Fraud Friday: The Cunning Clairvoyant w/ Eric Mosley

Summary

Scam Goddess Podcast Episode Summary

Title: Fraud Friday: The Cunning Clairvoyant w/ Eric Mosley
Host: Laci Mosley (a.k.a. Scam Goddess)
Guest: Eric Mosley
Release Date: July 25, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Fraud Friday, part of the award-winning Scam Goddess podcast, host Laci Mosley delves into her personal encounters with various scams alongside her cousin, Eric Mosley. The episode offers a blend of comedic insights and genuine warnings about the intricacies of fraud, highlighting both modern-day schemes and historical cons.

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Personal Experiences with Scams

Student Loan Scams

Laci and Eric kick off the discussion by sharing their experiences with student loan scams, particularly focusing on entities like Sallie Mae (now Navient).

• Eric (04:55): "I did like scams that benefit the common person. Like kind of a Robin Hood, like steal from the rich family, like not punching down."

• Angela (05:11): "Financed by student loans thinking that this was going to better my life. And in many ways it did. However, Sallie Mae... is the devil."

Laci recounts how Eric was misled into deferment programs, leading to aggressive collection tactics involving his father to coerce payments.

Energy Scams in Texas

The conversation shifts to deregulated energy markets, where trusted individuals promote pyramid-like schemes to switch energy providers for financial gain.

• Angela (07:02): "They make things look legit with big signs and skydrapers, but it's all smoke and mirrors."

Laci humorously critiques the convoluted pitches, emphasizing the lack of genuine value and the manipulative nature of such scams.

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Listener Story: The TikTok Lesbian Scam

A listener, dubbed Ladarious, shares a disturbing account of a friend, Tracy, who fell victim to a manipulative relationship formed on TikTok.

Key Points:

• Formation of the Relationship: Tracy meets Penny on TikTok, leading to a cross-country move to Virginia where Penny claims to have five children.

• Financial Manipulation: Penny finances Tracy's trip but later pressures her into taking out loans, putting Tracy's credit at risk.

• Pattern of Abuse: Similar scams were noted with Tracy's sister, indicating a recurring pattern by Penny to exploit vulnerable women.

Notable Quotes:

• Laci (16:22): "This Penny has five kids under 12. How is that even plausible?"

• Angela (25:05): "We need to know what happened to Tracy. Don't leave her hanging."

Advice:

Laci and Angela urge listeners to thoroughly vet online relationships and remain cautious about significant life changes prompted by new acquaintances.

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Historic Hoodwinks: The Vera Pratt and Angela Scam

In the Historic Hoodwinks segment, Laci and Eric explore the intricate scam involving Vera Pratt, a wealthy heiress, and Angela, a supposed psychic.

Overview:

• Vera Pratt: A 70-year-old heiress from a lineage tracing back to oil magnate Charles Pratt. Despite her wealth, Vera struggled with personal demons and sought spiritual healing.

• Angela’s Deception: Introduced as a psychic named Angela, she convinced Vera to invest heavily in her services, using manipulative tactics to gain financial control.

Key Events:

1. Establishment of Trust: Angela began by performing spiritual treatments, gradually gaining Vera’s trust and financial dependency.

2. Financial Exploitation: Angela fraudulently accessed Vera’s American Express card, amassing over $20,000 on luxury items.

3. Legal Intervention: Eventually, Vera’s family intervened, leading to the exposure of Angela’s fraudulent activities and multiple indictments within Angela’s family.

Notable Quotes:

• Laci (37:02): "At eight years old, she was training to be a scammer. Those kids are smart; they know what's up."

• Angela (43:28): "I have to protect my peace... It's too much room with the demons."

Legal Outcome:

Angela, revealed to be Sally Ann Johnson from the Rose Marks family, was sentenced to 26 months in prison and ordered to pay substantial restitution. Vera continued to suffer financial losses until her passing in 2018.

Insights:

The segment underscores the vulnerability of the elderly to manipulative schemes masquerading as spiritual assistance and highlights the importance of family intervention in preventing prolonged exploitation.

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Scammer of the Week: Jean’s Plagiarized Book

In the Scammer of the Week segment, Laci and Angela spotlight Jean, the wife of former California state senator Dan McCordale, who was embroiled in controversy for plagiarizing content in her book on Santa Clara County history.

Details:

• Book Deal: Jean was commissioned to write a comprehensive history of Santa Clara County, receiving over $2.45 million between 2009 and 2019.

• Plagiarism Incident: Upon submitting a 580-page manuscript two years behind schedule, it was discovered that approximately one-fifth of the content was copied verbatim from Wikipedia and other online sources without proper attribution.

Notable Quotes:

• Laci (66:14): "She copied and pasted a chunk of her book from Wikipedia. That's blatant plagiarism."

• Angela (68:15): "She couldn't even make the copied sections flow. That's pure scam material."

Consequences:

The plagiarism led to the project being halted, and questions arose about the legitimacy of her earnings and the ethical standards of the publishing process.

Discussion:

Laci and Angela debate the severity of plagiarism, especially in non-fiction works, emphasizing the necessity of original content and the repercussions of intellectual theft.

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Conclusion

In this episode, Laci Mosley effectively blends personal anecdotes with listener stories and historical cases to illuminate the various facets of fraud. From student loans to online relationships and historical scams, the episode serves as both an entertaining and educational journey into the world of deception. Laci's comedic approach, paired with genuine advice and critical insights, empowers listeners to stay vigilant and informed.

Final Notable Quote:

• Laci (73:18): "Stay scheming, but not in scams! Protect yourself and your loved ones from fraud."

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Stay Connected:
Follow Scam Goddess on social media platforms and join the "Con-gregation" to access more episodes and updates. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.com/podcastsplus for ad-free listening and early access.

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Note: The timestamps correspond to the moments in the provided transcript where notable discussions or quotes occur.

Transcript

[Lacey Mosley]

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[Eric Mosley]

Y' all know I got too many.

[Lacey Mosley]

Jobs and sometimes I get tired and.

[Eric Mosley]

I have a lot of hair.

[Lacey Mosley]

So we might not have time to.

[Eric Mosley]

Get it washed before we have to go show up somewhere cute. Introducing Batiste Light, the lightest dry shampoo from Batiste.

[Lacey Mosley]

I love it because you can remove.

[Eric Mosley]

Crease from your hair, get that bounce back, get that movement back without having to spend so much time cleaning it. New Batiste Lite Dry shampoo is lightweight, non gritty, leaves no white residue. It's great on your hair, easy on your wallet and giving you that blowout look without the blowout price. Buy Batiste Dry Shampoo online or in store at your nearest retailer.

[Lacey Mosley]

What's poppin, Congregation?

[Eric Mosley]

It's your girl, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess.

[Lacey Mosley]

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.

[Eric Mosley]

Bring back your favorite episodes from behind the Paywall.

[Lacey Mosley]

Enjoy this episode from behind the Paywall. And as always, stay scheming.

[Angela]

Scams, Ca Robbery and Fraud. Scams, Ca.

[Lacey Mosley]

Robbery and Frau Scam Goddess. What's Poppin Congregation? We're back with another episode of Scam Goddess, the podcast all about robbery, fraud and those who practice it. Sometimes we love them, sometimes we hate them. And Congregation, I am very.

[Angela]

What?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes. Excited. Ecstatic. Thrilled even. This is a first. We've never done this on the show, so this guest and I are blood relatives.

[Angela]

Allegedly.

[Lacey Mosley]

Allegedly. Guys, it's never happened before today. Very exciting, guest. He's an educator, yoga instructor and a Lululemon ambassador. Come on, Ambassador. He's also the founder of Black Mat Yoga, which was established to address the identity based inequities in wellness spaces. And this is such an amazing company like Black Mat Yoga. Follow it on Instagram. It's. It's. Oh my God. I'm just so excited. Congregation, please welcome an icon and my first cousin, Eric Moseley to the show. Another self made Jamaican air horn. You know, that's what we do. Okay, are there any other sounds that people do? Wiki wiki? I don't know any of.

[Angela]

That's not it.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's not it. Okay.

[Angela]

That's not a sound.

[Lacey Mosley]

So, yes, all the mouth sounds that we could possibly make. I don't know anything about the Jamaican air horn. Why don't we.

[Angela]

That's good enough.

[Lacey Mosley]

Why don't we have an African American air horn? Now it sound like the racist white people are like, why do y' all have Black History Month?

[Angela]

I mean, we can say like, you're.

[Lacey Mosley]

True. Yeah, you could yur it that. I haven't heard that on a track, though.

[Angela]

It's not. Yeah, it's definitely not on drug.

[Lacey Mosley]

No. But anyway, thank you so much for being here.

[Angela]

Thanks for having me. I, too, am. What? Excited.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes. Now, I'm gonna need y' all put some respect on our last name. Cause this M O, S L E Y. I'm seeing some E L Y's. They be doing this to me on icarly, too. Yes. But we have the same last name. We do for now.

[Angela]

Because we really are cousins.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, we really are cousins. We do. I know why you said it like that. There's a woman, y', all, who. Oh, God, is she gonna hear this? We're not gonna say her handling nothing. It's probably more than one. But she, like, pretends to be my cousin and then branched it out to being her cousin.

[Angela]

Yeah. And she brought it over to my page, and we weren't having it over here.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, you told her that you weren't cousins?

[Angela]

Of course I did. Oh, I was like, we're not cousins. Or I was like, hello, love. What side of the family are you on? And she gave some kind of roundabout, like, oh, I'm on Lacey's dad's side. Or some crazy.

[Lacey Mosley]

It was like, daddy, sister, uncle, brother.

[Angela]

Yeah, some extended.

[Lacey Mosley]

I was like, did you join Ancestry? And they pinged me or something. I don't know.

[Angela]

Yeah. I was like, yeah. Nah. No, we're not. We're not cousins. You're not in the family.

[Lacey Mosley]

No.

[Angela]

Stop playing.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know. I think you might be cousins. If I gotta be cousins, you're gonna be cousins, too.

[Angela]

No, listen, like I said, you gotta shut it down.

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, I'm not gonna acknowledge it. I'm just. Look, if you want to be like, congrats, cousin.

[Angela]

Like, you know, listen, she surely. She surely stopped saying that on page and deleted the comments, too.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, there you go.

[Angela]

So you gotta stop them.

[Lacey Mosley]

Listen, this is a harmless scam, okay? For now until it's not right. Okay Until. Until it's not. Until she start taking out loans, payday loans, like, through her cousin, which she very well might do. Well, we always ask on this show, Eric, what is your relationship with scams? Do you like them? Do you hate Them. Have you ever been scammed? It could literally be anything.

[Angela]

So I do like scams that benefit the common person.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, right.

[Angela]

Like kind of a Robin Hood, like.

[Lacey Mosley]

Steal from the rich family, like not punching down.

[Angela]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I do have a relationship with scams. I went to college. Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. Very big one.

[Angela]

Financed by student loans.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yup. Yeah.

[Angela]

Thinking that this was going to better my life. And in many ways it did. However, them student loan payments, this woman by the name of Sallie Mae, who recently changed it to Navient is the devil. And then people are relentless.

[Lacey Mosley]

They really are. And do you have them saved in your phone? Because I have them saved in my phone. Like I know I'm not saved.

[Angela]

No, I don't have them saved. But they scammed me to get me to answer the phone. So there was a point and you know this story. There was a point in New York, you know, we were living together. We were living together in New York, was a couple years out of undergrad and you know, them loans was hitting and the payments were not right. So I, I needed to make some.

[Lacey Mosley]

Payments and I put them on deferment. I told them I was an actress. And they, I remember the, the lone person laughed, she was like, yeah, we'll put you back on deferment. I was like, damn.

[Angela]

So I was, I thought I was deferring, but I guess it had, it had ran its course so it didn't start recurring. They were like.

[Lacey Mosley]

And they were inferring as to where their money.

[Angela]

Exactly, exactly. They were curious and like where these coins. So after a little while I wasn't answering the phone. Why did I get a call from my father? So I'm looking at my phone, it says dad. And I'm like, hey dad, what's up?

[Lacey Mosley]

Right?

[Angela]

And he's like, hey man, hold on real quick. And then it's like, hello, Eric Mosley, this is, you know, so and so from Sallie Mae.

[Lacey Mosley]

They gave you a three way. A three way girls phone call.

[Angela]

Exactly. They called me on three way with my daddy and had my daddy call so I would.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yo, they straight up did aggresion wieners to you. They were like, she could never win because she sent a slut. Why would you say that?

[Angela]

So you're really mad, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

So you're really mad, right?

[Angela]

That's exactly what happened.

[Lacey Mosley]

See, I told you she wasn't mad. And snap, you exactly may see Sally May. I told you he wouldn't be mad.

[Angela]

I told you he wouldn't be mad at you dad. But Go ahead. We'll need to go ahead and make a payment today. Can you. Can you pay like 5,000? I was like, no, we cannot pay that.

[Lacey Mosley]

Not today.

[Angela]

So that's one scam and then I think one other scam. Right after undergrad, someone who I trusted was doing so in Texas, where I was living at the time. They had, like, deregulated the energy industry, so you didn't have to go through, like, TXU or whoever anymore. So there was this company, and it was kind of like the, like, pyramid.

[Lacey Mosley]

You could just get gas from the homie. You could just get your homie's, like, hey, y', all, we gonna have wine and cheese and we're gonna be selling gas.

[Angela]

Yeah, and gas, so. Or the energy. So, um, someone who I trusted, they were like, oh, you know, this great opportunity. You can make X amount of money if you just get to your family, the people that you know, like, and trust to just switch from their regular energy to this energy, it's going to save, et cetera, et cetera. And I think that was true, and it was helping people. And they did have a big sign on a building in, like, downtown Dallas that was that they, like, had never had a sign before. So, like, think of a skyscraper with, like, a logo on it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay?

[Angela]

So it was like, that can also.

[Lacey Mosley]

Be a part of the scam is, like, making things look legit.

[Angela]

It was so legitimized. It was so legitimized. And they were like, yeah, as long.

[Lacey Mosley]

As you get well, that's necessary. Like, if you pull up to me and you go talking about, I got energy in the back of my trunk, like, I'm not gonna partake in that.

[Angela]

Right?

[Lacey Mosley]

Not monthly.

[Angela]

But then I just needed to ask people, like, who's your energy provider? Give me your, like, confidential information so I can switch you on over. Right. The people were not having it, and I couldn't, you know, but there were some really big financial incentives. But it was just one of those things. And I think it worked for other people. It just did not work for me. And I also didn't know enough about energy to like, make.

[Lacey Mosley]

They're like, how many kilowatts am I? You was like, they listen. These watts are really going. These vibes. It's giving.

[Angela]

No, you going to have energy.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, it's giving. Light is giving energy. Stove and oven.

[Angela]

Yeah, heat. So did you want to switch over now, or.

[Lacey Mosley]

I feel like it's also just not very on brand for you.

[Angela]

Like, we were trying to figure it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Out, but, like, you're an educator, you do wellness. But this is before you were in the wellness space. But like, as an educator, you know, or going to warehouse, it's very funny. It's a hard pivot to be like, yeah, now I sell these.

[Angela]

Now I'm selling y' all energy.

[Lacey Mosley]

These energies. Do I want them?

[Angela]

So it was a little scam. Like, I did have a little investment that I invested to get into the biz, to make it back, but I couldn't. I couldn't get my two people in and then get they two people to come in and get they two people. So I had to go ahead and bow out of that.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, that's how, that's how Ponziheir MLMs work. Cause they're like, just invest initially and then just like terrorize your friends and family. Get them involved. But I mean, at least this one it sounds like, okay, there could have been some discounts if you watch Florida Girls. There is a joke about this where Laura Chen's character is a door to door energy salesman.

[Angela]

He was given that. But instead of door to door, it was like text to text, call to call, right? Yeah. Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Which I feel like if I got a text like that from my homie or like, if I got a Facebook post that was like, are you satisfied with your interest? I'd be like, I don't know. I don't know about these.

[Angela]

Probably not gonna go to you, though. And then. And then there was the. Also the blessing. Blessing circle, the pandemic. It came back. Yeah. You know, it's like, pay $50 send or send 500 to this person and then bring the people in. And then, yeah, same situation. And I. And trusted friends were doing it and was getting blessed. Was getting blessed. But I, I just wasn't able to continue to build. You know, it was during the pandemic.

[Lacey Mosley]

Did you get blessed so much or did you help a blessing?

[Angela]

And then. So here's, here's where the trusted friends part did come in. So the friends who brought. Who, you know, approached me to be in the, in the blessing circle variation, they were like, yeah, you need to bring your people. And that. This is how it works. It continues to work this way. So I could, I brought like two people in or they helped me bring a person. But when I couldn't deliver or when those people couldn't deliver on they two people, they were like, we'll just give you your money, your investment back. Like, yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Cause they're trying to keep.

[Angela]

We gonna get you out.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, they're trying to keep the scam going. They don't want you getting on Facebook and like blowing the spot up cause you got robbed in the blessing circle. I mean, look, I thank God that all of my friends know better than to come to me with business opportunities.

[Angela]

I didn't. That's why I didn't come to you. I was.

[Lacey Mosley]

She's not gonna go for it. For my phone to go on full Android mode, all of a sudden I have a galaxy, my texts are green and you're like, hey, I got a p. Listen, you wanna get in on the ground floor? I don't know if I ever wanna be on the ground floor.

[Angela]

That's your status. Day one. A one.

[Lacey Mosley]

Day one.

[Angela]

But I mean it was very successful.

[Lacey Mosley]

For them, but it works for some people.

[Angela]

It was very successful for them.

[Lacey Mosley]

And I do wanna make a correction cause somebody did talk to me about Susu's and one of our other guests brought up Susu. And I guess they can also be a connection for people who don't have traditional bank way. I guess it can be legitimate. I don't know enough about it, but it can be.

[Angela]

But also Susu is like also very cultural and it's like a.

[Lacey Mosley]

You know, like I say.

[Angela]

Yeah, it's like a legitimate cultural way of support. Like supporting the community, supporting your family, like responsible saving and all those things. But. But yeah, they brought me back out.

[Lacey Mosley]

So Eric is a scammer. We already knowledge.

[Angela]

I'm adjacent. I'm not a scammer.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay. Yeah. All right. We the cul de sac. We on the Mulberry Drive scam adjacent. Yeah, we're not quite, quite on the street. No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, cool, cool, cool. We are in the area though.

[Angela]

We're in the air. We're looking over the fence.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, We're. We're on a terrace. Not a street, but it's maybe a terrace. Guys, we're gonna take a quick break for some non scam advertisements and we'll be back for the first segment of the show. What's hot in fraud scams?

[Eric Mosley]

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[Lacey Mosley]

Chilling, literally and financially. Okay.

[Eric Mosley]

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[Lacey Mosley]

And we are back and it's time for the first segment of the show. What's hot and fraud. This is where we warn our listeners about popping scams in the zeitgeist more often than not these days, you know, we get a listener letter. As always, snitch on your friends and family at Scam Got us potted Gmail dot com. Just make sure scam is retired because we don't want to.

[Angela]

What? Up your back.

[Lacey Mosley]

Fuck up your back.

[Angela]

Yes, I listen to the vibe.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes. Oh, I love that we saw a parasocial moment come true. Love that for us.

[Angela]

Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

Did all you guys feel involved? I hope you said at the same time as him. That's what I want. This is Blue's Clues but for robbery. Okay. These are blues con clues. We go give you all the clues. So we're talking. I need a fake name for this person. Obviously it's going to be a listener letter. Fake name. Darius Ladarius. Love it. So Ladarius says hi, Lacey. Love the pod. Scamming and scheming is so fun to hear about. Oh, I have a story for you. Okay, Ladarious, what's going on? So la'darius Says I'm omitting some key details so that if who's involved are listening, they can't figure out who ratted them out.

[Angela]

Ladarius, Everybody gonna know it's you.

[Lacey Mosley]

Ladarious, are you a stone pigeon? Cause it's giving. You did it right?

[Angela]

And let me tell the story so.

[Lacey Mosley]

You get my perspective right? And let me shift the narrative away from myself, away from me, so they.

[Angela]

Won'T know it's me.

[Lacey Mosley]

So La'Darius says, okay, here we go. This may not quite be a scam, but it definitely feels like it. TikTok born lesbian relationships. What? Wait, so the, like they met. They met on Tick tock, they started doing the dance and then they was like we gay. Except you know, whoa.

[Angela]

Now we go together.

[Lacey Mosley]

Whoa. Okay, I'm a sapphic or. Or massive boozing ration.

[Angela]

Are they. Or are they just going together? Are they in a relationship? For the Tick Tock.

[Lacey Mosley]

So it says my cousin, which is why I picked this. Cause I was like, okay, we're cousins. Like, you know, we love a familiar moment. Let's call her Tracy. This feels very pointed. Eric. Did you write about this?

[Angela]

I didn't.

[Lacey Mosley]

Let me check the email. Fake name Tracy. And the cousin is nearly a 35 year old woman, okay. Who recently got out of a five year relationship. Now she was scammed. During this relationship, the now ex girlfriend convinced her to take out new lines of credit, put a car in her name and be the primary signer on a house lease. All to then try charge wildly to that new credit card, not pay her car loan and ask her not to remove herself from the lease when they broke up.

[Angela]

Oh, okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

Nasty business.

[Angela]

Okay, that's a lot though I would.

[Lacey Mosley]

Be okay with just like the lease situation because like moving is hard. Like let's figure it out, whatever.

[Angela]

But credit card, one of those things is enough.

[Lacey Mosley]

Car loan, this woman trying to ruin your credit.

[Angela]

But also how you gonna let somebody do all of those things?

[Lacey Mosley]

Cause they was lesbians.

[Angela]

I mean, I get we do things for love, but at some point.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, no, the answer is lesbians, okay? Cause you start dating the U Haul pull up so quick and then normally it starts at the U Haul. It'll start.

[Angela]

It's the move in, right? It's the move in or it's a credit card.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. The joke is not we go to bank of America and we open up a line of credit and buy a.

[Angela]

House and a car.

[Lacey Mosley]

The joke isn't put my name on the de.

[Angela]

Yeah, this is too much.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay though. You hauls we moving it together. Not like we getting a home that you paying for, but my name is on it.

[Angela]

Oh, but don't take my name off when you move like, don't. But don't take my name off.

[Lacey Mosley]

Girl, I'm sorry, but, Tracy, I think you were dating a city girl. Cause it's giving. If you ain't a rich nigga, I'm a fucking so you ain't one.

[Angela]

That's it. Period.

[Lacey Mosley]

Period. So the breakup was horrible and sad. Oh, I'm sorry, Tracee. But then, to find some sort of creative outlet, Tracy began a TikTok account. Typical emo. Millennial. TikTok content and whatever. But now here's where the true scam of it all begins. She meets someone on the app. Let's call her Penny. Now I don't. So listen, I thought that the TikTok lesbian scam was going to be the lesbian that we just heard about. Okay, now this starting to look like Tracy fall.

[Angela]

That's what I'm saying. It's Tracy, Tracy, Tracy. So here's where it starts. Well, what was. What was the context? What was the back? That was just.

[Lacey Mosley]

So basically you're just telling us Tracy and Mark, you telling us your cousin is out here getting played with and enjoying it. They play Monopoly. She's like, I love it. I love Hasbro.

[Angela]

Now, as a cousin, you supposed to step in and course. Correct.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah.

[Angela]

You can't let your cousin just get played like this several times.

[Lacey Mosley]

My cousin Eric would never let me do this. This is a lot.

[Angela]

You had to go to college. We had to commit you somewhere. Lacy has gone to college.

[Lacey Mosley]

She definitely had a degree already. Well, she's back in college, guys. The scam street saying. They saying in college. So now she's on TikTok. And let's say she's met this TikTok lesbian named Penny. I'm no longer gonna call this person a TikTok lesbian. I'm just gonna call him Penny. Now, we've established this just in the. What was his name? Lavon. La'Darius.

[Angela]

La'Darius.

[Lacey Mosley]

La-Darius. We get it. So now, I don't know all the details of the relationship, but looking at their two accounts, after the alleged relations start date time, and the original breakup in November 21, then the new relationship started around early January 2022. So November 2021 is the end of the year. This starts at the beginning of the year.

[Angela]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

All of a sudden, Penny invites Tracee to come visit her. Now, Penny has five children, all under the age of 12 and lives in, let's say Virginia. And my family lives in, let's say, California. So you're telling me this is like a cross country visit? East coast, west coast, east coast, west coast.

[Angela]

Penny got five children and they're all under 12.

[Lacey Mosley]

Penny, you got a child for every letter in your name.

[Angela]

That's Penny.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's a.

[Angela]

Now look, so Penny was. Penny was pregnant for a long time.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, Penny. That's almost like she stayed pregnant. That's like four years of pregnancy. Look, children are our future. Well, no, it's nine months of pop. And then you give or take like what, three months?

[Angela]

I mean, but you.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, you got some rollover, some savings. The blue light special.

[Angela]

It's like three months where you can not be pregnant within a year.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, okay. Penny's job was getting pregnant. Which, look, if you want to have a good job, if you want a John and Kate and have plus eight, it's just as long as you're not.

[Angela]

She was using all that fmla. She said she stayed pregnant.

[Lacey Mosley]

This is a lot of kids. She stayed with a baby.

[Angela]

Okay, so then where's her baby? Does she have a baby father? Like who?

[Lacey Mosley]

See, we don't know yet. And hope. Yeah. Okay, so Tracy, keep going. We try not to be judgmental. All these pauses we're both taking. So Tracy says, sure, I'll come visit. And Penny fully funds the entire trip. So now Penny is paying. She flew. She flew out.

[Angela]

She flew out.

[Lacey Mosley]

She flew out. Tracy tells my family that she's leaving on this vacation maybe three days before she's about to go. And we're all like, now what now? Because we haven't even heard Penny's name even mentioned before. And this. And Tracee used up all her paid time off. So we tried to discourage this trip. Cause she needs to work to pay off her debts. And we don't know this person. And we don't know if they're sketchy, but it's just no use. So Tracy's family is kind of seeming like they like, all right, tracee, you in a lot of debt. They like, no more pto. And now if you get behind on these bills, Tracee, if you tracee, if you gotta start chasing these bills, then you just gonna be out here like in a helicopter and on a police chase. Cause we can't help you, right? We can't help you chasing these bills.

[Angela]

TRACEE, Remember just three months ago, baby, in 2021, you were scammed out of everything. And now you're in a new Tracy.

[Lacey Mosley]

Before You go on this flight, Tracy. Just open up your checking account.

[Angela]

Tracy.

[Lacey Mosley]

Just see what it's saying. Go to the mailbox and see who in there.

[Angela]

Her. Gail King boy. Tracy.

[Lacey Mosley]

Tracy, Tracy, Tracy, Tracy. So they're like, Tracey's incorrigible. We can't stop her. So now.

[Angela]

But she just met Penny. So what about it?

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, so they tried to tell Tracee this. It's of no use. Tracee leaves, and we don't hear anything other than that she got there safely. Then we get a call from Tracy saying she's going to move to Virginia to go live with Penny, and there's no use trying to stop her.

[Angela]

There's nothing you can do about it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Nothing we could do about it. And Tracy says, this ain't the mask. Somebody stop me. No, nobody's stopping me. Okay. No reason would be. Okay, so no reason would convince her, no matter what. I find out from a friend that something similar happened to her sister. Someone on TikTok reached out to her sister and they began a relationship, which led to her moving in. Now Tracy has moved in and I haven't heard nothing. And Penny's social media shows that this may be a pattern and that she's fallen and done this before. Meet a younger woman online.

[Angela]

Oh, go ahead. Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

So basically, her social media. Penny's social media is giving. Like she meets a younger girl on TikTok. She starts, you know, doing the dances and whatnot. Tracee's 10 years younger than Penny. Then she woos the younger girl out to be with her, and then.

[Angela]

So she's flying people to move to from different places to come live with her.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes, and her five kids.

[Angela]

Her five kids.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, I'm not trying to be harsh. This is what Ladaria says. I'm not trying to be harsh on love. That that's what this turns out to be. So we still miss scammed? We don't know. But it just doesn't seem like this since it's Penny's pattern. I just want to urge the vulnerable women out there to be careful. Do your research on someone and stay safe. It ain't no shame in being in a long distance relationship or fully vetting someone before altering your entire life to fit theirs. Now I will say.

[Angela]

Wait. That's it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes. So this is Midscam. We don't know how this ends. Oh, this is a letter, like, from someone.

[Angela]

So we don't need a resolution.

[Lacey Mosley]

We do need a resolution. I'm gonna need you to follow back up, La'Darius, because you really left us Hanging here. You left us hanging.

[Angela]

At least confident or right.

[Lacey Mosley]

Like a little note at the bottom for us. No, but Ladarius let us know how this pans out.

[Angela]

What's her TikTok name?

[Lacey Mosley]

Right?

[Angela]

What's Peggy's TikTok?

[Lacey Mosley]

We need to go do Penny TikTok. Give us Penny TikTok. I will say, though, this is perfect for Tracee because Tracy was already down bad. Her credit is giving the fico a fico in no more. You know?

[Angela]

Sure, sure, sure.

[Lacey Mosley]

Credit karma. Just sending her emails like, this is a deep sigh. Now, Tracy, they're like, girl, we ain't even got no numbers for you. Cause it's that bad. Yeah, we. We entered the no number territory. It's just a sad face.

[Angela]

Not an emoji.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's just an emoji. It's just an emoji that's melting into the earth.

[Angela]

No, it's the. It's the woo emoji that like.

[Lacey Mosley]

Like.

[Angela]

Like. Like stress.

[Lacey Mosley]

Like, you know, it's bad with credit karma. Not even lying to you because, like, is it credit card? It'll be like, woo your credit stuff. And then experience will be like, no, it's not. Bitch.

[Angela]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Don't even get to getting excited. But yes. So she already had the bad credit. She already had the house situation where, like, we don't know if this is a fresh start sitting there.

[Angela]

Yeah, this is a fresh start.

[Lacey Mosley]

So she's like, why not move out of the city? You know, why not? I get it.

[Angela]

I always wanted to be a stepmom to five kids. That's a lot of under 12.

[Lacey Mosley]

Also five kids under 12. That's a very important distinction because that means that whoever these babies, daddies are, are very much still in this.

[Angela]

Still in this person's life.

[Lacey Mosley]

Penny definitely know her at least one of them.

[Angela]

There's lots of question marks here.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah.

[Angela]

Like, why is Penny moving all these young girls in whilst also continuing to procreate with whomever she's procreating with? This just doesn't make sense. Like, this.

[Lacey Mosley]

This Penny.

[Angela]

This don't make sense. Somebody gotta call up and clear the air. Somebody lets you.

[Lacey Mosley]

What's going on with these kids? Like, are these kids, like, just seeing a new woman and being like, this, your new auntie? And we like auntie Tracy auntie.

[Angela]

And y' all on TikTok.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y' all doing TikTok hitting the wall?

[Angela]

Like, what are y' all doing? What is. I don't know.

[Lacey Mosley]

Doja cat got a new dance every time. Doja got a New dance. Y' all got a new auntie. That's not. That's not good.

[Angela]

This is. Yeah, okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's not good.

[Angela]

It's not good.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y' all shouldn't have a new stepmom that often. I don't agree with that. Tracy, what are you up to?

[Angela]

I'm concerned.

[Lacey Mosley]

I am a little concerned. But guys, I want to take a quick break for some non scam advertising. So we'll be back with my favorite part of the show. Historic Hoodwinks robbery. This summer, try the new straddle Frappuccino blended beverage at Starbucks. It's the classic blended iced coffee you know and love now topped with a creamy layer of handcrafted brown sugar cold foam. Available for a limited time. Your Strato Frappuccino is ready at Starbucks. Ooh, it is getting hot. And you know when it gets hot.

[Eric Mosley]

Your wallet starts to get hot too. And you get that familiar urge to refresh your closet. But why waste money on pieces you'll only wear once or just for one season? That's where Quince comes in. Think 100% European linen tops starting at $30. Washable silk dresses and skirts and soft cotton sweater. Now y' all know I already have.

[Lacey Mosley]

All the silk cami's and I have.

[Eric Mosley]

All the silk cami dresses. And in the wintertime, you know, I like to throw a classy little woolen coat over them to really just give a moment. But in the summertime, I'm putting those shoulders out, baby. And right now I've really been eyeing this 100% linen shirt dress. It is so cute. It is so affordable. And I can throw it over a swimsuit or I can throw it over some jeans. When the weather gets chilly, give your summer closet an upgrade with quince. Go to quince.com goddess for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N C E.com goddess to get free shipping on your order and 365 Day returns. Quinns.com goddess and fraud.

[Lacey Mosley]

And we're back. And it's time for my favorite part of the show, Historic Hoodwinks.

[Angela]

This is my favorite too.

[Lacey Mosley]

Aw. Yay. I love that for us. Today we're gonna regale Eric and get his opinions all throughout. Maybe we love this person, maybe we hate them. We will see. Today we're talking about Vera Pratt, who was a well traveled heiress who just recently settled in New England. But when she reached out to a tabloid psychic to cure her of her demons, her Life turned upside down.

[Angela]

Not fighting demons.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay. Sometimes you gotta fist fight demons. You gotta throw hands on some demons.

[Angela]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

I ain't mad at it. Have you ever gone to a psychic?

[Angela]

I have gone to a psychic, and they were not psychic.

[Lacey Mosley]

They weren't?

[Angela]

No.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, well, you can't go in there and be like, what? What I'm gonna eat today. Who said that?

[Angela]

Who said that's what I did? No, she was just in there giving me, like. It was actually on. I think it was in, like, New Orleans and they were on.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay.

[Angela]

Like on the street.

[Lacey Mosley]

They used to really be psychic there. Come on, now. It was like, on the street.

[Angela]

Yeah. And. But they were just giving me just very general. It was like a. Like, almost like reading horoscopes. Like, just very general things that could or could not be true.

[Lacey Mosley]

Right? Or like, that's how horoscopes work. You always, like, look at the good shit. And you're like, yeah, yeah, I am about to be prosperous. My palm was itching the other day. But when it's like, oh, you're gonna make a porter. I'm like, that's for somebody else. Let me look at the rest of my chart. Cause that's not me. Co star be trying to gaslight me. That's why I'm going there no more. Co star be like, you are making bad choices in your life. Come see why I'm like, I'm not going over there no more.

[Angela]

Well, I was with the family, so they were like, just saying stuff like, oh, I'm seeing like you are responsible. And I'm, like, looking at my little brothers, and I'm like, girl. And then we were with Lisa, too. And so my stepmom, she had. At the time, she was, like, using a. She had. Had a knee surgery. So she had a. Like, a cane. And then the lady was like, oh, I can see that you need healing.

[Lacey Mosley]

And I was like, girl, we.

[Angela]

I can see that too. Yeah, she has a cake, bruh.

[Lacey Mosley]

Let me get my surgery. Let me get my crystal ball real quick, because what am I doing?

[Angela]

She was like, I can see here that you need to heal. And Lisa was eating it up. She was like.

[Lacey Mosley]

She was like, I do need to heal.

[Angela]

I do. I just had a surgery.

[Lacey Mosley]

And then she, like, walks away with a cage.

[Angela]

Yeah. And I'm like, now, Lisa child. Okay, so, yeah, psychic.

[Lacey Mosley]

She was like, I can see that right now. Your body feels warm. She's like, I am sweating a little bit.

[Angela]

It's hot outside. You know what?

[Lacey Mosley]

It's 85 degrees.

[Angela]

It is the summertime.

[Lacey Mosley]

How you know that?

[Angela]

No, but I do believe in psychics. I do believe that they're a real psych.

[Lacey Mosley]

I do, too. I do believe that there are some people can be clairvoyant. I've definitely done a psychic hotline before. Like, called during the pandemic, like, very early. I was like, let me just see what's going on.

[Angela]

What's gonna happen here? What's.

[Lacey Mosley]

What's going on with this psychic highlight? Yeah, is DI Warwick there? Okay. No, Sean worked. How about Cleo?

[Angela]

How about Cleo?

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, she.

[Angela]

Go call Mina.

[Lacey Mosley]

Call me now. She did not call her right now, though. Call her later.

[Angela]

You remember your Ms. Cleo videotape?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes. Oh, gosh, I'm so glad that that got lost because there's so many things that really. Y' all would have just dragged me through the mud for that. I did and videotaped as a kid.

[Angela]

We used to.

[Lacey Mosley]

Cooking with cousins.

[Angela]

Cooking with cousins. We used to just set up a camcorder and just do things in front of it and Cooking with cousins on the show. We had one show.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes, we had one show. It was just one episode.

[Angela]

It was one episode.

[Lacey Mosley]

You know, it was mama of a hit show.

[Angela]

We made Rice Krispie treats.

[Lacey Mosley]

We did. You know, now that I think about it, like, the kids are just doing that with TikTok. Except for now it can go viral and millions of people will see it. So I'm sorry that y' all don't have handheld VHS that your parents can lose like we did because we just lived a better life than you did. Everything you do is online, and I hate that for y'. All. So same. At the age of 70, Vera became convinced that she had these demons and that they were inhabitating her body and sabotaging her life. The heiress was the great Granddaughter of the 1800s Oil magnate Charles Pratt, which left her a sizable trust most of her life. She spent most of her money on other people, from charities to relatives. Okay, so I was about to say. I would say Vera. I was gonna say the demons might be autumn on them black people you probably stole all this wealth from. But I was like, it's about. It's giving Lake Lanier.

[Angela]

But, you know, this is a very. This photo is.

[Lacey Mosley]

Is.

[Angela]

Is very.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's giving, like, massa energy. Yeah, you stole that money was stolen. Big mass of energy.

[Angela]

Big slave owner energy. Enslaved person energy.

[Lacey Mosley]

And not nice slave owner energy. It's not giving you what? Giving some people some lemonade and letting them sit on the porch. Sometimes it's giving. Like you was cruel. Yeah, it's giving. Django, slave man. It's giving some. Senor Miss, your candy.

[Angela]

This is not good.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, we don't like that. So. But she was giving back. And maybe that's why. Cause her daddy was Monsieur Candy.

[Angela]

Yeah, so she's benevolent, but she's 70.

[Lacey Mosley]

Right. But also, where were you given benevolence to? You know, because that also matters.

[Angela]

It does. But are the. But were the demons with you from. From the jump or did you get 70 and you, like, now I'm fighting demons.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, it might be some 70 year old, like some mental demons, but. So she had spent her life traveling the world, learning about Yoon Ji ah psychology in Vienna, and even studying with Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary. In 2006, she bought a $2 million home, moved from Washington D.C. to Martha's Vineyard. But she couldn't rid herself of the conviction that the demons inside of her kept her without a social life. One day she came across an advertisement in a magazine for a psychic who went by the name of Angela. Great psychic name, Angela Lansbury. You know, it's giving Blythe Spirit.

[Angela]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

Love it. I'm gonna be. If I'm a psychic, I'm gonna be Madame Arkady. And then if you just don't know anything about theater, you won't know I'm a criminal. So for Vera, Angela would become her psycho.

[Angela]

And you're like, wait, are you a criminal?

[Lacey Mosley]

I'd be like, you got me.

[Angela]

Wait, so are you a psychic or are you that theatrical criminal that I'm aware of?

[Lacey Mosley]

Listen, I see you seeing me as a psychic, okay? So let's move forward. That's what's in the ball. That's what's in the car. So for Vera, Angela would become her spiritual savior for the next seven years. That's a long time.

[Angela]

That is a long time. And you know, seven is the number of completion, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

So, I mean, was this a scam?

[Angela]

Was it just give it completion or was it divine?

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay. It's giving Saturn's return. You know, why don't we call more scams divinity? Why don't we call them timing? You know?

[Angela]

Yeah, divine timing.

[Lacey Mosley]

You were meant to be robbed right now. And that's gonna speak to your life.

[Angela]

Learn from this.

[Lacey Mosley]

Learn from this. So when Vera first met Angela, it began with a phone call that quickly led to more phone calls with lists of instructions for treatments involving crystals and gongs. Early on, Angela began traveling from Florida to Matthew's Vineyard to visit Vera and manage her treatment, sometimes visiting, even several times a month. So for me, if I live in Florida and I can go to Martha's Vineyard several times a month and hit some golf. Okay, so Angela's cute. Okay, Now, Angela's not really giving psychics.

[Angela]

She's not giving.

[Lacey Mosley]

She's giving like city girl.

[Angela]

I need to see some credentials. Angela, how do you know how to use these crystals?

[Lacey Mosley]

Angela, were you saving for a bbo? What's going on?

[Angela]

Like, yeah, you looking very contemporary.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, it's not giving. You've ever seen nobody's future.

[Angela]

Yeah. It's not giving enough life experience here.

[Lacey Mosley]

Right? I'm not even getting Raven Simone.

[Angela]

It's like, to get my.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm not getting. She's not giving even that. So Raven.

[Eric Mosley]

Angela.

[Angela]

Okay, Angie.

[Lacey Mosley]

All right. Angie the psychic. So Angie's taking these trips to Martha's Vineyard and banging on these gongs and whatnot. As time went on, Vera and Angela spent more and more time on the phone, emailing back and forth with Vera relaying most of her personal details. She saw no progress with her demons, but remained faithful to Angela and continue to employ her.

[Angela]

Child. We still fighting, Angela, like, Angela's like, no. Did you sprinkle the Florida water like I told you?

[Lacey Mosley]

Like I told you? No. You have to do it right when it's a full moon, otherwise the demons are gonna tussle.

[Angela]

Did you charge.

[Lacey Mosley]

They gonna throw. Yeah.

[Angela]

Did you charge the crystals in the full moon? You didn't. Oh, you didn't put them on.

[Lacey Mosley]

How long did you charge them?

[Angela]

Oh, see, that's what.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's where you messed up at. That's where you messed up at.

[Angela]

Now you gotta wait till another.

[Lacey Mosley]

Which demon is it? Tarantino? Which demon? Which demon is it?

[Angela]

Clive Bigsby, like, yeah, see, you didn't do it right. Let me wait till I get up there.

[Lacey Mosley]

Fly me out again. Fly me out. Let me get fluid out again.

[Angela]

Fly me out. And then I.

[Lacey Mosley]

And I need a bed at first class. Cause I'm healing. I can't sit right.

[Angela]

It's important to maintain this energy around me.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes.

[Angela]

I must be comfortable.

[Lacey Mosley]

But as Angela dug her claws deeper, Vera began to withdraw from public life. So remember, Vera wanted friends. And she was like, I'm probably not happy.

[Angela]

Social demons.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. Cause of the demons. So this is now her new bestie, which is probably why she hung on. Cause she's like, well, I'm getting what I want. And it's like, it's not wrong. I wanted friends. And now.

[Angela]

And now we friends, right? She come and see me. She checks on me.

[Lacey Mosley]

Like Beyonce, right? She said, let me cater to you.

[Angela]

Cause, baby, Beyonce calls me. She checks on me. Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

Go ahead. Put your life in my hands. I need that social, that driver's license, them emails, and so much more.

[Angela]

Okay, Angela. I peep, I peep, I peep game.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, girl. So only three years into the relationship, Vera had to ask permission from Angela before going to any social outing. So now Angela's like, okay, you gotta talk to me before you go anywhere. Starting to dig in some control aspects, which we know is like, something that manipulative people do to isolate you.

[Angela]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

She was told not to continue spending her money on anyone else, particularly her family, who, according to Angela, were full of negative energy. Where are they now?

[Angela]

We're off those vibes. We are off that vibe, guys.

[Lacey Mosley]

I've said this a billion times on this podcast. Call your grandparents. Even if you're not a good person and you don't even love them, call them just to keep them from getting scammed. Call them so that maybe there's some inheritance left for you. Because if you don't, somebody will. I' ma call your grandparents.

[Angela]

Stop calling your family. Those are the demons, right? Your family got you messed up, girl. Call. Just call me.

[Lacey Mosley]

Angela is rebranding your family. Just call me, girl. Don't call the rest of them demons.

[Angela]

Vera, I'm your family.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm your family now. I don't know. I'm the captain now.

[Angela]

I'm your family.

[Lacey Mosley]

Damn. I imagine you were grandkid and like, oh, Granny Vera, we coming for Christmas. She was like, don't bother. You're a demon.

[Angela]

Sorry.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. You're not my grandchild anymore. Grandchild.

[Angela]

Like my best Vera sounds.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, that's what I'm giving her.

[Angela]

I don't know why Eris Vera.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's how she so her. She's probably way more elegant than that. So her personality began to change. She spoke almost entirely of demons and Angela. So if we weren't talking about demons, we was talking about Angela, her friend.

[Angela]

Angela, who's curing her of these things. Right.

[Lacey Mosley]

And had memory issues, implying early signs of dementia in November 2010. I know. Cause our grandma had dementia, so this is, like, kind of a story. If somebody did this to my grandma, I'd be so pissed. But, like, we hung out with our grandma. Like, we loved our grandma and we hung out with her, so nobody was gonna scam her because we were there. But y' all left y' all grandma to her own devices. That ain't right. So Vera's older brother Peter reached out. She got an older brother and she's 70. Oh, why people be living a long time, but also why.

[Angela]

Why couldn't they get together? Why couldn't you say, hey, bro, you know, I got this social thing. I'm sad. Like, let's, let's. I'm alone. I'm 70. We both heirs.

[Lacey Mosley]

We should live together like Madea and the other brother.

[Angela]

We should live together like them and Brown.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, sweet Brown.

[Angela]

Brown and Cora.

[Lacey Mosley]

We all need to live together in the same house. Um, so Peter, the brother, reached out to Vera and told her that her once large fortune was dwindling. In an email, he told her, unfortunately, it's happened before and that it will happen again. Especially as your healer ups her demands and as you become more addicted to her calls. Sorry to be disparaging, but I'm very concerned. So by 2011, Vera had been with Angela for five years, still boxing her demons, Mayweathering her demons.

[Angela]

She gotta change the treatment because these demons are they.

[Lacey Mosley]

They in the gym.

[Angela]

They are.

[Lacey Mosley]

These demons got her up against the ropes. Okay.

[Angela]

They about to call it relentless. Vera, we gotta do something else now.

[Lacey Mosley]

The demons done already took your ear, Vera. The demons have gone full Tyson.

[Angela]

This is just not Vera. I thought the crystals would do, but we have to up the treatment.

[Lacey Mosley]

We have to up the treatment.

[Angela]

It's gonna up the cost, though. The only thing about it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. So fighting demons with little progress, continuing to lose money. Still, according to most law, if someone genuinely believes in the spirit healer and that they're helping them, that this is legal. Because think about it. There's all types of healers out there who will be like, this is what's going on. I know people have gone to. Essentially, therapy is like talking to a healer and them giving you advice. And yes, they're going to the doctor.

[Angela]

To get a prescription.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's true. And. But that's. Psychiatrists, therapists don't prescribe.

[Angela]

But they do go to school, going to a doctor of any kind to get a prescription of any kind. Because unless you know for sure what it is, it's like, well, we'll try this. We'll try this. Let me give you this medicine, see how it goes.

[Lacey Mosley]

And the doctors, that's why doctors are so confident. They're like, it's this. And you're like, I don't know. And they're like, I'm the one who went to.

[Angela]

I'm gonna prescribe you this education. We'll see. So really Angela is a doctor. Doctor.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, essentially.

[Angela]

She is. She is a.

[Lacey Mosley]

Hey, hey, doctors out there. Y' all want to fight me? Be honest.

[Angela]

I'm just kidding.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y. I'm just kidding. She got a doctor.

[Angela]

She didn't go to med school.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y' all gonna fight me like these demons. These demons fight.

[Angela]

They gonna whoop on you like. Like Vera's demons for five years, child.

[Lacey Mosley]

Vera's demons are giving like Bruce Lee. They beating everybody up in line future out here. So technically, it's legal, but Angela was no regular psychic healer. Right, so the psychic behind the curtain. Angela maintained a number of businesses under different names to which she had Vera send wire transfers, personal checks, and even cash for her services. However, Angela also had her name added to Vera's Amex card, which she used to spend at least $20,000 on entertainment and jewelry. So she was like, also, I'm on this amex. Vera and Angela shared American Express.

[Angela]

She in the Delta Sky Club, Sky Lounge before. Before coming to Marcus.

[Lacey Mosley]

Miles, bro.

[Angela]

She got miles on Miles sipping champagne, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

Angie ain't never gonna have to pay for a lift again.

[Angela]

What's our credit card number? What's the security code in our car?

[Lacey Mosley]

Hold on. Yeah, it's saying fried. Hold on, let me call.

[Angela]

Hold on. Let me.

[Lacey Mosley]

My girl.

[Angela]

Fear it here, girl. It's another demon, child.

[Lacey Mosley]

This one is outside your body in the form of a Stop. Hold.

[Angela]

Okay? This demon's over here in Florida trying to get at me.

[Lacey Mosley]

This demon called fraud alert. And we need to stop them.

[Angela]

We need to stop them now. Go ahead and verify. Hold on. I got them on the phone. Go ahead and.

[Lacey Mosley]

Go ahead and verify. Thank you so much. Okay, we got one demon down. One demon down. So Vera wrote in her diary what Angela asked for to deal with the demons was too much. Apparently, I'm getting very low on funds. Meanwhile, Angela lived a life full of Chanel, Louboutin, Porsche, Cayenne.

[Angela]

Cause she's a successful healer.

[Lacey Mosley]

She's a successful healer with one client.

[Angela]

She's manifested abundance in her life.

[Lacey Mosley]

What was that tweet? It was like, look, the manifesting ain't working, and it's time to steal.

[Angela]

Time to steal. She hasn't manifested a life of abundance.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, lack, I'm not mad at it. And she's working. She taking these calls. She fighting these demons.

[Angela]

She's a doctor.

[Lacey Mosley]

She's a doctor. So in Aventura, Florida, she lives in a 3,200 square, 70 square foot, half a million dollar condo in addition to a New York City flat. Iron Home. She's got multiple properties.

[Angela]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

On this woman's job. So when Angela visited Vera on the Vineyard, she sometimes stayed at a 500 a night harborview Hotel. Now, Angela, why are you not just staying with Vera? I know Vera's house is giving coin.

[Angela]

Because Vera has demons. She can't be in there with them.

[Lacey Mosley]

She said it's too much room. Actually, the demons have taken all the bedrooms up. So I'm gonna take a. I'm gonna.

[Angela]

You think I'm staying in here with you? No. I have to.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's out of his room.

[Angela]

I have to protect my peace.

[Eric Mosley]

Yes.

[Angela]

Not enough room for me and the demons.

[Lacey Mosley]

And the demons.

[Angela]

And you. No.

[Lacey Mosley]

As it turns out, Angela was Sally Ann Johnson from the matriarchal family of Rose Marks. And she was far from the only family member running lucrative psychic scams. So Angela's real name is Sally Ann Johnson. See, I knew Angela was a made up name. I knew it was given Angela Lansbury. So who is this person? This is Rose Marks. So Rose Marks is a part of this family and they are all trans.

[Angela]

So she's the matriarch. Yeah, she's.

[Lacey Mosley]

So she's training up all of her kids and like they learned about crystals from day one. You know, like now I know my ABCs and my psychic abs. Threes. Yes.

[Angela]

This is. So there's some trauma somewhere here.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes.

[Angela]

In this family. Somebody was wronged. And now she's like, I'm gonna raise my kids.

[Lacey Mosley]

We gonna get over.

[Angela]

We gonna get.

[Lacey Mosley]

And I'm not.

[Angela]

I can't say that I'm mad at it.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know what Vera's family did to get that money. But you know when you got money.

[Angela]

That when you spend Heiress.

[Lacey Mosley]

There's some murders back there you can.

[Angela]

Spend five years ridding yourself of demons from.

[Lacey Mosley]

As a hobby.

[Angela]

As a.

[Lacey Mosley]

Seven years ridding yourself of demons. And you got somebody spending 20k on your card and it's not you add.

[Angela]

Her on the amex.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. No. So Sally's formal education stopped at the second grade. And this is Sally. Is Angelou growing up in the second grade? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So that's. So she might have actually just stopped at the abc.

[Angela]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. How? How. Wait a minute. I'm supposed to do some quick math. Cuz when. When you fifth grade, you're either 10 or 11. So let's subtract three. So this baby had to be seven.

[Angela]

Five is. Five is kinder.

[Lacey Mosley]

Kinder. So then first is six or six kinder. First six or it can be six for kender, but yeah. So seven or eight.

[Angela]

Around eight. Seven or eight. Seven or eight. Seven to nine.

[Lacey Mosley]

Seven to nine, we'll be. Yeah. So that's when she. That's when she. That's when she started being employed and left school. Okay, that's not good. So growing up. Well, yeah, really growing up from childhood, literally. She's literally developing as to an adult growing up. She made a living and like, literally growing up, physically growing up, because this is a child. She made a living in Miami and New York through her psychic abilities and claimed a deep root in her family and American Romney culture. So Romney culture. I know on TLC they had that show with the G word that you're not supposed to say, but it was like the families who, like, some of them grift or some of them just have hustles where, like, they'll drive around with concrete that we don't know where they got it from, but they gotta cement people's lawns while it's hot. So they'll just drive around with it and be like, do you want to cement your driveway real quick? Cause we got it in the truck right now.

[Angela]

You gotta do it right now.

[Lacey Mosley]

You gotta do it right now, though. And like, so they had hustle. So, I mean, if a 7 year old or 8 year old told me that they were a psychic, I don't know, I would give them some money and see what's up.

[Angela]

Yeah, I mean, especially when you. When you cite your indigenous ancestral.

[Lacey Mosley]

And kids are so pure to me. So I'm like, if anybody's tapped into the psychicness, it's the children. Like, we always love to see a baby and be like, oh, that baby's baby before.

[Angela]

That's a very black thing.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's a very black thing. Black people are always trying to make a baby old. No, that baby is your grandma. Look just like her act, just like a.

[Angela]

Look how that baby sitting up like that.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. No, that baby.

[Angela]

That baby.

[Lacey Mosley]

That baby.

[Angela]

That baby done been here before.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y' all see how that baby was looking while we was talking about the baby, right? That baby knew it was being talked about. They been here before. They so smart.

[Angela]

Baby been here before.

[Lacey Mosley]

So I would definitely go to the baby and be like, here's money.

[Angela]

You've been here before, huh?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. Tell me what they told you right before you got here about me.

[Angela]

I'm gonna pull a card for her to pull a card.

[Lacey Mosley]

So according to Rose Marks, the mother of. I'm gonna call her Angela, but. But this Is the mother of Sally's life partner and head of the family. So basically Angela is Sally.

[Angela]

Yes, Correct.

[Lacey Mosley]

Rose Marks is the mother in law of Angela, Sally's life partner and head of the family. Got it. Part of their culture.

[Angela]

When did they. Well, when did. When was Angela introduced into the family?

[Lacey Mosley]

So Angela is Sally. Sally was like, I'mma go by Angela.

[Angela]

But then second grade education. Angela.

[Lacey Mosley]

Sally. Yes, yes. And so she's a part of this family. And sometimes they do get married because.

[Angela]

The matriarch is the. But it's her mother in law.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes.

[Angela]

So when did she. She stopped going to school at 2.

[Lacey Mosley]

Because a part of the culture is having their daughters drop out of school at 8 or 9 to develop their psychic powers. So when did she get brought into Rose herself? Dropped out of school in the third grade. She was married in an arranged marriage at 16 or 17 years old. Living in Virginia until moving to Florida in 1998. Now, this is the matriarch Rose right there. She and her husband opened the first of several storefronts that served as bases to sell their spiritual abilities with eight of her family members. So Rose like to live a life of extravagance, but this is like mother, like stepdaughter. So she owned the Fort Lauderdale mansion. This is Rose. At one point, she reportedly had like 400 rings, 100 watches, 200 necklaces, several Harley Davidsons and a white Rose. Rose. So basically, Rose lived like she was Rick Ross.

[Angela]

That's what she was like. We got them visions tiptoeing on her marble floor.

[Lacey Mosley]

Tiptoeing on her marble floors. Okay. And her marble stones and crystals. Okay.

[Angela]

She was doing all right. So Rose was doing all right. Rose was what we would call a mogul these days.

[Lacey Mosley]

Right? Rose Quartz.

[Angela]

Rose Quartz.

[Lacey Mosley]

Real hot girl. Shit.

[Angela]

Quartz.

[Eric Mosley]

Quartz.

[Lacey Mosley]

So together, Rose and her family had amassed a Fortune totaling over $40 million from a scam going back 20 years. Among their victims was bestselling romance author Jude Devereaux, who gave them $20 million over 20 years for their services. Another one of their victims believed that he was hearing voices. Rose's daughter in law, Cynthia Miller, convinced him the archangel Michael required a sacrifice for him. The victim was 32, and Michael needed. Needed 32 gold coins representing each year that he didn't have faith. Note the coins were believed to be worth about $400,000. So they said he need to go out and be like the Mario brothers and collect gold coins for each year.

[Angela]

Of his life, that he didn't have.

[Lacey Mosley]

Faith so that he could get rid of the demons. I love this scam because instead of like making it obvious with money, they kind of made it a little like national treasury.

[Angela]

It's not just give us all your money. It's like, no, go find these girls gold coins that happens to cost this.

[Lacey Mosley]

Amount of money from the Incas.

[Angela]

But you. But. But really only bring us the amount of coins that represent the years you didn't have faith.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes. So is it which is around like $400,000 all your life, though, to bring.

[Angela]

Us all the coins?

[Lacey Mosley]

It was all the coins. So the victim believed that the coins would be returned. But when he asked for the $400,000 worth of the coins back, he was told that only Michael the Archangel knew where the exact location was. In a cemetery. So he was like, they were. We gave them to Michael the angel. Where do you think we thought we was gonna keep the gold coins though?

[Angela]

For ourselves?

[Lacey Mosley]

No, that would be crazy. We gave them to Michael. And then Michael has said.

[Angela]

Because remember we said you needed a sacrifice.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, Michael. Yeah. He said they in one of the cemeteries. So you just gotta get to looking now.

[Angela]

You gotta find them.

[Lacey Mosley]

Coincidentally, Angela had asked Vera to take gold coins and lie them on the bed every night to transfer energy and then give them to her for saf. The coins would never be returned because that's the safest of keeping is when you never have them again so that you know they're kept safe. By 2011, even while Angela continued her scheme, eight members of her family were indicted on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. Because remember, they had that storefront where they were selling all of their spirits their spiritual news.

[Angela]

Right.

[Lacey Mosley]

So Rosemarks, in a rare sentencing for a Fortune teller, got 10 years in prison. As her family members got. Got four months to several years. So that's like a high sentence for a fortune teller. But she stole so much money. When you're in like the double digit millions. Yeah, like they want to make an example of it.

[Angela]

They want to figure it out. Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

So getting caught. Friday, November 8, 2013, Vera asked her goddaughter to help her pay for an electricity bill. So remember, Vera used to have coins.

[Angela]

Dang.

[Lacey Mosley]

And now she can't cover a Con Edison. She now she needs Eric's electricity service. This. She's on Facebook. Like, I would love to lower my rates.

[Angela]

Yeah. You want me to hook you up and just switch you over?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes. So the goddaughter was in shock to find that she didn't have any money and immediately called the chill mark. Police department the case was assigned to detective Sean Slavin, seen here in the center with this green shirt on, looking like a hater. This man looks like he loves to track down people who are living their best life. He happened to only live a half a mile away from Vera, so I'm sure Sean was like, not on my watch. Not in my neighborhood, you don't. When he went to go meet his neighbor for the first time, Vera at first said that she was only missing $500, and later $15. When he asked her how much she paid her spiritualist, the answer was around $15,000 over the past five years. Less than a week later, Detective Sean called Vera and learned that Angela would be on the island soon. So Angela's coming back to Martha's van. When she pulled up, the detective followed to ask questions, and Angela became combative. She was like, why you asking me all these questions about. I'm a spiritual healer. What, you want to see my potions? I got them right here.

[Angela]

Right.

[Lacey Mosley]

Let me empty out this Walmart bag. I got them right here. Detective Shawn told Angela outright that what she was doing wasn't right and that he was going to get to the bottom of it. That same day, Angela told Vera to never speak to him again and had her sign a letter declaring that any money Vera had given Angela was a gift given with a full sense of generos. Now, Angela, I thought you were a healer now. These are all gifts. She was like, tell Sean that you gave this to me for Christmas. You put me on your amex for Cinco de Mayo when my birthday came around.

[Angela]

These are all gifts you gave me.

[Lacey Mosley]

Gold coins.

[Angela]

Sign here, sign here.

[Lacey Mosley]

An initial here. Okay. Also, but, Angela, you have to pay taxes on gifts that are over at that $100. So the tax man was still gonna.

[Angela]

Pull up, but she said, I'm not.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm not, but I'm not going to jail.

[Angela]

Yeah, I'm not gonna be.

[Lacey Mosley]

The letter even attempted to grant Angela sole power of attorney to fully control Vera's life. Detective Shawn got in touch with Vera's brother, who believed that Vera had at that point, given as much as $500,000 to Angela. The detectives involvement meant that they finally had the means to intervene. So Sean discovered, Detective Shawn discovered that there was not $15,000 or $500,000 missing. There was over 3.5 million missing.

[Angela]

That was not the money that she had already given Angela. Or that's how much she had been.

[Lacey Mosley]

Giving Angela the entire time, either. That's how much she had been giving her or it's also like.

[Angela]

Like a new missing amount of money?

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, no, it's like a combination of, like, she. Angela's giving her the Getting the money, but also she's like the coins, the bank account access, the credit cards. Yeah. So inter chief Beth. Now, what I want to say, too, is, Peter, you a raggedy bitch. Because if you knew your sister was getting robbed like this, like, why wouldn't you call the authorities sooner? Like, why would you let her get where she couldn't pay her light bill?

[Angela]

Right.

[Lacey Mosley]

It just feels like we should have stepped in before that. Especially if you could see that she was hemorrhaging money.

[Angela]

Yeah, Agreed.

[Lacey Mosley]

So inter chief Beth. Soon after, Vera's family hired a caretaker for her named Beth Toomey. Okay. Beth said, I'm gonna get that money to me. I'm gonna get it to you. So Beth was actually a former police chief. And Detective Slavin. Sean. Detective Sean's former. So Beth hadn't been in the game for a while.

[Angela]

She's a caretaker now, but she's also.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, Beth was chief. Beth is getting involved. So this is somebody else in law enforcement.

[Angela]

This is not. Okay. This is a different person. This is the caretaker.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, this is Beth, who's a former police chief, and she used to be Detective Sean's former boss. So after spending time with Beth, Vera began waking up to the fact that her relationship was unhealthy. For Vera's protection, Beth also moved to into Vera's house, unsure of what Angela would do to protect her stolen fortune. Now, Beth, you're not a police chief anymore, right?

[Angela]

She coming out of retirement to do this. Like, what is she doing?

[Lacey Mosley]

So, Beth, it feels like you was also just trying to go on vacation. You was like, okay, you know what I'm gonna do, girl? I'm gonna move into your house.

[Angela]

I'm gonna move in here.

[Lacey Mosley]

In Martha's video, you know how the police be moving into your house. I'm gonna move into your house. And then my family gonna put my eye on vacation here sometimes. But it's really just to be vigilant for.

[Angela]

I just want to make sure Angela's not doing nothing.

[Lacey Mosley]

So what's this guest room talking about? Let me get in there and just protect you.

[Angela]

And what, is there a pool here? Can I use?

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, yeah. I'mma protect you in the pool as well.

[Angela]

I'm going to be looking outside.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay. Is that a dry sauna? I'm going to protect you in there as well. I will also be in there protecting you. Okay? Was that that nice fridge with the. With the four compart? Yeah, I'm going. Go ahead and load that up with protection food since I'm going be here, so. So Angela fought like a parasite. She told Vera that they had work to do, that Vera should move to Florida, and that Vera still owed her money. This is Angela being like, we still have work to do. I know them demons still pulling up. I know they still know the address of your mind. What do you want to do now?

[Angela]

You still owe me some money too, Angela.

[Lacey Mosley]

Can't you just let a grift go? I feel like if I show up and the police are there, I'mma just be like, oh, my God, wrong house.

[Angela]

I'm like, you know what, Vera? I don't feel that heaviness anymore. It's a miracle. The weight has lifted. The demons are gone. Like, ooh, no more.

[Lacey Mosley]

That was the last demon. I worked with her. I wouldn't even admit that I worked with her. I'd have been like, my name is Sally, and I actually have. Where did I get. How did I get here? Hello. I done walked into the wrong house. Let me get on my plane, child. Goodbye.

[Angela]

You did it.

[Lacey Mosley]

So after seven years, the relationship between the heiress and the psychic parasite ended. Unfortunately, Vera was never able to fully enjoy her Martha Vineyard home, as not long after all of this, she had to move into assisted living facilities. I know. So by April 2015, though, Vera and Angela's relationship was severed. Detective Shawn was struggling to build a criminal case. He even got in touch with the FB and I, who advised that the FB and the I couldn't go after cases of psychic fraud because technically, it's a real service that was provided. However they could. Could go after cases of massive tax fraud. Didn't we say that earlier? We said if she wrote down that it was a gift, Uncle Sam was gonna be like, we like gifts. Right? About that gift, about them presents. Okay, it's us, which only you. What does he say? I choose you. What does Uncle Sam say anyway? He be choosing all of us, and we have no choice in the matter. Yeah, he just points at people in that hat and he's like, you give me money because.

[Angela]

Because he.

[Lacey Mosley]

Uncle Sam is ruthless. I still remember, and I think I've said this on the podcast, when they came after everybody who got that car on Oprah, when Oprah was like, you get a car, you get a car, you get a car. And it was all these teachers who were, like, making, like, the worst salaries and, like, really needed These cars. And they were so excited. Uncle Sam came after them so fucking hard body and was like, either you got seven grand or we need a car.

[Angela]

Get that car back.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, we're in a car back. So they don't care. So they was gonna get her also. The FA B in the eye is so lazy. They was like, do you have a case? Well, then don't call us. We don't do investigations. That's not really.

[Angela]

Not spiritual practice.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, that's not our bag. So going through her payments, the authorities discovered that Angela had neglected to pay $750,000 in taxes.

[Angela]

Woo. Dang, Angie.

[Lacey Mosley]

Angie. Dang, Angie. They got you on the list. It's not Angie's list anymore. You own it. So at her court sentencing, though she admitted to the taxes, she maintained, I would never do anything deceitful to anybody. There is nobody that I would ever take for granted Now. Now, Angie, sadly, we know you lying, but listen, you were trained up as a child at 8 years old that this was your profession and that this is you helping people. And I think you might have genuinely believed that you was out here slap boxing them demons for very.

[Angela]

You know, Angie did not believe she was doing no healing.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know. Said they were talking a lot.

[Eric Mosley]

She had the crystals.

[Lacey Mosley]

She was flying in and flying out.

[Angela]

Not when her mama is known now. She grew up. This is like.

[Lacey Mosley]

But that's how she grew up.

[Angela]

You think they actually thought that they were really healing people?

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't think maybe the elders did, but if I grew up and at 8 years old, they took me out of school and were like, you have a gift. And now. And I. I would believe that, you know, when people told me that I was funny and then at some point or something, I was like, wow, you know, maybe I really can.

[Angela]

Yeah. And then at some point, you real like, oh, I'm actually extorting people. Let me tell her to sign, not to talk to nobody, not to like, let me isolate her. Like, Angie was. Knew what she was doing. That's why she kept that story and why she was being combative with the police when they were asking her. She knew what she was doing.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, Angie, you probably did.

[Angela]

Angie knew what it was.

[Lacey Mosley]

She did.

[Angela]

She knew what it was when she.

[Lacey Mosley]

Was eight too, right?

[Angela]

Eight year olds know you can't get your lesson anymore. You're not going to the schoolhouse. I'm teaching you how to be a scam.

[Lacey Mosley]

Right? And you probably did know, because 8 year olds are smart. I'm gonna give 8 year olds more credit. They know when they get involved in crime, they be pickpocketing at that age. Okay. All of a twist in them. They know. They know what's up. So she was sentenced to 26 months in prison and required to pay restitution of $725,912 to the IRS. And then she had to pay $3.5 million, basically to Vera. Now we know she ain't got 3.5 mil. She barely probably got the 75. And who gets paid first? The IRS or version Vera.

[Angela]

Right?

[Lacey Mosley]

It's giving. It's giving.

[Angela]

IRS, probably. And why does Vera need that money back? Like, what was the child. I want to know.

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, Vera is in the home now, but she might want to leave something to her kids.

[Angela]

It was a gift.

[Lacey Mosley]

A month after Angela was convicted, on February 8, 2018, Vera passed away at the age of 82.

[Angela]

Oh, RIP, RIP Vera.

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, in a way, Vera, you did get some friends.

[Angela]

She did.

[Lacey Mosley]

Angie was.

[Angela]

She ran her race.

[Lacey Mosley]

Thank you for being a scam, Angie. You know, in your golden age.

[Angela]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, but also, like, you did get robbed, Avera. And that's not right. That's not okay.

[Angela]

It wasn't. But she did have some companionship.

[Lacey Mosley]

She did. And some fun stories.

[Angela]

So we'll find the silver lining there.

[Lacey Mosley]

But, guys, we're gonna head into scammer of the week. I will find the silver lining.

[Angela]

The silver lining.

[Lacey Mosley]

Head into scammer of the week. Scammer of the week is where we highlight a charlatan who's worthy of our praise. Or maybe not. We'll see. Today we're talking about the wife of one former California state senator, Dan McCordale. Oh, these names, honey. Y' all got some names that be naming. So he's in. So the wife is in hot water after a Bay Area news organization discovered that she copied and pasted a chunk of her book from Wikipedia. I don't know. It's giving inspired. Wikipedia gets worked on by a lot of people. Who's to say?

[Angela]

What is she.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, we about to see what she copied, but I don't know. It's giving sheen. It's giving fashion Nova.

[Angela]

Okay, let's see.

[Lacey Mosley]

So. So Jean, who's on the left here, will post these photos, had been hired to write a book on Santa Clara county history. She was paid at least $2.45 million between 2009 and 2019 from grant applications and for the book. Now, that's a wild amount of money. Like, do people want to know about Santa Clara that bad.

[Angela]

That's a lot of money.

[Lacey Mosley]

Because my book deal ain't giving that. People want to know about Santa Clara. I'm about to write about Santa Clara, right?

[Angela]

Who do I need to. Never mind what city do I need to be writing about.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm writing about.

[Angela]

Let me tell y' all about Dallas, Texas, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm telling y' all about Fort Worth. Have y' all heard of Pleasant Girl? Bro, I'm about to write about that. Let me tell you about where I'm from, right? Have y' all been to Bushwick? I'mma write about that. Y' all want a book on that? So she was two years behind on the book when she turned in a 580 page manuscript. And when she did, it was discovered about one fifth of it was copied directly from Wikipedia. The History Channel, the Mercury News, the Washington Post county web pages, and other sources. About half of them without full footnotes, though Gene denies those portions were meant to be a part of the final copy. The project has been put on hold now. I don't know. Cause, okay, if you gonna write about Santa Clara, it's not like Jean was there for all of Santa Clara's city history. It's not like she was there at the cookout and the mayor parade.

[Angela]

But as a writer, you know, you need to cite your sources.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, yeah, yeah. You cite them. We cite. On this show always. But.

[Angela]

But that's the issue.

[Lacey Mosley]

She gathered all the information, though. Who? She's a content creator. She's a. What are those people called? She's a curator of the book.

[Angela]

She's a writer of the book. They pay her to write the book.

[Lacey Mosley]

She did write it.

[Angela]

She copied and pasted it and didn't cite the sources and played it like it was her work.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, but even when you copy and paste, you gotta go in and take out the little wiki footnotes. You gotta do a little bit of writing.

[Angela]

You said take out the footnote.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes.

[Angela]

That's not writing. You taking them out.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, but you ought to make it flow.

[Angela]

Clearly, she didn't make them flow. She just copied and pasted it. And that's how they found out.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm sure that they check. They run it through that thing before publishers, like, publish something to see if anything's been plagiarized or too much has been plagiarized to cover their own asses. They have lawyers for that.

[Angela]

But isn't that the scam, that she didn't. They didn't do it or did they do it?

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, it's giving content curator to me. I wouldn't have known where to find all these things about Santa Clara.

[Angela]

But even content creators gotta cite their sources.

[Lacey Mosley]

This is true.

[Angela]

It's giving scam to me. And that's why she's winning the scammer of the week. Look at you justifying this woman. This woman, her whole. Her whole book is copied and pasted. And you like. I mean, she curated this book about Santa Clara. Cause she wasn't there.

[Lacey Mosley]

It would be the first time somebody's done this. There's a very popular influencer. I'm not gonna say their name, but they have a pamphlet that they call it a book that they definitely Give. Printed at FedEx.

[Angela]

It's ebook.

[Lacey Mosley]

You know, they get it printed at FedEx. I feel like Judith just made a face like she probably knows who this is. But they get this pamphlet printed at FedEx and then they mail it out to people that's supposed to be, like, how to make money, how to manifest, like, one of those books that there's some empty pages where you write stuff down. But they stole this book completely from somebody's Tumblr account. Like, it's like word for word, bar for bar, somebody's Tumblr. But I don't think they're going to be able to stop. Stop this scammer.

[Angela]

Yeah, they can. That's their ip.

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, so it gets dicey on the Internet sometimes.

[Angela]

Well, you need to.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, I. Online.

[Angela]

No, you need to send a message and be like, hey, they got your stuff.

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, the girl, the. The person knows that they have their stuff and they were, like, tweeting about it. But I think that's where it ended with tweets.

[Angela]

Okay. I mean, I hope it was copyrighted or, I mean, trademarked or something.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't think so, because it was on Tumblr. But books can be vibes, you know? And who's to say, like, if I get on TikTok and I do a dance. Okay, if I do a dance that's already been done, I can't do the dance no more. But as a book.

[Angela]

I wish I could see how I'm looking at Lacey. Yeah. But as a book, if I do it, then no.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay. I can't be inspired by your website.

[Angela]

But as a book, you can. You can do the dance, but everybody knows it's a dance dance. Like, it's a trend, but you can't do the dance and be like, look at this dance I made up.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know. They'd be Doing it on Tick Tock.

[Angela]

Yeah. And then. And then they get played too, during the pandemic.

[Lacey Mosley]

They get rich first.

[Angela]

But, you know, they had all those.

[Lacey Mosley]

They get movie deals.

[Angela]

Black Tick Tock creators.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, they did, but they didn't. Black TikTok creators didn't get paid from that strike, but the white tiktokers who stole from them still do. I'm just saying. I don't know. Sometimes you don't get justice. Sometimes you gotta just be inspired and be thieving. No, I'm kidding. Don't thieve. Because actually, like, there's a whole network that literally tried to clone my podcast and, like, put out, like, ads for it and my friends sent it to me. Like. Or like auditions. Yeah, like, literally tried to clone my whole shit. You can't clone me, bitch. Okay? Can't, because I'm nuts. Not because I'm like the best. It's just because I'm unhinged. You can't replicate this amount of crazy if you tried.

[Angela]

Okay, Lacey's taking a short break. She's going back to college.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, and with that, guys, that brings us to the end of a fantastic. Come on, we are family. Okay, let me stop before slide right. We gotta mix it up. We always ask on this podcast. Eric, where would you like to be found?

[Angela]

I would like to be found on a black sand beach.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, my God. No one can ever just take this.

[Angela]

No, you can find me. It's the way you phrased it. You can find me at. On Instagram. E Moseley M O S L E Y. And if you're looking for yoga or consulting or any of those things, you can follow the page. Black Mat yoga.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes, a great page. Eric is really great at Instagram and I love looking at it. Just moisturized, beautiful black people being. Well, guys, as always, snitch on your friends and [e-mail] just make sure the scam is retired because we don't want to. What? Yes, fuck up your bag. And on that note, ladarious, that scam is not retired because we do not know what happened to Tracy. Don't leave her. So follow up the Darius, we need to know. And as for me. D I V A L A C I D valacy on all platforms. If you can find me on Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg are trying to tussle with me and on Twitter and everywhere else. And Lacy Mosley on TikTok. And season two of iCarly full season is streaming. Neil on Paramount. Plus I'll get into that congregation. Stay Angie ing Manifesting Abundance I manifest through lies, okay?

[Angela]

Through theft.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's my love language. Theft. All right, y'.

[Angela]

All.

[Lacey Mosley]

Bye bye. Scam Goddess this has been an Earwolf production in association with Team Coco. Scam got its stars and is hosted by me, Lacey Mosley. Ak, AKA Ski Em Goddess is produced by Judith Kargbo, engineered by Marina Paiz and researched by Kalen Brandt. Stay Scheming.

[D]

This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf. Now is your time to get into a new Dr. Horton home by taking advantage of their national red tag sales event, now extended through July 27th. 7th stop by any of their participating communities and find select red tag homes at incredible pricing. So whether you're buying your first home or looking for an upgrade, you don't want to miss the red tag sales event extended to July 27th. Discover the Dr. Horton Difference at Dr. Horton.com Dr. Horton America's Builder and Equal Housing Opportunity Builder. Hey there, it's Kelly Ripa. And if you've been listening to my podcast, we are knee deep in season three. And if you haven't heard it, it's time to get on board. After years of interviewing Cele on camera, I finally get to bring you the real conversations that take place when the cameras aren't rolling. Where else are you going to hear Michelle Obama talk about keeping her girls out of Page Six? Hilaria Baldwin's hilarious reaction to Alec running for office? Or Jeremy Renner's lucid hallucinations about Jamie Foxx? Nowhere else. It's raw, it's honest, and best of all, it's off camera. And believe me, that's where you get the good stuff.

[Angela]

Stuff.

[D]

So download. Let's talk off camera with Kelly Rippa now. Wherever you get your podcasts.