The College Admissions Con Men with Jojo Gibbs

Summary

Scam Goddess Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: The College Admissions Con Men with JoJo Gibbs

Host: Laci Mosley
Guest: JoJo Gibbs
Release Date: May 12, 2020
Theme: A hilarious, incisive breakdown of scams both petty and infamous, culminating in an extensive, comedic deep dive into the notorious college admissions scandal, plus reflections on package scams and the quirks of courtside ticket fraud.

---

Episode Overview

This episode of Scam Goddess centers on the infamous college admissions scam—familiarly known as "Operation Varsity Blues"—that revealed just how far wealthy parents, college coaches, and consultants would go to buy college acceptances for unqualified students. Host Laci Mosley and her guest, actor-comedian JoJo Gibbs, bring trademark wit as they dissect both the mechanics and the cultural fallout of the scandal, while also riffing on everyday hustles, Amazon package scams, and inventive ticket grifts.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Scam Stories & Everyday Hustles

• The episode opens with playful banter about "everyday scams"—from getting soda in a water cup (01:10), to fast food chicken culture, to Laci's own experience scamming a severance payout from a restaurant job (06:13).
  • Notable Quote:
    Laci Mosley: “I scammed $12,000 from them. It really jump started my acting career.” (06:13)

2. "What's Hot & Fraud" – Amazon Package Delivery Scam (08:36)

• Laci describes a scam where people receive random Amazon packages that they didn’t order, which turns out to be part of a fake review scheme. Sellers send unordered items to real addresses to write 5-star reviews and boost product rankings (13:04).
  • Notable Quote:
    JoJo Gibbs: “I would personally like to be targeted; let it flow.” (10:16)
  • Discussion of Amazon worker exploitation and how “free” products may not be so victimless (11:51).
  • Tips for package-theft prevention: sending packages to work, using a doorman service, disabling geolocation, and setting up home security cameras.

3. Historic Hoodwinks: The College Admissions Scam (19:38)

• Masterminds Identified:
  The con was orchestrated by William “Rick” Singer, Mark Riddle, and Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith, using a “side door” into elite schools for a mere $500,000 versus multi-million-dollar legal donations (21:59).

  • Notable Quote:
    Laci Mosley: “This is like the discounted version. Because if you give a donation to a school, you usually have to shell out a few million, but this way, you get to shell out a bit less.” (21:41)

• How it Worked:

  • Singer ran a college consulting firm, The Key, and funneled money through a fake “charity” for laundering bribes.
  • Two main strategies:
    1. Cheating on standardized tests by having Mark Riddle, a Harvard grad, take SAT/ACT exams for students, sometimes mimicking their handwriting (27:36).
       • “He’d be like, ‘We want a 34 out of 36.’ ‘Oh, okay, I'm gonna do that.’” (27:50)
    2. Bribing coaches (notably Meredith at Yale) to recruit non-athletes as varsity prospects, often inventing fake sports backgrounds and using Photoshopped images (33:16; 43:16).
  • Notable Conversation:
    JoJo Gibbs debates the price for cheating as a teacher: “I need 500,000” (26:18), to which Laci replies, “These teachers were doing it for a lot cheaper … $5,000.” (26:39)

• Cultural Context & Satire:

  • Both hosts riff on the absurdity of white students being passed off as Chinese athletic stars, and the foolishness of rich parents paying millions for unqualified children’s Ivy League slots (33:31).
  • Laci’s takedown: “If you’ve got $1.2 million and your kid’s a dud … maybe let’s get this kid in the vocational program. Plumbing is an industry that will never die!” (35:19)
  • Mockery of the greed that caused Meredith to cut out Singer, leading him directly into an FBI sting (37:32).

• Operation Varsity Blues Fallout:

  • Immediate snitching as defendants rushed to cooperate and reduce sentences (41:05).
  • Laci’s tongue-in-cheek jail predictions for celebrities: Felicity Huffman’s “14 days—she’ll be in there crocheting, probably at Martha Stewart’s bunk” (41:32).
  • Photoshop and international claims used to fake athletic backgrounds, rarely checked (43:16).

• Reflection:

  • Laci: “Whenever there’s a hole in a system, there’s always gonna be a scammer who figures it out … [Singer] started because he was actually running a school … ooh, there’s a side door that could be explored.” (43:49)
  • Both warn: don’t get greedy, that’s when it all falls apart (45:08).

4. Scammer of the Week: Sneaking Courtside at Warriors Games (45:40)

• Profile of Trevor Laub, who snuck into courtside seats for Golden State Warriors games by buying cheap ticket barcodes and Photoshopping fake courtside seats. He then exposed himself in a viral YouTube video.
  • How: Bought cheapest ticket for entry, then created fake screenshots for courtside seats and avoided barcode scans at actual seating.
  • Memorable Moments:
    Laci: “If you have a scam, don’t tell anybody, don’t get on here and snitch on yourself. That is counterintuitive.” (46:21) JoJo: “Who would want the anxiety of waiting for somebody to show up to those seats?” (50:06) Laci: “Tickets to see the Golden State Warriors range from $6,000 to $27,000. $30,000 to watch basketball—that is a scam in itself.” (52:13)
  • The pair discuss race, privilege, and how Laub’s unremarkable appearance aided his scam. “That’s the face of a scammer. You can’t have any distinguishing features.” (56:10)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “If you got a package and my name’s on it … no, then I just got some packages and I’m gonna look the other way.”
  – Laci Mosley on Amazon package scam (09:29)

• “Everything’s bad. Honestly, if we were just to stop supporting everything that was fucked up, we wouldn’t be able to wear zippers.”
  – Laci Mosley, on ethical consumption (19:29)

• “Who is stealing my eyeballs?”
  – Laci Mosley, describing repeated thefts of her contact lenses (14:12)

• “If a scam is working, you gotta just let it play out. Don’t try to get greedy, that’s when every single scam gets caught.”
  – Laci Mosley (45:07)

• “Don’t try to scam the way other people scam … you scam the way you need to scam in life.”
  – Laci Mosley (56:13)

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

| Time | Segment | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Opening banter, intro of JoJo Gibbs | | 06:13 | Laci’s $12,000 severance scam story | | 08:36 | "What's Hot & Fraud": Amazon package scam | | 19:38 | College Admissions Scandal - main analysis begins | | 26:18 | JoJo debates how much it would take to cheat as proctor | | 33:16 | Fake international sports recruits, Photoshopping | | 37:32 | Meredith’s botched betrayal and FBI sting | | 41:32 | Operation Varsity Blues & sentencing satire | | 43:16 | How the “fake athletic profile” scam worked | | 45:40 | "Scammer of the Week": Warriors courtside ticket scam| | 52:13 | Price of NBA courtside seats ridiculed | | 56:10 | The importance of forgettable looks in scamming |

---

Tone & Style

The tone throughout is irreverent, energetic, and biting—Mosley and Gibbs riff freely, jumping from pop culture to systemic critique with ease, roasting scammers, cluelessly complicit parents, and the brass tacks of everyday hustles. The episode is brisk, packed with hilarious asides, indignant social commentary, and playful self-disclosure.

---

Final Takeaways

• Scamming is not always as glamorous or victimless as it seems; even “harmless” hustles have unexpected impacts.
• Privilege (racial, class, or otherwise) enables certain scams to thrive and go undetected longer.
• Greed and clout-chasing almost always bring a successful scam to ruin—retire while you’re ahead!
• Scam wisely: Find what fits you, don’t blow up your own spot, and never try to outscam your own co-conspirators.

---

For guest info, follow JoJo Gibbs on Instagram (@jojotgibbs), and for future scams or stories, find Laci Mosley at @divalacey and the show @ScamGoddessPod.

Transcript

[Lacey Moseley]

Scams C. Robbery and Fraud. Scams CA Robbery and Fraud. Scam Goddess.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Hello.

[Lacey Moseley]

Welcome Conregation to another episode of Scam Goddess. It's me, your host, Diva Lacey, AKA Scam Goddess. AKA that was my Instagram handle. W. My name is Lacey Moseley. I'm now going by my Instagram handle. Guys, every scammer's gotta change their alias every now and then. Guys, I'm so excited to introduce our amazing, hilarious guest today. We have Ms. JoJo Gibbs. You may have seen her on Good Trouble. She has her own show coming out called 20s on BET. Do you know. Do you have a release date on that?

[JoJo Gibbs]

No, we don't have a release date yet.

[Lacey Moseley]

Tbd. We'll put that in the notes, guys. But, Jojo, what's your relationship with Scams Scams?

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know, we run scams every day.

[Lacey Moseley]

Every day?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Every day. Well, today, I don't know. I got some soda in a water cup. You know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

Wait, from where?

[JoJo Gibbs]

It's like Jollibee. I went to Jollibee for the first time.

[Lacey Moseley]

What the hell is Jollibee?

[JoJo Gibbs]

It's this fried chicken spot. I think it's in Asia. I don't know, but a lot of Asians like to eat it, from what I can tell.

[Lacey Moseley]

Okay.

[JoJo Gibbs]

And I know that it's. It's some good ass fried chicken. Oh, okay. I think the spicy probably would have been better than the regular, but I had the regular. But it was.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah, I feel like I always go for the spicy.

[JoJo Gibbs]

I needed some hot sauce.

[Lacey Moseley]

I had the Popeyes chicken sandwich before it was discontinued.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Me too.

[Lacey Moseley]

And it was.

[JoJo Gibbs]

What'd you think?

[Lacey Moseley]

It was pretty fire.

[JoJo Gibbs]

It was. Oh, my gosh.

[Lacey Moseley]

I'm really upset with Chick Fil A. Cause I was like, y' all just gon. I mean, with Popeyes. Cause I was like, y' all just gonna let homophobia win like that? Here we all were, like, ready to end it, you know what I'm saying?

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know what I mean? But I'm low key scared to try it when they bring it back out. Cause I'm like, now they hip to the wave, you know what I'm saying? Now I don't know where the hell they gonna be getting this chicken from, you know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

In the same place they been getting all the other.

[JoJo Gibbs]

But now they gonna overload on chicken, you know what I'm saying? And they probably gonna add me. I don't know.

[Lacey Moseley]

I feel like it's just gonna be the same steroided up Birds.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You might be right.

[Lacey Moseley]

The same prison birds with, you know, five muscles on top of each other just cock diesel birds.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Cock diesel birds, right?

[Lacey Moseley]

Juiced up, hormoned up. I don't care. I'm still eating that chicken. Delicious. So they wait. They're coming back.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You did chicken sandwiches? Yeah, they said they'd be back in October. I thought that's what I read on the side.

[Lacey Moseley]

I don't know, child. I heard that if you go in there with your own bread, I wish I was joking, but they were like, bring your own bread. I was like, I don't know if that was just one specific ratchet chain

[JoJo Gibbs]

or what, but that's a scam for real.

[Lacey Moseley]

Truly. I know. Why am I gonna pay you for a chicken sandwich? I gotta bring the bread. That is a scam right there.

[JoJo Gibbs]

That is.

[Lacey Moseley]

Y' all come to my restaurant, you do have to bring all of your own dish.

[JoJo Gibbs]

The thing is, the bread was the good part of it. You know what I'm saying? So it ain't gonna be the same.

[Lacey Moseley]

That toasted brioche?

[Producer/Interviewer]

Yes.

[JoJo Gibbs]

So y' all gonna toast my brioche if I bring that up in there?

[Lacey Moseley]

Oh, my God. Popeyes. Like, look, we do not get paid enough for this. Now people bringing in they own bread and we gotta toast they brioche. If I worked at Popeyes, I'd be beating everybody's ass. I hope that the workers at Popeyes were skimming all the cash off the top. I hope that you guys were getting yalls cut of that sandwich. Crazy.

[JoJo Gibbs]

They was working the hell out y'.

[Lacey Moseley]

All, right? Working y' all to death. And it's not like you get paid hourly. It's not like you get a bonus for however many chicken sandwiches you selling. However many niggas you gotta fight. It's not like, oh, you had to fight three negroes on World Star today. Okay, you get a bonus. Nah. Hell no. How many grannies you have to arm wrestle for that sandwich today? Okay, John, we're gonna give you a

[JoJo Gibbs]

bonus entitled to them chicken sandwiches.

[Lacey Moseley]

People are crazy also, like, the clout, like, industry is just like. It's very bizarre to me how deeply people are chasing, like, small amounts of Internet fame. Like, especially on Twitter, like, making those crazy ass videos and taking videos of all the Popeyes workers. I was like, this is so up. This is people's hourly job. Like, people used to work at Popeyes, where one, they were never nice. Have you seen those comedy videos about Popeyes?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yeah, of course. Popeyes versus.

[Lacey Moseley]

What do you want?

[JoJo Gibbs]

What do you want hurry the upper Popeyes? Go ahead.

[Lacey Moseley]

That is how they be Popeyes.

[JoJo Gibbs]

What? What?

[Lacey Moseley]

Like they always constantly annoy, like. Like they don't expect that you're gonna come to the restaurant chain for things. Hello?

[JoJo Gibbs]

What? The Popeyes I used to go to after I would get off work had a pre recorded message when you pulled up. No. And then I was like, why? Like y' all never answer after. You know what I'm saying? It make you think you supposed to order, but then you gotta go through the whole process again. Like, that's a scam.

[Lacey Moseley]

I stand by. Like, instead of getting better customer service, Popeyes is just like, we're gonna have a recording that sounds just like Chick Fil A. But then we're also not gonna serve you after. Hello, welcome to Popeyes. That's exactly.

[JoJo Gibbs]

It was Amanda, welcome to Popeyes. Thank you for.

[Lacey Moseley]

No, it was just somebody who had recordings.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Country ass. Yeah, he probably was.

[Lacey Moseley]

That ain't no corporate policy. Some n just did shit.

[JoJo Gibbs]

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.

[Lacey Moseley]

Oh my God.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Wow.

[JoJo Gibbs]

It was not at every Popeyes man. Since I done moved la. This is post graduate from college. I done had some minimum wage jobs and I done talk shit like, do you realize I can go anywhere and make the same amount of money you

[Lacey Moseley]

talking shit at a minimum wage job? The way that like corporate CEOs are like, did y' all see? Did y' all see the quarterly projections? Like that shit is up because of me. Do you realize I can work at any McDonald's in this city?

[JoJo Gibbs]

My nigga, like anywhere.

[Lacey Moseley]

Anywhere. I can flip a biker anyway.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You paying me minimum wage. You paying me the minimum, Okay? I can go anywhere. Cause everybody is required to pay that plex. I used to talk shit, but I never quit. I quit though. I quit even. I was let go of one job though.

[Lacey Moseley]

Okay, I was let go of one job too. And that ended up being a scam. I scammed $12,000 from them.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow. You wanna talk about that?

[Lacey Moseley]

It really jump started my acting career. Cause it was like I was working at this restaurant. I won't say the name, but they just didn't know how to take care of like. So when you live in LA or any big city, there are certain restaurants and places where like once rich people get old and like they really don't have youth anymore. Like all they have is power. So rich people, a lot of them turn into these monsters. Especially at restaurants, because it's like, this is the only Thing we have left, like, I've lost all my value as a young, which that I don't think value and youth should be tied together. But a lot of people feel this way. So, like, they'll come in and they'll have, like, specific wants. They'll have one thing set up the same way. They want the same drink order. You know, if they're a regular, they want, like, all the special treatment, which is fine. I'm used to doing that. This restaurant was kind of, like, privately owned. Looked like it was being run well. But in the back, it was a shit show. The cooks were drunk. So one of the dessert cooks had just left for the night. And I had to make a creme brulee. And we were understaffed. And they sat somebody, and then the woman waited for like eight or nine minutes. And it wasn't my fault. Nobody told me they were there. I'm cooking in the kitchen. I'm definitely not supposed to be doing this. This is definitely breaking health codes, all types of laws. But, you know, I'm trying to. Trying to make it happen, right? So I bring out this dessert. I go to serve these people. I'm super nice to them the whole time, but they're obviously angry. Cause they had to wait and, like, whatever. So they wrote a letter to the owner of the restaurant, and he fired me. But since I didn't do anything wrong and the times that I had been late to work were never documented. Don't let anyone get anything in writing.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know what I'm saying? For real.

[Lacey Moseley]

So, like, they had nothing on me. So on paper, I had been a model employee. So they had to pay me like a severance.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy.

[Lacey Moseley]

And I rode on that.

[JoJo Gibbs]

That's the best come up pay.

[Lacey Moseley]

My rent was just active full time. It was a scam, truly.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Wow. Yo, I would have been pissed, people.

[Lacey Moseley]

Oh, they were mad. They were, like, reaching out to my other jobs. Because, like, what happened was, is I was only working there two days a week. But at my last job, I was working 45 hours a week, and I was making a lot of money. And since it happened in the same year, they had to pay me what I was making before.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

So I got a raise. Like, the entire.

[JoJo Gibbs]

The best come up. Damn.

[Lacey Moseley]

All right, let's get into it. What's hot and fried? So, Jojo, I'm gonna tell you and our listeners what's going on in the fry game right now. What you need to keep an eye out for, watch out for. Cause we don't want you getting involved in anyone's scams but ours. Truly, you know, if it's our scam, please get involved. But if it's not, then we're gonna help you. So what's hot and fraud right now is Amazon customers are the target of this relatively new package delivery scam. So this actually started pretty innocently for a couple named Michael and Kelly Galavin in Massachusetts. They kinda got just some random packages, but they were in their name. They got a phone charger, a hand warmer, showed up unannounced, and this is just stuff that they didn't order. So the couple called Amazon hoping to return the wayward packages. Which I was like, what? I'm sorry. If I get a package and my name's on it and I check my Amazon and it don't say I ordered nothing, they didn't charge nothing, no.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

Then I just got some packages and I'm gonna look the other way. Like, I'm not calling Amazon to be like, hey, guys, if my money's still there, right? As long as my money's there, I still got my money, then I ain't about to give y' all nothing back. But anyway, so these are, you know, Kelly and Michael. They're just nice, Massachusetts. Yeah. Evangelistic, probably, right? So they tried to return the packages and Amazon couldn't help them because there was no return address and there was no, like, tracking information on file for the package, basically. So they kept them. After that, more packages started to show up that they didn't order. Things like humidifiers, flashlights, Bluetooth, speakers, computer, vacuum cleaner, LED lights. And I was like, what is the scam here? Cause this sounds fantastic.

[JoJo Gibbs]

I would personally like to be targeted, let it flow.

[Lacey Moseley]

Like, I wanna be targeted in this. Who do I have to give my social to to have all these random packages coming to my house? Right, but you're allowed to keep packages that you didn't order if they come in your name. But it's not a victimless climb all the way. Cause as we know, Amazon is out here beating up their employees, making them shit in the street.

[JoJo Gibbs]

What?

[Lacey Moseley]

Oh, you haven't heard about Amazon's employees?

[JoJo Gibbs]

No.

[Lacey Moseley]

So, like, prime employees. So basically, Amazon's. Amazon's a huge scam. They have prime and next day and all these super fast ways for you to get your stuff.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Right?

[Lacey Moseley]

Have you ever noticed, like, oh, man, on Amazon, I can get things, like, very quickly? Yeah, yeah. It's because, like, people are, like, getting killed.

[JoJo Gibbs]

What you mean?

[Lacey Moseley]

Like, so Amazon route drivers have to make like time markers. Otherwise I think they don't get paid, some of them on these routes. What is it? What's the specific thing?

[Producer/Interviewer]

It's two things. One, they just have warehouses where like, every major city will have a couple different warehouses. So if you order something, like, I want something delivered tomorrow, like, they have people that will have to run across, like, you know, a half a mile wide warehouse to get you your like fucking toothbrush or whatever. Oh, that's also compounded with the fact that they do have, like delivery drivers that have to hit quotas and shit. So people will be like flying across the city to get something delivered.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yeah.

[Producer/Interviewer]

And like they get accidents and stuff.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, so they having car accidents because.

[Lacey Moseley]

Well, yeah, like there was a woman, an old woman, I think was killed by an Amazon delivery truck driver because he was trying to make his time. And then you're not allowed to go off route in these trucks. So there was like documented of a guy like shitting in the street. Cause he couldn't go off route to use a public restaurant.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, no.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yes.

[JoJo Gibbs]

It's terrible.

[Lacey Moseley]

So this isn't a completely victimless crime because like, it drives up the prices of packages and stuff like that. Because if stuff's like, lost, then, you know, somebody has to pay for it.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Right.

[Lacey Moseley]

Also, you don't know what's being sent to your house. So it could be like drugs, it could be like, you know, paraphernalia, whatever. So the thing that I thought was still cool about it though is I was like, I'm gonna get a bunch of free shit. Like, I would love to participate in this. But I guess the bad thing is that if you are targeted by this scam, it means that they probably already have your mailing information and your name and probably a little bit of your personal information. Cause that's how they're sending it to your house. So the reason that people are sending stuff to these people's house like this is because they're pretending. So sellers are pretending to be certified buyers and like ordering stuff and then writing fake reviews to boost their product. So essentially they lose a little bit of money ordering something, but they're getting to boost their reviews so that their thing goes to the top. And thus they make more money. Because people are more likely to just like click on one of the first four to five things that they see on Amazon than they are to, like scroll into.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know what I mean?

[Lacey Moseley]

Like, if you see something that's got great reviews and you need to hit, I'm not gonna If I go to humidifier, I'm not gonna read 12 pages of humidifiers and be like, oh, this one really warms the air.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Or this one, like, one with the best reviews.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah, Right. So that's what they're doing. And then that in turn drives up their sales.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

So they're losing a little bit on the front end to get a lot on the back end.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

But there are some ways that you can watch out for this scam. Personally, I would like to be involved in scam.

[JoJo Gibbs]

So they just sending them to random people.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah, right. I was like, this sounds great for me.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

I was like, I would love to be on the receiving end of this scam. However, they are also doing this sometimes because it's a great way to set up package scoops. So you start sending packages to somebody's house in the neighborhood that you know, and then you steal the packages from their door. Yeah.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow. Oh, wow. That's too much. Right.

[Lacey Moseley]

But here's some ways that you can prevent your own packages from getting taken. So get. You can get all permission to send all your packages to work. A lot of people do that. Like, if you get something important. Like, for a while, somebody was stealing my contacts.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, no.

[Lacey Moseley]

Somebody was stealing my eyeballs. And I was like, who the fuck needs my eyeballs? Like, I'm like, who out here trying to see what I see? Like, that's a weird thing to steal. Like, it's not consistently. Yeah, yeah. And it kept happening to the point where I had to start mailing my contacts to, like, a UPS ship center, which would caught me more so that I could go get them.

[JoJo Gibbs]

That's too much.

[Lacey Moseley]

But I want to know what was happening with them, because it was like, one time I found a box where had been just, like ravenously, like a little hole. Like a little rat went in with two fingers in the corner and ripped out the contacts and left the box. And I was like, who is doing this? So I figured it must have been homeless people. I didn't think about maybe, like, just

[JoJo Gibbs]

trying to see what's in the box, not even caring.

[Lacey Moseley]

No. I feel like the box says 1-800-contacts. Oh, so they know it's contact box.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Right. Okay, well, that's dumb, right? Yeah. Maybe they, you know, found they matching.

[Lacey Moseley]

They were like, close enough. These eyeballs are close enough. I'm about to put these in my head.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yeah. Turn up.

[Lacey Moseley]

So you can send it to a place that's safe, or you can ask a friend or Neighbor to receive your packages, boy. Oh, man, I wouldn't do that. I feel like that's the last time on my list. I don't got no neighbors who I trust whatsoever.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Nah. My old neighbor, if I got something in the mail, he would grab it or whatever, but it's like he would second guess whether or not he's gonna give it to me. Like, if I ain't asked, did you see a package get delivered? Then he wouldn't even mention it. You know what I'm saying? But if I said, james, did you see a package get delivered? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'mma go grab it. Wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

So he was thinking about stealing from you?

[JoJo Gibbs]

My. I mean, he might have. He didn't know my real name. You know what I'm saying? So he just was like, shit, is

[Lacey Moseley]

he in jail right now?

[JoJo Gibbs]

He is okay. As far as I know. As far As I know, JoJo and

[Lacey Moseley]

I are good friends. And I know about this neighbor.

[JoJo Gibbs]

He got picked up when I moved. He was in there, but he might be out now. I don't know. He had.

[Lacey Moseley]

Free my nigga James.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Free my nigga James.

[Lacey Moseley]

Also, you can. If a neighbor can't receive your packages, or if it's James who might steal them or might not, another option is available. Try a doorman. Doorman is a service that lets you arrange for packages to be held at a warehouse until you arrive home. So that's another way. This is another thing that they were saying is sometimes people hack into your phone and know when you've made orders and when you're expecting to receive a package. And then they'll pull up at your house and take your package.

[JoJo Gibbs]

That's so much.

[Lacey Moseley]

Look, scamming is a job. People act like, think scamming's easy, but you really gotta, like, you gotta know about route distribution. You practically have to work at FedEx to do this scam.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Truly.

[Lacey Moseley]

Or you can set up. So disable the geolocation on your smartphone so that thieves and other hackers won't be able to track your location and make it easier for them. And then also, you can set up a live recording video camera, which, I mean, video cameras is kinda like, gonna get robbed before you actually, like, right

[JoJo Gibbs]

now, you gotta hunt the motherfucker down. You know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

It's, like, taken. I have a special set of skills. I will get my weighted blanket back changed.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Like, how hard are you gonna go for this?

[Lacey Moseley]

I'm gonna go through the city neck chopping niggas like me. I'm neeson hitting everybody in the neck until I get my packages.

[JoJo Gibbs]

They should make color. Do they make color security cameras?

[Lacey Moseley]

What do you mean? Oh, like the surveillance footages and colors? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. The days of black and white security cams are pretty much over. Oh, o. Yeah. People are getting hd. It's like. It's like a goddamn movie.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You right. You right. They even make the kind that go in the. In the. In the ring.

[Lacey Moseley]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the doorbells. I like watching people's doorbell videos of, like, little kids, like, trying to sell candy. And then if you, like, don't come to the door, they're like, fuck you to the door. I was like, damn. Little kids, but also little kids. Your scam is up. We know you're not getting jerseys. We know your ass don't play football. None of y' all look athletic. Stop. Stop coming to me with that scam. Just tell me what you need the money for.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

For this inflated ass. Candy bars that you went home and printed out some rappers from your mama job.

[JoJo Gibbs]

It be grown N s now. Like, I was at Ralph's a couple weeks ago, and there was some grown ass motherfuckers in there talking about we raising money for jerseys. Really? Really? You just need to go on your own, my nigga. Like, just get it for your. Get you what you gotta get for just you.

[Lacey Moseley]

Is this, like, for a corporate retreat?

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know what I'm saying? I was just like, no.

[Lacey Moseley]

Y' all got a softball league at the job. Cause I don't understand you too grown to need a jersey.

[JoJo Gibbs]

I ain't gonna lie. I respect, like you said, all hustles and scams. And if you got the nerve to stand out there and ask people, then, you know, I kind of respect that.

[Lacey Moseley]

But jersey, I feel like if you can't afford a jersey, you a grown ass nigga. You gotta go shirts versus skins.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You don't got time to be playing basketball for real.

[Lacey Moseley]

Or y' all gotta get out there as skins, you know what I'm saying?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Or you need to be working Skins

[Lacey Moseley]

was the original jersey.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Or.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah, you probably should go try to make income. Yeah, Like, I'm like, no, you can still play basketball, but you just gotta take care.

[JoJo Gibbs]

No, homie, you need to go ahead.

[Lacey Moseley]

And that goes for everybody. You could do bras versus, I don't know, draws. Yeah, I don't know how women gonna do that.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, my.

[Lacey Moseley]

I guess it's only a solution for the men, but, yeah, so guys don't get your packages swapped.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You made me feel bad about Amazon. Now of course I want two day shipping.

[Lacey Moseley]

Listen, everything's bad. Honestly, if we were just to stop supporting everything that was fucked up, we wouldn't be able to wear zippers. So you gotta pick and choose your battles.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You do.

[Lacey Moseley]

Guys, we'll be right back after this. We break Scams C. All right, guys. And we're back. All right. This is my favorite segment of the show. You guys know Historic Hoodwinks. I am going to regale Jojo with a famous caper in this case. It is a very organized, multi level scheme that you guys know as the college admissions scam. But we're gonna spend a little time, like really diving into the minds of the people who made this. We've all talked about Aunt Becky and Felicity Huffman, but, like, what about the three white men who created this beautiful scam? How did it start? What are the parts? Here we go. So from 2011 to 2018, parents have paid a total of $25 million to William Singer, a college admissions consultant, in order to get them into top universities. Singer, along with a couple other key players, work to make students get high SAT ACT scores or get them recruited onto sports teams. Recruited is in quotes, William Rick Singer, Mark Riddle, and Rudolph Meredith. Rudolph Meredith is a scammer. Ass name. That don't even sound like his real name. He made that shit up. He was like, who my favorite reindeer? Rudolph. And then what, bitch broke my heart.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Meredith.

[Lacey Moseley]

That's my name. Rudolph Meredith. That ain't no fucking real name. Rudolph. So they're at the head of this scandal in which 33 parents are accused of using their wealth to help their children. As we've all kind of really, like heard about this, but I won't assume so if you haven't heard about this scam. Basically, rich people were paying to get their kids into school college, which still happens. It's like called donations, but this was like the discounted version. Because if you give a donation to a school, you usually have to shell out a few million, but this way you get to shell out bit less, you know what I mean? Like, relatively half a million dollars is a lot cheaper to get your kid into college than like donating a building, right? Which is legal. It's like legal to donate a building. It's not legal to do what they were doing. So one mastermind organized a scheme in many parts, funneling millions of dollars through a charity organization that was masquerading as their financial resource to keep this scam Afloat.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow.

[Producer/Interviewer]

Hmm.

[Lacey Moseley]

So one was the brains. So this was crazy to me is that there is no. At least proof that these men cheated to get these high scores on these sats and acts. There was actually just a guy who was super smart who would take the test. And this is Singer. So Singer was a central figure in this scene. Like, he was the one who started coordinating this. It always takes one scammer realizing there's a hole in the scene, and then you take advantage. Right? So he was the owner of a college counseling and prep business owned, known as the Key, and CEO of Key Worldwide foundation, the charity connected to it. And that charity is how they gonna get that money clean. So his plan had two major parts. Facilitating cheating on standardized tests, such as the ACT and the act, and then bribing college coaches and administrators to falsely designate the children as recruited athletes, even if they didn't play that Sport. So in June 2018, a conversation with one parent, he refers to his plan as a side door into college. So there's a front door, right? Which means that you get in on your own. The back door is through institutional advancement, which is like donating a building. Right. And it costs about, like, 10 times as much money than the side door. The side door is where you pay William Singer to get your kid into school, you know, or as I like, the window. Like, how many ways are there into this building?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Right? There's so many ways.

[Lacey Moseley]

Look, bro, we taking the air ducts.

[JoJo Gibbs]

How convenient do you want it to be, right?

[Lacey Moseley]

We taking the air duct. That's where they just put your name in the computer and don't nobody know how it got there. Or like, I guess the air duct would probably be, like, the dude who. You know, in college, there was always somebody who didn't actually go to the college but was around all the time.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yes.

[Lacey Moseley]

And you'd be like, he don't ever go to no classes. Like, he don't go here. Like, that's the air duct where you just, like.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Right. I was at first speaking for scad for.

[Lacey Moseley]

Right. You didn't go to scad. I always think that you went to scad, but you did go to scad. That's very funny. So, yeah, you did. The air duct, which is where you just come into school through the air pipes. You know what I mean? And you have a wonderful experience. You know, you can just go to classes. Like, they don't really be checking. Like, you really could go learn. Yeah. You could just go up in there. And if you go from the first Day on. Like, ain't nobody who gonna check you.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Nobody.

[Lacey Moseley]

Exactly. So if you want a free education,

[JoJo Gibbs]

especially if it's a public university, I'd be like, bitch, I pay taxes, right?

[Lacey Moseley]

Nah, I pay taxes. So you just helping yourself to some public education?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Public education? I don't get the degree. That's what they paying for. Shit.

[Lacey Moseley]

But you get the knowledge, though.

[JoJo Gibbs]

The knowledge is what's the most powerful thing. Word.

[Lacey Moseley]

I feel like, as long as you show up, like, close to the begin of the semester, why not?

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know what I'm saying? But anyway, I mean, every school got those students that don't come to the middle when they realize, shit, let me get my shit together.

[Lacey Moseley]

Or they, like, run out of money, but then they still be going to the classes. Cause they're like, I'll take the test, and then I'll pay the tuition, and then they'll give me the grade retroactively. I knew people who were doing that. Yeah. So this is the side door that Singer has convinced everyone is legitimate. So to conceal the payments, he or an employee directed parents to give the money to the Key Worldwide foundation as a charitable donation. Some of that money was then used to pay test administrators or coaches as part of the scheme. So you actually used to teach, right?

[JoJo Gibbs]

I was a substitute teacher.

[Lacey Moseley]

Did you ever have to administer any tests?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Mm, yeah, I had to create tests. You know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

If somebody came in and was like, I'll give you, like, how much money for you to walk out on the sats so that a grown man can come in and start doing answers for children?

[JoJo Gibbs]

What? She was talking about what?

[Lacey Moseley]

Like, how much money would you take? Like, if you were, like, proctoring the sat, how much would they need to bribe you with for you to be like, oh, I guess I need to go to the bathroom and not come back for three hours. I need to pee for three hours.

[JoJo Gibbs]

I guess it depends on the repercussions. Shit.

[Lacey Moseley]

But, like, starting price.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Uh, shit, I need 500,000.

[Lacey Moseley]

Wow. Okay. Okay. That's not. They were doing it for cheaper. These teachers were doing it for a lot cheaper.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Well, shit, how much they get?

[Lacey Moseley]

I don't know. $200 on some Takis. But teachers are underpaid. Teachers are underpaid.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You won't risk your income for no temporary unless you change.

[Lacey Moseley]

So they were bribed with $5,000.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Okay, that ain't even enough.

[Lacey Moseley]

You wouldn't take five grand.

[JoJo Gibbs]

No. To look.

[Lacey Moseley]

To turn one cheek.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You gotta be hungry. You gotta be starving. Five grand to potentially lose Your job. You can't. That's what.

[Lacey Moseley]

But like you said earlier, like, you can go get another job in this field. It's not minimum wage, but you can go get another job in this.

[JoJo Gibbs]

What if. But not if they can't call your previous employer and ask them why the hell you gotta let go.

[Lacey Moseley]

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You thought this through.

[Lacey Moseley]

Has someone tried to bribe you? Cause it sound like you had all these options like real lined up real quick.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You gotta think about the long game

[Lacey Moseley]

as a good scammer does.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yeah.

[Lacey Moseley]

So a test administrator would be bribed with $5,000 and then give the exam to Riddle who would take it to a hotel room. There's no allegation that Riddle stole the test answers or cheated to get the answers. He was just very smart and very good at taking these tests.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

Isn't that crazy? That is that he did not. Riddle didn't cheat. He literally. And he got paid $10,000. So his life was just taking these tests. He went to Harvard. Like, you know, he was just like a really brilliant person.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Taking the sats.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah, sats, acts. And it got to the point where he was like figuring out how to score the exact score that he needed to for people. So they'd be like, oh, we want him to get a 34 out of 36. Oh, okay, I'm gonna do that. Like he could get very close. Yeah. So he's a very talented man. He would even m mimic students handwriting. So there's an example of what one parent sent to Mark so that he could replicate the kid's handwriting. He says he has not great writing. Which Ardia was like this. You can't write either. Like this is typed. Right. I see why y' all need help. So basically, Riddle could also mimic students handwriting. So I have a copy of one of the parents emails, correspondence so that they could copy the student's handwriting. So basically the parent sent over a photo of their son's handwriting to be duplicated for the written essay portion of the SATs.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

And they have handwriting like a serial killer.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yeah. For real.

[Lacey Moseley]

I also write like a murderer. I do like my age change. I also clip out letters from nagging maybe? No. You saying bitch? No, I just write like a serial killer. It's not the nails. I've always been like this. I sent my mom a postcard the other day and she was like, I thought I had like a remedial. I was like, what is this?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Are you right handed?

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, that's interesting.

[Lacey Moseley]

Why is that interesting?

[JoJo Gibbs]

I don't know. You know, most.

[Lacey Moseley]

Are you left handed?

[JoJo Gibbs]

I'm right handed.

[Lacey Moseley]

Okay. I was about to say, you know, left handed people die sooner. Oh, they don't really. It's just there's less of them in the population. So the chicken scratch the student wrote was. To whom it may concern, this provides an example of my current writing style. Thank you for your attention. Thank you sincerely. And then whoever this little boy was, here's my thing. Why, like, and this ended up being evidence, right? Like, why would you send somebody a sample of your handwriting? Like, here is a sample of my handwriting, right? This is for plagiarism, Right. Thank you so much. Like, what are you doing?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Because they thought they were gonna get away with it. It felt. It felt irritating.

[Lacey Moseley]

But you can't even try, like, to, I don't know, be secretive about nothing.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

Like, you go, just like here is. Is things for scams, like, evidence. The envelope just says scams, sir. So Riddle also had a sharp eye for achieving specific sorts. What we talked about earlier, like, he could get a 33 perfectly. He could get a 35, you know, instead of getting a 36 on the acts. Like, he was really good at this. Riddle now has been suspended indefinitely as they're investigating this case. And Riddle actually has a statement, you know, when it all kind of started to fall apart. He says, I want to communicate to everyone that I'm profoundly sorry for the damage that I've done and the grief that I've caused those as a result of my needless actions, which, like, why even apologize, right? Like, you not sorry.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You not sorry. And I mean shit.

[Lacey Moseley]

So it's unclear how much money Riddle made taking these tests because it's not all documented, but prosecutors are seeking to recover around $450,000.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

Now, I would hope. Hope that Rudle made more than that. I would hope that 500 grand is just like a scrape in the barrel of, like, how much money he made. But if he was only getting 10,000 a test, but then how many tests was he taking?

[JoJo Gibbs]

But damn, that's like, you can. I mean, what, you gonna have the energy to take a test a day?

[Lacey Moseley]

I mean, I know that's a job, truly.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yeah. That's a mental. I mean, he's just smart. So after a while, I guess it was just like, you know, I just know these things.

[Lacey Moseley]

It's probably like work, word problems or puzzles. I mean, like, they can't be varying that shit up every year that much. It's still the Same basic knowledge. You have to have to go to college. So I'm sure it was like a little. It was like playing. I. I personally like to play spades online. And I love. I love I'm a spade style. And I have like, old men who send me, like, spades coins.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, my God.

[Lacey Moseley]

So that I can play more. It's not like real money, but it's money in the game.

[JoJo Gibbs]

And they'll be like, here you go, sugar.

[Lacey Moseley]

Like, I have spades sugar, dadd.

[JoJo Gibbs]

So funny.

[Lacey Moseley]

But yeah, I'd be on there just like, arguing with old people all the time. So, like, I could see if, like, I was entertained by taking tests. I could probably just take tests all day, you know, for 10 grand, at

[JoJo Gibbs]

least two a day, right?

[Lacey Moseley]

So one parent said that. Okay, so once parents paid Singer, then Riddle would take the SAT or the act. Then they would connect with a third accomplice, Rudy Meredith. So Meredith began conspiring with Singer in April of 2015. According to court documents, Rudolph Rudy Meredith, like I said again, fake name, had been a women's soccer coach at Yale since 1995. His job in the scam was to make it seem like the student was being recruited to the university soccer team. So Singer would send an email to an employee to create a fake athletic profile for the student. Singer told the employees to write the applicant had been on the Junior national development team in China, adding, we're saying she got hurt this past screen this past spring, so was not recruited till now as she got her release to play late summer. So one he's like saying, these people are from another country. Now my question is, these little white kids, so what? I don't understand how they were. Like, they just came from China and they were white. I feel like I'm a mean girl. Like, why are you white? Like, people just showing up from China, like, hey, I'm Chad. Yeah. No, I was in China. That's where I'm from. China Chad. China Chad. That's what they call me.

[JoJo Gibbs]

China Chad.

[Lacey Moseley]

So, like, I don't understand that. But also, like, they're doing this thing where they're saying, like, oh, okay, well, they got hurt past spring, so that's why they not playing. Like, so I guess you got to just show up in a neck brace, would be like, I'm a bend it like Beckham next term. Like, I don't know, child.

[JoJo Gibbs]

That's crazy.

[Lacey Moseley]

So then Singer would then send Meredith an athletic profile that falsely said the student was co captain of a popular soccer club in California. The document States. And Meredith told the admissions office that the student was actually a soccer recruit that facilitated her admission to Yale, even though she didn't play soccer. After the applicant was admitted, Singer mailed Meredith at the check for $400,000, money that was taken out of the charitable foundation, which we know is not actually for charity.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

But honestly, maybe, you know, who says I can't need charity?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Shit, for real?

[Lacey Moseley]

Yes, I can pay all my bills and I'm healthy, but, I mean, where does. Who gets to decide who's in need of charity, truly?

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

Aren't we all in need of charity?

[JoJo Gibbs]

We all in need of a little something, you know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

Relatively. I feel like this makes sense and is fine, so.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Man, that's a lie.

[Lacey Moseley]

So, yeah, it's like he was getting $400,000 a pop to get these students into Yale. In November 2017, a Yale applicant's parent agreed to pay $1.2 million to get their daughter into Yale. $1.2 million. It does not cost that much money to attend Yale for four years. Also, like, if you got $1.2 million and your kid's a dud and can't get into Yale, maybe, like, I get. Let's get this kid in the vocational program. How is he with a wrench? You know, plumbing is an industry that'll never die. Everyone shits.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Exactly.

[Lacey Moseley]

What about mortuaries? You really can't fuck it up too much. They're already dead. Like, let's get your kid in a career that they're going to thrive in. Like, why are you trying to, like, pay $1.2 million to put them in a, like, scam.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Failing situation?

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah, I mean, obviously they weren't smart enough to get in on their own, so.

[JoJo Gibbs]

And they probably won't even identify with the people who have gotten into that.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah, they would. Their parents have one point.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You. Right. They definitely gonna be popular everywhere they go.

[Lacey Moseley]

Right. They'll be just fine there. But it is like this class thing of, like, everyone always needs to have something that makes them feel better. So if it's like, everyone in your neighborhood or your area is rich, then what's the next best thing is, like, oh, Ivy League education and breeding, you know, pedigree. So people are paying millions. This is absolutely insane. Eventually, Meredith tried to cut Singer out of the deal and work directly with the wealthy parents. See, this is when it always gets dicey, when niggas get gre. So you was getting 400 grand a pop?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yes.

[Lacey Moseley]

And he was finding. So basically, Singer was finding the parents who needed the connection. And he was just the middleman. He was the plug. And Meredith actually had the plug to the school, while Riddle had the plug to the test. So technically, other than the connections that Singer had, they didn't need Singer. Singer was the middleman for all of this. So people were coming to Singer like, please, like, I need to get my baby into school, you know, so she can flex on YouTube and tell everybody how she don't want to. Want to actually go to school.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Right? Basically.

[Lacey Moseley]

Can you imagine going to jail for your ungrateful ass daughter who's like, I don't even wanna get a scar. I just wanna do Kickstowns, hang out on the superintendents. Yeah, it's not Superintendent, whatever the fuck. Provost, Counselor, whatever the fuck you call them.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Anyway, so hell no.

[Lacey Moseley]

Meredith is like trying to cut Singer out of the deal. Cause, like, we don't fucking need this dude, right? He's just like, I just get in touch with the wealthy parents myself. This one shit always get dicey. Everybody getting Greedy. So of 2018, he met with the father of a Yale applicant in a Boston hotel room. I love that all this is being done in hotel rooms. I want to know, what hotel is this? This is like a hotel 6. Are they leaving the light on for you? Are we in like this? Gotta be like a Ritz Carlton or something, right?

[JoJo Gibbs]

It's gotta be something like that, yeah.

[Lacey Moseley]

And so he. So Meredith met this father in a Boston hotel room, solicited the bribe for him, and in exchange for $450,000, Meredith said he would design the applicant as a women's soccer team recruit at Yale. The same thing he's been doing for a while. Meredith accepted $2,000 cash as a partial payment. At the meeting, he also told the father his bank account information and another 4,000 was wired to him days later. Meredith didn't know it, but the meeting was a setup. FBI agents were secretly recording it, and the $4,000 was sent under the FBI's control. So when Meredith tried to get greedy and get rid of Singer, the middleman, he ended up in a hotel room talking straight to wow, hey, this why you don't get rid of your middleman like you thought you thought you had it all figured out. But the middleman, I guess he probably knew these rich people. He was in these circles with these rich people and he knew who was who, but Merida didn't know. All he had was the plug. So he the whole bag up, going to the Feds Also, if I'm a pay. If I'm getting paid $450,000 total for something. Why am I taking a $2,000 deposit? That seems like not enough.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Not enough or I don't know.

[Lacey Moseley]

If you have half a million dollars. If you have $2,000, that's how you. That's not.

[JoJo Gibbs]

That's not equivalent.

[Lacey Moseley]

Like, if you give me $60,000, then I'm like, maybe I'll get my, you know, half a meal. But if you give me $2,000, you might not have the rest of that money.

[JoJo Gibbs]

No.

[Lacey Moseley]

And you gave me another 4,000. Why didn't you notice that? That was bizarre. You know what I mean? Like $6,000. Okay, we gonna pay you $450,000. We're gonna give you a $6,000 deposit over the next two weeks.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yo, it's terrible.

[Lacey Moseley]

Then half a million.

[JoJo Gibbs]

What?

[Lacey Moseley]

I wish that's how deposits work. Like, can I do my deposit on the house like that? I don't think you can do a deposit on the house like that.

[JoJo Gibbs]

I don't think so. Yeah.

[Lacey Moseley]

Oh, y' all buying a half a million dollar house. I'm Gonna put down $62. But I'm good for it, right?

[JoJo Gibbs]

I'm good for the rest, though.

[Lacey Moseley]

So this is how they get caught. Despite the incident, Meredith remained Yale's coach until November 2018. Yale president Peter Slovey said in a statement to the Yale community that he was profoundly dismayed and disturbed by the allegations. We do not believe that any member of Yale administration or staff other than the charge coach knew about the conspiracy. The university has cooperated fully in the investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case moves forward. I don't believe this. Somebody knew.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Lacey Moseley]

There's no way that you were making $450,000 a pop on these kids and saying that Chad is from China. Like, nobody else looked at Chad from China and was like, why does Chad have a neck brace on? And he's. He's white and he never played no soccer.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Right.

[Lacey Moseley]

And this happened multiple times where students would come in and wouldn't play no soccer. So I'm pretty sure other people knew.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Well, that's wild. I didn't know about all this.

[Lacey Moseley]

So a few fun facts is that the investigation into the conspiracy was nicknamed Operation Varsity Blues, which we. Right. Isn't that so. Like, they're making a movie out of this. Defendants chose to cooperate with the government because they could receive a significant reduction in their prison time. So immediately everybody dropped dime and, like, went to The Fed and just started tekashi ing it up. Just snitching, just snitching on everybody. I ain't do it. Meredith got in there and was like, I am also a 9 tre blunt started snitching on everybody and everything. Like, sir, we didn't ask you about any of that. You know what? I'll give it to you.

[JoJo Gibbs]

I'm gonna tell you, though, whatever it takes. So you see, I'm a stand up guy.

[Lacey Moseley]

So defendants recorded on calls included, obviously Felicity Huffman, who is going to jail for two weeks, former Pacific Investment managing Douglas Hodge Vintner Auden Hunas junior. I don't know who that is, but that's a very rich ass name. Like, your name's Vintner. All right.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Is it legit? Two weeks?

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah, she's going for 14 days.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

She's probably not gonna do all that time. She'll be in there crocheting, you know, probably at Martha Stewart's bunk. Like, that's just which I imagine Martha left it, like, expertly decorated.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure.

[Lacey Moseley]

We got like a breakfast nook and everything.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Martha having taken her shit with her, being like, nah, ain't nobody about to sell my shit.

[Lacey Moseley]

So. Singer pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy, and conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice in a federal court in Boston. His charity account, which contains $5.2 million, has been seized. So he lost all that coin.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

The scheme also includes, in addition, George Salsiado, the former UCLA men's soccer coach. Singer mailed him $100,000 check to pretend that a student was being recruited. Now, that's not as much as Meredith was making. Meredith was making about four times that. But, hey, I guess he was new in the game. So. Laura Yankee, a former USC assistant women's soccer coach, pled guilty to racketeering as well. Her main role in the scheme was to create fake athletic profiles that made children of wealthy parents look like talented athletes. She created a fake profile for Sui's son featuring a photo of a different person that described him as a top soccer player for two private clubs in Canada. So also, another good part of this bit is the private clubs or wherever they played soccer were always out of the country. So it's like, who? Go check me, boo? Like, who's gonna go to Canada and see if Chad, who also plays soccer in China, actually was performing anywhere? Like, no one's gonna check that. And I also love this because they were using Photoshop like these weren't even pictures of the actual students. They were photoshopping their heads on some more athletic bodies.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

And, like, photoshopping them in crew team photos. Like, it was wild.

[JoJo Gibbs]

So.

[Lacey Moseley]

But I love this scam so much because it's so American.

[JoJo Gibbs]

How did they have enough people to actually play on the team when it came time to play?

[Lacey Moseley]

Oh, because there would just be some random strenuous people. So these are just people who would come in and they'd be like, oh, Chad's neck actually never recovered, so he's actually gonna go join a frat and never play soccer again.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Wow. White privilege.

[Lacey Moseley]

I mean, truly white privilege in the deepest sense. But also, like, whenever there is a hole in a system, there's always gonna be a scammer who figures it out. Like, Singer, the main guy in this, who organized this, started because he was actually running a school and he has a book education, I believe he has a book, right, Cody, called Getting In. So he knows about this stuff. So it makes sense that he was like, ooh, there's a side door that could be explored. And that he would do this entire thing. But I also wonder what is his. Like, what's in his book? Like, if I bought Getting in, if I just go open it, it's gonna be like, send me a hundred thousand dollars. Like, it's gonna be like, cheat. Like, what is this book?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Actually, it's probably gonna be a lot of good shit, actually.

[Lacey Moseley]

But you think it's gonna be real advice, or do you think it's literally, like, that's how he was getting his message out. He was like, rich people buy my book and then flip to page 12.

[JoJo Gibbs]

True.

[Lacey Moseley]

Turn the book upside down. Use a magnify and a black light. Now this is where you send the bitcoin. Like, this is just a way for him to, like, reach out to everybody, right? But also, like, the only thing that bummed me about this scam was Meredith. Like, this could have kept going, but he tried to cut Singer out and get greedy. And that's how the fans caught him, right?

[JoJo Gibbs]

That's how it happens.

[Lacey Moseley]

If a scam is working, you know, you gotta just let it play out. Don't try to get greedy. That's when every single scam gets caught. So when they try to get a

[JoJo Gibbs]

little greedy, every movie ends that way.

[Lacey Moseley]

All right, guys, we're gonna take a little break. Robbery and fraud. And we're back, guys, with my Last and. Oh, gosh, I'm so sad that this is moving so quickly. Jojo. Our last Segment of the show, Scammer of the week.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Uh. Oh, yeah.

[Lacey Moseley]

So this is when we take time to honor, like, a brilliant charlatan who's, like, worthy of our praise this. This week is Trevor Laub, who is a brilliant but also dumb warriors fan who said he had a trick to getting courtside tickets for about 30 home games.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yes. So golden warriors fan Trevor Lobb had a wonderful grift going at the team's arena that allowed him to sneak courtside for games. And then last week, he revealed it to YouTubers. Now, I talk about this on the show all the time. If you got a scam, don't tell nobody. Don't tell nobody till you ret, like, don't get on here and snitch on yourself. That is counterintuitive.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, my goodness.

[Lacey Moseley]

Do we have a clip of this YouTube video? So that's him.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Dumb.

[Lacey Moseley]

He kind of looks like a thumb. Thanks for the seats. Says the video. See you next season. Welcome back to the channel. We have a very special video on store theme today. You might want to stick around. He's doing the YouTuber hands.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Right?

[Lacey Moseley]

But the title says it all. I'm sneaking courtside to every single Golden State warriors game of the 2018, 2019 season.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Okay, so he only gave himself a year to do it.

[Lacey Moseley]

Well, yeah, but he could have kept doing it.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yeah, that's true. But then, you know, like you said, people be wanting. They love their moment.

[Lacey Moseley]

Right. They want that clout. But it's like, wouldn't you rather have those tickets like, this seems like a good grift to have going.

[JoJo Gibbs]

True. What did he say? He said, how did he do it?

[Lacey Moseley]

So this is how he did it before the games. So he would buy the cheapest available ticket, and that's how he got in the building. That was his, like, pass to get in, which doesn't actually get you a seat in the bowl area with a

[JoJo Gibbs]

view of the game.

[Lacey Moseley]

It just gets you, like, into the arena.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

In theory, it exists so that you can show up and follow the games on the TVs.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Club area.

[Lacey Moseley]

So basically, you don't have a seat, but you can go to the club area and get a drink or get some food or be in the atmosphere. Yeah, be in the atmosphere. Which I didn't even know these existed, but I was like, hmm, fascinating. So before the game, Loub would check Ticketmaster to see which courtside seats were still for sale. Then he would use some rudimentary image editing. I told you, scammers, you have to Be good at Photoshop. If you haven't taken a Photoshop class, if you don't know how to make a magazine cover, then there's no future for you in scamming. You have to know these things, guys. So then he would use some image editing to modify that ticket so that it listed a vacant courtside seat instead, instead of the actual depressing seat in the club area. So a screenshot of that fake ticket was all he needed for the second phase of his scam. To get into the building, he used the barcode from the actual ticket that he purchased. Once inside, he walked to the courtside section, presented a screenshot of a completely made up ticket that listed a vacant seat, and then he sat down to enjoy the game.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

As Lob tells it, there was no second round of barcode scanning at the actual seat. Maybe wealthy ticket holders find that practice offensive, which makes sense. Like, if I was rich as hell, I got courtside tickets. You not about to be.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Keep checking my.

[Lacey Moseley]

No, Absolutely not.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Nah.

[Lacey Moseley]

Hell, I'm Beyonce, right?

[JoJo Gibbs]

The fuck.

[Lacey Moseley]

I don't even show tickets. I show up as Beyonce. I physically am the ticket.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Truly. Truly. Who gonna stop Beyonce? Who gonna be like, miss.

[Lacey Moseley]

From going anywhere?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Miss, excuse me, Somebody will knock your ass out, right?

[Lacey Moseley]

Literally, Beyonce can go wherever she wants. She could go into the announcer booth and they're like, I don't. I guess she's announcing it now. Listen, I'm out of a job. True. Like, Beyonce is the ticket. She don'. Need a ticket. So this makes sense that once you get in there, they don't scan it anymore. Because wealthy people do find stuff like that offensive. I do, too.

[JoJo Gibbs]

I would too. Shit.

[Lacey Moseley]

So in the description in the video, he pays tribute to the mystery person who made it all possible. Shout out to the real mvp, the rich motherfucker who had season tickets to two seats. I sat in every game, and he only showed up to, like, four games the entire season. I appreciate.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Appreciate you.

[Lacey Moseley]

So he also targeted somebody, I guess, who had season tickets but wasn't showing up to the game. So he was consistently sitting in this person's seats. Now, what's crazy is, is that they don't know if you have season tickets, like, who you are, right?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Or like, my nigga, you. Are you not nervous? Do you go at a particular. Do you go after you wait maybe like, 15 minutes and be like, all right, he ain't there yet. You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna go down, right? But, like, who would want the anxiety of waiting for Somebody to show up and see if that's. You know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

Well, that's like a little bit of the high, I guess. Ooh, am I gonna get caught today? Or how many of these free casamigos can I get? I'm drinking casamigos with George Clooney.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean?

[Lacey Moseley]

Like, he's like, how long can I make this con work? And, I mean, he did it for a year. In fact, he could have kept going. He told on himself.

[JoJo Gibbs]

He did. That was dumb.

[Lacey Moseley]

And also, I'm like, why were you telling yourself, because now it's gonna be so much harder to do this. If anybody can even do this anymore. They probably got all types of precautions now to make sure your ass don't.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, for sure.

[Lacey Moseley]

But it's also very easy to scam alone. Like, that's another thing is, like, the more people you scam with, the harder it is. Like, you need to scam by yourself. Yeah, exactly. I don't know if I want to go to warriors games alone, right?

[JoJo Gibbs]

I mean, consistently. Some people just want to be, like, you said, in the environment.

[Lacey Moseley]

Shit, right? When you get high, high off of the trickery. It's wild to me, though. Cause I'm like, so you showing up, checking to see what seats are available, then you're doing Photoshop on your phone, in your car, then you're coming in. That's a lot. It is.

[JoJo Gibbs]

That's a fucking lot.

[Lacey Moseley]

But how much are those tickets?

[JoJo Gibbs]

I wonder how much the tickets were to courtside.

[Lacey Moseley]

Golden State Warriors.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Oh, yeah. They taxing. Depending on the game. I wonder how much it is to just come in there and just chill, you know what I'm saying? Like, how much much he paid for that initial ticket.

[Lacey Moseley]

So a ticket on the floor went for about $12,000. So he was technically saving 12 grand.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yeah, he was saving. I wonder, though, if he can be charged with anything. Like, I know it ain't that serious.

[Lacey Moseley]

No, I don't. I don't think it's that serious. Okay, so it says, tickets to see the Golden State State warriors range in price from $6,000.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Whoa.

[Lacey Moseley]

From $6,000 to $27,000, depending on your budget and where you would like to sit. $30,000 to watch basketball.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yeah.

[Lacey Moseley]

That is a scam in itself.

[JoJo Gibbs]

It's a scam.

[Lacey Moseley]

That is a beautiful scam

[JoJo Gibbs]

with that

[Lacey Moseley]

money shout out to him, but also not shout out to him, because he should have kept this shit to himself. He. He attended 32 games last season, 29 of them courtside.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Wow.

[Lacey Moseley]

So at that point, it was probably. He was flexing his damn self. He was showing up like, hey, y' all got my seat warmed up, right?

[JoJo Gibbs]

At this point, he bored.

[Lacey Moseley]

Tell Clooney to pour up the Casamigos. No, no, no. I don't want the server to get it. I want George Clooney to come personally pour me a glass of his tequila.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Thank you. Did he drink some of the Casamigos with George Clooney? No.

[Lacey Moseley]

You just saying that.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Okay. Shit. I aspire to one day.

[Lacey Moseley]

But, like, he did this for so long that I bet you those people knew him and thought that he owned those seats, which I think is just like. Also, he looked hella bummy, though. I'm like, you were just going courtside looking like that. But also, rich people look homeless a lot.

[JoJo Gibbs]

A lot. For real. It's like, money, no money type look, Right? I don't know.

[Lacey Moseley]

This also just worked because he was a black man. I feel like a white man. I feel like if I had walked my black ass up in there, they would have frisked me every time and check my booty hole before they let me sit in that seat. I'd be like, ma', am, I'm here for my courtside seats. They're like, who are you, ma'?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Am? But they might have thought you were somebody who plays a relative.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah, but the thoughts don't be sitting on courtside. The thoughts be sitting in that middle range area.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You right?

[Lacey Moseley]

You know what I mean? They don't be saying courtside. That's like, you gotta be a wife of one of the star players to sing courtside.

[JoJo Gibbs]

You do?

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah. They probably Gabrielle Union.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Right?

[Lacey Moseley]

Exactly. You gotta be Gabrielle Union. You gotta be Beyonce. I feel like I would go and every single time, they'd be like, okay, great, this is your ticket. Okay.

[JoJo Gibbs]

We'll just scan it.

[Lacey Moseley]

Okay. If you don't mind opening your booty hole real quick, we're just gonna take a look around. I'm like, really? That's the policy. Like, on the court. Like, on the court, I have to drop my pants and open my booty hole up. And they're like, yep, this is what we do to everyone.

[JoJo Gibbs]

This is what we do.

[Lacey Moseley]

Now take a photo.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Okay.

[Lacey Moseley]

And now a photo of your booty hole. Okay, great. Yeah. Enjoy the time. So, like, there is a bit of privilege of being able to walk through here and do this.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Yeah. Do you think that dude was white? He looked like, you know, other. I don't know. Other.

[Lacey Moseley]

He.

[JoJo Gibbs]

I don't know. You know what I'm saying? Ambiguous. He. He looked like he has.

[Lacey Moseley]

I couldn't tell. He was in a car. The car was kind of dark. I just assumed he was white.

[JoJo Gibbs]

I don't know. I don't know. He look a little. Yeah, he look a little Hispanic.

[Lacey Moseley]

All right. We can't tell that from the photo.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Hey,

[Lacey Moseley]

look, I don't want to be problematic. I don't know this man's race. You're right, it is a little hard. I'm gonna say questionable.

[JoJo Gibbs]

He's ambiguous.

[Lacey Moseley]

We'll just leave it as ambiguous. But certainly not black presenting at least.

[JoJo Gibbs]

No, for sure.

[Lacey Moseley]

And he's the type of person that can just.

[JoJo Gibbs]

He can go unnoticed. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

[Lacey Moseley]

He has a face that you would forget. Earlier, I said he looks like a thumb. Like, he's got that kind of face that, like, if he robbed me, like, he could hit me over the head. You said he looked like a thumb. He could literally be like, see that shit now? He could be like, my name is Trevor Lobb and stare at me for 30 seconds and then leave. And I would be like. I don't know. I would be like that Keke Palmer video and be like, I don't. Sorry to this man. I don't know who this. I could spend weeks with this man. I could go to a cabin in the woods and be with this man for a solid three weeks and then see him on the street and not know who he was.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Geez.

[Lacey Moseley]

He is so. He has the most forgettable face. I love it. That's the face of a scammer. Like, you can't have any distinguishing features.

[JoJo Gibbs]

That's the problem with scams, though. Everything ain't gonna work for everybody. You know what I'm saying?

[Lacey Moseley]

That's very true. You gotta find the scam that works for you. That's another thing, guys. It's just like everything else in life. You have to find what works for you. Ok? Don't try to scam the way other people scam. You know what I mean? Don't look at other people's scams and get jealous. Like you scam the way that you need to scam in life.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Exactly. And at your levels.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yeah. Don't try to rise above your level like Meredith did. Tried to rise above his pay grade and got everybody in trouble with the feds. Right? So stay in your lane.

[JoJo Gibbs]

Stay in your lane.

[Lacey Moseley]

All right, congregation, that brings us to the end of another episode of Scam Goddess. Where can we find you, Jojo, where do you want to be found?

[JoJo Gibbs]

Well, I am on. I'm not on Twitter. However, you can find me on Instagram. Ojotgibbs J O J O T G I B B S And yeah, just, you know, that's about it pretty much. Yeah.

[Lacey Moseley]

We'll throw in the footnotes when we know when 20s is coming out on BET.

[JoJo Gibbs]

20s will be out in 2020 for sure, so that's about as much. 20, 20, 20, 20, 20,. 20. Twin. Twin. Anyway, yeah, it'll be out next year.

[Lacey Moseley]

Yes. Awesome. And guys, as always, please retire your scams before you send them to us. Don't be like Trevor, like blowing up the spot. But you can email any retired scams or I'm so sorry. If you've been scammed and you want to share, warn [e-mail] you can follow us at Scam Goddess Pod on Twitter and on Instagram. And you can follow me, Lacy Moseley, I V A L A C I Diva Lacey on Instagram and on Twitter. The like. All right, guys.