Fraud Friday: The Prolific Ponzi Schemer w/ Bridger Winegar

In this week's Fraud Friday, Laci is joined by Bridger Winegar (Black Monday, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) to discuss Sergei Mavrodi, the man behind one of the world’s largest Ponzi schemes. Plus, a 73-year-old Long Island woman helps the NYPD catch a scammer. Stay Schemin’! (Originally Released 02/21/2022) CON-gregation, catch Laci's TV Show, Scam Goddess, now on Freeform and Hulu! Order “Scam Goddess: Lessons from a Life of Cons, Grifts and Schemes" here: Hachette Book Group Follow on Instagram: Scam Goddess Pod: @scamgoddesspod Laci Mosley: @divalaci Bridger Winegar: @bridgerwinegar Research by Kaelyn Brandt SOURCES: https://www.nbc15.com/2022/01/22/watch-grandmother-helps-catch-scammers-fun/ https://qz.com/1259524/mmm-and-bitcoin-russian-ponzi-mastermind-sergei-mavrodi-is-dead-but-his-legacy-lives-on-in-crypto/ https://www.rbth.com/history/332261-mmm-fraud-mavrodi https://historyofyesterday.com/sergei-mavrodi-the-man-who-left-30-million-people-broke-2bbd03a9cd82 https://112.international/society/give-us-our-money-back-how-the-world-will-remember-the-mmm-financial-pyramid-founder-sergei-mavrodi-27224.html https://www.forbes.ru/biznes/359219-hozyain-piramid-sergey-mavrodi-kak-simvol-lihih-90-h

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

• 0:02Speaker 00

  That sound? That's the National Squash League. Pro teams, the world's best players, and rally so fast you'll forget to breathe. Season four is in full swing, and every match streams free on YouTube. Big hits, bigger rivalries, and a front row seat from wherever you are. Watch every match for free on YouTube. Search "National Squash League" and hit subscribe or follow live updates on Instagram at NSL.Sport.

• 0:30Speaker 01

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• 1:01Speaker 02

  She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.

• 1:14Speaker 03

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• 1:58Speaker 03

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• 2:12Speaker 04

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• 2:32Laci 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'.

• 3:13Laci Mosley?

  What's poppin', congregation? It's your girl, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. And we're back for another installment of, you guessed it, Scam Goddess. The podcast's all about robbery, fraud, grifting, and all those who practice it. Maybe we love them, maybe we hate them. We'll find out along the way. Today, guys, you know I am so, yes, excited. Don't you guys love this parasocial relationship we have? Stop. Are you so crazy? No, you so crazy. I love you.

• 3:45Laci Mosley?

  It's so good for both of us. But today I am, I'm super excited for our guest. We have an amazing writer, podcaster, and actor on the show. Check out his podcast, I Said No Gifts, which is super duper fun. I've done it, I had a blast. It's where his invited guests bring gifts unsolicited by Bridger, of course. He said, "No gifts," spurring fun and interesting conversations and kind of a genius scam because you give him things to go on there and he got me. I did it. Also, he wrote for The Afterparty on Apple Plus TV, or excuse me, Apple TV Plus. Why can't I say Apple's name? But The Afterparty with Sam Richardson, there's a ton of great comedians in that show. Alana Glazer is poppin', which you can watch right now. Congregation, please welcome Bridger. Bridger, I'm gonna say your last name wrong. Why do I not know how to say your last name?

• 4:27Speaker 04

  Give it a shot.

• 4:30Speaker 04

  It's so hard. Winegar.

• 4:32Laci Mosley?

  Winegar, damn it, it's just like it's spelled.

• 4:36Speaker 04

  No, it's spelled like vinegar.

• 4:38Laci Mosley?

  Winegar.

• 4:39Speaker 04

  But it's pronounced Winegar.

• 4:40Laci Mosley?

  I normally check, but Bridger, since I like, feel like I know you, like, we've spoken a few times, we've fought with each other on socials. I don't know why, I just assumed I wasn't gonna know how to say it until I got to it and was like, oh.

• 4:52Speaker 04

  There are so many people in my life, like, close friends who still don't know how to pronounce my last name. I, like, there was a period when I just stopped correcting people. And now it's just a problem for me, but what are you gonna do?

• 5:03Laci Mosley?

  You know what's bizarre? The only place that my name gets mispronounced is Ubers. And it's like almost every single Uber, and it doesn't matter the nationality of the person in the Uber. Whenever I open the door and I'm like, who is this for? Because I had to learn, y'all, it's a scam, don't ever open the door and tell the Uber man who you are. You're supposed to ask who the Uber man is. In addition to checking the license plate, you're supposed to be like, hey, who are you here for?

• 5:27Speaker 04

  I do none of those things.

• 5:29Laci Mosley?

  Uh, must be nice to be a man.

• 5:33Speaker 04

  I'm a very small man. Look, I could, I'm in constant danger.

• 5:38Laci Mosley?

  I don't know, you look like sinewy, you might have some hands, Bridger, I don't know if I would be messing with you. You know, but yes, women have a whole 12-point checklist, like we, like a driving exam, I gotta walk around the car, you know, check for the locks, see if anybody's in the trunk, kick the tires, yes, check the license plate, then ask, who are you here for? And they always say, Losi? Lakai?

• 6:02Speaker 04

  What?

• 6:05Speaker 04

  Those don't even cross my mind.

• 6:06Laci Mosley?

  It's either Losi or Lakai. Um, sometimes they get close and it's like lazy, like, they're right there.

• 6:15Laci Mosley?

  Lachai, Lachai as well, and I'm like, there's not an H. I don't know how we got here, so, Bridger, I get it. And I, you know, I used to correct them, I used to be like, yeah, it's Lacy, but I'm like, it's an Uber, I'm gonna be in here for like, 10 to 30 minutes tops, like, now I'm just like, yeah, that's me, Losi.

• 6:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, I am not precious about my name at all. I will just let people absolutely abuse my name. I, it's just, look, my name is two words that are in no one's vocabulary, so I don't, why would I expect someone to know how to say them?

• 6:46Laci Mosley?

  It's so iconic, though, Bridger, Winegar, it works together, and it sounds so fancy, like.

• 6:51Speaker 04

  It is a bizarre name.

• 6:53Laci Mosley?

  I just feel like it's one of those society names like, oh, there's Bridger. You know, the wine agars recently came into even more money.

• 7:00Speaker 04

  Oh, my God, I wish.

• 7:02Laci Mosley?

  Come on, Bridgerton.

• 7:04Speaker 04

  Bridgerton, there we go. Bridgerton is really up to my cachet as far as class goes. I I'm sitting here drinking a Dr. Pepper. I'm as far from class as you possibly can.

• 7:17Laci Mosley?

  Are you kidding me? You sip sodas that are medical professionals? That sounds like class to me. Your soda went to so much college.

• 7:24Speaker 04

  It had to go to college.

• 7:26Laci Mosley?

  It had a residency.

• 7:27Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 7:29Laci Mosley?

  Before it can even touch your lips. That's class. The Bridger, we always ask on this show, what is your relationship with scams? Do you love them? Do you hate them? I mean, obviously, we talk about I said no gifts. You got a whole podcast where people bring you gifts. I bought your gift.

• 7:43Speaker 04

  I am running a full time, year round scam. My home is full of gifts. I I love a scam. I truly do love a scam. I love to watch a scam unfold. I love to read about a scam. Occasionally, I like to be involved in a scam. I am a huge advocate of scamming corporations. I tell anyone within earshot, if you get a chance to scam a any any business that's traded on the NASDAQ, if you have a chance to scam them out of anything, go for it. They're scamming you all the time.

• 8:18Laci Mosley?

  Absolutely. You have to. And look, they're writing off their scams. Like, you should always be scamming big business because they're scamming you. Like, you know, they work their employees to death and even when productivity's up, you know, who benefits from that? Not the employees, the shareholders. So you should absolutely be scamming money bags and the wine agars.

• 8:42Speaker 04

  If you have the opportunity to scam a corporation, like if they had a chance to scam you, they absolutely would take it and they do constantly. So I have no qualms with if an opportunity opens up to scam somebody, to scam, you know, your Walmarts, your Amazons, your whatevers.

• 9:00Laci Mosley?

  And listen, that's just called shrink. I used to work in retail.

• 9:03Speaker 04

  Me, too.

• 9:04Laci Mosley?

  Shrink. Like, they the companies, they allot a certain amount of money for theft, for breakage, for disappearances. I'm not telling you how to steal. I'm just saying, you know.

• 9:16Laci Mosley?

  You know.

• 9:17Speaker 04

  Right.

• 9:17Laci Mosley?

  I'm just saying.

• 9:18Speaker 04

  I mean, that's the thing. I'm not, you know, I'm not encouraging anyone to shoplift. Because it is a dangerous line to walk because if they catch you, then they're gonna destroy you. But.

• 9:28Laci Mosley?

  Destroy, I don't know if they can just, they might put your face up with a little picture. I don't know about destroy.

• 9:34Speaker 04

  I feel like these companies will destroy you. You take, you're stealing a $10, uh, what are we talking about? What's, what costs $10? Some batteries. They will probably ruin your life. But if the opportunity presents itself and it feels like a clean getaway, go for it.

• 9:51Laci Mosley?

  And honestly, this is more encouragement for, uh, people who are not black or a person of color. Cause, uh, y'all, we can buy the stuff and still get gunned down. So maybe purchase your things, okay? But if you're out there and you want to pull a Winona girl and you get in the car and you just have a stiff cigarette with just so many lip smackers in your pockets. Just feeling alive, you know? I'm not mad at that.

• 10:13Speaker 04

  That's why like, and, uh, shoplifting is not the only way to scam one of these corporations.

• 10:18Laci Mosley?

  Oh, right, of course.

• 10:19Speaker 04

  Look, in high school, I ran a whole scam of, I won't name the corporation, but I was returning, I would go to one big box retailer, purchase things on sale, and then return them to another retailer for much more. The amount of money I was getting on gift cards was absurd, you know?

• 10:39Laci Mosley?

  Wow.

• 10:39Speaker 04

  This is how, you know, I would buy a Game Boy. This is how I was buying various things.

• 10:44Laci Mosley?

  The, the, uh, the little toy machine with games?

• 10:49Speaker 04

  That's what a Game Boy is, Lacey. That's.

• 10:52Laci Mosley?

  You can tell I'm not a gamer. I was like, yeah, the little toy machine. Yeah, I almost got a Switch, but I couldn't even find one. I wanted to play Animal Crossing with my friends. I wanted to pick up the Ruples and the Bebops. I don't even know what, what it is, but I wanted to join and I couldn't even get a Switch. They were like, no, girl, those are sold out. I'm like, I'm gonna have to fight a, I'm gonna have to fight a six-year-old. Uh.

• 11:12Speaker 04

  Well, that's the other, the other end of scamming that I don't like, which is like these like internet scammers who are running bots to buy up like switches to scalp. And then. People like you and me are getting ripped off. I don't like a scam amongst us, amongst person to person. We're all getting scammed by these giant companies. Let's aim the scam energy at them.

• 11:35Laci Mosley?

  Robin Hood energy. I'm with you on that because the one thing I do hate about those bots is like, I know people hate the StockX bots and they, you know, they're trying to get the sneakers. But for me, it's concert tickets. Like, it's so ridiculous that if you want to go see Beyonce, whenever she decides to breathe in a room very far away from you, but close enough that you can see her. You know, the tickets are already pretty expensive because it's Beyonce and Beyonce knows. She's like, okay, y'all, do y'all want to pay your rent or do you want to see Beyonce? And we're like Beyonce, okay? I'd be, I mean, I'd be, I could, you know, deal with not having a home, but I gotta see Beyonce if she's in concert. So then they run the tickets up even more, buying them with bots and credit cards. And so the resellers are making a killing on just tickets.

• 12:19Speaker 04

  And those tickets, by the way, there's another scam, like the, what are we talking about? A Ticketmaster or whatever, the price is what for a Beyonce ticket? It probably is like, what are we, $200 to start? And then probably another $100 in fees.

• 12:34Laci Mosley?

  You could be in the parking lot for $200, you know, they'll let you, they'll let you park. Not close, but they'll let you park and you can think about Beyonce. Yeah, that's if you want to think about Beyonce at home. It's $200.

• 12:48Speaker 04

  How much is a Beyonce ticket just like face value?

• 12:53Laci Mosley?

  Um, I don't know, actually. I feel like I definitely went once in college. So that couldn't have been crazy when I saw her then. That was in Connecticut. And I want to say those tickets were like two, they probably were like $200. We weren't, it was also Connecticut. It depends on where you go. You know what I mean? If you see Beyonce in Chickasaw County, which she probably not going there. But you know, like if you go to LA, I've gone in LA and I feel like that was more like $500.

• 13:16Speaker 04

  Oh my God, that's a vacation.

• 13:18Laci Mosley?

  They were like kinda good tickets, but they weren't like Beyonce was gonna sweat and then it was gonna land on me.

• 13:23Speaker 04

  Right. Those floor seats are probably, people are probably paying thousands of dollars, right?

• 13:28Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, they're paying thousands of dollars. And what's wild too is like a lot of corporations, like you know, if the certain venue is like, they own it or whatever, they'll get their big wigs and suits, like free tickets and they'll just be sitting down there not even understanding how good life is.

• 13:43Speaker 04

  They don't even wanna be there.

• 13:45Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, but Marina says that currently the average is about a hundred and sixty seven dollars, but also you have to realize that that's like on the website when Beyonce drops them. And they said the first row tickets are around twelve hundred forty six dollars. That's when Beyonce gives them to the internet. Uh, this is what we're seeing on SeatGeek, but whenever I look, it's usually way more than that.

• 14:05Speaker 04

  I think for a hundred and sixty seven dollars, that's to get a job at the concessions at the arena.

• 14:10Laci Mosley?

  Which is a good scam, y'all. If you can't afford to go to a concert, go on Craigslist or go on uh, one of those server websites, you know, where you can sign up to do like temporary jobs, like at Dodger Stadium and stuff, get a free concert.

• 14:23Speaker 04

  There you go. That's not a bad idea, actually.

• 14:25Laci Mosley?

  I would get in there and just disappear. They're like, Liz is supposed to be serving these beers. We haven't seen her in hours. I got a whole different outfit in my purse.

• 14:34Laci Mosley?

  Absolutely, absolutely.

• 14:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, I do love a scam though. I just watched the Tinder Swindler over the weekend, which I'm sure you watched.

• 14:44Laci Mosley?

  Yes, and everybody's talking about it. I thought it was a little boring.

• 14:47Speaker 04

  You thought it was boring?

• 14:48Laci Mosley?

  Yes, I was bored. Uh,

• 14:52Laci Mosley?

  I was like, yeah, he robbing them. And like, yeah, he's taking the money from one. And maybe it's just because I, scams is like a whole part of my life. But I was just like, yeah, I've seen this a billion times. Like, they're like, this is so shocking. I'm like, no, it's not.

• 15:04Speaker 04

  The thing to me, it was like, the scam was just so obvious from moment one. It was like, I mean, I don't wanna blame anyone that got scammed by this guy, but it's like, this, you met this person a week ago and he's asking for a thousand, like, if my boyfriend asked to borrow fifteen dollars from me, I would be on the phone to the FBI. I, if somebody asks you for any, yes, let alone like a stranger, who's like, something's clearly going on there.

• 15:32Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, he was not sexy enough for none of that. And I wish some man would be calling me on my phone threatening me. On my phone, bro? I don't take threats via phone. You know, I just hang up. I hit end, bro. Like, what do you mean? I'm supposed to be like, ah, over the phone? No.

• 15:47Speaker 04

  No, he's not threatening. He's a huge dork. He's sending threatening messages over WhatsApp. Like, no element of that was that intriguing.

• 15:55Laci Mosley?

  What's up? You threatening me over WhatsApp? Bro, this is a third party app. You can't even iMessage threaten me? Loser. No, no, you don't threaten me over WhatsApp. That's like threatening me over Facebook DM. Really? Is what we doing? This is so ghetto.

• 16:14Speaker 00

  That sound? That's the National Squash League. Pro teams, the world's best players, and rallies so fast you'll forget to breathe. Season four is in full swing and every match streams free on YouTube. Big hits, bigger rivalries, and a front row seat from wherever you are. Watch every match for free on YouTube. Search National Squash League and hit subscribe or follow live updates on Instagram at NSL.Sport.

• 16:42Speaker 01

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• 17:10Speaker 06

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• 17:51Speaker 03

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• 18:36Speaker 03

  Top grails are extremely rare.

• 18:39Laci Mosley?

  So guys, let's get into our first segment here. What's hot in fraud? Uh, as always, snitch on your friends and family at [email protected]. Just make sure your scam is retired so we don't what? Yes, fuck up your back. This is where we get like, you know, a letter or we see what's popping in the streets and we warn you about new scams. Um, I was gonna do a little warning about a scam, but I think I'm gonna save that for next week. Y'all be fine for a week. I won't get robbed. Cause I did find a little letter that seems to be along the lines of what we were already talking about, like big box stores and scams like that. Uh, Bridger, I just need a fake name for this person. Gender doesn't matter.

• 19:15Speaker 04

  Let's go with Daniel.

• 19:17Laci Mosley?

  Damn, Daniel. So Daniel says, 15 years ago, I worked at Target. Oh, well, uh, okay, it was 15 years ago. So Daniel, you good. You know, many Daniels work at Target, like they won't, that's not even your real name. So it's fine. So Daniel says, Target is hilariously big. Well, Target for scammers. They are an easy mark because they're obsessed with quick checkouts for customers, even though they keep like two registers open. Cashiers get penalized for taking too long, so they will overlook almost anything to finish the transaction. Wow.

• 19:54Speaker 04

  Oh, I love this.

• 19:55Laci Mosley?

  I didn't know that cashiers got penalized for taking too long. That's, that's kind of wild to me. Now I will say that there have been studies and I don't know where this was done and maybe it's a lie, but it's something that's stuck in my head for the rest of my life. But supposedly women cashiers. are always faster than men. So if I see a line and there's like three people in one line and then there's five people in one line and the line with five people has a woman checking out and the line with three people has a man, I'm gonna get in the five person line.

• 20:26Laci Mosley?

  Almost always I'm out faster than if I had gone to the man.

• 20:31Speaker 04

  I had no idea.

• 20:33Laci Mosley?

  And I feel like women, we need to level the playing field. Start checking out slower, okay? Like, what do you get for checking people out fast? Clean? Nothing. And that's what that man knows. That's why he's over there like,

• 20:45Laci Mosley?

  boop, he gotta scan it under the thing like 12 times. It's not going. I'm like, the bark hose right there, sir. The bark, hello? The bark hose right there.

• 20:57Laci Mosley?

  Oh, so and now they make us check out. Like, Target, y'all owe me a coin. Why do I have to come to the Target and work?

• 21:03Speaker 04

  Total scam.

• 21:04Laci Mosley?

  And I should have stole something when I was on the Target. Now that I think about it, because I bought an air fryer and they had this little thing around it that like, you know, uh, had to be removed by a checkout person, but I didn't realize. So I rang it up, put it back in my car, left the store, no alarms went off. Then when I got home, I realized this thing was around the box. And so I cut it and it just started making noise. It was like and I just stabbed it a bunch of times with the scissors and then it died. But I was thinking to myself, like, why did I even pay for this? Like,

• 21:32Speaker 04

  Just walked out.

• 21:34Laci Mosley?

  No one would have ever know. But you know, I paid. I be trying to be a Samaritan to, to big Target. They, I know they need my money. But yeah, so now we gotta pay, do our own checkout. Like, we work at the store. Like, I want a discount for that, because that's, that's work, okay? So at our daily team huddle, we were briefed on which scams to look out for. It was like a bad seventies cop show. It was hilarious being given grainy printouts of Target's Most Wanted and being expected to care enough to look for them on our shifts.

• 22:04Speaker 04

  What?

• 22:05Laci Mosley?

  You've heard of America's Most Wanted. We're talking about Target's Most Wanted.

• 22:12Laci Mosley?

  I'm dating a real badass.

• 22:13Speaker 04

  I would be honored to be on that list.

• 22:15Laci Mosley?

  Right? I thought I want to be on Target's Most Wanted, like just right next to Spot.

• 22:22Laci Mosley?

  Y'all thought he was the mascot? No, they're looking for that dog. They're looking for that dog, okay? Uh, so a few quotes I still remember because they were batshit are, one quote is, "We got someone hitting stores and trying to sneak out of emergency exits. He's cutting the wires thinking it disables the alarm, but it activates it. Should be easy to catch."

• 22:41Speaker 04

  Well, you haven't caught him yet.

• 22:42Laci Mosley?

  Yeah. How often is he doing this? And it seems like you haven't. He's not easy.

• 22:47Speaker 04

  He's doing a very obvious crime and setting off alarms apparently everywhere he goes.

• 22:52Laci Mosley?

  And also, like, you've heard of the dude, so if you heard of him and you know what he does, and he's not in Target custody,

• 23:02Laci Mosley?

  he's not easy to catch.

• 23:03Speaker 04

  Yeah. If this is an issue at the team huddle, then I'm sorry, he's gotten away. You're not catching him.

• 23:10Laci Mosley?

  Right. And Daniel's right. I wish somebody, I wish I was working at a corporation and we had a team huddle where you was trying to tell me, I got to be Paw Patrol at the Target. Y'all out of y'all damn mind. What do I get out of wrestling down, uh, the Targets Most Wanted? What is, what's in that for me?

• 23:28Laci Mosley?

  Like, let's talk about it. Is there like a $10,000 bonus? Like, is there something like, or just the pride of keeping Target safe? You kiss my ass.

• 23:35Speaker 04

  Absolutely not. The only thing in it for you is probably that the person's going to attack you. You're probably going to get shot in Target.

• 23:42Laci Mosley?

  You know what's in it for you? Bruises.

• 23:44Speaker 04

  Right. No, thank you.

• 23:46Laci Mosley?

  May- maybe death. Definitely bodily harm. That's what you get.

• 23:51Speaker 04

  And this is, he said it was 15 years ago?

• 23:53Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 23:54Speaker 04

  This person was probably getting $6 an hour.

• 23:56Laci Mosley?

  Oh, hell. Yeah, you're right. Oh, absolutely.

• 23:59Speaker 04

  No, thank you.

• 24:00Laci Mosley?

  No, no thank, not even thank you. Just no. Disrespectfully, absolutely not. So, another quote was, "A man in a wig is going to pharmacies trying to steal stuff. Not sure how the wig plays into things."

• 24:16Speaker 04

  It plays into it because he looks fantastic.

• 24:18Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 24:19Speaker 04

  And he.

• 24:20Laci Mosley?

  He's giving costumes.

• 24:22Speaker 04

  Right.

• 24:23Laci Mosley?

  And I feel like you're spending too much time judging his wig and not enough time stopping him from stealing the pharmaceuticals.

• 24:30Laci Mosley?

  Okay, this is another quote. Make friends, make money. This was security telling us about cash bonuses, oh, for turning coworkers in.

• 24:39Speaker 04

  Rattling people out? What's the make friends part of that?

• 24:43Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it feels like you would be making less friends and making enemies.

• 24:48Speaker 04

  Betraying the people who trust you?

• 24:50Laci Mosley?

  Make enemies, make money. Like, that feels more like along the lines of what's happening here. Or do they want you to befriend people and then be like, yeah, so you you ever steal anything, Tom? It'd be so crazy if you ever like stole anything and like, what was it and like, what day in time and near what part of the store? We're buds. What?

• 25:10Speaker 04

  Oh, my God. That does remind me, I worked at Best Buy for a while and one of my friend coworkers, who was fantastic, after I quit, I came back, she had been fired because she had been taking people, people would pay with a gift card. And then she would like hand them a blank gift card and take their, what was left on their gift card.

• 25:29Laci Mosley?

  Oh, she was taking a rest.

• 25:31Speaker 04

  Look, it's a good scam, kind of, kind of shitty.

• 25:35Laci Mosley?

  Is it though? I feel like if I took the gift card and then I go home and I realize like the rest of my Best Buy coin in on it, then I'm just gonna go back to Best Buy and be like, hey.

• 25:46Speaker 04

  That's true, just.

• 25:47Laci Mosley?

  Y'all messed up, give me your money.

• 25:48Speaker 04

  Best Buy has to pay for it. And then she, everybody wins there, actually.

• 25:52Laci Mosley?

  And then everybody would win, except for if you don't keep the receipt, probably. Because Best Buy customer service is, Bridger, were you like a good Best Buy guy? Uh, were you a bad Best Buy guy?

• 26:01Speaker 04

  I was.

• 26:01Laci Mosley?

  It's okay.

• 26:02Speaker 04

  Bad.

• 26:03Laci Mosley?

  I love that for you.

• 26:04Speaker 04

  I, you know, they wanted me to like scam people into signing up for free magazine subscriptions and like pay for a warranty on like a $10 CD player. A lot of things I just wasn't willing to do. So I was perfectly fine.

• 26:16Laci Mosley?

  That feels like you were a good Best Buy employee then, because you were working for the customer. Best Buy was like, you are not scamming enough people in here, okay? They need a, a, a $40 warranty on their Walkman.

• 26:27Speaker 04

  Truly, that's what they would make you do. It was so insane. So I was. Yeah, I'm always, always on the side of the customer. I'm a customer advocate.

• 26:35Laci Mosley?

  Okay, so you were good, but when I say bad Best Buy employee, I mean like the ones who are there and you could just tell. It's very Marshawn Lynch, it's very much, I'm here so I don't get fired, you know, standing around. If you try to make eye contact with them, because then they know you need help, they immediately look away, they are dart away super fast. They don't want to talk to you, they don't want to help you. Like, I feel like every time I've ever spoken to an employee at Best Buy, except for once, and he was the kind of employee that he was real nice to me, and then he was trying to put me on all the warranties and all the...

• 27:04Speaker 04

  No!

• 27:05Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, you know what I mean?

• 27:06Speaker 04

  He's getting nothing out of it, there's not, they don't even get commission.

• 27:09Laci Mosley?

  He's getting sexual thrill.

• 27:11Speaker 04

  It is, I mean, I will speak to that. Just pure ecstasy every time you make a sale at Best Buy.

• 27:19Laci Mosley?

  He goes out to his car and he smokes a cigarette real hard.

• 27:27Laci Mosley?

  That's what he's getting out of it, the thrill. The thrill of tricking somebody into purchasing things they don't need. But every other Best Buy employee is like, please get away from me, like, please don't talk to me.

• 27:40Laci Mosley?

  And, you know, I love that for them. So, I guess I'm talking about just ratting out your friends and family, which here on this podcast, snitch on your friends, absolutely, but like, I won't say their names, I won't say your name, we don't want to do a scam if it's still popping, like, we want, we just want to enjoy it with you. This is fucked up, you want me to, like, everybody at Target is your enemy? So you can't even steal and tell your friends? Wow.

• 28:04Speaker 04

  Oh, that's rough.

• 28:05Laci Mosley?

  So, Best Scam Award, this is a longer one, but I'm really enjoying it. But guys, if y'all can truncate these, y'all know it's easier for me to read it on the show, but this one's fantastic. So, Daniel, no notes.

• 28:16Laci Mosley?

  Best Scam Award goes to a man who buys the largest flat screen TV we have in the store. He calls customer service and tells them, "When I got home and opened the box, a dinged up TV of a different brand was in the box." "I demand a refund."

• 28:35Laci Mosley?

  No, he did not. No, he did not put his old TV in the box and said, when I opened the box, it was my old TV in there. And I demand a refund. No, you don't have to pick it up at my house. I'mma leave it on the curb.

• 28:49Speaker 04

  I am so happy for that man. I, he deserves, just for, just for the courage to even try that scam.

• 28:57Laci Mosley?

  He said, when I opened the box, it was full of spoons. Spoons. I was wondering why it was so light. I want all my money back and the taxes. Don't forget those. So, uh, customer service was not going to touch this. So the guy said he was coming back into the store. Fast forward to the man comes in with a flat screen TV box with a broken down TV that's obviously his old TV. Shows the manager the old TV and demands a refund. The manager politely suggests that this is his old TV. And no refund will be issued. He be, he issued. He becomes so enraged that she would suggest something like that, the manager. So now he's mad. He was like, why would you even suggest that this is my old Samsung TV?

• 29:41Laci Mosley?

  Why would you even say that to me? Um, you know, he's bringing in an emotional argument, gaslighting her, which, you know, this man is a menace. Like this man definitely read Forty Eight Laws of Power. This man probably listens to those podcasts with the nasty men about how to pick up women is giving gaslight. And in a scam, love that for him. The only place maybe you should do it. He tells her he will call his credit card company and stop payment if he's not given a refund. And then he introduced the manager to his lawyer, who would sue them for emotional distress and damages.

• 30:17Speaker 04

  Oh my god.

• 30:17Laci Mosley?

  Emotional distress and damages if they aren't given a refund. The lawyer was an older woman wearing a tracksuit that was clearly his significant other.

• 30:28Laci Mosley?

  She stood there, arms folded and nodded authoritatively. That's how you know you got a ride or die with you.

• 30:35Speaker 04

  This is the man, what we're talking about here is the man who wore the wig to the pharmacy.

• 30:41Speaker 04

  That is his lawyer. He was never present when the lawyer was present. He goes to the pharmacy, throws the wig on and comes back with legal advice. That's what's actually going on.

• 30:49Laci Mosley?

  I wonder if this man is actually every criminal they needed to look out for, the one cutting the alarm.

• 30:54Speaker 04

  Same guy.

• 30:54Laci Mosley?

  It's just him, wearing different wigs and just being a menace to this target. That's how he knows he can get away with it. He's like, I rob this target every Thursday afternoon. Are y'all really not gonna give me money back for my old TV? Really?

• 31:08Speaker 04

  You people love me.

• 31:10Laci Mosley?

  Y'all know the deal. Y'all see all my wigs. Come on down.

• 31:15Speaker 04

  Part of the family.

• 31:17Laci Mosley?

  So the manager was beyond over this and said, target policy, we can do one return per year without a receipt using your license. He immediately agreed and left with his refund. The manager was like, why did he so quickly agree with giving me his license? It's like he knew that target policy. Hmm, because she's right. If I'm stealing, why am I going to be so cool with giving my ID unless I know this isn't a trap and that is the real policy? Well, you know where this thing is going. Broken down TV man was a former target employee and took note of the insane policy and decided he was gonna test the limits and get a brand new TV.

• 31:54Speaker 04

  I'm so happy for him.

• 31:56Laci Mosley?

  I'm happy for him too. I love this.

• 32:00Speaker 04

  I mean, also, I mean, let's just benefit of the doubt. Maybe, I, I actually stand by his, he's not scamming. He really did have a broken TV. Maybe, what if he, imagine being in that situation and it, you really did open a TV and it's a, I mean,

• 32:16Laci Mosley?

  A used, broken TV?

• 32:17Speaker 04

  He should have picked the same brand. I mean, come on. At least pick the same brand.

• 32:21Laci Mosley?

  I feel like he didn't choose the same brand. I feel like he didn't even try to be that thorough. They were just like, sir, this is your old TV. He's like, how dare you? That hurt my neck. I'm suing for emotional distress and the TV. Where's my lawyer? Cheryl, Cheryl. Yeah, this is my lawyer. No, don't mind her tracksuit with Juicy on the butt. She is definitely my lawyer, Esquire Incorporated. Like, I love this. I love that he just threw a fit and honestly, it's giving Caucasian just because I just don't think that black people can throw fits in stores without the police getting called. Like, he threw a fit. He used every tool in his arsenal and got the job done.

• 33:04Speaker 04

  And he probably felt great driving home.

• 33:06Laci Mosley?

  Oh, absolutely amazing. And probably, again, sucking that one hard cigarette. Doesn't even smoke, just.

• 33:15Speaker 04

  Never even used the TV. He was just in it for that thrill.

• 33:18Laci Mosley?

  For the sexual thrill. And I love this scam a lot because if you were a former employee, I mean, obviously, they wanted y'all to be out here acting like y'all were mini Target popo, asking you to do things way outside of the realm of your job and to destroy any chance of having friendships built at work because they want you snitching on each other. You know, like, doesn't sound like the greatest work environment. So maybe you are owed.

• 33:43Speaker 04

  Oh, absolutely owed. I mean, if, once, like, why else work for Target if not to find the ins and outs of how to scam the company?

• 33:52Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it feels like that's what you're, you're just there to case the joint.

• 33:55Speaker 04

  Right.

• 33:56Laci Mosley?

  So, you know what? I'm proud, I'm proud of you, Daniel. Well, actually, you were just observing these scams, but maybe, I guess you don't go to work at Target anymore. I was gonna say, maybe when you leave, you also go and buy a TV in the boxes, you know, just full of toilet paper.

• 34:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, I hope Daniel picked up a thing or two. If he is squeaky clean, then he did it wrong.

• 34:18Laci Mosley?

  Right, Daniel. It looks like you weren't snitching, but I hope that at least if you were watching, you were learning, you had a pen and paper, you were getting the info down.

• 34:31Speaker 00

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• 35:39Speaker 02

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• 35:43Speaker 06

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• 35:54Speaker 02

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• 36:25Speaker 00

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• 37:34Laci Mosley?

  It's time for my favorite part of the show, Historic Hoodwakes. This is where I will regale Borijo Wannega with a harrowing tale. And we'll see what he thinks and get his opinions all throughout. Are we excited? I am. I want to note up top, um, a lot of the information was derived from Russia's Beyond's article. It's called MMM, The Biggest Fraud in History in Modern Russia. And it's, the author of this is Yekaterina Selnaskovia. Yekaterina Selnaskovia. Shout out to you. Um, constant warning, there is a mention of suicide in this episode. Uh, we won't linger on it. And if you want to catch, uh, Katerina's article and read it for yourself,

• 38:14Laci Mosley?

  it'll be in the footnotes of this episode, along with all the other articles and resources, as per usual. So, let's get into it. In the 1990s, a man named Sergey Mivrody perpetrated one of the world's largest Ponzi schemes through a company that imported tech equipment into former Soviet Russia. Years later, the MMM's legacy lives on through cryptocurrency.

• 38:39Speaker 04

  Of course, naturally. Oh my God, just the biggest scam of all.

• 38:47Laci Mosley?

  Oh my goodness. I like, know a guy who like created his own crypto. And we get into fights about if crypto is a scam all the time. Like for his sake, I hope it isn't, but when I look at it, I'm like, hmm.

• 38:57Speaker 04

  He created his own. Is anybody dealing in his, is that, is that even the word we talk?

• 39:03Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it's like legit.

• 39:04Speaker 04

  What is it? Can you say what it is?

• 39:06Laci Mosley?

  Well, now I don't want to say what it is because I've suggested that crypto is a scam. Um, I can't do it like that, but you know, like, yeah, they had like a offer in like a public, yeah. It's like a whole thing. Yeah. So, um, so obviously he's not like, he's in a deep, like he really gets it. Uh, versus, you know, the people who are signing up for Squid Game coin and then getting robbed like $3 million overnight. So I guess it's just about, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll break down a little bit more of the crypto scam. I know what's hot and fraud next week, but would've been perfect to do it here. Chose not to. Chose to do jacket.

• 39:38Laci Mosley?

  Chaos. That's what we, that's what we sell here.

• 39:40Speaker 04

  I feel like you keep hinting it's people scams that could happen to people in the oncoming week and these people are just now have to be as careful as possible for the next seven days.

• 39:50Laci Mosley?

  I know. I'm very much giving more at 11. Like I'm definitely giving news fear. Oh no, guys, I'm gonna scare y'all into coming back. That's wrong of me. But I mean, I don't know what's gonna happen to y'all if y'all don't listen. That's all I'm saying. I don't know what's gonna happen to y'all. Maybe something bad. I don't know.

• 40:05Speaker 04

  Just controlling your audience through fear.

• 40:08Laci Mosley?

  I never used to do that. Just used to be about entertainment, but now I need y'all to come back. Mama needs an audience. Okay, so I'm just saying, I'm trying to protect you. I'm thinking about you. Okay, so let's get into this. In 1989, Sergey established the MMM Cooperative in Moscow with his brother and his brother's wife. The M's came from their collective initials. I just feel like 3M. Well, I guess there is 3M.

• 40:35Speaker 04

  3M. Oh, that is a company.

• 40:37Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, but they called it 3M. They were like, MMM.

• 40:40Speaker 04

  MMM. Melissa, Melissa, Melissa.

• 40:43Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I feel like, I don't know, it's just not that catchy of a name. It seems like fraud. It doesn't, I feel like I shouldn't.

• 40:50Speaker 04

  M is also something you can't really do with a Russian accent either.

• 40:54Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, what is M? M?

• 40:56Speaker 04

  M. I guess, yeah, it's M M M.

• 40:58Laci Mosley?

  M M M. My Russian accent's terrible, sorry, but I'm gonna try. I'm still gonna try, okay? So MMM, right? So initially, the company had nothing to do with finance. It imported tech equipment, but quickly it became very popular in the collapse of, or with the collapse of the Soviet Union. So before MMM, Sergey, you know, he was born in Moscow. He was very good at math and engineering from a very young age, which I always find funny. It's just like, are you like eight and you like to do math?

• 41:30Speaker 04

  Really? What are you, like, what is quote unquote, like a person who's good at math at eight? How do we know that they're good at math?

• 41:36Laci Mosley?

  Right. Are they just counting things? Like, everything's always accounted for? Do they have an abacus that they travel with? Like, what is eight-year-old good at math giving?

• 41:46Speaker 04

  I just don't feel like I like as good as you would have to be truly like the genius of geniuses to be like, oh, that's an eight year old that's good at math. Otherwise, I'm like, they're kind of smart.

• 41:56Laci Mosley?

  Right. How would we know? I feel like eight year olds are just trying to do math for us for fun. Like, how would we know you're good at math? I don't, you know, whatever. So he liked math. He liked science. Early in his career, Sergey found success selling pirated audio and video materials, but was apprehended in the late 80s by the Soviet government. I feel like selling bootleg DVDs is not something that the government should like apprehend you for, but this is Russia.

• 42:20Speaker 04

  Right. Like, any other country, I'd be like, it's probably not a concern, but Russia, maybe.

• 42:25Laci Mosley?

  Yeah. And also, like, you remember those FBI warnings that would come on before, uh, videos? And it would be like, you steal this, the FBI, the F to be in it. We heard you were bootlegging The Lion King.

• 42:40Speaker 04

  Like, honestly, like, the people who were watching, were seeing that were just normal people at home.

• 42:45Laci Mosley?

  Exactly.

• 42:47Speaker 04

  That wasn't scaring any of us. Like, none of us had the plan to steal any of that shit.

• 42:51Laci Mosley?

  Right. How do you even know I bought this tape? I bought it in cash. You can't even account for me purchasing this. I don't have to tell people my name when I go to the video store. Uh, you know, unless I'm renting it. And, uh, but it's funny, because, you know, we know in America, we're like, okay, if I bootleg The Lion King or Rush Hour 2, like, what y'all gonna do? Nothing. But I guess over in Russia, they're like, it's Russia. We heard you do bootleg. You'll come with us.

• 43:16Speaker 04

  I also feel like Russia would be the place you would totally get away with it.

• 43:20Laci Mosley?

  I mean, I guess not, because they said the Soviet government.

• 43:23Speaker 04

  Priorities in the Soviet Union are all over the place.

• 43:26Laci Mosley?

  They say, skr skr, okay? Um, stratsvutsi. Uh, you know, this is the little Russia that I know, that I learned from Sex and the City.

• 43:36Speaker 04

  I will say Vladimir Putin seems like someone who owns a lot of LaserDiscs. I don't know why. He's always struck me as someone who has like a huge collection of old LaserDisc movies. So maybe this does add up to me.

• 43:48Laci Mosley?

  Right, or maybe they're not even movies. They're just like, uh, home videos of him doing murders. Let me stop because I don't want, I don't want, it's Russia. Hold on, hold on, hold on Bridger. I think somebody's at the door. Oh, it's Russia? Oh, no, never mind, never mind. Cut that. Uh, love, love that man so much. So later, after he was apprehended, he'd go on to import office equipment, allegedly importing the first PCs into the USSR. So apparently he was the Bill Gates of the USSR. He brought the first, uh, computers in. Forbes once described him as "a little Soviet man at the very bottom of the social ladder with his odd jobs,

• 44:27Laci Mosley?

  but one who possessed bold dreams and had illegal alternative occupations that allowed him to live better than most of his fellow citizens." Forbes!

• 44:36Speaker 04

  He made the Forbes 30 under 30.

• 44:38Laci Mosley?

  Right, and Forbes, why are you, this is, Forbes is shady.

• 44:42Speaker 04

  What's going on at Forbes? Who's in control of the ship over at Forbes at this point?

• 44:46Laci Mosley?

  Because Forbes is getting a little spicier than it used to be. It used to just, you know, they tell us how much money people had. A little dry article here and there, a little 30 under 30, little, you know, 50 under 50, whatever. And now like they're like, he was like a little gross little man and everybody hated him, but he was doing illegal shit and balling out. Like this is Forbes magazine. Why are y'all writing about this man like this?

• 45:07Speaker 04

  Forbes has got to take it easy with the adjectives. We're there for the financials and the financials alone.

• 45:13Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, we didn't ask you for no adjectives. We didn't ask you for adjectives. Who told you y'all could use adjectives? That's not what y'all do over there. We want hard numbers and facts only. I was cynic.

• 45:23Speaker 04

  I don't need opinions.

• 45:24Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, with only facts. No editorializing. But now I think Forbes is like every other, you know, outlet is trying to get them clicks, keep them clicks up. Because I saw an article that they posted about Rihanna and ASAP Rocky having a baby.

• 45:36Speaker 04

  What does that have to do with financial things at all?

• 45:40Laci Mosley?

  It's like Us Magazine. Forbes was like billionaire. I think that's how they tried to be like, no, we can talk about this because, uh, she a billionaire, remember? So we we deal in billionaires Forbes, so y'all get it. Anyway, so billionaire philanthropist. It was like billionaire philanthropist ambassador Rihanna Fenty is having a baby. And then they they said she was having a baby with her boyfriend ASAP Rocky, like so shady. So it's like all these, all these compliments to her career and who she is as a human being. And then like with her boyfriend ASAP Rocky and Brittany Warwick uh went viral. Cause she she retweeted it. She said Forbes released a our angel Rihanna and local man.

• 46:19Laci Mosley?

  ASAP Rocky. And they really Forbes really did call him local man. So maybe Forbes is just out here being shady these days.

• 46:25Speaker 04

  Something has happened at Forbes in the last like five years where it just truly feels like anyone can write for Forbes.

• 46:32Laci Mosley?

  Right. I feel like they hired someone from BOSIP or uh Bravo. They were like, y'all call E News and see if we can get one of their interns over here at Forbes. We gotta get these, these articles are chugi. We gotta get them. We gotta get the millennials on board. And then start dancing. Like, what is going on? So you know, he's got MMM with his brother and his sister in law. And the business is doing well. Okay. So in nineteen ninety three, despite the company being accused of tax evasion, the previous year, Sergey made a New Year's Eve TV address to the people of Russia. Something that is usually only done by the country's president. So somehow.

• 47:14Speaker 04

  You like hacked into the TV waves. This is like something the Joker does.

• 47:20Laci Mosley?

  So we, right. So we have a video of just a few seconds of seeing Sergey speak. Um, obviously this is gonna be in Russian. Um, I can say spasiba and I can say stradži. So if either of those words are said, I will translate it. If not, oh well.

• 47:39Laci Mosley?

  But let's just play a little bit. I just wanna see what Sergey looks like. Where is Sergey?

• 47:44Speaker 04

  I'm Sergey Mavrody, President of

• 47:46Laci Mosley?

  That's good, yeah, see, see, I'm in there.

• 47:49Speaker 04

  Today I wanted to welcome all the telezрителях

• 47:51Laci Mosley?

  Okay, enough.

• 47:52Speaker 04

  with the celebration.

• 47:52Laci Mosley?

  Enough.

• 47:53Speaker 04

  That is not who I was picturing.

• 47:55Laci Mosley?

  No, I mean Forbes did tell us, they say he a little tiny man, uh, who is not cute. They were so shady, um, so that's him.

• 48:06Speaker 04

  That man looks like he would teach you how to play the harp.

• 48:09Laci Mosley?

  Can we just get a freeze frame back up of that video where it's on him? This man is wearing a red suit.

• 48:16Speaker 04

  He plays the organ at church. This is not someone who scams the USSR.

• 48:21Laci Mosley?

  Sir, why are you dressed like Steve Harvey?

• 48:27Laci Mosley?

  Why are you dressed like Steve Harvey on Family Feud on the national airwaves like this? What is going on?

• 48:33Speaker 04

  He will sell you a Saturn.

• 48:35Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it's very much giving he's got them Saturns and he's got the used ones.

• 48:39Speaker 04

  Yes, absolutely.

• 48:41Laci Mosley?

  And he's giving you the best deal. He's going inside, he's talking to the manager, he's giving you a deal like no other. Meanwhile, he is like screwing you. Uh, this man is definitely a used car salesman. And before he came out and appeared, the logo appeared of the M M M. And it looked just as bootleg as you would think it would.

• 48:59Speaker 04

  Well, and who were those men watching? They looked like Slayer or like a metal band that was like Van Halen was watching.

• 49:06Laci Mosley?

  Yes, who are these men? What is happening? Also, there's a tiny Christmas tree next to, uh, next to Sergey. And I don't know why that Christmas tree is there. Um, and it's the tiniest Christmas tree. It's almost like he put it there for scale to make himself seem larger. He was like, people, people think I'm big man if I put tiny tree next to me. Then I say regular sized tree and I'm just so large next to the regular sized tree. Like, what is this tiny Christmas tree doing here? I don't know. So much about this is very perplexing. But you know what, Sergey, go off, king. So by this point, M M M and Sergey's face were known across Russia.

• 49:47Laci Mosley?

  So the girls know who M M is. He's wearing his, uh, his fire engine red suits. They know, okay? However, charges of tax evasion Collapsed MMM's financial support, leaving the company scrambling for funds. So of course, everybody knows who MMM is, which means that I call him daddy government over here. So I feel like, what is this like father, father government? It needs to be more menacing than daddy.

• 50:09Speaker 04

  Right. Father, I think is as close as you're gonna get.

• 50:13Laci Mosley?

  Yes, father government. So father government's like, yeah, we know y'all too, and we know y'all owe us money. So get after that. Also, I still don't know what MMM does, but okay.

• 50:22Speaker 04

  Also, is there any chance it's not MMM and it's?

• 50:27Laci Mosley?

  Maybe. I don't know which is better. They both sound awful. But Sergey came up with a solution in nineteen ninety-four. MMM shares were issued for sale for the first time with a promise that investors would get a return of over three thousand percent. So he was like, let's go public, let's do a little IPO, and let's get the coins from the girls. And then tell them that their investment is gonna be returned. I still don't know what the company does. It imports tech equipment. So I guess.

• 50:56Speaker 04

  They're like selling desktop computers to people? It doesn't seem like they've done anything that, no, I mean, anybody could have done what this company has done up to this point. I mean, the Christmas address was gorgeous, but other than that.

• 51:11Laci Mosley?

  They said I'm importing and exporting a scam. So one share costs a thousand rubles, equal to around sixty-five cents US dollars at the time. Due to a massive advertising campaign, the share price has steadily increased arbitrarily growing in the value by a hundred and twenty-seven times over just six months. For a very short time, it worked. There were no problems at, mm, everything was, mm, mm, good.

• 51:38Speaker 04

  It's a soup company.

• 51:39Laci Mosley?

  Right. They should have pivoted. That's a hard pivot. We went from importing technology to soup. But y'all go see how, y'all still got a three thousand percent return. It's gonna work. So we have an ad.

• 51:51Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, let's watch this.

• 51:52Laci Mosley?

  I don't know if it's a video. I think it's just an ad. What were you gonna say?

• 51:56Speaker 04

  I just feel like you go from the import-export to cryptocurrency. The next step could be soup. Why not?

• 52:02Laci Mosley?

  Absolutely. Like, why not? Because at this point, it's all over. So we're looking at an advertisement right here. I do not speak Russian. But I think that that is Sergey, that's supposed to be Sergey, in a MMM logo t-shirt.

• 52:18Laci Mosley?

  Uh, there's like a ball and chain on here. Very, what kind of advertisement is this? Scary.

• 52:24Speaker 04

  This, yeah, this is like, he looks like, like 1984 Michael Caine. Uh, his hair is wild. He's got kind of those weird glasses on that look like you're going to like, either be an assassin or some sort of sex pervert. And then-

• 52:42Laci Mosley?

  The hair is definitely giving sex pervert. Like, he went into great clips and he said, can y'all give me the, um, not allowed within, uh, 500 feet of the school district? Yeah. Number, number four. Let me get that.

• 52:54Speaker 04

  I do not want anyone to feel comfortable alone on an elevator with me.

• 52:59Speaker 04

  But what is this thing with the ball and chain?

• 53:02Laci Mosley?

  I don't know, but I, this is now, this, I definitely know that this is advertisement for the IPO. So they're trying to tell people, you know, how they can get involved in the company. Am I supposed to look at this and feel confidence?

• 53:15Speaker 04

  I feel just uneasy.

• 53:18Laci Mosley?

  So millions of people across the world invested their money as the company promised shareholders it would buy back their shares immediately upon request. So whenever anybody's trying to give you a deal that seems too good to be true, whenever the risk is lowered significantly, like, oh yeah, no, y'all give us your money. And then if you want us to buy it back, oh yeah, we'll do it immediately. But the price is gonna keep going up. You're gonna lose all this imaginary money if you buy, if you buy it back. Don't do that. You know what I mean? Like, it's, it's a scam. Uh, it's a Ponzi scheme, really.

• 53:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, absolutely a Ponzi scheme.

• 53:48Laci Mosley?

  Because it's exactly how they work. It's like, give us your money and then look at the return on investment you're gonna get. But don't take your money out.

• 53:54Speaker 04

  Just enjoy looking at the number.

• 53:56Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, just look at that. Look at how, how good your money, look how rich you are on the computer.

• 54:01Speaker 04

  Doesn't matter if you can use it.

• 54:03Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, nobody's gonna use money. Imagination, literally selling vibes. Love that for them. So here in lay the Ponzi scheme. Payments made to shareholders were actually the money from new investors. Duh. We knew, we saw that coming. We literally just said it. By July 1994, the share price had reached 125 rubles, like $81. So, you know, that's a decent sized stock, especially in the nineties, especially when it started at 65 USD, 65 cents.

• 54:34Speaker 04

  Enormous. I mean, to the point that it's alarming.

• 54:37Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 54:39Laci Mosley?

  You should be scared. The import-export company. We we still haven't seen Naria import, Naria export. But now they're valued at eighty-one dollars a share. So in addition to the fast-growing share price, the company's success was spurred by the hope that it represented the shadow or in the shadow of the collapse of the USSR. So basically, the people were also investing in vibes. They were like, Russia's doing great. Look at our one stock.

• 55:07Laci Mosley?

  It's up and it's stuck. Obviously, I don't check the NASDAQ, okay? Russia Russia didn't collapse. Look at our one stock.

• 55:13Speaker 04

  We did it. Smooth sailing from here on out.

• 55:17Laci Mosley?

  And that's a technology stock, okay? That's imported and exported in technology. So I don't know what y'all are talking about. Russia's doing great. Cheers.

• 55:24Speaker 04

  Four PCs, this creepy ad, and one stock. What more could you ask for?

• 55:29Laci Mosley?

  Right, this creepy little man and and one stock. So actor Leonoya Golubikov was the face of MMM advertising campaign. So this guy, Sergey gave people hope, right? This is this is a quote that Leonoya, gosh, here we go. Leonya Golubikov, who's an actor. He, I know, I'm trying to put some respect on your name, Leonoya. He said, Mavrodi, who that's Sergey's last name, gave people hope. All the all that time we had lived in poverty and suddenly an opportunity beckoned. So people are looking at him like he's the people's champ.

• 56:14Laci Mosley?

  He's coming out here, giving people hope, giving people coins, giving them pride. Because I will say there's something about national pride that I do remember now. I remember when I lived in London for a little while and I went over and exchanged dollars for pounds. And the first time I did it, they gave me the pounds and I was like, okay, but where is the rest of it? They're like, this is it. The dollar's weak as fuck. I was like, hold on, no, no, no, I didn't give you I didn't give you rupees. Uh, no, no, no, I gave you US dollars. No, did you think of those as pesos? No, no, no, those are US dollars, not Canadian money. Um, those aren't Maple Woods. That's what I call Canadian money.

• 56:53Speaker 04

  Maple woods.

• 56:54Laci Mosley?

  I ain't give you no maple woods. US American dollars, USD. And they're like, yeah, we know your, your country ain't shit. And I was like, damn, this is very embarrassing. Okay, I'll take my little coins and go, y'all can't give me no paper. No, okay, okay.

• 57:09Speaker 04

  The English are very good at making you feel like a bumpkin. Just like you fell off of a wagon.

• 57:15Laci Mosley?

  I mean, as they should be. So I'm not mad at it, you know? So in just a few years of the Ponzi scheme's existence, over 15 million people across the world had invested and almost none of them had received any return on their investments. When MMM shares sold out, the Ministry of Finance refused to issue more. And so MMM created its own currency with Sergey on the face of the bill instead of Lenin. Wow. In reality, the currency held no value outside of MMM saying that it did. Which I mean, that's kind of how all currency works.

• 57:45Speaker 04

  It's literally money.

• 57:47Laci Mosley?

  But the government is, I guess, supposed to be the only people who can do it. But again, we talk about how like a government is just a bunch of dudes.

• 57:54Speaker 04

  Right.

• 57:54Laci Mosley?

  Who were like, let's make infrastructure and laws. You know what I mean? So why not Sergey? Why can't he start his own government?

• 58:00Speaker 04

  Right, let this nerd give it a shot. I mean, he's got his, his face on this money that looks wild.

• 58:06Laci Mosley?

  I mean, his money looks legit, though. I mean, I think he could have taken the glasses off for the, for the money portrait. That's just me.

• 58:14Speaker 04

  He put on a nice suit coat.

• 58:16Laci Mosley?

  And it's even official, he's staring off into the distance. We don't know what he's looking at. That is a trademark of money. You don't want money where somebody is like smiling at you on the bill. That doesn't seem legit. Imagine if the president's on our bills and was just like, uh, George Washington like smiling like.

• 58:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's so true. I've never thought about that. You never want a happy person on your money.

• 58:38Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, you don't want nobody smiling on your money.

• 58:40Speaker 04

  Basically funeral attitude.

• 58:43Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 58:44Speaker 04

  I will say, like, his expression here looks like he's just gotten bad news, which is not, not a great thing for money.

• 58:50Laci Mosley?

  I don't know, it's giving Russia to me. It's giving Mother Russia like stoic, like strong.

• 58:58Laci Mosley?

  You know.

• 58:59Speaker 04

  I feel like his wife is just like said, I'm taking the kids and we're not coming back.

• 59:04Laci Mosley?

  And he's watching them drive away.

• 59:05Speaker 04

  Right, yes, he's absolutely watching his Saturn take off towards St. Petersburg.

• 59:11Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, that's exactly what's happening. The kid's like in the back of the car, like on the windshield, like hands pressed up against.

• 59:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, this is very what have I done face, but.

• 59:21Laci Mosley?

  Truly, but I love the audacity. And also, yeah, they're not going to give you more stocks to issue, bro. Like, nobody's actually made any money. Y'all was like, okay, can we get some more of them stocks? How many more can we sell? No more, MMM? Cause everybody's like, mm, where did my money go? Like, that's what it stands for now. So trouble with authorities. As Sergey's success grew, so did his trouble with the authorities, of course. Despite his popularity amongst certain members of the government, in 1994 Sergey was arrested for tax evasion, but that didn't slow down his plan for long. At his arrest, he stated, what taxes?

• 59:54Speaker 04

  Good for him.

• 59:55Laci Mosley?

  I know that's right. He said, what taxes? If the authorities claim it's a pyramid scheme, does it mean that I didn't give them their share? Question mark?

• 1:00:05Speaker 04

  He's just acting like he has no idea.

• 1:00:08Laci Mosley?

  I mean, he said, look, if I'm doing crime, then what, then it's no taxes on crime. I certainly don't write off anything I steal.

• 1:00:17Laci Mosley?

  He was like, is the government trying to get involved in crime? Like, how you gonna gas like the whole government? Like?

• 1:00:24Laci Mosley?

  If y'all want money from a Ponzi scheme, then that means y'all are involved in crime. So I don't know. It's giving, it's giving ghetto to me. Just wanted their gas with them. Like, I love that. So while in custody, Sergey managed to register as a candidate for deputy of the lower house of parliament.

• 1:00:43Speaker 04

  Oh my gosh.

• 1:00:45Laci Mosley?

  He's in jail.

• 1:00:48Speaker 04

  Move. It's like, you know what? I actually am gonna run for government.

• 1:00:52Laci Mosley?

  I'm a run for office. Can y'all hand me that, uh, yeah, can you just slide it through the bars? Yeah, hand me that application. Okay, in a pen. Thank you so much. Yeah, no, I'm applying to be president. Like, what?

• 1:01:02Speaker 04

  Also, I have this banged up TV that was, I thought was going to be a new TV. So if we could deal with that now, too.

• 1:01:09Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, if y'all could just go ahead and fix that, return that as well. Okay? So he successfully won the election due to investors wanting to get their money back and voting for him. That's, that's a good way to strong arm a whole community. You're like, I mean, do y'all want these shares back or not? Better let me into the government. So as a new member of parliament, he now had parliamentary immunity and was released from prison. He literally applied for a get out of jail free card.

• 1:01:40Speaker 04

  To get that far in, so into such trouble, you would literally have to like rearrange the government for yourself. I would have a heart attack.

• 1:01:49Laci Mosley?

  But the fact that he could.

• 1:01:51Speaker 04

  It's amazing. I mean.

• 1:01:52Laci Mosley?

  It's fantastic. He was like, I'm about to be in jail. I'm finna be the president. Hold on. Give me a pen. Yeah, okay, I need y'all to mail this. I don't got no stamps in here.

• 1:02:03Laci Mosley?

  Like, what? So there were rumors that the man who he replaced was actually assassinated by Sergey's government supporters in order to free up the space. Wow.

• 1:02:13Speaker 04

  What? Russia.

• 1:02:15Laci Mosley?

  What, Mother Russia? So what if he was like applying and they were like, there's no open seats right now? He was like, yeah, there will be. There will be.

• 1:02:23Speaker 04

  Give me time.

• 1:02:24Laci Mosley?

  Give me time. There will be free seats. There will be position. Like, what? No. However, he never turned up for any of his parliamentary sessions and was stripped of the mandate the following year. So he wanted to just get a get, get out of jail free immunity card. They were like, he never comes to parliament. Where is Sergey? He on the yacht in that same red suit?

• 1:02:48Laci Mosley?

  He never came to parliament. I love that. I love the disrespect for government of just like getting a seat and then just like not going.

• 1:02:55Speaker 04

  Getting a job and not even showing up for the first day. Good for you.

• 1:02:58Laci Mosley?

  Good for you. In 1997, he made a bid for president of Russia.

• 1:03:02Speaker 04

  What?

• 1:03:05Laci Mosley?

  Bro, you didn't even show up to parliament. Now you want to be president? You wouldn't even go to your job.

• 1:03:10Speaker 04

  They should have given it to him just to find out what would have happened.

• 1:03:13Laci Mosley?

  Right. At this point, I'm just intrigued. But he was caught trying to forge votes and was subsequently banned from politics. So he was caught trying to stuff the ballot box.

• 1:03:24Laci Mosley?

  He probably could have won without doing that.

• 1:03:26Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:03:26Laci Mosley?

  Is the wild part. So the same year, MMM declared bankruptcy and Sergey disappeared with all the money, earning him a spot on the international wanted list. Because remember, he had like 15 million investors from all over the world. So this isn't even just Russia's problem now. This is like everyone who believed in Sergey. And he was like, okay, we filed for bankruptcy and bye.

• 1:03:48Laci Mosley?

  He was caught hiding in an apartment in 2003 using a false name and registering a virtual stock exchange in a Caribbean county. So in 2003, he had a fake name and he was trying to get a virtual stock exchange poppin'. Why are you trying to get involved in stocks again? Well, you know that's where they're looking for you, Sergey.

• 1:04:06Speaker 04

  You got out. Stay out. Get a job at Blimpy or something and just enjoy the rest of your life.

• 1:04:13Laci Mosley?

  Enjoy the rest of your life with all your money. Why do you need more? Sergey was sentenced to only four years and six months, but was almost immediately released for time served during his pre-trial custody. Wow. Sergey still had connections in government. He may have never showed up to his government jobs, but somebody over there liked Sergey. Two years later, Bernie Madoff would be sentenced to 150 years for operating a similar Ponzi scheme.

• 1:04:37Speaker 04

  There you go.

• 1:04:39Laci Mosley?

  See, in America, we care a lot more about tricking rich people. 150 years is an obscene amount of time to put a man in jail for robbing you in a cute way.

• 1:04:50Speaker 04

  150. But yeah, I guess that's just the difference between.

• 1:04:55Laci Mosley?

  Sergey got four and he got time served. So he only did like two.

• 1:05:00Speaker 04

  And meanwhile, he's committed a bunch of other shitty crimes. And also, good for him. He knows how to run the system.

• 1:05:08Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I mean, sorry, we have to stand. The money invested in the MMM was never found and it's reported that at least 50 people took their lives after realizing they would never see their life savings again. Oh, no. Oh, that's terrible. Oh, and they put their life savings in. I'm thinking people are buying MMM at 65 cents and watching it appreciate. People are, you should never invest your entire life savings. I honestly just don't even think life savings should be a word.

• 1:05:36Laci Mosley?

  Like, you should never.

• 1:05:37Speaker 04

  It's like, it puts a lot of pressure on it.

• 1:05:39Laci Mosley?

  Right? This is it for my life.

• 1:05:41Speaker 04

  Your life is gone.

• 1:05:43Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, though, I mean, it's money at the end of the day. And yes, money is a necessary tool and people who have money are comfortable are always talking about how money is and everything. It's like, shut the fuck up. A lot of people would be very happy knowing that their bills are paid and they can eat. Like, that's the dumbest shit I've ever heard in my life. Money is definitely connected to happiness. Shut your bitch ass up. You're not enlightened, Madonna.

• 1:06:05Laci Mosley?

  Okay? It's not the great equalizer. You're rich bitch.

• 1:06:13Laci Mosley?

  I didn't get that on my chest. But yeah, yeah, I feel like too much pressure to call it life savings. Also, never put life savings in anything. I feel like you should never bet at all.

• 1:06:24Speaker 04

  Diversify. And this is, this is coming from a stock expert, someone who's not, who downloaded Robinhood and then deleted it like a day later.

• 1:06:32Laci Mosley?

  From a wine cigar, guys, listen.

• 1:06:34Speaker 04

  You've got to diversify. No, but I think sinking your money into literally anything. Maybe, maybe find a few pots to put it in.

• 1:06:47Laci Mosley?

  And maybe one of those pots should still be the bank.

• 1:06:50Speaker 04

  Right, maybe not like a computer salesman from Russia.

• 1:06:53Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it just feels like, you know, who wears red suits? Y'all gave y'all money to a man in a red suit. What did y'all think was gonna happen? The only other man I know who walks around in a red suit is Santa Claus and he breaks into everybody's house. And they, and we let him because he's supposed to leave stuff. Does he though?

• 1:07:09Speaker 04

  There's a scam.

• 1:07:10Laci Mosley?

  He's also a criminal. A man who breaks into your house. No. And so,

• 1:07:18Laci Mosley?

  people were, you know, obviously very, very upset, losing all their money. After his final trial, Sergey continued similar schemes in countries across the world, even including cryptocurrency, accompanied by an informational website with chat agents in later years. So in early 2017, the website for a local MMM scheme in Nigeria became more popular than Facebook. He continued to show no remorse and justified his actions by saying he wanted to keep people's money with the people. Are you the people, Sergey?

• 1:07:45Speaker 04

  He's not keeping it with the people, though. What is he talking about?

• 1:07:49Laci Mosley?

  He said, "I'm people. Yeah, I'm keeping your money with the people. I'm people." Give it to me.

• 1:07:55Speaker 04

  The weird thing about any of this is it doesn't feel like he's ever like enjoying the money or anything. Like, what is in it? What's he getting out of any of this?

• 1:08:03Laci Mosley?

  The sexual thrill.

• 1:08:04Speaker 04

  I've yet to see like, yeah, at least get an expensive haircut or something. Get by some new glasses.

• 1:08:13Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, he hasn't done any of that. No new haircut. I mean, his hair is a little different here. It's shorter. It's still kind of sad looking, though.

• 1:08:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, it still looks very dorky.

• 1:08:21Laci Mosley?

  And he's still got the saddest look on his face. Like, Sergey, do you ever smile? Like, where does your joy come from, Sergey? Like, it constantly looks like you're watching your own house burn down in photos. Like, everyone you love in it, like, you don't look happy. Like, I don't know what to tell you. So he, you know, continued to show no remorse, kept doing these things. Sergey passed away in March 2018 from a heart attack at the age of 62. Uh, I mean, with all that stress in your life, Sergey, in and out of jail, robbing people, like, I can see how that would happen. None of these relatives, none of his relatives wished to take his body after death, and ultimately, a former MMM investor paid for his funeral.

• 1:09:01Speaker 04

  That person got scammed one more time?

• 1:09:04Laci Mosley?

  I don't know. I feel like if you were an investor in MMM and you paid for this guy's funeral, maybe he cut you a check.

• 1:09:08Speaker 04

  That's true.

• 1:09:09Laci Mosley?

  So they had to pay somebody.

• 1:09:11Speaker 04

  Or you're just desperate to see him get buried.

• 1:09:14Laci Mosley?

  Right. You're like, yeah, no, I'll pay for his funeral. And it's like, why are y'all dragging him to a ditch? Oh, yeah, we, uh, we said it was gonna be a nice funeral.

• 1:09:24Laci Mosley?

  Why y'all taking him to the shark part of the beach?

• 1:09:31Laci Mosley?

  Like, so we don't even know if it was a nice, like, if he got a headstone. We don't even know what he's giving, uh, for the funeral. But, you know, Sergey, you robbed a lot of people. You, you, you're a bad man. Uh, it doesn't even look like you had a lot of fun. That's what's upsetting.

• 1:09:44Speaker 04

  The most joyless scam of all time.

• 1:09:47Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, Sergey, what did you do with this money? You didn't have no, come on now. You had to at least, you know, have one night out where you got some vodka. Maybe bought some of those little dolls that got other little dolls in them or something. You know, like, I hope you did something fun.

• 1:09:59Speaker 04

  He bought that Christmas tree.

• 1:10:01Laci Mosley?

  Right, he bought that Christmas tree. That was the source of all of his joy. Just standing next to it and being so much bigger, uh, perspective-wise.

• 1:10:09Speaker 04

  He spent fifteen dollars in nineteen eighty-eight and then that was it.

• 1:10:13Laci Mosley?

  And that was the end of his joy ride, right there.

• 1:10:17Speaker 04

  This big splurge.

• 1:10:18Laci Mosley?

  It's time for Scammer of the Week. This is where we highlight a charlatan who's worthy of our praise, or maybe not, like Sergey. We'll see. Uh, today, we're talking about a seventy-three-year-old woman in Long Island who helped New York police catch a scammer who chose the wrong victim. All right, mm, who's the scammer? Cause seventy-three-year-old lady in Long Island, you sound petty.

• 1:10:40Laci Mosley?

  Said, oh, he messed with the wrong woman.

• 1:10:44Laci Mosley?

  Hello, nine-one-one.

• 1:10:46Speaker 04

  I've got somebody for you.

• 1:10:48Laci Mosley?

  Right, so Jean, a former nine-one-one, or Jean, uh, probably Jean, Long Island here. Okay, so Jean, a former nine-one-one dispatcher, received a call from a man claiming to be her grandson and that she needed to contact his lawyer. Okay, she then received a second call from the person claiming to be said lawyer, saying he needed eight thousand dollars to post bail. So called her once and said, hey, your grandson's in trouble. Then he put on a wig after he left the pharmacy section of Target and called again.

• 1:11:21Laci Mosley?

  Said, I need eight thousand dollars. This is a different person. If you could see the wig, you would know. So then Jean got another call from another man claiming to be the bail bondsman near her home trying to collect the money. So this is the third phone call.

• 1:11:34Speaker 04

  Third call.

• 1:11:36Laci Mosley?

  There's too many calls.

• 1:11:37Speaker 04

  You don't need that many calls for this scam. You can cut one of those people out almost immediately. The lawyer didn't need to call.

• 1:11:43Laci Mosley?

  I mean, I think they're just trying to make it legitimate. They're like, we have three people who is really just one person in several wigs on a phone. Call. It's gonna seem more legit. Like, I'm the bail's bondsman. Hello, I'm the police officer. Hello, I'm the police dog. Like, everybody calls.

• 1:11:59Speaker 04

  This is like as many impressions as an SNL audition tape or something. This is somebody who is just excited about the different accents they can do.

• 1:12:07Laci Mosley?

  Right. Definitely wearing wigs that no one can see, just enjoying the thrill. So after arranging to have him come to her home to pick up the money, Jean called the police and waited. So Jean, you knew that this was a scam. Why would you have these people come to your home to pick up the money? This is petty, but also, I don't know, a little dangerous. Like, now they know where you live, like.

• 1:12:25Speaker 04

  She's like, this vigilante energy that she's got, like.

• 1:12:29Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:30Speaker 04

  I guess she was looking for some excitement.

• 1:12:32Laci Mosley?

  Right. She is 73. She's trying to get a little thrill up her leg, you know? Seems to be a common thread in this episode. So the police were already there by the time the suspected scammer, Joshua Straya Gomez, 28, arrived, took an envelope from Jean and attempted to leave. So she didn't make a sting happen.

• 1:12:49Speaker 04

  She fully entrapped him.

• 1:12:52Laci Mosley?

  And she was a former 911 operator, which means she probably is definitely, like, cold in the soul.

• 1:12:57Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. You know, she's seen, she's heard it all.

• 1:13:00Laci Mosley?

  She's heard it all. And I feel like, you know, 911 operators, shout out to y'all, is a very difficult job, and you have to stay calm. But also, sometimes, like, you call and they're like, hello? 911, what's your emergency? Okay, you are being chased, ma'am. Calm down. You are being chased by a man with a knife. Calm down, ma'am. Where are you? Yeah, okay, can you stop breathing so hard so I can hear the address?

• 1:13:27Speaker 04

  But can you imagine a 911 operator that got really into it? Tell me more. Oh, my God. That's how they should operate, actually. I would love for every operator to just get emotionally involved with the situation.

• 1:13:42Laci Mosley?

  No. Too involved, they're asking for digital. Are you sending someone to the house? Yeah, yeah, so what kind of house you got? It seems nice, because this neighbor is getting robbed a lot. You're actually like the fourth person this week who told me it was getting robbed. What did they take? What do you got over there, girl? What's your closet looking like?

• 1:14:02Laci Mosley?

  Are you sending the police or no? Again, no, I'm sending them, but you gotta stay on the line, so we might as well chat.

• 1:14:07Speaker 04

  What are you wearing?

• 1:14:10Laci Mosley?

  Uh, so the police then tackled and handcuffed him. I feel like tackling is a lot.

• 1:14:14Speaker 04

  It's a little much. For how much money? It's probably twenty dollar bill or something.

• 1:14:22Laci Mosley?

  Right, I don't know if she put eight thousand dollars in the envelope.

• 1:14:24Speaker 04

  No, I hope not. Otherwise, she deserved to lose the eight grand.

• 1:14:29Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it just feels like tackling is a lot. You know, everybody seems bored in this situation. If you call the police and they're immediately willing to set up a sting for you and tackle people, everybody's a little too bored. Nobody has enough to do with their day. So they tackled and handcuffed this man. He was arrested and charged with third degree attempted grand larceny. Jean said, I knew he was a real scammer. I just, uh, you know what I'm gonna say, like Jean probably said, I know he was a real scammer. I just knew he wasn't going to scam me.

• 1:14:59Speaker 04

  The buck stops with Jean.

• 1:15:01Laci Mosley?

  Jean, you could have just hung up the phone, sis. I don't know if we needed a whole Ocean's Eight, you know, point five. I don't know if we needed Ocean Zero.

• 1:15:10Speaker 04

  Ocean's One, Ocean's Jean, that's a movie I wanna watch.

• 1:15:16Laci Mosley?

  Jean, I don't know, you sound like a hater. I feel like you could have just hung up. You knew it was a scam? You didn't have to come out here and get this man like this?

• 1:15:22Speaker 04

  I know, if I, we're all getting constantly tried to get phone calls, scam likely. I don't have time to pick it up.

• 1:15:30Laci Mosley?

  Right, you had time to get on the phone with three separate people.

• 1:15:35Laci Mosley?

  Arrange a drop. Get the police to come and they, and they, and they got on riot gear for some reason. It's one guy, y'all. And it's not even a violent crime. He's just taking eight thousand dollars and going on his way, minding his business.

• 1:15:49Speaker 04

  He was just trying to rob Gene. Give him a break.

• 1:15:52Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, Gene, I don't know. You, you're not, I don't know if I'm highlighting you. You're not the honorary person in this. I just feel bad for the man who got caught. He obviously has great accent work. Uh, his, he could have had a career in comedy.

• 1:16:04Speaker 04

  He's trying to pay off these improv classes that he took.

• 1:16:07Laci Mosley?

  Right, that's all he was trying to do was pay Second City back and, and you did him like this? Disrespectful. Guys, that brings us to the end of the show. Oh, Bridger, this was fantastic.

• 1:16:18Speaker 04

  Oh, I had a wonderful time.

• 1:16:20Laci Mosley?

  Oh, I'm glad. We always ask, where would you like to be found on the show? Like, where do you want people to find you? Anything you want them to tune into? I mean, obviously we've got Apple TV popping with the after-party, but what else? Where can they find you?

• 1:16:32Speaker 04

  If you feel like listening to my podcast, I said no gifts. You know, I am running a year-long scam, as I said before. Lacey kind of scammed me when she came. I mean, it was like a, like a dual scam.

• 1:16:45Laci Mosley?

  It was.

• 1:16:48Speaker 04

  But you, and then you can go on Instagram and find I, at I said no gifts or at Bridger W. Or do whatever you want. The internet's horrible. Maybe stay off the internet. I don't care.

• 1:16:58Laci Mosley?

  Whatever you want to do, guys. And as always, if you guys want to see Sergey in, uh, his Chris Crinkle suit, Scam Goddess Pod Instagram, we'll post the photos. Scam Goddess Pod on Twitter, if you just want to chat with me. Um, guys, if you want to find me, D I B A L A C I D, well, Lacey on all platforms. Congregation, stay Schemin.

• 1:17:21Laci 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 Paez, and researched by Kaelyn Brandt. Stay Schemin.

• 1:17:38Laci Mosley?

  This has been a Team Coco production in association with.

• 1:17:50Speaker 00

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• 1:18:18Speaker 02

  She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.

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  paid for by Genentech and Novartis.

• 1:19:18Laci Mosley?

  Parents and grandparents, if you want a gift that won't be forgotten by New Year's, give a Guardian Bike. It's America's favorite kids' bike because most kids learn to ride in just one day. No training wheels needed. They're lightweight and low to the ground with a wide wheelbase for balance. It's no wonder they have a 4.9 out of 5-star rating with over a million happy riders. They're also designed and assembled in the USA, and they've been the New York Times Wirecutter's top pick four years in a row. This holiday season, save over 40% on kids' bikes. Plus, get $100 in free accessories: a lock, pump, bell, grips, and clamp. That's stocking stuffers covered. They have helmets and adult bikes, too, so the whole family can ride. Shop guardianbikes.com.

• 1:20:03Laci Mosley?

  That's guardianbikes.com.

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