Fraud Friday: Girls Trip Gone Bad w/ Danielle Pinnock

Danielle Pinnock (Ghosts, Young Sheldon) joins the Con-gregation to discuss Nakesia Washington, a scamming travel agent who specialized in planning trips for the Essence Festival, only to leave clients high and dry. Plus, romance fraud is on the rise and one man sends nearly $500,000 to a love interest he never met. Stay schemin’! (Originally Released 04/11/2022) Laci’s book is out now! Order “Scam Goddess: Lessons from a Life of Cons, Grifts and Schemes" here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/laci-mosley/scam-goddess/9780762484652/?lens=running-press Follow on Instagram: Scam Goddess Pod: @scamgoddesspod Laci Mosley: @divalaci Danielle Pinnock: @bodycourage Research by Kaelyn Brandt. SOURCES: https://www.blackenterprise.com/travel-agent-arrested-essence-festival/ https://www.nola.com/news/courts/article_1966499c-9d9e-11e9-874b-9b8a792ac22f.html https://www.wdsu.com/article/she-hurt-a-lot-of-people-bbb-says-about-obl-travel-owner-after-getting-45-complaints/22692013 https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/essence-fest-scam-obl-travel-many-claimed-they-have-lost-thousands.1688299/ https://alwaysalist.com/?p=15543

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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• 1:08Speaker 00

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• 1:38Laci 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'.

• 2:20Laci Mosley?

  What's poppin' congregation? It's your girl, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. And I'm here with another installment of Scam Goddess, the podcast all about robbery, fraud, con, artist. Sometimes we love them, most times, sometimes we hate them. And guys, you know, if you listen to this podcast, I am very, yes, excited. I'm extremely excited. I'm thrilled. I'm elated. We have a queen on the podcast today. This is someone that I've had the pleasure of working with. She is hilarious. You've seen her all over the interwebs, on the television screens, one of the, truly one of the funniest people, like, out here, online, on your screen, anywhere, and such a good person on top of that. You've seen her play Alberta on CBS's hit sitcom, Ghost, which she's killing it on, along with actress Lenisa Frederick. She co-created the viral online sketch series, which I'm obsessed with,

• 3:04Laci Mosley?

  hashtag booked, which hilariously chronicles the frustrations of being a working black actress in Hollywood. Also, just an actor in general, it's just so funny. Um, guys, follow her personal handle at BodyCourage on Twitter and on Instagram. If you want to laugh, have a good time, be inspired. She's a queen congregation. Please welcome Danielle. Danielle, I have to ask you, I didn't get to ask you because we in a rush today. Panak?

• 3:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's perfect. That's perfect.

• 3:27Laci Mosley?

  Is that accurate though? Okay.

• 3:29Speaker 03

  That's accurate. Accurate.

• 3:31Laci Mosley?

  Okay, sometimes people be like, oh, perfect. And I'm like, that's not your name. Why would you let me do that to you? Danielle.

• 3:37Speaker 03

  No.

• 3:39Laci Mosley?

  It's so good to see you. And you look fantastic.

• 3:44Speaker 03

  Oh, my gosh. Listen, I got my little shake and go wig on. I'm living. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

• 3:50Laci Mosley?

  Stiff wear. It's on the way. Yes.

• 3:54Speaker 03

  Come on. Give me a little bounce. Give me your jet beauty of the week.

• 3:58Laci Mosley?

  Bounce and behave. Yes. Okay, so Danielle, I have to ask you, what is your relationship with scams? Do you love them? Do you hate them? Have you ever been scammed? Like, and it could be anything.

• 4:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, um, without question. I, uh, I, I have a really interesting relationship with scams and the fact that, like, I grew up in a, you know, I think I grew up around a lot of lovable scammers in, uh, my Caribbean household. And it's like, they didn't really necessarily mean to be scamming, but, but for some reason, like.

• 4:32Speaker 03

  You know what I mean? But it was also like, my mom, she was an immigration attorney and like, she used to barter all the time. So I was like, okay, instead of getting coins, like, I would get free perms for a year. And I'd be like, wait, but how does this? How does this?

• 4:46Laci Mosley?

  Now, was she doing this with the people coming in, like, look, I gotta get my B's? So she was like, okay, uh, how much you got? How many flat irons do you own?

• 4:54Speaker 03

  No, but, literally. Like, I think it's just like, all single moms have to be scammers to survive in some way. So like, she's definitely a single mom scammer and I love her to death.

• 5:07Laci Mosley?

  I love a single mom scammer. We talked about them on here. Cause like, being a parent with two parents, active parents and like, taking care of children. You know, we talk about it takes a village, but then, when you pop out a baby, where the village at? Where the village at?

• 5:20Speaker 03

  Crickets.

• 5:21Laci Mosley?

  Right. It'd be like, population you, bitch, that's your baby. Like, wait, where's the help?

• 5:27Speaker 03

  Exactly, exactly.

• 5:30Laci Mosley?

  So, single moms are special. You know, they get creative and I love it.

• 5:34Speaker 03

  Oh, and my grandmother's a scammer too, without question. My grandma, Aunt Dar, she literally, when I used to ask for allowances, because all the kids around me were getting that. She was like, yeah, I'll give you an allowance. And she, I was like, so what are my tasks gonna be? And I used to literally have to tweeze her mustache and her chin. And with each chin hair, I would get 25 cents. And I'd be like, why can't I just sweep?

• 6:00Laci Mosley?

  Why you gotta work by the chin hair too? Why you gotta be a whole esthetician? And then she's like, uh, uh, you left, you broke this one off, it's still in there at the root.

• 6:08Speaker 03

  Then there's still a piece.

• 6:10Laci Mosley?

  So you're only getting half a quarter for this one, because this one's still, the root's still in there.

• 6:15Laci Mosley?

  Wow, I love it. I also just love that they're both esthetician scammers.

• 6:20Laci Mosley?

  It means they're beautiful. They're like, look, we gotta stay looking good, no matter the cost. Oh, I love your family, I love this. Well, let's get into it, y'all, because listen, Dayo is booked it busy and we gotta get her out of here, honey. So, we're gonna get into our first segment here. What is hot and fraud? This is what we want our listeners about the scams that are popping in the zeitgeist. And more often than not, we get a listener letter from you guys. As always, [email protected]. Snitch on your friends and family. Just make sure the scams retire so we don't fuck up your bag, okay? And guys, remember, keep the letter short, because I wanna read them, but sometimes y'all sending me the King James Bible and I ain't got time to start it in the beginning. God created the, I'm like, wait a minute. We don't, we don't got that much time. In the beginning, Charles Ponzi created the...

• 7:04Laci Mosley?

  Like, we don't, we can't go all the way back like that, y'all. I want to, though.

• 7:09Speaker 03

  On the seventh day, L. Ron Hubbard rested.

• 7:12Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 7:16Laci Mosley?

  The hardest working criminal in the business.

• 7:19Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 7:19Laci Mosley?

  He had convinced the girls he ain't even dead. He was like, "No, I'll be back."

• 7:23Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 7:25Laci Mosley?

  Right before the hospital was like, the machine was like, "Thoo." He was like, "I'mma see y'all later. Thoo."

• 7:33Speaker 03

  Flat line. I love it.

• 7:35Laci Mosley?

  Love it. Keeping him dedicated to the very end. That's a good scammer. Like, "No, he'll be back." Y'all know, safe, keep his house up for when he come back. He like Evian, keep some of that in the fridge.

• 7:47Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 7:48Laci Mosley?

  Because L. Ron gon' come back.

• 7:49Speaker 03

  He's coming. Shout out to L.

• 7:51Laci Mosley?

  Can you give me a fake name for this person? Gender doesn't matter.

• 7:55Speaker 03

  Okay, um, let's go with Billingsley, Oregon.

• 8:00Laci Mosley?

  Billingsley, Oregon. Billingsley sounds like he moved here... He either moved from a small, like, state in the US, or he moved from out of the country and was like, "How can I rebrand? How can I give the girls opulence?" Billingsley. Billingsley ain't broke. I ain't never met a broke Billingsley.

• 8:17Speaker 03

  Never.

• 8:18Laci Mosley?

  So, Billingsley says, "Hello, I'm a regular listener and a big fan of the podcast." Oh, thank you, Billingsley. Says, "I recently fell victim to an online roommate scam." Oh, no, Billingsley, no. What happened? "I'm getting a divorce." Damn, damn, Billingsley. Look, sometimes it ain't forever. That's why we have divorce. Uh, it can be a blessing and a stressing. So, uh, it says, "I'm getting a divorce, and I've been looking for an affordable place to live and showed an interest in a house that was offering cheap rent and utilities split amongst all of the roommates. Shortly after, I started getting text messages from a number associated with the website asking me to apply." So, you didn't apply. You just looked and they were like, "Hey."

• 8:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, okay.

• 8:58Laci Mosley?

  "Gotta get your number."

• 8:59Speaker 03

  No judgment.

• 9:00Laci Mosley?

  I've never heard of...

• 9:01Speaker 03

  No judgment.

• 9:02Laci Mosley?

  I've never heard, right, I don't know, because I've just never heard of like when you looking to move somewhere and the people like, now I have heard of that with um, real estate, because real estate right now is crazy in LA.

• 9:13Speaker 03

  It is.

• 9:14Laci Mosley?

  I had went with a broker firm at one point because I was looking for a house and I decided to pause for a second, but when I was looking, I went with some online brokerage firm or whatever, and I had like signed up with them, like was like, okay, I'm gonna look at some places, da da da da. When I tell you these are the most aggressive realtors I've ever seen, they texted me more than my friends and family. One time, homie, homie sent me a video, Danielle. He was like, hey, this is me, Chris, just checking in, seeing if you still looking for a house, you know, we, I was like, not a video. His front face a camera. I don't know this man.

• 9:46Speaker 03

  I cannot afford LA real estate, it makes no sense. Like, literally to live in the Pacific Ocean is like two point five billion dollars, to live inside of it, and I don't have it. I don't have it, I don't have it.

• 9:59Laci Mosley?

  Your neighbors will be sharks.

• 10:01Speaker 03

  Exactly, exactly.

• 10:04Laci Mosley?

  Do you like the ocean view, because when you open your eyes, you will see inside the ocean, because that's where you gonna be. No, you're not playing.

• 10:11Speaker 03

  Celebrity appearances by Little Mermaid and Nemo, like, literally. I hate, I hate LA real estate so much, I hate it.

• 10:19Laci Mosley?

  Plenty of parking, as long as you drive a boat. Just sit anywhere on the water, you can drop an anchor, that's your spot. No, you're not playing, because I saw a place, it was a condo in Beverly Hills, and it was six hundred and twenty-five square feet, Danielle.

• 10:34Speaker 03

  My god.

• 10:35Laci Mosley?

  And the price point was, the price point that they were starting at, and mind you, everybody's coming in over asking, da da da. One point two million dollars. I said,

• 10:44Speaker 03

  Never.

• 10:45Laci Mosley?

  Bitch, I just want to see this place so I can fight the realtor, like, how dare you, how dare you?

• 10:51Speaker 03

  Over asking at that, they need to shut it down, stop it.

• 10:55Laci Mosley?

  You want one point two million, so I can be in the bedroom, and when I do a full three sixty circle, I see my kitchen, my toilet, the closet, my parking space where my car at, like.

• 11:10Laci Mosley?

  How can I touch the front door and the back door at the same time?

• 11:14Speaker 03

  No, it's true though. You don't even have enough space to cook. Like, you go into the cupboard, you in the bathroom. Like, what's going on here? What's happening?

• 11:23Laci Mosley?

  Hey, I have guests over there. Like, where's the couch? I'm like, no, we just lean on the wall. Y'all get y'all a spot on the wall to lean on.

• 11:29Speaker 03

  Y'all come walk in this fridge. It's cool in here. This where the AC is too. What?

• 11:34Laci Mosley?

  We having movie night on my cellphone. I kinda don't got room for a TV in here. Everybody just pass the movie around. We all go see part of it.

• 11:42Laci Mosley?

  What?

• 11:43Speaker 03

  Facts, facts.

• 11:45Laci Mosley?

  Tragic. A crime. So I understand the real estate hustle and also the real estate scam. So these people start texting Billingsley like, hey girl, saw you had some interest in the place. Like, what's good? So, I asked, this is Billingsley, if I could see the property or at least meet the other roommates first. But kept getting told that if I apply and get approved, that I then I can talk to the roommates. And that actually makes sense to me, because it's like, we don't want to talk to you if you don't got no coins or no credit. Like, we just not doing meet and greets. That's not suspicious to me.

• 12:15Speaker 03

  That part.

• 12:16Laci Mosley?

  So, I applied, and the online application looked just like an application for a legit apartment. It even said that they only want people with at least a 600 credit score, which mine is not. Okay, Billingsley, that's okay. Credit was invented in the 80s. Like, it's a scam. We understand. You defaulted on some Forever 21s or some Vicky secrets. You went into Dick's Sporting Goods and he was like, yeah, a credit card? I will buy basketballs a lot. Okay, we get it.

• 12:41Speaker 03

  Old Navy was mine. Old Navy was mine. Played me. Capris. I should never got those lime green capris. I'm still never will wear capris to this day because of Old Navy.

• 12:51Laci Mosley?

  Daya, we don't judge on this show. We really try not to. And by we, I mean me, because it's just me. I like say we, so I can absolve myself. But Daya, you up in a credit card at Old Navy? Did you just love holiday t-shirts? I'm confused.

• 13:05Speaker 03

  Lime green capris, because I wanted to look fly at summer camp. That was it. And I was like, I need these capris, and my mom is not trying to give me the money for this. Let's do the card. Charge it up.

• 13:13Laci Mosley?

  Summer camp and credit card? So I know you were young as hell. What? Now, Old Navy ain't right. How you praying on a young lil baby day?

• 13:21Speaker 03

  Me never understanding like anything about money or credit. I was like, yeah, let's just keep banana. Y'all was talking with Banana Republic. Let's get the tank tops. Come on. We bout to be flying summer camp.

• 13:35Laci Mosley?

  Okay, we can really bond because the fact that you were going to Banana Republic at summer camp age and I did too. Like I said, Banana Republic and Taylor Law. Like who did I think I was? Like, I thought I was Linda and worked in HR.

• 13:48Speaker 03

  Did you grow up in the church? Because that's the thing I always find like kids that had went to Sunday school and things like that. They be dressing older. That's it. Grandma's played us.

• 13:57Laci Mosley?

  Maybe it was like, I went to high school in suits and shit. I remember that, but which is crazy. Okay, see, now I feel solidarity. Solidarity.

• 14:05Speaker 03

  Same, same. I literally was my freshman year looking like Maxine Waters in Steve Harvey's Love Child. I looked insane. I would be in these three piece suits and stockings and everybody was in like Juicy Couture velvet. I'm like, okay, okay, they played me, but it's cool.

• 14:23Laci Mosley?

  Why did we go to school like it was our job? Definitely went in there like.

• 14:26Speaker 03

  Literally, we were district attorneys at freshman year. They played us.

• 14:31Laci Mosley?

  Truly, truly. I'm a part of that. I did grow up in the church and then as I got like my teenage years, my mom wasn't going as much. But as a kid, I was there all day, every damn day. Got to go to class, rehearsal, prayer. Me, my grandpa was a deacon. I had to stay at the church so he could count the money. Just live in that church.

• 14:49Speaker 03

  Oh my goodness.

• 14:51Laci Mosley?

  Like I ain't gotta give out no address no more. I'm like, y'all could probably just find me at church. That's probably where.

• 14:55Speaker 03

  That part, that part.

• 14:57Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, no, mail it to church. I get it. They know I be getting my mail there.

• 15:02Laci Mosley?

  So, Billingsley says, I got approved and minutes after applying, they kept asking me to pay a safety deposit to get a free month of rent. When I told them I can't pay the amount, they asked for only a hundred dollars. Now, wait a minute. How you go, that's not how deposits work. I've never worked, been at a apartment or anything and they've been like, okay, so the deposit is two thousand. Oh, you don't got that? Okay, how about a hundred dollars?

• 15:26Laci Mosley?

  The deposit is usually the deposit.

• 15:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's it.

• 15:30Laci Mosley?

  They starting to sound like yo mama. They like, okay, or three hairdos.

• 15:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, just give me, give me a tan and a pack of gum. What?

• 15:38Laci Mosley?

  They sounded like your grandma, Daya. It was like, how many chin hairs can you pick? And that'll be the deposit.

• 15:46Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 15:48Laci Mosley?

  Billingsley said, "I never paid them," and eventually was given a number of one of the roommates, in quotes. "I tried to call them and they instantly hung up before there was even a ring. Uh-oh." "I later get called by a third number from the website where someone kept trying to push me to pay a hundred dollars, even though I haven't spoken to anyone yet. When I asked where to send my hundred dollars, I didn't get a clear answer and just hung up." "My soon-to-be ex-wife called the roommate's number on her phone and a man answered." "He said that even he thought this was a scam at first, but said in a way that sounded scripted." Billingsley says, "The man picked up and was like, 'Yo, I thought it was a scam at first. Send a hundred dollars.' 'I wouldn't fall for that.'" But then Billingsley said, "Well, he says it sounded scripted."

• 16:31Laci Mosley?

  I love that. I love being a scammer on a roommate website where you're like, "Okay, let's just write down the thing, because we gotta say it to so many people."

• 16:37Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 16:38Laci Mosley?

  He sounded like he was reading. He was like, "At first, it's certain names. So what is your name, Billingsley?" "At first, Billingsley, I thought this was a scam too, but now I am living in an apartment of my dreams." Is that a colon? Hold on. Somebody spilled coffee on my, uh, my letter here.

• 16:57Speaker 03

  And we're calling for your Sally Mae bill. Sorry, wrong script, wrong script.

• 17:02Laci Mosley?

  Hold on, hold on, hold on. They're rifling through their shit, trying to find something else. Good lord. So Billingsley said, "It sounded like a script and fake. When I asked where to send the hundred dollars, still didn't get a clear answer." So Billingsley's talking to the scammer, uh, person on the phone. The scammer even offered to show, uh, my wife the house, but said that he's never there. So he was like, "I can show you all the place, but I'm never there." "The best part is, they wanted me to pay for everything and be moved in by the next day. The whole thing was giving red flags. I never gave them the money. And my wife and I both said, 'We were glad that we listened to your podcast and became aware of those red flags.' Thank you for reading this, Billingsley."

• 17:43Speaker 03

  Oh, snap.

• 17:44Laci Mosley?

  Oh, I'm glad.

• 17:45Speaker 03

  They could've ended up like JonBenet Ramsey. What's happening?

• 17:49Laci Mosley?

  How was I going like JonBenet? What?

• 17:51Speaker 03

  I don't know. I just feel like they could have got snatched or something. It always, it always goes back to JonBenet for me.

• 17:57Laci Mosley?

  JonBenet is such a specific.

• 18:00Speaker 03

  Like, where is she, though?

• 18:03Laci Mosley?

  I thought they found her, but she was passed away. What you trying to say? They know where she at.

• 18:08Speaker 03

  Did they find JonBenet?

• 18:09Laci Mosley?

  I don't think she went missing. I think that she was murdered, right? That, uh...

• 18:14Speaker 03

  But that's what they said, but they said they never found the body.

• 18:17Laci Mosley?

  Okay, so we just got a note, thank you from our producers. They found her, but they don't know who did it. They, I think that was the thing.

• 18:22Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 18:24Laci Mosley?

  What a black thing to say, Danielle. They could have got JonBenet. What?

• 18:31Speaker 03

  Yo, shook. Rest in peace. Peacefully resting.

• 18:35Laci Mosley?

  Rest in peace. These are what I call, uh, Auntie phrases. Like, they could have got JonBenet. What? I love it. Um, yes, rest in peace, and hopefully they will let that poor girl rest. Because every time I go to the grocery store, they got a new tabloid talking about somebody. Her Princess Diana is like, they won't let these, let these queens rest.

• 18:54Speaker 03

  Princess, let, let them pass on swiftly. Please.

• 18:58Laci Mosley?

  They had a movie about it this year.

• 18:59Speaker 03

  They did.

• 19:01Laci Mosley?

  Yes. I'm like, I don't know if we need any more movies. Y'all let Lady Di be where she at.

• 19:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, let her chill.

• 19:07Laci Mosley?

  Let her rest. We're gonna take a quick break for some non-scam advertisements. We'll be right back with my favorite part of the show, historic hoodwinks. Scams!

• 19:17Speaker 04

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• 19:45Speaker 01

  This is Iris Palmer from Against All Odds with Iris Palmer. There's something about the holidays that takes you right back to being a kid. Maybe it's waking up to the smell of baking, hearing Tookie Tookie playing in the kitchen, or seeing that one Theo who in... It's not a party until he gets there. And you know what? He's probably right. For me, the best part of the holidays has always been the food. Not just because it's delicious, but because every dish has a story. Like the tamales your abuela spent all morning making, or the arroz con pollo that's been passed down from one generation to the next. Then there's that first bite when everyone's finally sitting down together. Que rico! And we can't forget the finishing touch. No meal is complete without delicious Coca-Cola on the table.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  That crisp, refreshing taste is the perfect pairing for those holiday favorites. And the beautiful thing is, traditions don't have to stay the same. Maybe you're hosting your first Friendsgiving or bringing some pupusas to your coworkers so that they can get a taste of your culture. However you celebrate, it's the people and the little moments that make it special. So grab some Coca-Cola on your next grocery run and make room for a few more memories. Disfruta Coca-Cola.

• 20:59Speaker 00

  She'd throw things, wander, and started hoarding. Mom's Alzheimer's was already so hard. But then we found out she had agitation that may happen with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. And that was a different kind of difficult. So we asked her doctor for more help.

• 21:14Speaker 05

  Seeing symptoms like these in a loved one? It could be time to ask their doctor about Rexulti, Rexiprazole 2mg, the first FDA-approved treatment for this condition. Rexulti is proven to reduce agitation symptoms. Rexulti should not be used as an as-needed treatment. Elderly people with dementia-related psychosis have increased risk of death or stroke. Report fever, stiff muscles, and confusion, which can be life-threatening, or uncontrolled muscle movements, which may be permanent. High blood sugar can lead to coma or death. Weight gain, increased cholesterol, unusual urges, dizziness on standing, falls, seizures, trouble swallowing, or sleepiness may occur. Learn more about these and other side effects at rexulti.com. Tap ad for PI.

• 21:49Speaker 00

  I'm glad I asked for help.

• 21:51Speaker 05

  Ask your loved one's doctor about Rexulti.

• 21:58Laci Mosley?

  And we are back and it's time for Historic Hoodwigs. I am going to regale Danielle with the famous con caper group of criminals. I picked this one out for you special Danielle because we've got two black women here. And we're going to talk about one of our favorite events. Um, and we'll get our opinions all throughout. Maybe we like the scammer, maybe we hate him, we'll see. But today we're talking about Essence magazines. Star studded music festival Essence Fest. Don't worry, it's not about Essence, we love Essence, shout out Essence. Danielle got a little clammy, her butt cheeks got a little tight. She said, wait a minute, I'm going to the Essence, uh, Queens of Comedy event next week. Like, what you mean? No, we love Essence.

• 22:36Speaker 03

  Let me talk a bit back for this.

• 22:38Laci Mosley?

  We love Essence, we love Essence, shout out to them. But this is a scammer who tried to come up on them. So Essence magazine's star studded music festival Essence Fest first started in 1995 as what was supposed to be a one-time event celebrating the magazine's 25th anniversary. It's since grown and thanks to the 2017 movie Girls Trip, which featured a group of friends traveling to the festival, 2018 was set to be its biggest year yet. Uh, they got, we got a photo here of some people at Essence Festival that'll pop up here. So look at this, uh, lineup. They got Erykah Badu, you want to talk about a black woman? Like, like I imagine a box with like a rod in the corner and this is the trap. Like I go into the box as a black woman because they got Erykah Badu, Jill Scott,

• 23:23Laci Mosley?

  which if you were watching Versus during the pandemic before it became some ratchet mess. The Erykah Badu just got versus, did you see that one?

• 23:30Speaker 03

  It was, it was everything, it was everything.

• 23:32Laci Mosley?

  It was like Sage.

• 23:33Speaker 03

  And I had the nerve to took, um, an edible when long walk happened. And I think I may have went on one during it.

• 23:41Laci Mosley?

  You did.

• 23:42Speaker 03

  I played myself, I played myself. I should never, I, I took the edible too late, that's the issue. See, I never know how to time these things out. And then you know the one that you'd be like, yo, mid walk? I was like, I gotta get home though, I, I'm not set up for a long walk Jill. I need to get home, I need to get home.

• 24:00Laci Mosley?

  Danielle was walking around the block and all of a sudden it was like conversation, verbal relation, stimulation. And then next thing she knows, she, she five miles away, she in a situation. Yes, that can happen. They got The Roots, Snoop Dogg, Lettuce, Nigga Fresh, Miguel, Mary J Blige. Come on, Mary with the boots, are you kidding me? Escape, Nigga Fresh.

• 24:23Laci Mosley?

  And the scape is good, are they gonna be fine? What's gonna happen there? Ellie May, uh, all the girls. I love Ellie, Ella Mai, Ella May. Uh, she's a singer, one of those British singers who's, who like sings like she's American. And then like every song on her album has an interlude that's like, don't forget that I'm British. And then the song starts and it's like, hey baby. And it's like, where did that sing go? And then between like, ay yo, did y'all have that song in it? Well, here's the next track.

• 24:51Laci Mosley?

  Ah, Ella. It's fine. I love it for you. Janet Jackson.

• 24:55Speaker 03

  Yum.

• 24:55Laci Mosley?

  Fantasia, ooh, you know, somebody gonna get hit with a shoe. Fantasia start kicking them shoes off and hollering.

• 24:59Speaker 03

  I know. This is a good lineup.

• 25:03Laci Mosley?

  This is a spicy lineup. Delicious. This is a 2018 lineup. So OBL Travel Agency is the scam that we're talking about here. Nakesia, Nakesia Washington, forty-one. And mother of three, was a travel agent entrepreneur based in Marrero, Louisiana. I can't say that. M A R R E R O. Marrero, Marrero.

• 25:25Speaker 03

  Could be.

• 25:26Laci Mosley?

  Y'all will drag me on Twitter. It's fine. They'll be like, this is my hometown. I can't believe you don't know how to say the name. So, yes. In 2015, she started a boutique travel agency called OBL Travel LLC. We love a travel agency that's just got letters. O B L. And we can read here, oh, original boss lady is what that stands for, ma'am.

• 25:45Speaker 03

  Shout out. Come on. Make it plain. McDonald's. We know what it is. You know it ain't make it plain.

• 25:52Laci Mosley?

  Do we know it from the name? McDonald's don't sound like burgers and fries.

• 25:57Speaker 03

  Listen.

• 25:58Laci Mosley?

  I knew it was original boss lady. I don't know if she was original travel lady or travel boss, but. She just said, so we on her website right now. Um, I just wanna read a little bit of her bio real quick. So Nakesia says she's from Louisiana, um.

• 26:16Speaker 03

  And a native.

• 26:17Laci Mosley?

  She's a native.

• 26:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:19Laci Mosley?

  From West Wego for nineteen years. She's the mother. So it's just talking about her life. She's like, I'm a mother. I'm from Louisiana. Like, and then she got this picture that she definitely took herself on her, uh, camera phone.

• 26:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, in the car, too. In the car with a seatbelt on. She cropped the seatbelt out. I'm dead.

• 26:37Laci Mosley?

  Why are we like this? Why are we like this?

• 26:38Speaker 03

  She's in the car.

• 26:39Laci Mosley?

  See the seatbelt next to her face.

• 26:41Speaker 03

  She's like, oh, hold on. Park real quick. That's it.

• 26:44Laci Mosley?

  You're gonna get somebody to take a photo of you with a white wall in the back? How you gonna have a selfie of you in the passenger seat of the car?

• 26:51Speaker 03

  Jesus, she was like.

• 26:52Laci Mosley?

  I don't know.

• 26:53Speaker 03

  Can you crop out the seatbelt? Great. Boom. Original Boss Lady, she's making moves.

• 26:59Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I don't know if I'm going to a travel agency website and the travel agent got a selfie up from her car. Talk about professional.

• 27:06Speaker 03

  There's, there's no way, but I'mma tell you who would go? My mother. My mother falls, my mother falls for scams so bad, bro. Like, she would be going.

• 27:16Laci Mosley?

  That means she got a good heart.

• 27:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, she would be going. And I'd be like, Mom, don't, don't do it. She'd be like, no, I'm not gonna do it. And she'd be like, I just booked with OBL.

• 27:24Laci Mosley?

  Original Boss Lady, Washington.

• 27:28Speaker 03

  Exactly. Yeah, that's it.

• 27:31Laci Mosley?

  So, Girl Trip had a big impact on Essence Fest. I had been before. I didn't get to go for a Black Ladies Sketch Show, which was a bummer because, you know, I was so excited, but COVID pulled up and was like, skirt, skirt, to all my plans. But it's a fun event. It's in Louisiana. You go, you get a drink, and walk around on the streets and see all your favorite black people and have a great time. Uh, my mom went one year and met Issa Rae, and it was like right after I had done Insecure. Before I was on the Black Ladies Sketch Show, I had done Insecure, and y'all know the bit of like, I'm in the trailer, but I'm not in the actual show. So my mom was down there. She met Issa, and she was like, now why y'all ain't put my baby in the show? Yeah, I put on a trailer. And they took a picture. I was like, I can't. Lori, where, where are you?

• 28:13Speaker 03

  Oh, my God. Yes. I love Essence Fest. I used to go every year. It's so fun. It's so fun.

• 28:21Laci Mosley?

  So, in 2015, she started her boutique travel agency, right? And, you know, she's taking advantage of the hype after Girl Trip. Uh, she said that her OBL Travel LLC handles everything from booking hotel rooms to creating all-inclusive packages. Basically, the Girl Trip before the Girl Trip. Come on, marketing. Come on, branding. That's what you need to slap up on your website, girl. Just a picture of Tiffany Haddish, no context.

• 28:45Speaker 03

  I know. That's it. That's it. That's my niece.

• 28:48Laci Mosley?

  Right. No questions. In 2018, she offered vacation packages for Essence Fest July 4th weekend to dozens of women. At least 98 women used Original Boss Lady Travel to book everything from concert tickets to hotel reservations and party passes for the festival. Fully expected to be ready for their dream weekend when they arrived, but Nakesia didn't deliver.

• 29:10Speaker 03

  Clearly.

• 29:10Laci Mosley?

  The K shop.

• 29:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:12Laci Mosley?

  How you gonna do this to your own people?

• 29:14Speaker 03

  Listen, black on black scams, that's tough. That's tough business there. That's tough.

• 29:19Laci Mosley?

  I wanna see more black women in STEM. I wanna see more black women in scams. But you don't gotta scam down. You don't gotta scam the community, like.

• 29:29Speaker 03

  The whole community on Essence Weekend, I'm shook.

• 29:32Laci Mosley?

  They got the outfits ready. They been on Fashion Nova, Shein, the local mall. You name it, the girls have gotten all their fits together, ASOS. And you gonna do them like this?

• 29:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, sure did. I can't even imagine like just going to the airport and being like, you have, these aren't tickets. You have no tickets.

• 29:51Laci Mosley?

  Uh-uh, not the flight.

• 29:54Speaker 03

  Your ass spirit like, what you mean?

• 29:57Laci Mosley?

  You at Virgin Airlines, they're like, girl, we got bumped by Alaska. Who told you you got a Virgin Airlines ticket? We stopped singing a minute ago.

• 30:06Laci Mosley?

  Which, I used to love to fly Virgin because their planes were cute. They would have a little mood light and a little purple for you.

• 30:11Speaker 03

  I know.

• 30:12Laci Mosley?

  The only thing that got annoying is, I loved it the first few times, but after a while, I didn't wanna hear a whole seven, eight minute song like, Virgin America knows just the place that you wanna be. You gotta strap in your seatbelt, do da da da da, gotta top off the vine, put your tray table down. I was like, alright y'all, just give me the lackluster fighter attendant who's like, I did this five times today, I hate you. She put the little two fingers in the air, two fingers on the side, point to the exits. Because sometimes the dance and song was too long. I'm like, oh, hell.

• 30:40Speaker 03

  Listen, it's Broadway meets commercial airlining. Listen, a vibe. That's it.

• 30:45Laci Mosley?

  It was. Shout out to Richard Branson before Alaska took it and made it very hood.

• 30:52Laci Mosley?

  Unless Alaskan Airlines sponsors this podcast and I'll be like, Alaskan, you want a bus ticket but in the air? Alaska. So they, oh lord, one woman, we have a victim account here. Adrienne Williams said that she and her friends had made it all the way to their hotel room in New Orleans before they found out their hotel reservations paid through OBL Travel were not secured. They had paid seventeen thousand dollars for their package. But when they arrived, they had to find nine thousand more for a last minute ticket and reservations.

• 31:31Speaker 03

  I'm pissed. Cause you, do you not understand how hard it is to organize black women and black people in general for a trip?

• 31:38Laci Mosley?

  For vacations?

• 31:39Speaker 03

  Do you understand, like, this is like probably a three year moment of like text chains of like, should we do it? Next year, oh, it didn't work out this year. And then when it finally works out, everybody puts all the money in.

• 31:51Laci Mosley?

  And you got everybody's money?

• 31:53Speaker 03

  We're on the plane!

• 31:53Laci Mosley?

  You got everybody's money?

• 31:55Speaker 03

  Yo.

• 31:56Laci Mosley?

  Adriana said that she, they paid. I don't even know if that means like some people who had more coins, you know, the one who got the good job. You know, the two, three people in the friend group got good jobs, maybe they put up more and then put the rest of their friends on the layaway plan, just like girls trip, like y'all come, we'll, y'all just pay us back in installments. What?

• 32:15Speaker 03

  It takes so long to prepare a black trip. It really does. I've been planning the same girls trip for the last, for three years. It's the same trip. It's the same text chain. Like, literally.

• 32:27Laci Mosley?

  Y'all, are we going to the Bermuda Triangle or not?

• 32:32Laci Mosley?

  This trip is ten years in the making.

• 32:35Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 32:36Laci Mosley?

  To go to Louisiana.

• 32:38Speaker 03

  In the same wolf pack, black ladies edition, group tags with all my friends, we're still planning the same trip to Jamaica, still.

• 32:48Laci Mosley?

  Since Stella got her group back, came out.

• 32:50Speaker 03

  Exactly, exactly.

• 32:53Laci Mosley?

  Y'all, Tay-Dix is grown now. Are we going or what?

• 33:01Laci Mosley?

  Good lord. So, and we have a little video of the testimony we'll pull up. But right now, another woman, her testimony. Now we're just getting testimonies from the victims. Sanaya Amin, 24, had a similar experience. A fun fact, Sanaya is the founder of Flynance, an online personal finance platform that teaches black women, in quotes, "who are blowing money fast early in their careers, how to manage their money now." Yeah, we love it. She and her friends paid each $1,092 for an inclusive Essence trip and found themselves without reservations on arrival. Sanaya had to pay another $1,000 for a smaller room. Additionally, Nikisha only gave them Essence Fest concert tickets after Sanaya hounded her.

• 33:45Laci Mosley?

  Because I'm sure Sanaya did, Sanaya was like, "Look, I'm gonna find you, I'm gonna beat your ass." That's why I'm like, "Why are you fucking with black women? Because we're not the ones to let things go." We're not gonna talk to the Better Business Bureau, we gonna pull up.

• 33:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, in real time.

• 33:57Laci Mosley?

  It's the Pop the Trunk Bureau, and we gonna find you, girl, what? Even then, the ticketed seats weren't together, and they were shorted a ticket for one night. In the end, Nikisha did provide some of the services her victims paid for, but many were left without hotel rooms, tickets, and other items. Yeah, I just feel like hotel room is number one, like, we need someplace to sleep. We've flown here, like, how you not? Some even had to cancel their trips.

• 34:22Speaker 03

  And then it's like, everything is booked up. Yeah, everything is booked up that week.

• 34:26Laci Mosley?

  Louisiana's small, it's not like if you're flying to New York for a festival, you could still probably find a hotel. You're flying into Louisiana, into New Orleans, in a week that, like, everything's booked up because everyone's coming.

• 34:40Speaker 03

  Everything's booked.

• 34:41Laci Mosley?

  Absolutely wild. Not, you know, we've been to New Orleans during Essence Fest, and if we didn't have hotels, then we would've been ass out.

• 34:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, in real time, you would've had to stay somewhere else. Like, out of town.

• 34:52Laci Mosley?

  Right, would've been napping on Bourbon Street.

• 34:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, in real time, in real time, wow.

• 34:57Laci Mosley?

  Where y'all staying for the Essence Fest? We in Texas. We in Texas.

• 35:02Speaker 03

  We're just gonna drive in.

• 35:04Laci Mosley?

  It's like a two-hour drive.

• 35:07Laci Mosley?

  Every day.

• 35:09Laci Mosley?

  So some had to cancel their trips because they couldn't afford to shell out thousands of dollars to actually pay for the things that she had stolen. Um, Mateen Buchanan, a Nashville-based travel agent, had hired OBL Travel to assist with booking, traveling, uh, for like 25 women. So damn, so another travel agency that probably was just getting a lot of influx, like of people was like, let me reach out to another queen and try to like, you know, do it that way.

• 35:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:37Laci Mosley?

  And sent 25 of her customers over there, probably lost business. Let's see what Wendy Williams is saying right here on this, uh, Facebook post. So she says, "I'm feeling really pissed." So this is Wendy Williams, not to be confused with the TV show host. Wendy says on Facebook, "I'm feeling really pissed off right now. I have a trip planned to the Essence Festival for next week and now finding out that we're possibly scammed on our trip and that our hotel room has not been fully paid for. No concert tickets, no party tickets. We've spent all of the money preparing for this trip, including airfare. None of this stuff is cheap. I'm really upset about the whole situation. If anyone knows this lady right here, this so-called travel agent, please let us know because apparently she's done this to other people like this as well. I really wish we would have known about this. It's just a damn shame that people would do stuff like this. We need something

• 36:22Laci Mosley?

  done. Ho- this is a horrible hit right now. I was really looking forward to this vacation. Now I need to figure out what I will do."

• 36:28Speaker 03

  Mm, mm.

• 36:30Laci Mosley?

  That's actually very polite.

• 36:31Speaker 03

  Take it to the prayer line.

• 36:32Laci Mosley?

  She, Wendy go to church. She was like, "If y'all, if y'all could send out a line, if y'all got a BOLO on this, on this sister who did this to us, I would have been like, Facebook, if y'all see this bitch, we fighting. Nakesia."

• 36:45Speaker 03

  Period.

• 36:46Laci Mosley?

  Please share.

• 36:47Speaker 03

  In real time, with screenshots.

• 36:49Laci Mosley?

  For a fisticuffs. So, according to Mateen, Nakesia swindled her out of $31,000. Phew. Mateen has signed a contract with OBL Travel and sent payments for the women's hotels reservations over a month before July 4th festival. As a result, that money never actually being used to book anything that they wanted, the rooms, the tickets, all of this. Mateen faced hostility and a destroyed reputation. Now, remember, Mateen is the one who had the travel agency and she was like, "Let me get with OBL because I got too many people." Sent them over there. And then now it's fucking up her business because she sent people to the scammer. She said, I got attorneys coming at me, I got banks coming at me about their money, these people's money. And they have every right to get their money back.

• 37:30Laci Mosley?

  And then we have a video, oh no, this is where Mateen speaks on what she wants to come out of being allegedly scammed by Nikisha. This sucks because now you're fucking up other people's businesses.

• 37:41Speaker 03

  In real time, in real time.

• 37:43Laci Mosley?

  That's, oh, so let's play a little bit of this and see what Mateen has to say.

• 37:49Speaker 06

  I want my group to get all their money back.

• 37:51Speaker 03

  Oh my god.

• 37:51Speaker 06

  Every dime that they've paid, I really wish and hope that they could get the extra money that they paid.

• 37:59Laci Mosley?

  Now, we can go ahead and stop there. We're gonna post some of this video on the Instagram story. The thing that sticks out to me is you know when news does B-roll? The B-roll of this, and if you don't know what B-roll is, it's like when you watch anything, a TV show or movie, you know, like you'll watch a shot and it's like, uh, I'll give you like Selling Sunset or something where you like watch a frame of like, oh, this is a city view with like, you know, they took it with a drone and it's like, da, da, da, we're in this city. They're giving us an establishing shot and it's just people's legs walking so they don't have to have them sign waivers. And all the legs are black and women.

• 38:33Laci Mosley?

  All the feet are black.

• 38:35Speaker 03

  Black lady legs.

• 38:37Laci Mosley?

  Look at all these black lady legs.

• 38:39Speaker 03

  Literally, literally.

• 38:41Laci Mosley?

  All black lady legs. And these legs, the calves are giving, it looks like these legs are ready for kicks and to put foots on people's necks for robbing them. Uh, I wouldn't mess with these legs, none of them. They all look like these legs look like they can run very fast and.

• 38:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, in real time.

• 38:58Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I don't want that for me. So getting caught. Nikisha reportedly told many of her clients that she both had a medical emergency and her bank account had been hacked. Now, I do want to say one more thing about Mateen in this video that we just watched. Mateen said, I really hope that they get their money back and their extra money that they pay. I really pray, Mateen is basically, y'all know, in this newscast, I ain't got it, I'll never have it. My name is Benin, I am not in it.

• 39:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:27Laci Mosley?

  I'm only in it a little bit.

• 39:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:30Laci Mosley?

  She was like, I hope and pray, thoughts and prayers to all of those people who got scammed.

• 39:36Speaker 03

  Period.

• 39:37Laci Mosley?

  Mateen hit him with the thoughts and prayers. I'm not mad since you didn't know that you were referring, and you signed a contract. You didn't know that Boss Lady Travel was really just for the boss lady. She said, I'm gonna travel with your money.

• 39:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, and period.

• 39:49Laci Mosley?

  You wanna see your money go places that you'll never see? Book with me.

• 39:52Speaker 03

  She probably went to the Montreal Jazz Fest.

• 39:56Speaker 03

  She's like, I'm going overseas.

• 39:59Speaker 03

  Y'all want a jazz fest?

• 40:00Laci Mosley?

  She said, bitch, I'm at Yacht Week in Croatia. What, what's going on with y'all? Damn, y'all can't see Anthony Hamilton?

• 40:07Speaker 03

  She's like, I'm not gonna go see Mary J. I'm saying, uh, Kenny G. How about that? What y'all gonna do with that?

• 40:13Laci Mosley?

  She said, damn, there's plenty of pictures of Mary J. Blige and her boots on Google. I'm gonna tell y'all girls, cuz y'all like, gonna see him in person.

• 40:21Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 40:22Laci Mosley?

  According to Nikisha's original statement, she said, I can't produce any of the money until my bank account is released from being frozen right now. So the hotels, nobody can get money. I can't get the money. I can't pay anything on my behalf or anyone else's behalf right now because everything is frozen out. Why are they freezing it? That's not how banks work.

• 40:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:42Laci Mosley?

  In reality, she deposited over $240,000 directly into her business account. She then used those funds to pay for expenses such as dining out, gas, rental car payments, and shopping.

• 40:58Laci Mosley?

  This scam was particularly easy to perpetuate because all of the victims lived out of state. Naturally, communication or following Nikisha for any restitution was made much more difficult. She's like, we ain't even in the same state. The Better Business Bureau accumulated 45 complaints against OBL Travel before the company was shut down, but they do little to resolve claims. We've talked about the Better Business Bureau. Literally, Better Business is a scam. They're just like, if you pay us, we'll take down your bad reviews. If you pay us, we'll give you a page. Like, Better Business Bureau is not a government entity. We've talked about this. They not the F, the B, and the I. They are the B and B. They made themselves up. I'm gonna make my own Better Business Bureau.

• 41:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, listen.

• 41:33Laci Mosley?

  The scams bureau. And, and y'all can pay me to get robbed, and I'll be much more upfront about it.

• 41:40Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 41:41Laci Mosley?

  Oh, Lord. And she stole, and I love that she was going to dinner. She was going to, and Nikisha still gives me, like, she going to dinner, and even though she balling out on stolen money, she definitely gonna split the check with an 11-person table.

• 41:54Speaker 03

  Oh, in real time, and she's going to Sizzler.

• 41:57Laci Mosley?

  Right, and she was like, "I didn't get the fries. Who got the fries?"

• 42:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, I didn't do the buffet. I got, I got, um, the steak.

• 42:04Laci Mosley?

  Who ordered extra sauce? I'm not paying for that thirty-five cents.

• 42:08Speaker 03

  Period. That's it.

• 42:10Laci Mosley?

  So, Nikisha's arrest. Authorities eventually caught up to Nikisha and on August 2nd, 2018, she was arrested and charged with felony theft and computer fraud. She pleaded guilty to charges of felony theft. Judge Ellen Shear Kovak originally sentenced her to twelve years. Woo, that's too much. And reassessed after prosecutors read out the names of Nikisha's ninety-eight victims. Wow. Then she was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. So, wait, they went, twelve is high for me. It's theft, it's two-hundred-and-forty thousand dollars. I would rather see this woman out on the streets. I'd rather see her wages garnish, like, wherever she worked next. They just take a little bit out and send it, like, maybe y'all all just get residual checks for the next ten years. Five dollars here, eight dollars here, and you know.

• 42:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:53Laci Mosley?

  I just think fifteen years in prison for fraud is too much. And we pay for a prison, you know. It's just, it's a little ghetto for me. Um, she got six years with a fifteen years suspended, leaving nine years left to serve. Three of those suspended years were served under supervised probation, during which Nikisha had to pay restitution to her victims. At the time of her arrest, the website OBL Travel was still advertising Essence Fest packages for 2019. So she was ready to do it again. She said, "Nah, do it again."

• 43:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, that's it. And at probably at a discounted price.

• 43:24Laci Mosley?

  Right. She's like, "Okay, this time, I know y'all love skirts, so we got the scam discount." Okay, pay as you go. We putting it on Klarna. Don't worry, Klarna legit.

• 43:34Laci Mosley?

  Uh, and here's some how to avoid travel scams in NOLA. New Orleans is a perfect grounds for multitude of scams, particularly for tourists and out-of-state vacationers. Essence Banks, the executive director of the New Orleans Multicultural Tourism Network, suggests that travelers reach out to the tourist network for recommendations on reputable travel agencies with experience in New Orleans. She also suggests planning and booking early. In 2018, over five-hundred thousand people attended the Essence Fest, and it was the first year that all three nights were sold out since it started in nineteen ninety-five. So, if you want to go to Essence Fest. Look up New Orleans travel, you know,

• 44:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:11Laci Mosley?

  Multicultural Tourism Network and see what the girls are recommending because you can't just get on the internet, especially y'all. If they got a selfie as they business photo.

• 44:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's the part and it was definitely.

• 44:23Laci Mosley?

  It's not even giving iPhone 11, you know, it's giving.

• 44:27Speaker 03

  It's giving Nokia a flip.

• 44:29Laci Mosley?

  Oh.

• 44:30Speaker 03

  Nokia flip.

• 44:30Laci Mosley?

  Not flip. Not a flip. Although it's an excellent way to punctuate conversations. Goodbye. Clap, like, miss that for us.

• 44:42Laci Mosley?

  Guys, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be back with the saddest part of the show, the end, where I have to let daddy go. Robbery.

• 44:49Speaker 04

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• 45:17Speaker 01

  This is Iris Palmer from Against All Odds with Iris Palmer. There's something about the holidays that takes you right back to being a kid. Maybe it's waking up to the smell of baking, hearing dookie dookie playing in the kitchen, or seeing that one Theo who insists it's not a party until he gets there. And you know what? He's probably right. For me, the best part of the holidays has always been the food, not just because it's delicious, but because every dish has a story, like the tamales your abuela spent all morning making, or the arroz con pollo that's been passed down from one generation to the next. Then there's that first bite when everyone's finally sitting down together. Que rico. And we can't forget the finishing touch. No meal is complete without delicious Coca-Cola on the table.

• 46:00Speaker 01

  That crisp, refreshing taste is the perfect pairing for those holiday favorites. And the beautiful thing is, traditions don't have to stay the same. Maybe you're hosting your first Friendsgiving, or bringing some pupusas to your coworkers so that they can get a taste of your culture. However you celebrate, it's the people and the little moments that make it special. So grab some Coca-Cola on your next grocery run and make room for a few more memories. Disfruta Coca-Cola.

• 46:30Speaker 00

  She'd throw things, wander, and started hoarding. Mom's Alzheimer's was already so hard. But then we found out she had agitation that may happen with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. And that was a different kind of difficult. So we asked her doctor for more help.

• 46:45Speaker 05

  Seeing symptoms like these in a loved one? It could be time to ask their doctor about Rexulti, Rexiprazole 2mg, the first FDA-approved treatment for this condition. Rexulti is proven to reduce agitation symptoms. Rexulti should not be used as an as-needed treatment. Elderly people with dementia-related psychosis have increased risk of death or stroke. Report fever, stiff muscles, and confusion, which can be life-threatening, or uncontrolled muscle movements, which may be permanent. High blood sugar can lead to coma or death. Weight gain, increased cholesterol, unusual urges, dizziness on standing, falls, seizures, trouble swallowing, or sleepiness may occur. Learn more about these and other side effects at rexulti.com. Tap ad for PI.

• 47:20Speaker 00

  I'm glad I asked for help.

• 47:22Speaker 05

  Ask your loved one's doctor about Rexulti.

• 47:28Laci Mosley?

  And fraud! And we are back. And it's time for Scammer of the Week. This is where we highlight one honorary charlatan who's worthy of our praise, or maybe not. Let's see. Today, we're talking about romance fraud. Uh, from 2020 to 2021, romance fraud rose 80%. And now you're thinking about the pandemic. People are at home. People are using their computers. I know, it was hard. I'm single. And getting on the dating apps, meeting the girls and the boys, it was very diff-- I-- you know what it was? Every time I got on a dating app, I'd be like, "Do I want to risk COVID meeting this person?"

• 48:01Speaker 03

  That's the part. That's the part.

• 48:04Laci Mosley?

  How many dates they going on? How mu-- how much breathing they doing around other people?

• 48:08Speaker 03

  How much breathing?

• 48:10Laci Mosley?

  How many inhaleds and how many exhales are you doing with strangers? I don't know.

• 48:15Speaker 03

  That's real. That's real.

• 48:17Laci Mosley?

  And then what if we hit it off, then we kiss, and then you putting a COVID in my throat? No, it's just stress. It's too stressful. So for one seventy-eight-year-old woman from Annandale, Virginia, the growing problem of romance fraud was all too real. We keep talking about romance fraud, some of these are gonna be romance fraud coming up just because it's popping right now. It started when he created an account on the social network called I Flirt. Never heard of that. Have you heard of I Flirt?

• 48:42Speaker 03

  Never.

• 48:44Laci Mosley?

  Well, he was looking to find some companionship. He's seventy-eight. So I don't know if I Flirt is where a seventy-eight-year-old needs to be.

• 48:51Speaker 03

  No.

• 48:52Laci Mosley?

  I Flirt feels young.

• 48:53Speaker 03

  Golly, yeah, no.

• 48:56Laci Mosley?

  It says, "Warning: Eighteen and up. This site use cookies." And, okay, you gotta be eighteen and up to be on I Flirt. And it's a woman.

• 49:03Speaker 03

  I Flirt.

• 49:03Laci Mosley?

  We'll post this screenshot. It's a woman silhouette with a heart. Okay, so this is a sugar daddy site. It's giving like,

• 49:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:11Laci Mosley?

  You pay some bills, I give some thrills. No shade. So he first met someone who identified herself as an interested widowed woman in her thirties. Their online relationship grew and so did the scam. Now, sir, you're seventy-eight. You're talking to someone in their thirties. You should have already had known. The woman claimed to be from New York but was arrested while traveling to Germany to retrieve her inheritance of gold bars. Okay, now, sir.

• 49:37Speaker 03

  No.

• 49:38Laci Mosley?

  Obviously, she couldn't retrieve the gold bars because she was arrested, so she needed money to make bail.

• 49:46Laci Mosley?

  I was gonna get the gold bars, but then they had detained me, boo.

• 49:49Speaker 03

  He was trying to date Scrooge McDuck. That's it. That's it. He's like, "I'm gonna jump in the pile of coins and live my le- the le- rest of my social security out." That's it.

• 49:59Laci Mosley?

  Not Scroogedina McEntress. No.

• 50:02Speaker 03

  That's it.

• 50:04Laci Mosley?

  Scroogedina said.

• 50:06Speaker 03

  Scroogedina.

• 50:10Speaker 03

  Scroella.

• 50:11Laci Mosley?

  Scroella. Okay, so by the end of his relationship with Scroella, his name is not made public. He has sent over five hundred thousand dollars to Scroella. Now, come on now.

• 50:21Speaker 03

  Oh, oh.

• 50:23Laci Mosley?

  Now, what you- you got five hundred grand? You can't meet nobody in person? He has since been diagnosed with dementia. Oh, no. So now she's praying on. I don't like this. And over the past five years, victims of similar romance scams have lost more than one point three billion dollars. Yeah, I might have to get on into the love fraud industry. God dang. I'm talking about work from home. Work from home.

• 50:47Speaker 03

  Work from home, that's it, that's it.

• 50:49Laci Mosley?

  Love this for us, but um, so over the past five years victims, you know, they've racked it up in the billions, but unlike most, this man might see justice. Two Ghanaian nationals, Linda and Richard, were sentenced to more than a year in prison for their role in the scam. They acted as money mules. They never contacted the victims themselves, but received laundered money in exchange for a cut. It's estimated that the same scheme has been perpetrated to multiple victims and sends more than forty-two million dollars to Ghana where the scam was headquartered. In response to her sentencing, Linda said, "I have to express my ugly truth. I was selfish, ambitious, and greedy for success." That's what Linda said.

• 51:32Speaker 03

  Mmm, mmm, mmm.

• 51:33Laci Mosley?

  I don't know how to do a Ghanaian accent, so I won't offend y'all, but maybe I will. I'll do my general Africa accent, my Wakanda accent, which is, "I have to express my ugly truth. I was selfish, ambitious, and greedy for success."

• 51:49Laci Mosley?

  Y'all gonna drag me, but y'all know I love to do my general continent of Africa accent.

• 51:53Speaker 03

  Listen, Black Panther 3, see you there.

• 51:57Laci Mosley?

  I'm trying to get in, I was bummed I couldn't get an audition for Black Panther 2. I was like, man, America now, I don't gotta shave my head.

• 52:03Speaker 03

  Like, literally, like, where were the auditions for us, okay?

• 52:08Laci Mosley?

  I ain't seen Naria one. I was like,

• 52:11Speaker 03

  Not one audition?

• 52:13Laci Mosley?

  And listen, I, I can't do the Dora Milaje, but I was like, y'all, I know I could at least be a secretary at the Synod for Bibliothèque. I'm like, hello? We don't got that.

• 52:24Speaker 03

  I could, I could be the security guard in Easy. I could be like, literally protecting it.

• 52:28Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 52:29Speaker 03

  Y'all can't come in.

• 52:30Laci Mosley?

  Hello, no, this is for black people. They're like, that's not your line, Lacey.

• 52:33Speaker 03

  Stay back.

• 52:35Laci Mosley?

  But guys, right, they're like, no, you cannot improv, this is Marvel. But guys, we have reached the end of another wonderful episode. Daniel, thank you so much for being here.

• 52:48Speaker 03

  Are you kidding? Thank you so much for having me. I've had such a great time today.

• 52:52Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 52:52Speaker 03

  My god.

• 52:53Laci Mosley?

  And we always ask, where do you want to be found?

• 52:55Speaker 03

  Okay, you can find me on social media, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, at BodyCourage. Um, and watch CBS Ghost on Thursdays at 9:00 PM.

• 53:05Laci Mosley?

  So good. Guys, really, follow Danielle. Seriously, she's so funny. She brings so much joy to my life. It's so good to see your face, even if it's on Zoom. I'll see you in person soon, sis.

• 53:14Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 53:15Laci Mosley?

  But, guys.

• 53:16Speaker 03

  Wait, but I didn't want to, I know we about to leave, but I did want, I had my little scam prepared, Lacey. I did want to talk about.

• 53:22Laci Mosley?

  What is it? Yes.

• 53:26Laci Mosley?

  Now, Danielle, you were supposed to talk about this in the beginning, see? This one.

• 53:29Speaker 03

  I know, I play myself, I play myself. But I do have to say, the diet industry is probably the biggest scam.

• 53:36Laci Mosley?

  Amen.

• 53:37Speaker 03

  That's out there, that is out there, literally, when I was a kid, I was on every diet known to man. I went on that church diet that they had that HBO documentary about with that lady that was like, pray before you eat, or pray when you're hungry, been on the diet, sis Jenny Craig.

• 53:52Laci Mosley?

  That's not like starvation. Pray when you hungry.

• 53:55Speaker 03

  And let.

• 53:55Laci Mosley?

  If you hungry, just talk to God, he'll feed you. What?

• 53:58Speaker 03

  It's called the way down diet, and there's a whole documentary on HBO about it. And I was like, yo, I think I've been on that diet.

• 54:04Laci Mosley?

  Oh, no.

• 54:06Speaker 03

  It's wild.

• 54:08Laci Mosley?

  They say you eat what Jesus ate, loaves and fishes, but not too many loaves. Only on Sunday do you have loaves, mostly fishes.

• 54:16Speaker 03

  Without question, diet industry, biggest scam on the planet, and you just keep doing the diets. That's the thing. You just keep doing it, and they rebrand, and then you're like, but wait, wasn't this Atkins? Oh, this is keto, but what's what? What's happening?

• 54:28Laci Mosley?

  I will say that sometimes, because I think it's whatever weight you're happy with, whatever makes you feel comfortable. And sometimes, like, I'll calorie count a little bit, or like, I've used certain apps or whatever to figure out, like, oh, I need more protein, or oh, I need that. I'm not against stuff that helps you eat balanced, as long as it's not a situation, because you know, I've talked about WW on here. I'm not against stuff where it's like, oh, okay, I have these little point, whatever system works for you, however it works.

• 54:54Speaker 03

  Right.

• 54:55Laci Mosley?

  However, when it's like, oh, we got these lollipops. And you suck on these and you don't need to eat for a week. Or, oh, we got a shit tea. You drink a little bit of this, you'll be on the toilet for three days and then you'll be skinny. Like that kind of stuff. I'm like, ew. It's a, it's a toxic cycle.

• 55:10Speaker 03

  Fran, that way down diet was the scammiest of scams.

• 55:15Laci Mosley?

  Why they call it way down? That sound like down bad. That don't sound good.

• 55:21Laci Mosley?

  I'm on the struggle diet. It's where you eat like you can't afford any food and so you don't eat.

• 55:26Speaker 03

  The woman who started it looks so crazy. If you look at her face, you're gonna be like, wait, what's going on? So I would highly suggest people watch that documentary on HBO because it is wild.

• 55:36Laci Mosley?

  And it's called The Way Down Diet?

• 55:38Speaker 03

  The Way Down Diet.

• 55:39Laci Mosley?

  Oh, maybe we'll profile it and maybe I'll have to have you back, Daya, so you can speak your truth. Truth to power. If I can get you, because Daya is booked to busy, honey.

• 55:48Speaker 03

  No, I'm here. I will always make time. You're the best. I had so much fun today. I haven't laughed like this in ages. Thank you so much. I'm so grateful to be here.

• 55:56Laci Mosley?

  Thank you for being here. As always, guys, niche on your friends and family at scamgoddesspod at gmail dot com. If you want to find me and my shenanigans, D I V A L A C I, Diva Lacey, on all platforms. I Carley, season two, out right now, Paramount Plus. Get into it, y'all. Subscribe to all of my scams, virtual television, audio. You know, we running lots of grifts around here. Uh, as always, congregation. Love y'all. Stay scheming.

• 56:20Laci Mosley?

  This has been an Earwolf production in association with Team Coco. Scam Goddess stars and is hosted by me, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. It's produced by Judith Cargbo, engineered by Marina Faiz, and researched by Kaelyn Brandt. Stay scheming.

• 56:36Speaker 05

  This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.

• 56:45Speaker 04

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A plus by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business May be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans in amounts subject to lender approval.

• 57:13Speaker 01

  This is Iris Palmer from Against All Odds with Iris Palmer. You know it's the holidays when somebody in the family starts cooking before the sun comes up. The babusas are grilling in the pan, everybody's sneaking bites, and somehow there's always room for one more person at the table. And nothing goes better with that first holiday plate than a delicious Coca-Cola. That crisp, refreshing taste makes everything that much better. Because the best holiday traditions aren't just about what we're eating. They're about who we're sharing those moments with. So check that shopping list twice. Stock up on Coca-Cola for all your family fiestas y disfrutas. Coca-Cola.

• 57:50Speaker 05

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