speaker 04

  I'm at my employment right now.

• 42:22Laci Mosley?

  I'm at my employment, okay?

• 42:24Speaker 04

  Can't talk, I'm at my employment, goddammit.

• 42:27Laci Mosley?

  A joke from Florida Girls. I'm currently at my employment right now. Oh god, that is how high my voice is on that show. Woo, god bless y'all.

• 42:38Laci Mosley?

  Okay, so... Okay, so they got a text from the man the next day who said that the plumbing at the original rental hadn't been fixed, but that new tenants were moving into our flop house the next day. So, they weren't quite sure what to do, so they booked a hotel and decided to deal with getting a refund later. So...

• 42:58Speaker 04

  Jesus.

• 42:59Laci Mosley?

  You know what I think this man is doing now that I'm thinking about? This is a tight rotation. So you sign up to go to this nice place with all these pictures and shit, right? Either he's double booking in and he really owns this property and he's just having like the first wave come in and he'll be like, "The toilet is fucked up", but still secure the bag and then put them in this like flop house?

• 43:20Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 43:20Laci Mosley?

  Or, he just keeps saying the rental's available and then 10 minutes before people try to go, he says the toilet's broken and then he rotates them to the flop house.

• 43:30Speaker 04

  Oh, so maybe the flop house is the real house.

• 43:33Laci Mosley?

  Is the only house that he got. And then he's just getting people in there for one night apiece, but they booking whole weekends.

• 43:38Speaker 04

  And that's smart.

• 43:40Laci Mosley?

  I'm like moaning, oh, this is good.

• 43:46Speaker 04

  Oh, that's crazy.

• 43:47Laci Mosley?

  I think that's what he's doing. Because that's how you gotta bounce out the next couple.

• 43:51Speaker 04

  Right, he's like, look, you know, because nobody's gonna say, fuck it, I'm gonna stay here if the plumber's not working. So everybody, and every, he's almost guaranteed that they're gonna go to the flop house.

• 44:00Laci Mosley?

  But see, if he was fucking with me, I'd be like, that's cool, I'll shit outside. Give us, give us the keys. I'll shut the lawn.

• 44:07Speaker 04

  You sure you wanna do that?

• 44:08Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I got Charmin, my heiny's clean, okay? I'll shit outside.

• 44:12Speaker 04

  He's like, but the flop house has a toilet.

• 44:14Laci Mosley?

  No, no, no, no, I really like the views, so much so.

• 44:17Speaker 04

  I'm fucking a plumber, so, I know.

• 44:20Laci Mosley?

  Right, I tell him, look, I'm with the plumber that I'm fucking, he got a wrench.

• 44:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, you guys are on staycation together? Come on, baby, let's, uh, let's get, let's get an Airbnb.

• 44:30Laci Mosley?

  You know how hard it was to get his wrench through, uh, airport security? Okay, TSA wasn't having it, but I told him he was a plumber.

• 44:35Speaker 04

  I love plumbers that carry their tools everywhere, like, through the airport.

• 44:39Laci Mosley?

  Obviously, I've never met a plumber, because this is what I assume that they're doing. Uh, yeah.

• 44:43Speaker 04

  I wish I knew more plumbers.

• 44:46Speaker 04

  We don't, I don't know any, I don't roll with no plumbers.

• 44:48Laci Mosley?

  You don't roll with no plumbers?

• 44:49Speaker 04

  I gotta, I think I, back home, maybe, back in Atlanta.

• 44:51Laci Mosley?

  You gotta get you some homies with some vocational skills.

• 44:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, all my homies are creative, they're too, yeah, we ain't got no skills.

• 44:57Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, the car breakdown.

• 44:59Speaker 04

  They know how to recite a poem, but they, yeah, not gonna be able to chase a tiger.

• 45:01Laci Mosley?

  They know how to recite a poem.

• 45:03Speaker 04

  I had to get some more, yeah, some more labor.

• 45:05Laci Mosley?

  That's not gonna help.

• 45:06Speaker 04

  Like some blue collar homies, yeah.

• 45:07Laci Mosley?

  Right, so, the last time that they heard from Becky and Andrew, which is the name of the Airbnb hosts, um, they sent a strange message on Airbnb asking that I give them no less than a five star review since Airbnb had changed its algorithm and communicate all concerns privately. So now they're like, hey, we know we didn't let you stay in the place that we told you we had for you that doesn't exist.

• 45:32Speaker 04

  Right.

• 45:33Laci Mosley?

  Then we sent you to the hood to search for a place that murderers live in? Then we kicked you out?

• 45:38Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 45:39Laci Mosley?

  But go ahead and give us that five star.

• 45:41Speaker 04

  So they can keep the Sam scam going.

• 45:43Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 45:44Speaker 04

  Man, that's real crazy. So what did they do? What happened next?

• 45:47Laci Mosley?

  So on Airbnb, they're like.

• 45:48Speaker 04

  I'm gonna edge on my seat.

• 45:50Laci Mosley?

  There's this

• 45:50Speaker 04

  What happened after that?

• 45:51Laci Mosley?

  There's this intimidation factor. And I recently dealt with this when I threw my birthday party. I did rent an Airbnb out, but I rented one out that was four parties, like a mansion, four parties. It specifically said that they did parties and music video shoots.

• 46:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was trying to go to that.

• 46:05Laci Mosley?

  So just two. Oh, my God. He started running it like the club. He had a gate clicker. He was at my party the entire time. He was drinking my food. He was eating. He was using the photo booth. It was crazy. It was a, in a creep, it was just like an old creepy white man. And he was taking pictures of me the whole time and all my friends. Obviously, we're in an entertainment industry, so so many people were there who are on TV or work in, you know, movie, television, film. He's taking unsolicited photos of them. Just imagine a party of just like a lot of cool Hollywood young people and this really old white man skulking around.

• 46:35Speaker 04

  He probably was trying to kick it. He's probably like, this is my way to live.

• 46:38Laci Mosley?

  I was trying to be welcoming because we definitely were over the guest quota, even though we were quiet and everyone was really just having a good time. But he was like really being stingy with how he would let people in and out of the house. So I was just trying to keep him happy. And he was so creepy and so racist. We had a food truck. The neighbors were like, that smells ethnic. Like literally texted him and said that it smelled ethnic. They had not cooked anything yet. It was

• 47:01Speaker 04

  That's crazy.

• 47:01Laci Mosley?

  craziness.

• 47:02Speaker 04

  How could you say that in LA like?

• 47:03Laci Mosley?

  Because, you know, it was like, it's the hills. So it's like racist, like old school white people. And I could tell that they didn't even like that he would do these Airbnb functions. Cause they're all old and just like want the neighborhood to stay quiet and white. And he over here bringing in, you know, Negroes every other Thursday and they're probably mad about it. Yeah, but it was crazy. But he intimidated me, basically being like, you had too many people here. If you give me a negative review, I'll give you a really negative review. And like, I would like, please write a review and like be kind about it. Like, he was like, otherwise I'm gonna charge you more money for the extra people that you had. And I had tried to offer to pay him more money because I knew more people were coming. He wouldn't even take it.

• 47:37Speaker 04

  But it still seems crazy, like if the premise, he know, you know, he does parties here.

• 47:42Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 47:42Speaker 04

  It's like he, I mean, he, of course, he knows it's gonna be more people coming, like, he probably just was like

• 47:48Laci Mosley?

  I didn't even know he was gonna be there.

• 47:50Speaker 04

  He's probably like, I'm gonna stay here and see if a lot of people come in and charge.

• 47:53Laci Mosley?

  Well, he kept acting like he didn't live there. This nigga lived in the house. That was one of those situations where you get there, you think you're gonna get the place. And like, he lives there and is currently living there. He had been smoking cigarettes all through the house. I did a walk though once. It was clean.

• 48:05Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 48:06Laci Mosley?

  And then when I came back, he'd have been, it was like he was lighting cigarettes like incense.

• 48:09Speaker 04

  He's like a bad roommate. He's like a bad stepdad. It's like this stepdad living there ruining everything, ruining everything.

• 48:14Laci Mosley?

  And taking pictures of my hot friends. And you know, people are in swimsuits, it's the 4th of July, he taking pictures of my hot friends, I'm like, they're like, who is this man, Lacy?

• 48:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, also, what, yeah, how come he doesn't have any 4th of July plans either?

• 48:28Laci Mosley?

  It, uh, creep on creep, but yeah, he intimidated me into, I just never even wrote a review because I was so upset about it, I couldn't revisit it. But he wrote kind of like a weird review about me, so it is a thing of like, you're forced, like, basically, Airbnbs have better reviews than hotels. Um, and TripAdvisor, just because people are so afraid that if you tank my rating, I'll tank yours, and vice versa. And then I can't rent at another place, it's like Uber, I give like every Uber five stars, even if, like, one time I gave an Uber three stars because he smelled really bad. He smelled so fucking bad that I was like, I can't give you five stars. And then I put car smell, that was a thing you could put.

• 49:05Speaker 04

  What did he smell like?

• 49:06Laci Mosley?

  It was a preset button.

• 49:07Speaker 04

  Oh, oh, it was like, this is the problem.

• 49:10Laci Mosley?

  It was like, why are you giving three stars? And then it was like, is it car smell? And I was like, why, yes.

• 49:15Speaker 04

  Wow, so you're right, though, it's kind of like it cancels itself out because it's like, I don't want to get a bad, no one's gonna pick me up. And then you give, but it's like, it is a double, and like, no one's being honest, so.

• 49:26Laci Mosley?

  And I had to learn, like, I tip sometimes, like, if they do a really good job, or if they like break a certain amount of traffic laws. Like, I had a Uber driver recently drive through a parking lot to avoid going through a light, and I was like, my nigga. Like, and so I tipped him, so I was like, I would have did the same thing, I would have drove to this parking lot.

• 49:44Speaker 04

  I know, I always wonder when an Uber driver does that, if they're like thinking in their head, like, I wonder if this person is gonna be cool with this, because I'm gonna do some crazy shit right now.

• 49:51Laci Mosley?

  I love it.

• 49:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'll be like, cool, like, hell yeah, let's do it, but then, you know, the wrong person might be like, hmm.

• 49:57Laci Mosley?

  I know, but I moved from New York, so I'm used to the cabs just being illegal, I had a cab driver once, like, we smoked weed with him in the cab.

• 50:06Speaker 04

  That's nice. You know what I was thinking? So I, so you're, at least they let you do the party, because when I try, I try to do a party like that. And then, but I would tell them in the email that I was trying to do a party at the house and I would never get a res- I felt like that they were being racist, like they wouldn't let me-

• 50:23Laci Mosley?

  That's another big thing about Airbnb is like they have kind of this insulation of racism, especially when it comes to black guests.

• 50:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 50:30Laci Mosley?

  A lot of times, if I'm going with a group, I'll have like the white person book the Airbnb or I'll like change my profile photo to like a white woman or like it's gonna get harder now the more that I start working entertainment, but I've really been trying to-

• 50:43Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 50:43Laci Mosley?

  Pretend that I was white a lot.

• 50:45Speaker 04

  You just gotta put Paul F. Tompkins out there.

• 50:49Laci Mosley?

  Paul F. Tompkins might be getting too close to black people. They'll be like, "I don't know about Paul. He might bring some Negroes with him."

• 50:55Speaker 04

  Paul just became like, he put his service out there. It's like, "If you need to get an Airbnb, I'll do it for you." And then he got in trouble for doing it so much. They're like, "No, that motherfucker always bringing black people everywhere."

• 51:05Laci Mosley?

  His service was called white face.

• 51:09Laci Mosley?

  Do you need a white face?

• 51:10Speaker 04

  Who told you you can represent the black community?

• 51:13Laci Mosley?

  I did.

• 51:15Speaker 04

  Lacey did.

• 51:15Laci Mosley?

  Yes, I love you, Paul. Summer holiday. But um, yeah, so I understand this. We've completely like diverged off of this, but back to it. So, when I asked about the status of my refund, they ghosted. Makes sense. Like, you're asking for money, they are not gonna give it to you. Which led to me contacting Airbnb. Though I had moved to the flop house and was told to leave early, Airbnb only refunded me $399 of my $1,221 bill. And only after I badgered a number of case managers over the course of several days, unable to shake the sense that there was more of a run-of-the-mill host kind of incident, I started to look into the red flags that I might have missed. So when she starts looking into it, she's like, "Some of the positive reviews on Becky and Andrew's

• 51:59Laci Mosley?

  Chicago rentals seemed odd, especially those left by other pairs of hosts, like Kelsey and Jean, for example. They said Becky and Andrew," which Becky just is not anybody's real name. I mean, your name is Rebecca, but like Becky is fake. I like, what do I say, guys? Every Matthew is a scam. Every Becky is also a scam. Add Becky to the list of scam names. So Becky and Andrew were awesome and communicative guests, they say.

• 52:29Laci Mosley?

  Jean and Kelsey.

• 52:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 52:31Laci Mosley?

  Say that they stayed with Becky and Andrew.

• 52:35Speaker 04

  Right.

• 52:35Laci Mosley?

  But Jean and Kelsey own two properties in Chicago as well.

• 52:41Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 52:41Laci Mosley?

  Basically, meaning that they went on a staycation up the street to Becky and Andrew's?

• 52:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 52:49Laci Mosley?

  Why?

• 52:50Speaker 04

  That don't make sense.

• 52:51Laci Mosley?

  If you have your own Airbnbs in Chicago.

• 52:52Speaker 04

  But there was Chicago art in the flop house. So maybe, maybe things are coming together. Is that a coincidence? They were like, we better get Chicago art to represent.

• 53:03Laci Mosley?

  We all live in Chicago, but we write reviews on other Chicago properties?

• 53:07Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 53:07Laci Mosley?

  That's mad weird. Like, I'm not gonna do a staycation at an Airbnb in Chicago if I have Airbnbs in Chicago. Unless, like, it's like LA. Like, if you have a mansion and I'm doing something special.

• 53:18Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 53:19Laci Mosley?

  But these are just regular houses, right?

• 53:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 53:21Laci Mosley?

  So that's already kind of weird. Even stranger, Kelsey and Jean's photo also had been cribbed from a travel site. And the language that they used to describe their home, West Loop Six Bed Getaway Walk the City, seemed familiar to that of Becky and Andrew, which was Six Bed Downtown Wicker Park Walk the City. Yeah, the language is a little close. It wasn't long before I found what looked like an awful lot like the apartment that I originally had booked with Becky and Andrew, the one on Northwood Street, listed by Kelsey and Jean as well. There was no mistaking it. The couch, coffee table, dining room set, even the Chicago gas station wall.

• 54:06Laci Mosley?

  All the same.

• 54:07Speaker 04

  Yeah. Wow.

• 54:09Laci Mosley?

  So she said, I started to wonder why.

• 54:10Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 54:10Laci Mosley?

  Right? So this is like a network.

• 54:13Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 54:14Laci Mosley?

  Of people who are doing this and they're all running it from one business account.

• 54:19Speaker 04

  Damn.

• 54:20Laci Mosley?

  So.

• 54:20Speaker 04

  We gotta take 'em down.

• 54:22Laci Mosley?

  Right, so that you.

• 54:24Speaker 04

  I don't know. Right?

• 54:25Laci Mosley?

  Do it.

• 54:27Laci Mosley?

  Look, Airbnb has taken them down. Airbnb has not said anything. They're about to go public. They were like, bitch, we don't have time for this. We trying to sell these shares.

• 54:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, Airbnb.

• 54:36Laci Mosley?

  We trying to sell these shares of other people's homes that we connect people to.

• 54:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, like, what is their business? What are they? They're just, what are they?

• 54:48Laci Mosley?

  They're just a middleman.

• 54:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, they're just like, they're basically like, like we described earlier, like, I don't have a house, but I'm gonna take you to another house.

• 54:55Laci Mosley?

  Right, they're literally.

• 54:56Speaker 04

  I'm just this person.

• 54:57Laci Mosley?

  The guy who broke into that house to give you the key is literally what Airbnb is.

• 55:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, so I guess I didn't get scammed.

• 55:04Laci Mosley?

  No, that's literally what Airbnb does. And it's crazy because if you use Airbnb, you know that if you try to contact the seller directly, like Airbnb don't play that shit. Like, if you type in an email, Airbnb will snatch the, it'll like bleep out the email address.

• 55:18Speaker 04

  Oh, wow, yeah.

• 55:19Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, you can't type in an email because then, like, they have a system that'll, that can tell if you've typed in any kind of contact info and then they bleep that shit out because they're like, no, you have to communicate on our website. You have, like, because they don't want you cutting out their fees and everything just because you've connected with the people. Which I thought was wild. And I was like, is there a way for me to get around this? Like, can I type sentences? And then put my number in between each word? Like, two, what's up, y'all? I really like this place. Five, if y'all like. Like, there has to be a way around this.

• 55:52Speaker 04

  Wow, that's wild.

• 55:54Laci Mosley?

  That's what my brain goes to. But yeah, so Airbnb is just a fucking middleman.

• 55:59Laci Mosley?

  So, it seems as if, like, one person or group had created numerous phony accounts to run a much larger Airbnb operation. If that proved true, admit whoever ran the five accounts I'd located was controlling at least ninety-four properties in eight different cities.

• 56:12Speaker 04

  Wow, ninety?

• 56:13Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 56:14Speaker 04

  Damn, that's like, they'd probably be really making some money then.

• 56:17Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 56:17Speaker 04

  They're probably making a lot of money.

• 56:18Laci Mosley?

  And probably very busy. When he was like, when she was like, can I talk to you on the phone? And he was like, I'm at my employment. Like, he's like, I'm scamming other people right now, okay? I don't have time to talk to you on the phone.

• 56:27Speaker 04

  I have eight ninety properties. Yeah, it's like I'm scamming, I'm too busy to help with the scam I'm doing currently. Cause I got so many scams.

• 56:35Laci Mosley?

  Cause I'm running so many scams, this is a business.

• 56:37Speaker 04

  It's an employment.

• 56:38Laci Mosley?

  He was like, look, I have people about to show up to the place that I told you ain't working right now. So I gotta go let them down.

• 56:45Speaker 04

  Do you, so is it better to just go to a hotel? Is that the, is that what I should do?

• 56:51Laci Mosley?

  I think so, you can actually get discounts and upgrades. You don't have to worry about there being a woman there, a cat, three rats, someone who breaks you into the Airbnb.

• 57:03Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's true. There's no, yeah, there's no pets in there.

• 57:05Laci Mosley?

  An elusive bottle of soy sauce, a hole punched in a wall.

• 57:09Speaker 04

  It would be crazy if I go to a hotel, cause I'm going out of town next month, and if there's like a bottle of soy sauce there, sitting there, I'm gonna probably freak out.

• 57:18Laci Mosley?

  That's like, that's the new get out.

• 57:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, I'd be like, no, ah! Oh, but yeah, I'm gonna stick to hotels. I like hotels.

• 57:25Laci Mosley?

  I do too. I mean, look, everything's gross, but I feel like a hotel, at least you know someone is like competently cleaning it and everything. Like Airbnb have cleaning services, but it just doesn't feel as legitimate. At least at a hotel, they have rules. They have a structured way that they clean things. There's like a routine.

• 57:40Speaker 04

  Yeah, like someone's checking, like, and they really be trying to clean, cause when I be in hotels, they be like, even when I don't want them to come in, they're constantly trying to come in and clean.

• 57:48Laci Mosley?

  Oh, yeah.

• 57:49Speaker 04

  They, you know, they at least trying to, where the Airbnb, it's like, they'll clean when you're done.

• 57:53Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, no, the housekeeping is like.

• 57:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, they'll wake your ass up, like, stop, stop.

• 57:59Laci Mosley?

  Hello? No, we good, we good. I had one just come in and we was naked.

• 58:02Speaker 04

  Really?

• 58:03Laci Mosley?

  It was like. And we didn't say nothing. So we thought if we didn't say nothing, she was gonna go away.

• 58:08Speaker 04

  No, they, that's their cue to come in. They're like, well, nobody's in here. Do do do do do. Oh my god, naked.

• 58:15Laci Mosley?

  Girl. I know you gotta do your rounds, but shit.

• 58:19Speaker 04

  Oh man.

• 58:19Laci Mosley?

  So, this story continues. There's so many instances of like creepy, um, like people who she contacted, who were like, I had the same situation happen to me, like, I came to the place, it wasn't how it was advertised. It was creepy and dirty and the furniture looked like it had been picked up off the street. The couches were tattered and burned by cigarettes. That killed me.

• 58:40Speaker 04

  This image is killing me.

• 58:41Laci Mosley?

  Smoking a cigarette on the couch and putting it out on the couch. You are a wild motherfucker.

• 58:47Speaker 04

  No respect, no respect for furniture. My mom would kill me. She won't even let me eat on the couch, like eat around it.

• 58:54Laci Mosley?

  Eat around it, not in the vicinity, the general area. And I can't look at the couch while I'm eating, you know what I mean? For fear. But that's, that's, I just want to know the type of motherfucker who's out here putting cigarette butts out on the couch. Because that is just.

• 59:06Speaker 04

  It's a certain type of person. I feel like I know that person.

• 59:10Laci Mosley?

  You feel like you know this person?

• 59:11Speaker 04

  But, you know, I cut those, I cut that person out of my life. You cut off, no more.

• 59:18Laci Mosley?

  I'm very glad that you cut this person out of your life, Lamar, because if I found, if I saw you with a man who was smoking cigarettes and putting them out on furniture, I'd be concerned.

• 59:26Speaker 04

  Oh, man. When I, one day I'm gonna run into him, I'm gonna be like, how's it going? And he's gonna say, I quit smoking. And then we'll be friends again, maybe.

• 59:35Laci Mosley?

  So, this is just a very long article about how she continues to find people who have been a part of this scam. Airbnb is kind of at this, like, standstill where they're refusing to do anything about it. She thinks that the scam is actually coming from a place called Abbott Pacific. And so she had contacted Abbott Pacific, um, to see, like, whoa. Because it basically was an upscale corporate rental company. But then some people were taking tours of it and all of the rentals were really, like, rundown properties that were at the same address that he had listed that the upscale properties were at.

• 1:00:18Laci Mosley?

  So, she starts to think that she's on to the guy, right? She goes, I repeatedly tried to reach out to him on his cellphone to no avail, so I decided to call Abbott Pacific, the company he ran, according to LinkedIn. The company's website only listed a Google number, which I called repeatedly and on a Wednesday in October, before leaving a voicemail explaining that I needed to speak with Joel. The next day, I emailed Joel on his personal Gmail. She is, listen, the petty levels here, this is peak petty. This is, she has taken on a full-time job.

• 1:00:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, she, that's her employment now.

• 1:00:50Laci Mosley?

  My sister.

• 1:00:51Speaker 04

  She's doing it.

• 1:00:51Laci Mosley?

  Is drinking 12 cups of coffee a day. She's picked up a smoking habit. She's like got so many papers and she's driving around like a, a Chevelle.

• 1:01:03Speaker 04

  Yeah, her car is filled with paperwork.

• 1:01:06Laci Mosley?

  For some reason, she lives in LA but everywhere.

• 1:01:09Speaker 04

  Can't find a parking spot.

• 1:01:10Laci Mosley?

  Right. She lives in LA, but everywhere she goes, it's gray, cold and rainy. I don't know how, just in her car. You know what I mean? Like, she's an intense.

• 1:01:17Speaker 04

  He's really doing it. I'm really impressed. I could never do any, I could never go through all that.

• 1:01:22Laci Mosley?

  So she emails him and she says, the man starts to pepper me with questions about this piece. Cause he, so he goes, I Googled you very briefly and it seems like you write generally negative things. So I'm trying to figure out how I can help. So now he's like, girl, I'll see you out here.

• 1:01:38Speaker 04

  Yeah. Is there any chance that the company could, this someone could be doing this under the company and the company not know? Or is it, you think it goes all the way to the top?

• 1:01:50Laci Mosley?

  But like a good scammer knows how to figure that out. So I don't know if it's just him. It says he runs this company, this LLC. I mean, I have an LLC. It's very easy to get an LLC. So he very well could just be running this company.

• 1:02:00Speaker 04

  That's true, yeah.

• 1:02:03Laci Mosley?

  So recently, the FBI has reached out to our girl, Ally. Um, that's her name, right? Ally, yeah. So the FBI has reached out to her about these scams, but she has yet to hear anything from Airbnb at this point.

• 1:02:17Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 1:02:17Laci Mosley?

  So after reaching out to Airbnb several times, I'm really not getting any help. Like she's still in contact with this guy. She offered to email him links to the Airbnb accounts that he was, she was referring to, that she thought were fraudulent. But he never gave her an email address saying that he had a pad and pen to take them down, which would presumably be first in human history. Like, who has ever written down a website? He's like, no, I got a pad and paper. Okay, what's website? WWW dot, oh wait, the forward slash, two forward slashes.

• 1:02:47Speaker 04

  Oh, you gotta mess up and make sure you have an eraser.

• 1:02:49Laci Mosley?

  Com slash Q R T one, one, zero, J two bungalow. Like what? No one's writing this down. So then she says, oh, and I should tell you, this happened to me. Several seconds of silence passed before the man responds, this makes more sense now. After hanging up, I messaged Chris and Becky's account, the fake one, and asked for Joelle to call me because I was writing an article. It was around 3:00 PM in New York City. "Hi, Ally. Think you might be mistaken," they wrote back four hours later. "Are you looking to book the home?"

• 1:03:29Laci Mosley?

  Don't y'all know y'all already ran this scam on her?

• 1:03:31Speaker 04

  I know, that's funny, that's how you know, cuz yeah, it's like, they do a so such scam mode that they're like, it's like almost in a loop, like they just can't not be scamming.

• 1:03:39Laci Mosley?

  Also, I feel like that it must be Joel, because nobody responds to a question that they don't know the answer to, like, I think you might be mistaken.

• 1:03:47Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 1:03:48Laci Mosley?

  I think I would just be like, who is Joel, like?

• 1:03:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, like, yeah, I think you might be mistaken.

• 1:03:53Laci Mosley?

  Joel sent over the type of like, what's gonna make it sound like this is not me?

• 1:03:57Speaker 04

  It took twenty minutes to figure that out. Alright, I'm gonna say, I think you might be mistaken. And then, then the, then the, that's good, that's good.

• 1:04:05Laci Mosley?

  That's what I was about to say.

• 1:04:06Speaker 04

  Say that, say that.

• 1:04:07Laci Mosley?

  Okay, okay, cuz, alright, ba ba ba ba ba. And then I'm gonna say, do, are you looking to book the home?

• 1:04:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:04:11Laci Mosley?

  Because we legitimately are booking homes.

• 1:04:14Speaker 04

  Like, anybody legit would call it a home.

• 1:04:16Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, okay, okay, okay, I'm typing it right now.

• 1:04:19Speaker 04

  A room.

• 1:04:21Laci Mosley?

  So, the man who called himself Patrick never got back to her, so this, so Joel was going by so many different names.

• 1:04:29Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:04:30Laci Mosley?

  Um, never got back to me with more information about the disconnect, or put me in touch with Joel, as he said he would. I again emailed, basically this goes on, um, and eventually she goes on to the website, the Pacific LLC, and it's gone.

• 1:04:45Speaker 04

  Wow, so, so that she's probably scared him and then they, they took it down, right?

• 1:04:49Laci Mosley?

  Right, they were like, we gotta start deleting our paper trail, we are too easily Googleable.

• 1:04:52Speaker 04

  First stop, website. Get rid of the website, that's the first thing we take care of.

• 1:04:57Laci Mosley?

  Why do we even have a website for our scam company? That was stupid. You told me we needed outreach, you said that social media was the future, yeah, not for us.

• 1:05:05Speaker 04

  But we don't need outreach. If it was real, if it was a real company, then we wouldn't need a website.

• 1:05:12Laci Mosley?

  This is crazy, so I'm, I mean, and this is still a developing story, so if there is an update, we'll give you one, but the FBI is looking into this now, I'm so fascinated to see.

• 1:05:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, I can't wait to see what happens.

• 1:05:21Laci Mosley?

  But shout out to Ally for being just petty enough.

• 1:05:23Speaker 04

  Hella thorough. Ally was keeping it real thorough.

• 1:05:25Laci Mosley?

  Thirsty for the truth.

• 1:05:27Speaker 04

  Attention to detail, that's my biggest weakness, like, when I was, uh, you know, when I was getting out of my job and they did a review on me, they were like, you're good at a lot of things, but you don't have good attention to detail.

• 1:05:38Laci Mosley?

  Turned everything happened. Like Lamar, there's coffee all over this.

• 1:05:41Speaker 04

  I don't have a touch of the detail. But Ally did.

• 1:05:45Laci Mosley?

  But all right, guys, that brings us to the end of this episode. Where I always ask people, where do you want to be found? Now, where can people find you? Because I don't want people pulling up on you unless you consent.

• 1:05:55Speaker 04

  Oh, I just want to be found on, you can find me on, um, on, on the movie and show. Just watch my movie, It's a Party on Showtime. And then you'll see, you'll see me.

• 1:06:06Laci Mosley?

  Watch It's a Party. Lamar is hilarious, so talented. Um, guys, as always, you can find us at [email protected]. If you've got some retired scams that you want to share with us, please do not blow your lid on your scam you're still running. I'm not trying to fuck up your bag, okay? Retired scams only, or if you've been scammed, I'm so sorry. We'll probably laugh about it, but please email it to us anyway. Uh, guys, if you want to find me, I'm at D I V A L A C I on all platforms, Diva Lacy. That brings us to the end of the show congregation. Stay scheming. Scam Goddess. Scam Goddess stars and is hosted by me, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. Our producer is Jessica Sisneros and our audio engineer is Rich Garcia.

• 1:06:49Laci Mosley?

  Research for the show is conducted by Kate Doyle. Stay scheming.

• 1:06:55Speaker 08

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