The Marijuana Manipulator w/ James Mastraieni (Fraud Friday)

In this week’s Fraud Friday, Laci is joined by comedian, writer, and podcasterJames Mastraieni (Too Effin’ High, Florida Girls) to discuss the curious case of the Instagram marijuana fraudster who duped would-be customers into buying weed that never appeared. Plus, James shares his wild liquor store scam that involves costumes! Stay Schemin’! (Originally Released 11/18/2019) Follow on Instagram: Scam Goddess Pod: @scamgoddesspod Laci Mosley: @divalaci James Mastraieni: @jmazz1111 Research by Sharilyn Vera SOURCES: https://help.instagram.com/789164081427334?helpref=related https://www.reddit.com/r/trees/comments/1ygw9k/a_warning_to_those_thinking_of_buying_trees/ https://hightimes.com/news/weed-scams-trending-instagram-people-falling-for-them/ https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/11/us/cannabis-planted-vermont-statehouse-trnd/index.html

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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• 0:14Speaker 01

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• 0:30Speaker 02

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• 1:30Laci 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'.

• 2:12Laci Mosley?

  Hi, welcome to Scam Goddess. As you've heard, I'm here with James Mastroianni. Yeah. Yes. Oh, my gosh, I've known James for, oh, a few years now, like three, almost four years.

• 2:23Speaker 05

  Longer than that, right?

• 2:24Laci Mosley?

  That's as long as I've been in LA, so as long as we could have known each other.

• 2:26Speaker 05

  Oh, really?

• 2:27Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 2:27Speaker 05

  Wow, I thought for sure, it seems like so long ago, I guess.

• 2:31Laci Mosley?

  I know, it really does.

• 2:32Speaker 05

  Maybe I just know you well enough that it just, it seems like we've been friends for a while.

• 2:37Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, that's something a scammer would say to you guys.

• 2:40Laci Mosley?

  I've known you since childhood.

• 2:41Speaker 05

  Yeah, we've known each other so long.

• 2:44Laci Mosley?

  Believe that. Now, what I was saying about the social security number.

• 2:47Speaker 05

  Scam, scam.

• 2:49Laci Mosley?

  Yo, well, James, you have to tell me, like, what's your relationship with scams? Have you been in any scams? Have you?

• 2:55Speaker 05

  You know, I am, as an adult, I'm not really, I'm not really a scam type of person.

• 3:02Laci Mosley?

  Damn, Shade, you calling me a non-adult? You're right, I'm a child.

• 3:06Speaker 05

  No, I'm saying you're an adult with, with loose moral fiber.

• 3:14Speaker 05

  No, I, you know, my, my parents have been the victims of scams, because my parents are like older and I feel like a lot of scams.

• 3:24Laci Mosley?

  Target older people.

• 3:25Speaker 05

  For sure, for sure. But, you know, honestly, I just don't think that I'm, would be very good at it, like,

• 3:34Speaker 05

  just in general scamming.

• 3:35Laci Mosley?

  Why not? Like, do you have an experience where you've tried?

• 3:38Speaker 05

  I do, actually, yeah. I had, so, but this is like a, so this, this was a scam I tried to pull when I was in high school.

• 3:46Laci Mosley?

  Ooh, okay.

• 3:46Speaker 05

  And I was 17, and so, just a little bit of backstory. So first of all, I should say, audience, we're just getting-

• 3:56Laci Mosley?

  We call our audience the congregation.

• 3:58Speaker 05

  Okay, the congregation?

• 3:59Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 4:00Speaker 05

  I would just like to say, first of all, we don't know each other, and this story makes me sound not great. So, I would say, give me a little bit of the benefit of the doubt.

• 4:11Laci Mosley?

  Okay, you're 17.

• 4:12Speaker 05

  I'm 17 years old.

• 4:13Laci Mosley?

  With a booming, deep voice.

• 4:15Speaker 05

  Exactly, with a booming, deep voice. And um, so a little bit of backstory, my uh, so growing up, my mom was disabled. Brian, she was in a wheelchair. And so um, if uh, you know, for a lot of people that are in wheelchairs, you have to have like very specific types of vehicles.

• 4:33Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 4:33Speaker 05

  Uh, and-

• 4:34Laci Mosley?

  Handicap pass. So you got to park in the front of everywhere.

• 4:37Speaker 05

  Everything, front, front line at every amusement park.

• 4:40Laci Mosley?

  Oh.

• 4:41Speaker 05

  Which, oh, here's a minor scam we used to do because my mom couldn't go on rides.

• 4:46Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 4:46Speaker 05

  But we would use her to get to the front of the line at an amusement park.

• 4:49Laci Mosley?

  And then leave her?

• 4:50Speaker 05

  And then leave her. Uh, and then just like sort of let her sit there.

• 4:54Laci Mosley?

  I think you're right. Now, the thought of your mom having to sit there while you're on Splash Mountain is hilarious and maybe a little sad. But I think your mom probably was also proud that she could like-

• 5:04Speaker 05

  She loved it.

• 5:04Laci Mosley?

  Help her kids like that.

• 5:05Speaker 05

  Absolutely. Yeah. It helped make her, you know, it felt to, like, made her feel needed, I guess.

• 5:11Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 5:11Speaker 05

  Um, but uh, so um, when my mom's insurance approved of a new uh, disabled van, um, I got my mom's old van, which was a 1988 Dodge conversion van with a wheelchair lift out the side, right?

• 5:28Laci Mosley?

  Oh my gosh, for a kid, this must have been a dream.

• 5:30Speaker 05

  Oh my God, it was a dream. And at this point, like, I'm a big stoner. And so I turned it into this big-

• 5:34Laci Mosley?

  And you got a van?

• 5:35Speaker 05

  Exactly. I turned it into this big smoking van. Like, I took the seats out and replaced them with beanbag chairs.

• 5:42Laci Mosley?

  Oh my God.

• 5:42Speaker 05

  And put up like beads and black lights and all this stuff. And uh, this, this, this story is also just seeping with white privilege. Uh, because there's no, like, I should have been arrested multiple times for all of this. But um, so one night, we're in my basement. My parents used to go to bed very early and I used to have friends over to come and hang in my, in my basement and smoke weed.

• 6:06Laci Mosley?

  You were that friend who like would host things and stuff.

• 6:10Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 6:10Laci Mosley?

  Oh, man. I never got to know-

• 6:12Speaker 05

  My parents are asleep at, you know, eight, eight thirty. Come on over. We'll get high. We'll chill.

• 6:16Laci Mosley?

  What kind of sleep is this? They don't hear shit?

• 6:18Speaker 05

  No, no. I mean like-

• 6:20Laci Mosley?

  Are you kidding me? I fucking crack my ass upstairs. My mom's like, hold it.

• 6:23Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 6:23Laci Mosley?

  My mom's a petty sleeper.

• 6:25Speaker 05

  That's really funny. No, my parents are deep, deep sleepers. And uh, well, we'll get, we'll get to that part of the story. So I, we, we were all smoking weed, but we decided like, and so I'm, I'm all high and shit. And we're like, oh, man, you know, we're only seventeen. We're like, want to get some booze, right?

• 6:40Laci Mosley?

  Let's take this party to the next level.

• 6:42Speaker 05

  Exactly. Let's take this party to the next level. And I was like, how, we're trying to come up with an idea like, how do we get some booze, right? We're not 21. None of us have fakes, right?

• 6:49Laci Mosley?

  This is when the scam comes in.

• 6:51Speaker 05

  This is where the scam comes in. So I'm like, okay, I think I have an idea. And so my mom had two different wheelchairs. She had a regular wheelchair and then she had a really dope, like a scooter wheelchair.

• 7:05Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, like an electric one.

• 7:06Speaker 05

  An electric one, yeah. And which she used to keep charged in her bedroom. So I tell my friend, like, pull my van around front and lower the ramp and I'll be right back. And I went upstairs and I went into my parents' bedroom while they were sleeping. And I unplugged her electric wheelchair. And I slowly start scooting it, you know, out of the bedroom.

• 7:30Laci Mosley?

  So you're like doing it with, like, it's like.

• 7:32Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 7:33Laci Mosley?

  You're like looking back to see if she's.

• 7:34Speaker 05

  A hundred percent. Like, I would go back a little bit and then they would start and I would just freeze. Because I'm also like, if my parents wake up right now and they see me in the middle of their bedroom, in the dark, high as shit, sitting in my mom's wheelchair. One, if I'm there at them, I'm like, is, like, is he here to kill us? Like, what is, what the fuck is going on?

• 7:56Laci Mosley?

  Totally Menendez your parents now?

• 7:57Speaker 05

  Exactly. It's so freaky. And so, you know, I'm doing this thing. I'm slowly backing it out and I'm going backwards too.

• 8:04Laci Mosley?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 8:04Speaker 05

  And I'm trying to back my way out.

• 8:06Laci Mosley?

  In the dark.

• 8:06Speaker 05

  In the dark. And so I finally get it out and I grab a blanket. Uh, cause in this, in my head, this is gonna help make it better. So I, I pull it into, into the van. I'm like, all right, here's what we're gonna do. Pull up to the liquor store, right? Make sure that the owner sees you lower the wheelchair ramp or the, the, yeah, the wheelchair ramp out the side. Uh, I put this blanket on my lap because I thought it made me look more, uh, disabled. And I was like, there's no way that they're going to ask me for ID if they think that, like, I'm disabled, right? And I'll just go in, I'll grab a couple of bottles and, uh, it'll be, it'll be great, right?

• 8:48Laci Mosley?

  So this youthful teenage. Boy is now has a blanket over him and an electric wheelchair. I do have to say, James, that you are a scammer because the confidence level of saying, I'm gonna go unplug an electric mobile vehicle.

• 9:02Speaker 05

  Right.

• 9:02Laci Mosley?

  Then I'm gonna back it up in the dark. I'm also high, so I'm a little impaired. And all this so that my parents don't realize that I'm doing it. Like, that's an extreme amount of confidence.

• 9:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 9:12Laci Mosley?

  And so now you're also the one who's the most confident enough to roll into this convenience store and play the sympathy card to buy alcohol.

• 9:18Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 9:19Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 9:19Speaker 05

  Yeah, I guess that's true. Maybe I am a scammer.

• 9:23Speaker 05

  And so I go in and immediately, and I don't know why this makes me laugh, but I guess it's it's just that age of like the kind of alcohol you drink. But I picked up a bottle of Captain Morgan's and a bottle of 99 bananas.

• 9:38Laci Mosley?

  Oh.

• 9:38Speaker 05

  It was like the two that I got for for us.

• 9:41Laci Mosley?

  I used to get faded on some 99 bananas.

• 9:43Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 9:43Laci Mosley?

  And like it.

• 9:44Speaker 05

  Oof. 99 bananas. 99 berries was really bad. But I used to do the same shit. And so I take, you know, I take the wheelchair up to the counter and I put the, and so I'm like pretending to be like kind of frail. And I put, I put the, oh, it gets worse. It gets worse. Congregation, it gets worse and I'm so sorry for this.

• 10:10Speaker 05

  And so I put the bottles on on the the thing. And by the way, I'm the only person in the liquor store.

• 10:17Laci Mosley?

  Wow, okay.

• 10:18Speaker 05

  Nobody else is there. No distractions, which I wish there would have been. I feel like if it would have been busier, it would have been easier, right?

• 10:25Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, like if you had some friends, if other friends had come in and maybe bought snacks or something.

• 10:28Speaker 05

  Exactly, yeah, yeah. So I go in and I put the bottles down and the guy's like, hey, I gotta see some ID. And in my head, I was like, fuck, immediately, this is what he asked me. So I'm like, okay, pretend you didn't hear him.

• 10:51Laci Mosley?

  What? So now you're trying to make yourself deaf, dude?

• 10:54Speaker 05

  Oh, it gets worse. It gets worse. So I pretend not to hear him and I just pushed the bottles further towards him and I put some cash on the thing. And he goes, hey, man, I'm sorry, but um, I gotta see some ID. I gotta make sure you're over 21. And so this, at this point, I'm like, okay, I have to double down. So I then put on an affectation.

• 11:18Laci Mosley?

  No.

• 11:20Speaker 05

  That I am mentally disabled.

• 11:22Laci Mosley?

  No.

• 11:24Speaker 05

  And I still remember the exact thing that I said.

• 11:28Laci Mosley?

  Oh, gosh.

• 11:29Speaker 05

  And so congregation, please stick with me here. And this is for-

• 11:33Laci Mosley?

  Look, we all, we all stray, guys, okay?

• 11:35Speaker 05

  We all stray. I was 17.

• 11:37Laci Mosley?

  This is not 2014. Nobody was woke yet.

• 11:40Speaker 05

  Yeah, nobody was woke. Nobody's woke. Believe me, I feel terrible about this. Uh, and I looked at him and I said, please.

• 11:47Laci Mosley?

  No.

• 11:48Speaker 05

  I'm in so much pain. Just like that.

• 11:57Laci Mosley?

  Now, James, this is all horrible, but I do have to say the dedication to not just bailing on this.

• 12:04Speaker 05

  Oh, I know.

• 12:04Laci Mosley?

  Cause I think I would've just reversed that joint and been like, eh, like out of the store.

• 12:09Speaker 05

  Absolutely. And so he looks at me for a moment and he goes, I know who you are.

• 12:18Speaker 05

  He goes, and this is like an old, middle-aged white guy. And there was this restaurant next door called Frish's. He's like, I've seen your, I've seen your van. I've seen you and your friends smoking weed outside the restaurant all the time. I know you're not in a wheelchair and I know you're not old enough to be in here. So I'm gonna give you two seconds to get the fuck out of my store. Otherwise, I'm calling the police.

• 12:43Laci Mosley?

  Yo, he's petty as fuck.

• 12:45Speaker 05

  He-

• 12:45Laci Mosley?

  Cause he knew exactly what he wanted.

• 12:47Speaker 05

  The whole fucking time, he knew. He was just like, "I'm gonna let this dumb fucking kid, I'm gonna let this dumb kid just do this whole bit. I'm maneuvering my way through these narrow ass liquor aisles in this wheelchair." And I immediately fess up. And I was like, "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done this." Uh, I, I just, my friends and I were just trying to have a good time. And he was like, "Get the fuck out." And, but, the funny thing is, I was like, "Yes, absolutely." And I started, I started moving the wheelchair. And I got it stuck-

• 13:25Laci Mosley?

  No.

• 13:27Speaker 05

  -in the door on the way to the exit, like trying to leave. And I couldn't maneuver it. And I had to get up out of the wheelchair and try to like drag it through this narrow door all- while this dude is staring daggers straight through me. Uh, and I just sheepishly like pulled back into, uh, you know, back into the van and drove off.

• 13:47Laci Mosley?

  James, when the jig was up, why didn't you just get out of the wheelchair and push it out of the door?

• 13:51Speaker 05

  Because it's heavy as fuck. Like it's, it's this big motorized wheelchair. Like you can't really push it. And you have to like use the handle and then, cause when it got stuck, I had to like use the handle and then like maneuver it through the door. Cause it was like a wide wheelchair.

• 14:05Laci Mosley?

  Okay. Um- I appreciate this man's petty for letting you do all of this before he told you.

• 14:11Speaker 05

  It's pretty great.

• 14:12Laci Mosley?

  He even lets you do another, let you dig yourself into a deep asshole before he finally was like, "I know where you are." James, I think that this scam would have worked if you had gone somewhere that wasn't a place that you go all of the time.

• 14:23Speaker 05

  I-

• 14:24Laci Mosley?

  You can't go to your local-

• 14:26Speaker 05

  I know, I know.

• 14:27Laci Mosley?

  -you hang out in front of this place, James?

• 14:28Speaker 05

  Literally, the liquor store was next to the restaurant where like four of my friends worked.

• 14:33Laci Mosley?

  Oh my god.

• 14:34Speaker 05

  And so, we would just go get free food there and get high around back, you know, almost every day. So for some reason-

• 14:41Laci Mosley?

  James, you insulted that man's intelligence.

• 14:43Speaker 05

  Absolutely. I insulted a lot of people's intelligence. I insulted my own intelligence. I insulted my mother who, you know, has to endure the suffering of being disabled. And I exploited that to try to get 99 bananas for me and my friends. She also has never heard this story.

• 15:03Laci Mosley?

  Wow. So you put the chair back? She never noticed?

• 15:07Speaker 05

  She never noticed. I took the chair home. I took it back. Uh, I put it right back where it was, plugged that shit back in.

• 15:13Laci Mosley?

  I think you got enough punishment from the liquor store man.

• 15:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, I, yeah, I think, uh, I think, I would love to hear his version of that story.

• 15:21Laci Mosley?

  I'm sure he loves that story because he goaded you on. He like, he probably saw from the second that you came in and knew exactly what you were doing. Saw you pick up the liquor bottles, saw you driving around the store. He was like, okay, ID please.

• 15:34Speaker 05

  I know. He knew, like, he probably saw the van and immediately was like, what are these fucking idiots trying to do? And, because he probably, my van was so recognizable, the outside was completely graffitied.

• 15:47Laci Mosley?

  Oh, James.

• 15:48Speaker 05

  It was just tagged up completely. So, so there's no way you wouldn't know what this van was.

• 15:54Laci Mosley?

  Yo, all you needed was some, you needed a consultant. You had, look, you had confidence, you had gumption. You just needed somebody to get you with the logistics, like your friends, none of them were thinking. They were all just along for the ride. You needed one friend to be like, okay, but we gotta park the van across the street. And also, we can't go to the place that we always hang out at.

• 16:13Speaker 05

  I know.

• 16:14Laci Mosley?

  I think without those two major factors, you would have gotten your lips around some 99 bananas that night.

• 16:18Speaker 05

  Probably, yeah. I needed some scam goddess smartness.

• 16:21Laci Mosley?

  But we knew each other back then, James.

• 16:23Speaker 05

  I know, I know.

• 16:24Laci Mosley?

  I'm sorry.

• 16:25Speaker 05

  That's right. We've known each other that long.

• 16:33Laci Mosley?

  So this is our segment, what's hot in fraud? Guys, we don't want you to get scammed, at least not by other people, okay? I call you and I need you to spit in a cup or give me a lock of your child's hair. You mail that to me, okay, cuz it's for a good cost. But if anybody else is trying to run game on you, we just can't allow it. So this is a segment where we'll talk a little bit about a fraud, a scam, a hoodwink. That's really popular right now.

• 17:00Laci Mosley?

  So today, we're gonna talk about romance fraud. Guys, we've talked about romance fraud before. But the reason I wanna bring this up is because we actually got some legit numbers on romance fraud. James, do you know that romance fraud makes up about 143 million dollars domestically in losses?

• 17:19Speaker 05

  What? Okay, so first of all, what is romance fraud?

• 17:22Laci Mosley?

  So romance fraud, which I already told you guys, love is a scam. Stay woke.

• 17:28Laci Mosley?

  Look, it's one we all participated in. It's still a fucking scam.

• 17:33Laci Mosley?

  But romance fraud is where people talk on things like Bumble, Tinder, Christian Mingle, Grindr. And they talk to people who are looking for love and commitment as a means to defraud them out of small or large amounts of money.

• 17:50Speaker 05

  Interesting.

• 17:51Laci Mosley?

  Yes. So in 2018, romance scams were the most expensive type of fraud scam. And that's where we got that 143 million dollars. And this actually comes from the Federal Trade Commission. Cuz you can report, if you guys get scammed, you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Will you get your money back? Probably not, but maybe you're gonna save somebody else. Like, come on, guys, that's, that's good, right?

• 18:12Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 18:13Laci Mosley?

  So some of the biggest scams are often military men on Tinder, which I think is a good one. Cuz it's like men who are saying they're deployed, fighting for their country overseas.

• 18:26Speaker 05

  Wow, that's fucked.

• 18:28Laci Mosley?

  And so it's like, how can you really say who's in the military or not?

• 18:31Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 18:32Laci Mosley?

  There's a lot of people in the military.

• 18:34Speaker 05

  And like, that feels like it could easily appeal to like, any sort of like MAGA type of person on Tinder.

• 18:41Laci Mosley?

  Hell, yeah.

• 18:42Speaker 05

  You know, like, like an uber patriotic type of...

• 18:45Laci Mosley?

  Now, if you're scamming MAGA people, shout out to you.

• 18:47Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 18:48Laci Mosley?

  Keep doing that shit.

• 18:48Speaker 05

  Yeah, why not?

• 18:49Laci Mosley?

  I will never discourage it, and I will never report you.

• 18:53Laci Mosley?

  Um, but I want to read one of the reports of somebody who actually got scammed by this. All right, guys, so I'm on the Federal Trade Commission website. Um, and they actually have consumer information because this is so popular. People getting scammed by online lovers or whatever. So their advice is, one, never send money or gifts to a sweetheart you haven't met in person. That seems obvious, right?

• 19:18Speaker 05

  Yeah, that seems super obvious.

• 19:20Laci Mosley?

  Uh, take it slowly. Ask questions and look for inconsistent answers. Check the person's, um, photo using a search engine like Search by Image Google. If the same picture shows up with a different name, that's a red flag.

• 19:34Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

• 19:37Laci Mosley?

  Talk to someone about this new love entrance and pay attention if friends and family are concerned.

• 19:45Speaker 05

  That seems impractical, right?

• 19:48Laci Mosley?

  Is it?

• 19:49Speaker 05

  Maybe, I don't know, I feel like, well, no, I guess that, yeah, I'm trying to think of like, if I were talking to some, like, I'm talking to somebody on Hinge or whatever, uh.

• 19:59Laci Mosley?

  Are you gonna tell people that you matched with someone on Hinge?

• 20:01Speaker 05

  How would they know if they're, how would somebody else know if they're a scammer?

• 20:05Laci Mosley?

  I think because what they're saying is, is like, maybe you don't realize this shit is weird, but if you say it out loud to somebody else.

• 20:11Speaker 05

  That's true.

• 20:11Laci Mosley?

  Be like, oh, yeah, I'm talking to this new man, his name is John Doe, he in the military.

• 20:17Laci Mosley?

  He said he needed $6,000 for his medical bills. I said, let's FaceTime before I send him money. He said, I ain't got no, um, FaceTime out here in Baghdad.

• 20:27Speaker 05

  Right.

• 20:27Laci Mosley?

  And I was like, are we still in Baghdad? He was like, yes, we are, we definitely are for sure.

• 20:33Speaker 05

  That's really funny, that makes sense, yeah.

• 20:35Laci Mosley?

  He said they're trying to get garbage out to tear down that wall. And I was like, okay.

• 20:41Speaker 05

  I'm here in Hanoi, uh, Vietnam, and I've been stationed here for 40 years.

• 20:49Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, they never brought all of us back.

• 20:50Speaker 05

  They never brought us back.

• 20:51Laci Mosley?

  They didn't tell you, but we're still fighting in the Vietnam War. So y'all remember Normandy? Well, yeah, he's still at Normandy. So I wired him $6,000.

• 21:02Speaker 05

  Oh, my God.

• 21:02Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, so maybe your friend will be like, hey, girl, that war's been over for a long time.

• 21:08Speaker 05

  Let's open up the history books, shall we?

• 21:12Laci Mosley?

  And then the last one is if you suspect a romance scam, cut off contact right away. Then report the scam to FTC, which is FTC.gov/Complaint. And notify the dating site where you met the scammer to. So guys, if this has happened to you, you don't have to tell us, but also you should tell us. Email scamgoddispod, because we'd love to hear about it. But yeah, it's crazy. So the website went further. They made an instructional safety video for people who are online dating. And it's right behind you, James.

• 21:42Speaker 05

  Oh, I love this.

• 21:44Speaker 06

  Looking for love in all the right places? Like popular dating sites, mobile apps, and social networking sites? Ron seems like a perfect match for you. He's thoughtful and says he can't live without you.

• 21:56Laci Mosley?

  Ron looks like a serial killer.

• 21:57Speaker 06

  He says he's from the US but works out of the country. He says he wants to visit, but says he can't afford it. He asks you to send him money. Last month, it was medical bills for his sick aunt.

• 22:08Laci Mosley?

  Ron looks evil as fuck.

• 22:09Speaker 06

  This month, he needs money to fix his car. Next month, who knows?

• 22:12Speaker 05

  That aunt didn't look sick at all.

• 22:12Speaker 06

  Ron wants your money. Don't send it. The person pretending to be Ron is a scammer. He'll tell you anything to get you to wire cash right away. He'll never run out of excuses. If an online love interest asks you for money, walk away, no matter how compelling the story. Report scams at FTC.gov/Imposters.

• 22:33Speaker 05

  It's so funny to me, and maybe this says a lot about my own personal relationship to my family. But like, a sick aunt is not going to get me to give you money. Like, why an aunt?

• 22:46Laci Mosley?

  Too far away.

• 22:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's like, thinking about all my aunt, like, all my aunts, like, I can't, I mean, you know, I don't want them to be sick, but also like.

• 22:54Laci Mosley?

  So you wouldn't even help your own sick aunt, is what you're saying? Like, it could be like, your sister's like.

• 22:59Speaker 05

  I mean, I don't have the money, first of all, to help a sick aunt. Second of all, I haven't talked to a aunt in years. It'd be, yeah.

• 23:06Laci Mosley?

  So because of your own close or not close personal relationship with aunts, you will be giving no money for someone?

• 23:11Speaker 05

  If somebody was like, I have a sick aunt, I'd be like. Uh, yeah, maybe a sick mom. Like, why, why'd you choose an aunt? Why not?

• 23:18Laci Mosley?

  Cause I think aunts, like you said, aren't people that you have to materialize. If it's the mom, it's like, you should know where your mom is. But if it's your sick aunt, you can be like, oh, she's like in Albuquerque. I don't have any pictures.

• 23:29Speaker 05

  It's just far enough removed to, I see what you're saying.

• 23:32Laci Mosley?

  That was a college excuse. I remember like in college, if I couldn't get a paper done in time, you kill off a dad, an aunt.

• 23:38Speaker 05

  Kill off an aunt?

• 23:40Laci Mosley?

  Like, I'm so sorry, professor, but my aunt died and so I can't turn in this paper.

• 23:45Speaker 05

  Yeah. And see, if I were your professor, I'd be like, Lacey, I think I've talked to my aunts once in the last 10 years. So you still gotta do the paper. An aunt's not good enough.

• 23:55Laci Mosley?

  Oh, listen, I've, I've been killing off the same aunt for so many years. And when, when your mama do the funeral program, it's like, easy Photoshop on that sunset date. You know, it'd be like sunrise, their birthday and their sunset, whenever I need it to.

• 24:09Speaker 05

  That's so funny.

• 24:11Laci Mosley?

  But I also what struck me about this video is that, one, it's a woman who they're warning about these scams. And I'm like, so are they not including men in romance scams? Because is that just like culturally normative for women to like scam men out of money pretending that they love them?

• 24:28Speaker 05

  Oh, interesting.

• 24:30Laci Mosley?

  Cause like the, it's about a woman. And I'm thinking about it. I'm like, I know so many women who are out here just getting shoes and bags and boob jobs and Range Rovers from dudes. And no one calls that a scam.

• 24:40Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's interesting.

• 24:42Laci Mosley?

  You know what? Maybe it's because the woman's not getting anything in return because everybody knows that dick is trash.

• 24:48Speaker 05

  Right. Dick is trash. I do think, you know, I wonder if it's, you know, maybe it's not the word scam in that situation, but it's more the idea of like, some people enter into a more transactional relationship as opposed to a relationship of like mutuality, right?

• 25:04Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, you're right.

• 25:05Speaker 05

  Some like rich old dudes are just be like, hey, like you said, love can be a scam. Where it's this thing of like, you know, this is a transactional relationship. I'll pay for your apartment or whatever. Like, yeah.

• 25:17Laci Mosley?

  You're right. And then I think for the most part, the women are actually like materializing. Like they're showing up. They're not just like using, I guess, a fake photo. And like, okay, that makes sense.

• 25:26Speaker 05

  Cause I was actually gonna say, I think I almost was the victim of this.

• 25:30Laci Mosley?

  Really?

• 25:31Speaker 05

  Of a, of a romance scam. Maybe like, so I very briefly used Tinder a few years ago. And this instance is what got me off of Tinder. I haven't used it since. I had a woman like match with me on Tinder. And we started talking from the beginning. I was skeptical because like, she was just way too enthusiastic and like, you know, I'm 35. I, I pretty, I, I know my place in the world. I know I'm not, I know I'm not attractive enough to have a woman over the internet be that enthusiastic. Like, I'm almost six foot. Maybe if I was six, three, maybe that would be a thing where, but it's not, I'm not tall enough. I'm not handsome enough. I'm bald. I know, I know my place.

• 26:13Laci Mosley?

  James, I'm not gonna agree with any of this.

• 26:17Speaker 05

  And she was being really enthusiastic and she was like-

• 26:20Laci Mosley?

  What did she do that was like showing you like over enthusiasm?

• 26:23Speaker 05

  She wanted to meet that night. She wanted to come see my place. She wanted to, and I was like, you know, I don't know if I feel comfortable. Like, I was like, maybe we can meet at a bar for a drink or something like that. And I was like, I'm not really big into like having somebody come straight over to my place, anything like that. Um, and then I changed the subject and I was like, so what do you do for a living? And her response was, that's what I want to talk to you about. And I was like, what? We don't, huh? What do you mean? We don't know each other. What do you want to talk to me about? And then she was just like, started talking about her living situation and started talking about her. She, she was like a preschool teacher and you know, she'd just gotten laid off and like, and I was like, where the fuck is this heading?

• 27:08Speaker 05

  And I kind of got freaked out and I just deleted the app right there. Cause I, I didn't ask any more questions. I was like, I don't know what kind, like, is it possible that-

• 27:18Laci Mosley?

  She wanted to come to your house immediately.

• 27:20Speaker 05

  And talk to me about her work situation.

• 27:23Laci Mosley?

  Maybe she was homeless and she was like, oh, this is out. Like, I'll just get on Tinder and I'll find somebody and I'll go to their house that night and then I'll sleep at their house and I'll live there.

• 27:31Speaker 05

  Oh, which is a different- A different kind of scam, I guess. I don't know.

• 27:36Laci Mosley?

  It has to work, because I'm sure there's some people on Tinder who are just like, oh, I just really need the company.

• 27:40Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 27:41Laci Mosley?

  Was she cute?

• 27:42Speaker 05

  Um, I mean, if that was her, you know what I mean?

• 27:45Laci Mosley?

  Like, I don't know about that um in the beginning.

• 27:47Speaker 05

  Well, I don't know if it was her. I don't know. Like, she was cute, but I don't know if like, I'm assuming that that was not her. I didn't do the Google image.

• 27:55Laci Mosley?

  Image search, like FTC told you?

• 27:57Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 27:58Laci Mosley?

  Gotta do that Google image search.

• 27:59Speaker 05

  I know. Now, I wish I knew then.

• 28:02Laci Mosley?

  Well, James, that's, so that's, that's our hot and fraud right now, guys. If you're on dating apps, any dating apps, it put Christian Mingle on here as a warning, like all the dating apps.

• 28:11Speaker 05

  Oh, man.

• 28:12Laci Mosley?

  Just beware. Like, if people are trying to get money from you and you've never met them.

• 28:16Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 28:16Laci Mosley?

  Not a good look. Also, if anything is happening with anybody's aunt, never believe them.

• 28:21Speaker 05

  Don't believe them. Yeah.

• 28:22Laci Mosley?

  Nobody's aunt has ever had anything bad happen to them.

• 28:26Speaker 05

  And unless your aunt raised you, then just not good enough. Not good enough.

• 28:33Laci Mosley?

  Too far away from the tree, says James.

• 28:41Laci Mosley?

  All right, guys, we're gonna get into the biggest segment, the craziest segment of the show, historic hoodwinks. All right, so I kind of picked this one with you in mind, because James runs a very dope podcast, and also it's a live show called I'm Too Effing High, which de-stigmatizes weed, and it also is a very fun show where comedians get high and do comedic challenges. I've done it. It's super fun. It's also very fun to listen to while high.

• 29:08Speaker 05

  That's great. Gotta have you back on for a live show.

• 29:11Laci Mosley?

  Yes. Oh, my gosh, even though when I'm at a high live show, it's just me, like, holding on to the chair for dear life.

• 29:17Speaker 05

  You're so funny. You're so funny. You kill it every time.

• 29:19Laci Mosley?

  Just putting the mic in my bosom and being like, are you talking to me? I need to talk now.

• 29:25Laci Mosley?

  All right, guys, but so there's a new scam out right now, which is Instagram weed fraud. So people are doing fraudulent Instagram drug deals.

• 29:38Laci Mosley?

  So basically, how this works is the one that we're gonna talk about in like more detail is this guy named Nyagio Belem. He's a writer and a comedian and a resident connoisseur on the Netflix show Cooking on High. He's been a recent victim of a fraudulent Instagram drug deal scam. So basically, a friend sent this guy a screenshot of an Instagram program. So basically, this whole, this could happen to you, James.

• 30:03Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:03Laci Mosley?

  Because this guy's whole business is kind of like surrounded around weed or being a connoisseur or being like, you know, one of the first movers in entertainment in weed. And someone made a fake Instagram profile of him. And so one of his friends screenshotted it, but it had been up for a minute because the account had 12 images on it that were stolen from Baum's real account. And the bio offered pot for sale with shipping available to any location.

• 30:28Speaker 05

  Wait, can you say that again? Pot?

• 30:30Laci Mosley?

  Pot for sale with shipping available to any location. So it's like you go on his Instagram, you see photos of the guy, and it says, we sell weed. We'll send it anywhere.

• 30:39Speaker 05

  In the country.

• 30:40Laci Mosley?

  Yeah. It says any location. So I guess that means like Papa New Guinea. It means you can get your weed wherever.

• 30:48Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:49Laci Mosley?

  So Baum obviously had a friend who noticed this. And so he notifies Instagram and he posts screenshot on his own profile and says like, please don't follow this guy and please report this guy, et cetera, et cetera. But this was happening for at least six months because the imposter had multiple direct messages from people who had wired him money for weed that they'd never received.

• 31:14Speaker 05

  No way.

• 31:15Laci Mosley?

  So he had been running this, which is weird because it's like, if you know this guy's on TV, why do you think that, um, he had, okay, he had 2,600 followers, though. But why do you think that this guy wouldn't have more followers than that?

• 31:27Speaker 05

  Way more followers. And then also, yeah, like, why would he? Well, I guess I could see him getting in the business of, I guess, distributing. But that, yeah.

• 31:38Laci Mosley?

  And there's, there's one-

• 31:39Speaker 05

  God, I could see myself falling for this. This is terrifying.

• 31:43Laci Mosley?

  This is terrifying.

• 31:44Speaker 05

  The show is terrifying.

• 31:46Laci Mosley?

  So there was one scam victim in particular who contacted this guy after sending an imposter over $3,000 for two pounds of weed that never arrived. And this guy was getting an average of three to five messages a week. So he was doing this.

• 32:01Speaker 05

  Okay, so first of all, two grand for two pounds of weed? Is that what you said?

• 32:07Laci Mosley?

  No, three grand.

• 32:07Speaker 05

  Three grand for two pounds of weed is like an amazing deal. That already is like.

• 32:15Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 32:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, I mean, most of the time, a pound of weed is like three to four grand.

• 32:20Laci Mosley?

  You hear that, guys?

• 32:21Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 32:21Laci Mosley?

  Just so you know how much a pound of weed costs.

• 32:23Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 32:24Laci Mosley?

  Because I don't.

• 32:25Speaker 05

  That's crazy.

• 32:26Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, so I guess people were probably, that's why they're like, oh, I'll pay for this deal.

• 32:29Speaker 05

  Of course.

• 32:29Laci Mosley?

  Because it's too good to be true.

• 32:30Speaker 05

  If somebody was like, two pounds of weed for three grand, I'd, yeah, that is an amazing deal. Yeah. Especially if it's good shit.

• 32:37Laci Mosley?

  Right. That's like how anytime you click on a news article, because the online news is fucking struggling, there's always like ads for shit on the side. It's like Louis Vuitton bag, $30. That's what almost gets me. I'm like, $30? I need that Louis Vuitton bag. That shit is not real.

• 32:54Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 32:55Laci Mosley?

  But yeah, so he pays this much for it and never gets any money. Also, I think wire transfers are just a weird method for paying for shit. I've never had to pay for anything with a wire transfer. I've only received a wire transfer once in my life, and it was from my parents when I was in London. So I'm like, I don't think they're real, like.

• 33:15Speaker 05

  I would, do you do it at a bank? I've never done it.

• 33:18Laci Mosley?

  No, you do it at like Western Union.

• 33:19Speaker 05

  Western Union, that's right.

• 33:21Laci Mosley?

  The shadiest money place ever.

• 33:23Speaker 05

  Yeah. It almost, like, is, and this is me being ignorant because I don't know, is, is Western Union also a payday loan type of place?

• 33:30Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 33:31Speaker 05

  It is.

• 33:31Laci Mosley?

  It's just like where you can go do, isn't it? Am I wrong?

• 33:34Speaker 05

  Talk about scam.

• 33:35Laci Mosley?

  I feel like it's just a shady scam organization. The cops should just loiter around Western Union and just randomly like pick people up.

• 33:43Speaker 05

  Right.

• 33:45Laci Mosley?

  But so Instagram got contacted about this story and an Instagram spokesperson noted and an Instagram spokesperson noted claiming to be another person violates the platform of community guidelines. And Instagram says, we care deeply about the quality content on Instagram and we take spam and inauthentic and other abusive behavior very seriously. Being verified is a great way to know if the person is legitimately that person, but not everybody can be verified, which is true.

• 34:12Speaker 05

  Right.

• 34:12Laci Mosley?

  Like you have to have like fill a certain amount of qualifications to be verified. And this guy was on TV and had 57,000 followers and wasn't verified. So people were taking advantage of that.

• 34:19Speaker 05

  Crazy. Why wasn't he verified 57,000 followers?

• 34:24Laci Mosley?

  Cause it doesn't have anything to do with how many followers you have. You have to like, I guess, apply or have a PR agency apply for you or have enough credits and things online that Instagram starts to get curious about if you are really the person.

• 34:36Speaker 05

  Ah, gotcha.

• 34:38Laci Mosley?

  So there's one person on Reddit, cause there's a whole subreddit about this guy, who tells his story of buying weed through Instagram. So some of you out there might be familiar with popular social networking app called Instagram. In the past few months, there have been accounts popping up on Instagram that claim that they will ship weed to you out of places like Washington, California, et cetera. These profiles may look very convincing with pictures of large amounts of weed uploaded or orders getting shipped out. How it works is this person will leave their phone number or kick Messenger ID. If you gotta get on kick for anything, you already need to know like it's not on the up and up. On the profile and you can contact them and ask them to place an order. Prices are usually advertised as fairly low and reasonable. Like you said, that was really cheap for those two pounds of weed.

• 35:22Laci Mosley?

  Now, there may be some profiles out there that are actually genuine and will ship you the product. I've had weed shipped to me before, no issue, so I know it's done every day, but most are just plain scammers looking to get your money and leave you with nothing. Here's how my experience went. I kicked a dealer asking for one of his best indicus. He said the price was 180 an ounce and that I only owed him half upfront to ship it. He claimed that after the payment was shipped, I would get a tracking number and his phone number to keep contact and track my package. The next morning, I Western Union'd him. Western Union. Ninety dollars and two hours later saw that Western Union tracking had picked up the payment. I texted him, asking him for a tracking number, no response. I waited two hours, texted

• 36:04Laci Mosley?

  again, nothing. After that, I started calling him. Then, an hour later, I realized he had blocked me from his Instagram page, blocked me on kick, and somehow blocked my number from contacting his phone. That's like the easiest one to do. Now, I know what you're all thinking. Wow, you're such an idiot to give this guy your money and expect him to send you weed. Yes, that was a naive mistake on my part, but I've had success in transactions in the past. But guys, please don't do this. You will get screwed over and you will feel like an idiot.

• 36:33Speaker 05

  Oh, man. Yeah, absolutely. And that's a good deal, too. One eighty for an ounce.

• 36:37Laci Mosley?

  Isn't it?

• 36:37Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's a really good deal.

• 36:38Laci Mosley?

  Isn't that like, I feel like that's small potatoes, though, to be like, here, send me half of this amount. So you're just getting ninety dollars from everybody you scam?

• 36:46Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 36:46Laci Mosley?

  Is that enough? I guess it depends on how many people you scam in a day.

• 36:50Speaker 05

  Yeah. I mean, if you can, if you scam ten people.

• 36:53Laci Mosley?

  Ten people a week? That's nine hundred dollars a week.

• 36:55Speaker 05

  That's nine hundred bucks a week. Yeah, that's, yeah, maybe that's pretty good. And I wonder, too, if the strategy is like, if I scam ninety bucks out of people, they're gonna be looking for me with less urgency.

• 37:06Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 37:07Speaker 05

  Than if I scam like.

• 37:08Laci Mosley?

  Three thousand.

• 37:08Speaker 05

  Three thousand, yeah.

• 37:09Laci Mosley?

  Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right.

• 37:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 37:12Laci Mosley?

  And then that just becomes your job. I'm sure just every day, like, gotta set up a new Instagram profile, gotta create more Hotmail email addresses.

• 37:18Speaker 05

  You're a, you're a blue collar scammer. Blue collar.

• 37:21Laci Mosley?

  I'm a middle-class scammer.

• 37:22Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'm a middle-class scammer, right, yeah.

• 37:24Laci Mosley?

  They probably survive the longest, because I feel like when you start getting into bigger deals, that's when people start getting their eyes on you. And when you scam rich people, they be mad.

• 37:32Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 37:33Laci Mosley?

  No one's more mad about getting scammed than someone who has a lot of money for some reason, which makes zero sense to me.

• 37:39Speaker 05

  Yeah, they have so much, so many more resources to lose.

• 37:43Laci Mosley?

  And they're still more mad. And they also have more time, I feel like. If I'm a rich person, I have more time to hire someone.

• 37:49Speaker 05

  Yup.

• 37:49Laci Mosley?

  To look for you and get angry with you.

• 37:51Speaker 05

  That's true.

• 37:52Laci Mosley?

  Hey, I'm into it.

• 37:53Speaker 05

  That's crazy.

• 37:54Laci Mosley?

  Isn't that insane?

• 37:55Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 37:56Laci Mosley?

  But I mean, I don't know. I think buying anything online, although I do have a friend who buys like acid on the dark web.

• 38:04Speaker 05

  Mm hmm.

• 38:04Laci Mosley?

  And they've never had a problem.

• 38:06Speaker 05

  Yeah, I've I've bought drugs on the dark web as well.

• 38:10Laci Mosley?

  How do you get to the dark web? Is that W W dot dark web? I've never known how you actually get to the dark web and I wanna go.

• 38:19Speaker 05

  I should say, I don't know if this is the dark web or not. Where I go, is this a legal website where I can purchase different types of drugs? And I use Bitcoin to get it. And so I go to

• 38:30Laci Mosley?

  That sounds dark webby.

• 38:31Speaker 05

  A Bitcoin ATM machine, which is down the street from me and I get some Bitcoin and then I I buy, you know, the drugs. And the one time I thought I was getting scammed and I kept emailing them and being like, hey, where where is the product? Where's my stuff? Where's the product? Yeah.

• 38:51Laci Mosley?

  You don't wanna get caught up. Where's the product? Where are the things that I ordered?

• 38:54Speaker 05

  I had been watching the movie Blow all weekend and Johnny Depp and no, I and and they never got back to me and I was like, fuck, I got scammed. And then one day in the mail, they were there and I was like, oh, okay. I guess they just have terrible customer service. But it worked.

• 39:12Laci Mosley?

  Look, we don't pride ourselves in customer service here, okay?

• 39:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 39:15Laci Mosley?

  You'll get your things when you get your things.

• 39:17Speaker 05

  Yeah, just relax. We're not gonna respond. Yeah.

• 39:21Laci Mosley?

  That's very like, that's interesting to me because like I remember when I was in Brooklyn and is weed legal in New York yet? No, right?

• 39:28Speaker 05

  No.

• 39:28Laci Mosley?

  So when I was in Brooklyn years ago, it was probably extra, even more illegal. But I had a weed delivery, like a courier service that would like come to my house and there's always like some guys or a girl on a bike.

• 39:37Speaker 05

  On a bike. I've heard of this.

• 39:38Laci Mosley?

  Yeah. And like one time it was like during Pride, I think, and it was like so busy. And so I like ordered and then they couldn't get to me and I was like, what is this? I've been ordering from you guys for years.

• 39:50Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 39:51Laci Mosley?

  And they're like, you know what, ma'am? We're so sorry. We're gonna give you 30% off of your next purchase. And I was like, this is a legal drug company that is running themselves like a great business.

• 40:01Speaker 05

  Customer service.

• 40:01Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, excellent customer service. I didn't have to email the dark web a bunch of times. Like, hey, it's me. Again, you know who?

• 40:08Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 40:08Laci Mosley?

  Wait, what's your alias on there? Because I know you don't go by James.

• 40:12Speaker 05

  No, I don't. I think.

• 40:14Laci Mosley?

  Do you have to have an alias? Or is it just like you, you just don't communicate with any?

• 40:17Speaker 05

  Everything is through like, it's all through Bitcoin. Like it's, you don't use a name. Like, um, it's just my address. There's no like name.

• 40:27Laci Mosley?

  Is Bitcoin even like becoming like a successful form of currency? Or is it just a good currency to do like sketchy stuff with?

• 40:34Speaker 05

  I think it's that. I think it's like, people are hoping that it becomes a thing, but I, I just don't think it will. I think it's like, right now, I think it's just a way to get shit anonymously. Cause it's untraceable. That's the, that's the thing about it is like, you can't trace it. So, I don't know. Yeah. I know some people got rich real fast from it when it, when it exploded.

• 40:56Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, they bought it and then it like exploded and now it's like normal again.

• 41:00Speaker 05

  But that feels like a scam, maybe.

• 41:01Laci Mosley?

  Oh, hell yeah.

• 41:02Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:02Laci Mosley?

  Online e-currency is definitely a scam. They're like, where did it come from?

• 41:06Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:07Laci Mosley?

  And we just all gave you money for it? And then you told us how much it was worth?

• 41:10Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:10Laci Mosley?

  What?

• 41:11Speaker 05

  Even, even capitalism in general feels like it's just constantly walking the line of scam, right?

• 41:16Laci Mosley?

  Oh, yeah, absolutely.

• 41:17Speaker 05

  Everybody's just toeing that line of like, how close can I get to fucking people over?

• 41:21Laci Mosley?

  I mean, that's why we had to have like antitrust laws and things like that. Because otherwise like people, I mean, we're still, Amazon's gonna own all of us pretty soon.

• 41:29Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:29Laci Mosley?

  And it's fine. I willingly give Facebook all of my information. I'm like, you have it anyway here. What, you want my retina? Come on, hold on. Let me open my eye up, shit.

• 41:39Speaker 05

  Let me open my eye up.

• 41:41Laci Mosley?

  You need me to take my contact out? Fuck, alright, damn it. Mark Zuckerberg, I just wanna send, I just wanna post about my comedy show tonight.

• 41:49Speaker 05

  I know.

• 41:51Laci Mosley?

  Oh my God. I'll give them whatever they want. Booty hole, retina.

• 41:56Speaker 05

  Booty hole?

• 41:56Laci Mosley?

  What do I have?

• 41:59Laci Mosley?

  I have no use for it.

• 42:00Speaker 05

  Let me open my booty hole up.

• 42:04Laci Mosley?

  Oh gosh, I need these likes.

• 42:05Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 42:06Laci Mosley?

  This week, our scam of week goes out to a mystery person. We actually do not know who this person is. But there is a weed grower at the Capitol Building of Vermont.

• 42:17Speaker 05

  Love it.

• 42:17Laci Mosley?

  Who has planted thirty-four cannabis plants and counting that have been found growing in the flower beds of the Vermont Capitol.

• 42:26Speaker 05

  Oh, I love it.

• 42:27Laci Mosley?

  Yes, and we actually have, oh my God, so much media. We have another video. We'll describe it to you guys.

• 42:34Laci Mosley?

  So this is a weed plant.

• 42:36Speaker 05

  Yeah, and it's like, it really is hidden in a garden.

• 42:41Laci Mosley?

  And they look like they're growing very well.

• 42:43Speaker 05

  Yeah, weed is hard to grow.

• 42:45Laci Mosley?

  Right, doesn't it need like a lot of water?

• 42:47Speaker 05

  A ton of sunlight, a ton of care, yeah.

• 42:50Laci Mosley?

  And these are like on the main street in front of the Capitol.

• 42:56Laci Mosley?

  So the plants are too immature to test them to see if they're like THC plants?

• 43:01Speaker 05

  Right.

• 43:03Laci Mosley?

  And they also have confirmed that the plants are not in the state's horticultural plant.

• 43:14Speaker 05

  They asked just some random police officer.

• 43:17Laci Mosley?

  Who had no information.

• 43:18Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 43:19Laci Mosley?

  He was like, I don't think they meant to plant these. So there's all these weed plants. Honestly, the garden-

• 43:25Speaker 05

  I love that. That's like, that's a great scam that hurts nobody.

• 43:29Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 43:29Speaker 05

  Like, it's like, let's go plant, and, and, you know, if you're for legalization, I guess it's, it's kind of like a message, but I like that. That's great.

• 43:37Laci Mosley?

  Oh, right, because it's in the, it's at the Capitol building.

• 43:39Speaker 05

  Totally.

• 43:40Laci Mosley?

  So this is like being like, hey, guys, we're already, there's so much weed out here, just let us grow it.

• 43:44Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 43:44Laci Mosley?

  And also, like, it's kind of like, it won't bother you. Look at how much weed we have growing right next to you, and it's never bothered you.

• 43:51Speaker 05

  And you have no idea it's even there. Yeah.

• 43:54Laci Mosley?

  That's a good point. Maybe it is like an artistic statement, too. But how is the plant growing so well?

• 43:59Speaker 05

  I don't know. That's a really good question.

• 44:01Laci Mosley?

  Because they need a lot of water, right?

• 44:02Speaker 05

  Yeah, they need a ton, they, like, well, I guess it depends on if they're trying to grow it to some sort of like, um, to actually have the flower be good. That's when you have to put in a lot of work. But it is a weed, so it'll just grow. But if you want like good bud with like, you know, good THC and high quality, you got to put in so much work.

• 44:25Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 44:25Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 44:26Laci Mosley?

  So maybe it's someone who's like planted it, and then they're like, we'll just use the Capitol's water. I'm sure they watered those. Those plants looked so healthy.

• 44:32Speaker 05

  They looked great, yeah.

• 44:33Laci Mosley?

  They looked refreshed. So I'm sure that they're watering them so, so much.

• 44:37Speaker 05

  It's, um, they're, they're like the, the green, I guess the plant version of Banksy, it feels like.

• 44:43Laci Mosley?

  Wait, explain that to me.

• 44:45Speaker 05

  So Banksy is, you know, the anonymous person that that goes around graffitiing all these different sort of like social justice.

• 44:53Laci Mosley?

  Which ones? Like that guy, that Obey guy? No?

• 44:57Speaker 05

  Banksy?

• 44:57Laci Mosley?

  I should know who Banksy is.

• 44:58Speaker 05

  You should totally know.

• 45:00Laci Mosley?

  I'm such uncultured swine right now. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:02Speaker 05

  Banksy, I mean, he has, yeah, he has very, very, he's British, but he's anonymous. Nobody knows who he is.

• 45:09Laci Mosley?

  So no one's caught Banksy painting shit?

• 45:10Speaker 05

  No.

• 45:11Laci Mosley?

  I find that hard to believe.

• 45:12Speaker 05

  Some people think that Banksy is more than one, more than one people, more than one person.

• 45:18Laci Mosley?

  Banksy is a group. It's an artist band.

• 45:22Speaker 05

  But he also famously, oh, he had a great scam.

• 45:26Laci Mosley?

  What?

• 45:27Speaker 05

  Where he tried to, somebody tried to sell a Banksy original at a, at an auction. And when it sold and they tried to bring it off the wall, it ripped in shreds. And like, that was the whole purpose of it. But the funny thing is, it actually upped the value of it. Yeah, it was like an original Banksy.

• 45:51Laci Mosley?

  So it was really an original?

• 45:52Speaker 05

  Yeah. Oh, here we, yeah, watch this. It's, it's pretty interesting. And it got.

• 46:00Laci Mosley?

  Art connoisseurs could only watch in horror as an expensive piece was shredded before their eyes.

• 46:11Laci Mosley?

  No sooner did the gavel come down to mark the sale of Banksy's Girl with Balloon for a record $1.4 million, did the picture start to slip out of its frame into shreds below? The anonymous artist claims to be behind the stunt. On Instagram, he posted a photo of his prank with the caption, "Going, going, gone." In a later post, he explained how he did it.

• 46:40Laci Mosley?

  A few years ago, I secretly built a shredder into a painting.

• 46:44Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 46:45Laci Mosley?

  Bruh.

• 46:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, pretty, uh.

• 46:48Laci Mosley?

  That is rude as fuck.

• 46:49Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 46:50Laci Mosley?

  If I pay a million dollars for something Banksy, you can yell ass out.

• 46:55Laci Mosley?

  That's when the scene became a brawl.

• 46:59Laci Mosley?

  Like, this story would have went completely differently. Like, no, you need to go, go paint it again.

• 47:03Speaker 05

  I, I would love it if it was Lacey that unveiled Banksy because of this. Like, nobody knows who Banksy is. He, Lacey gets fucked over, gets, you can't scam the scam goddess.

• 47:13Laci Mosley?

  No, no.

• 47:13Speaker 05

  She will unveil you.

• 47:15Laci Mosley?

  I would ruin his whole mystique. I would spend the rest of my days trying to figure out who the fuck he was, where he lived, so I could air his ass out on Instagram Live.

• 47:24Speaker 05

  Yep, that's really funny.

• 47:26Laci Mosley?

  Lacey's going live with Banksy right now.

• 47:29Laci Mosley?

  That's crazy. And of course, some art buyer was like, oh, this is even better, because now it's a spectacle.

• 47:36Speaker 05

  Of course, yeah, I'm sure it raised the value.

• 47:38Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, but also, if you're an art collector, that's already a flex of like, I'm about to spend a ridiculous amount of money on, yes, yes, art has value. I make art, it has so much value. I want to be paid a million dollars to come perform somewhere, please. Um, but we all know it's a flex to be like, I'm spending a million dollars on a piece of paper.

• 47:55Speaker 05

  Oh, absolutely. Such a flex.

• 47:57Laci Mosley?

  So I think it is probably even more of a flex if you're non-fazed by it ripping apart.

• 48:02Speaker 05

  I guarantee you, whoever bought that is like, that's such a conversation piece. Everybody that comes over, they're like, oh, this is the Banksy I purchased. He shredded it.

• 48:11Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, did you see the millions of views on YouTube?

• 48:13Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 48:14Laci Mosley?

  The one very angry black woman who beat him.

• 48:19Laci Mosley?

  Also, did Sotheby's know this was gonna happen?

• 48:21Speaker 05

  Oh, that's a good question.

• 48:23Laci Mosley?

  Were they in on the scam?

• 48:24Speaker 05

  I don't think so. If I remember correctly, I don't think so.

• 48:28Laci Mosley?

  I would have loved if Sotheby's was in on this scam, because Sotheby's feels like a scam organization. Like, they have to be involved in like, so much crime.

• 48:34Speaker 05

  I'm sure.

• 48:35Laci Mosley?

  But like, the sexiest kind of like, white collar crime that you want to make movies about.

• 48:39Speaker 05

  Money laundering and like, all that shit, yeah.

• 48:42Laci Mosley?

  It's money dry cleaning, you know what I mean?

• 48:43Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 48:44Laci Mosley?

  It's a different level.

• 48:44Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 48:45Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, we're not actually touching the money with our hands.

• 48:47Speaker 05

  Ugh, no, we don't touch money.

• 48:50Laci Mosley?

  I haven't touched money in 15 years.

• 48:52Speaker 05

  Yeah, you're right. Like, money to them is just electronic, right?

• 48:56Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 48:57Speaker 05

  It's just that they have enough of it, it just exists.

• 48:59Laci Mosley?

  Right. Oh, man, I don't know. But art, art is also a beautiful game of fraud, so I'll take it. I'll take it. But yeah, this guy is planting these weed plants. Shout out to this mysterious weed grower.

• 49:10Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 49:11Laci Mosley?

  Because I will probably never know who you are. I mean, I would first probably look at the gardeners.

• 49:15Speaker 05

  Mm hmm.

• 49:16Laci Mosley?

  But again, like, if I was someone who was gardening the Vermont White, I wouldn't waste my seed weed.

• 49:23Speaker 05

  On that, yeah.

• 49:23Laci Mosley?

  No.

• 49:24Speaker 05

  Yeah. I, I, it's probably a protester or somebody that's trying to send a message, I feel like.

• 49:30Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 49:30Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 49:31Laci Mosley?

  I think you're right about that, like, being artistic.

• 49:33Speaker 05

  I mean, I wish that I had a garden that they could toss some weed seeds in. I'd be, I'd be very appreciative.

• 49:39Laci Mosley?

  I don't, where do you get weed seeds?

• 49:41Speaker 05

  You can get them online. You can get them online. You can, you know, some dispensaries sell seeds, some dispensaries sell clones as well, which is like, um, sort of a, a, a little baby plant that they've cloned off of another plant. So you're already starting with something and you sort of like transfer it over.

• 50:01Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 50:01Speaker 05

  I tried to grow a clone one time.

• 50:03Laci Mosley?

  Really?

• 50:03Speaker 05

  It didn't go well.

• 50:04Laci Mosley?

  It didn't go well?

• 50:05Speaker 05

  Mm mm.

• 50:05Laci Mosley?

  I don't think I could do it either. Like, I killed a succubus, so, and that's really hard to do.

• 50:10Speaker 05

  You killed a succubus?

• 50:12Laci Mosley?

  A succulent.

• 50:15Speaker 05

  You killed a succubus? A succubus is, is like an old timey word for like, a, a, a woman who is, um, promiscuous and like, uh, seduces men, is like a succubus.

• 50:30Laci Mosley?

  Oh, wow. Yeah. No, no, no. I killed a succulent.

• 50:33Speaker 05

  Yeah. Lacey killed a succubus.

• 50:36Laci Mosley?

  I am a succubus.

• 50:41Laci Mosley?

  Oh my gosh, James, this is so amazing to have you.

• 50:44Speaker 05

  Man, this show is great. I love, uh, thank you for having me. This is, I feel like honestly, just being on this show and hearing about all of these things. I'm like, holy shit, scams are fucking everywhere.

• 50:54Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, no scamming is a job. It's a profession. It's one of the oldest professions and it needs more respect.

• 50:59Speaker 05

  It needs, yeah, it really does. Cause now I'm thinking of like, oh wait, is government a scam?

• 51:05Laci Mosley?

  Oh yeah, government is one of the biggest scams. I mean, think about taxes. They literally are like, hey, we know you made money, give us some and you better give us the right amount. Otherwise, we're gonna put you in jail. But also, we're not gonna tell you how much you need to give us.

• 51:19Speaker 05

  And we're not gonna tell you what we're gonna use it on. We'll pretend like we're gonna use it on this.

• 51:23Laci Mosley?

  We're actually never gonna tell you exactly where your tax dollars are going.

• 51:27Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 51:27Laci Mosley?

  Like, so no worries. But, but hand them over.

• 51:29Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's true.

• 51:31Laci Mosley?

  It's crazy, cause and then they start taking a lot of money from you, like, but then I think that they should take more money from the people who have an insane amount of money. We all think this, but like, but I will say that like, as a black person, I was always wondering like, well, if the police are gonna keep killing us, could we stop? Our money stop going up? Like, or can I get a refund for the police specifically? It's like, here, here's your money from just the police taxes, cause we know that they are harming you.

• 51:56Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's completely fair.

• 51:58Laci Mosley?

  They're protecting and serving everyone else but you, so here's your money back.

• 52:02Speaker 05

  I was, I also feel like, you know, we sell, we, we spend all this tax money for them to create like all of these big weapons of war to sell to other countries. And we don't get any of that money back. You just sold all these airplanes and tanks and shit. I don't get any of that.

• 52:19Laci Mosley?

  Where is my cut of that AR-15?

• 52:22Speaker 05

  I, I invested to have those war machines made. Where's my investment?

• 52:27Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, we don't get any return on that.

• 52:29Speaker 05

  You sold that shit to, you know, Saudi Arabia and I don't get any of it.

• 52:33Laci Mosley?

  I don't get anything. I don't get any oil. I don't get a discount on gas. Gas is very expensive.

• 52:38Speaker 05

  Very expensive.

• 52:39Laci Mosley?

  I guess sometimes they do discount us on gas. Like, the price went down. Here you go.

• 52:43Speaker 05

  Yeah. OPEC will throw us a little, yeah, a little something to keep us quiet for a month.

• 52:49Laci Mosley?

  That's how our gas prices get lower. It's keeping us, keeping us quiet. Oh my goodness. Well, James, where can people find you?

• 52:57Speaker 05

  Oh, man. People can find me. So, uh, please check out I'm Too Effing High. Um, it's, uh, you know, on Instagram and, and Twitter, at I'm Too Effing High. Um, we do a live show at the Upright Citizens Brigade every month and, um, you know, we're a podcast as well. Um, and check out Florida Girls on Pop TV and, um, you can, I'm on all platforms, JMAZ 1111.

• 53:22Laci Mosley?

  Yes. And guys, as always, you can find us at [email protected]. Tell us about how you've been scammed or if you tried to run a scam like James did.

• 53:31Speaker 05

  Oops.

• 53:33Laci Mosley?

  And also, guys, I'm on every platform at Diva Lacy, D I V A L A C I. And yes, please watch Florida Girls on Pop TV. James is on Florida Girls. I'm on Florida Girls. It's a very fun show.

• 53:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's great.

• 53:45Laci Mosley?

  Yes. All right, guys. We'll see you next week.

• 53:48Speaker 06

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