The Fyre Fraud with Yassir Lester

Summary

Scam Goddess Podcast – "The Fyre Fraud with Yassir Lester"

Date: July 21, 2020
Host: Laci Mosley
Guest: Yassir Lester

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Episode Overview

In this high-energy and comedic episode, Laci Mosley welcomes comedian and writer Yassir Lester to do a deep, hilarious dive into one of the most infamous hustles of the decade: The Fyre Festival. The duo peels back every absurd layer of Billy McFarland’s historic disaster, exploring everything from Magnesis black cards to luxury cheese sandwiches, influencer culture, and how being white can sometimes be "the ultimate scam." As always, Laci and her guest veer delightfully into asides about their own scammy encounters, capitalism, and pop culture, while inviting listeners into the wild, true-con world of Scam Goddess.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Opening Banter & Introductions

(00:19–04:12)

• Laci and Yassir riff on snacks during recording, home remedies (jalapeno chips for asthma), and humorous TV discussion about nudity in "BET shows."
  • [Laci:] “You just eating full chips. Feels crazy.” (00:19)
  • [Yassir:] “I’m from Texas. Sometimes you gotta do a little home remedy.” (00:49)
• Candid introduction to Yassir Lester and rapid joking about themes of the episode, warning, “there’s going to be a lot of talk about sucking dick and dick in general. Trigger warning. If dick’s triggering you...” (03:43)

2. Scam Mail: The "Blogger Convention" Mini-Con

(06:31–13:41)

• A listener’s letter describes a low-level scam: bloggers sneaking into a convention by applying under a cheaper, less-reviewed attendee category, using fake names and organizations.
  • Laci and Yassir debate: Does saving money on admissions count as a real scam? Or is it “just witty”?
  • [Yassir:] “Is this a scam or just witty? Because there is a difference.” (11:02)
  • Delightfully irreverent aside about the power of middle names as aliases.

3. Historic Hoodwinks: The Fyre Fest Deep Dive

(13:42–69:00) Main Segment

a. The Allure and Absurdity of Magnesis

(15:50–21:23)

• Laci relays firsthand experience holding a Magnesis card and being impressed by its weight and opulence: “He pulled out this magnesis card and put it in my hand and it was so heavy. I was like, ooh, this is so nice.” (04:49)
• [Laci:] “You touched one fully. He would pay for stuff with it.” (05:34)
• Discussion of the psychology of “heavy” cards—the status symbol of black/titanium credit cards.
  • [Yassir:] “Why does the, like, when did we decide weight of cards matter?” (20:23)
  • [Laci:] “Money’s a scam. Yeah, money’s a scam.” (21:15)

b. Billy McFarland’s Path Toward the Fyre Festival

(16:10–23:03)

• Magnesis: Promised exclusive events/tickets, but quickly devolved due to broken promises, delayed refunds, and a pseudo–Ponzi scheme dynamic.
  • [Laci:] “Can you imagine a credit card company being like, give us 30 days to give you your refund back?” (23:10)
  • [Yassir:] “If someone wrote me and was like, I want a refund, I literally would have wrote back, none of this is real.” (23:22)
• White privilege and scams: Both hosts comment on how “being white” enables spectacularly bold (and plausible) scams.
  • [Yassir:] “If I were white, I would be worth 73 billion. I would just do all of it, all the things.” (14:22)

c. The Deeply Shady Hustle—Booking Ja Rule via “Reggie Muscles”

(27:01–30:31)

• Billy tries to book Ja Rule for a Magnesis party by paying a succession of go-betweens — Reggie Muscles, Big Fred, Gutter — each demanding a payout before even meeting the star.
  • [Laci:] “...all these people are doing crime full time.” (28:18)
  • [Yassir:] “If you right now were like, yasser, can I have a sandwich?...you did that 50 times and then you got the sandwich. You wouldn’t be like, it all worked out.” (29:21)
• [Laci:] “That’s exactly what happened. So he got shaked. They shook him the fuck down.” (30:27)

d. The Rise of Fyre—Influencer Culture and Spectacle

(31:10–36:25)

• Billy and Ja Rule launch “Fyre” as a dual celebrity booking app and a music festival to promote it.
• They unleash an iconic influencer campaign featuring models like Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid. Influencers are paid handsomely (Kendall $250k) while smaller ones get scraps.
  • Discussion of FTC regulations about disclosing paid promo posts—the Fyre Festival debacle was influential in drawing attention to this.
  • [Laci:] “That’s a violation of the FTC’s regulations for influencer marketing...” (32:40)
  • [Yassir:] “I wonder what our bloggers at the top of this episode would get.” (32:00)

e. All Sizzle, No Steak—Lies About Location, Amenities, & Acts

(35:13–42:04)

• Fire festival promoted Pablo Escobar’s former island (against the lease’s wishes), environmental “rebranding,” and promised luxury villas, eco domes, and meals by celebrity chefs.
  • [Laci:] “He was like, sure, I won’t tell a soul that this was owned by Pablo Escobar. Then he was like, y’all want to come out here...” (35:13)
  • [Yassir:] “That island was trying to rebrand to be, like, a family island. So they were like, please don’t tell anybody.” (36:16)
• $12,000 VIP packages; however, nearly all acts dropped out last minute when payment didn’t materialize.
  • Satirical phone call sketch between “Billy” and “Blink 182” highlighting how little transparency there was. (37:24–39:41)

f. The Logistics and Event Fiasco

(42:04–53:43)

• Billy schedules Fyre Fest at the same time as a gigantic Bahamian regatta, consuming all hotel and resource capacity.
• Staffing, toilet, and infrastructure issues—organizers try to scale logistics without experience or sufficient funds.
  • [Laci:] “They just kept putting fire in front of everything.” (43:33)
• Desperate last-minute funding: Organizers convince attendees to load thousands onto wristbands for a “cashless” system—in an island parking lot.

g. The Infamous Cheese Sandwich & On-the-Ground Disaster

(53:43–56:37)

• Laci and Yassir highlight the viral photo of the styrofoam container with white bread and cheese (“the cheese sandwich”) as a sharp punchline for luxury gone wrong.
  • [Laci:] “It’s just designer being, like, what happens...” (55:23)
  • [Yassir:] “...a bunch of baroque, like, patterned silk shirts.” (55:38)
• Bahamian authorities cancel inbound flights; festival is “postponed” even as guests are stranded on the island.
  • [Laci:] “How you gonna postpone something when I’m there?!” (56:37)

h. Fallout—Lawsuits, Losses, and the Aftermath

(57:08–68:04)

• Ja Rule posts that the festival was “not a scam and not my fault.” Billy blames “bad weather” and “naivete,” promises refunds and free tickets to an imaginary 2018 version.
  • Multiple class-action lawsuits; Bahamas bans Billy and company from hosting events.
  • [Laci:] “So the Bahamas was like, you cannot come here and host anything...”
• Comic critique of investor deck and business jargon (fake flowcharts, “ideate, conceptualize, execute”).
  • [Yassir:] “Literally everything you do is just like, oh, that was an idea, then I think about the idea, then I do it.” (59:41)
• Guests stuck—no cash (due to “cashless” system), no food, some suffered medical emergencies; attempts to sue abound.
  • [Laci:] “Why do you get to be mad because you’re camping?” (63:15)

i. Billy’s Legacy—More Cons, Jail Time, and Persistent Hustle

(66:41–68:04)

• Audio leaks: McFarland tells employees “we will not be able to proceed with payroll.” (66:38)
• Billy keeps running scams while awaiting sentencing, including selling fake tickets; ultimately sentenced to six years in prison and $26 million in forfeiture.
• Ja Rule and the documentary fallout: paid interviews invalidating objectivity; “Fuck Jerry” social media agency’s role.

4. Scammer of the Week: The Ferret-Poodle Scam

(69:00–70:51)

• A lighthearted new story: In Argentina, scammers have been selling “poodle” puppies that are actually ferrets with blowouts.
  • [Laci:] “...that is a fluffy ferret. Like there’s no...that doesn’t look like dogs have black noses unless they are pit bulls. Like that looks like a. That looks like a rat with a blowout.” (69:49)
• Reflection: Some scams are just so bold you have to admire the hustle.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Influencer FOMO:
  "This was brilliant marketing because, like, just an orange square. I’m immediately curious. I need to know, what’s tea?" – Laci (31:44)

• On Scam Psychology:
  “If I were white, I would be worth 73 billion. I would just do all of it, all the things.” – Yassir (14:22)

• On Magnesis:
  “Money’s a scam. Yeah, money’s a scam.” – Laci (21:15)

• On Being Sued for Being Gullible:
  “You don’t get to sue me ‘cause you got played.” – Yassir (62:39)

• On Billy’s Audacity:
  “Billy just said no. The organizers tried to do things themselves where possible. Billy supposedly learned how to rent the stage by doing Google search. You really can’t find everything on Google.” – Laci (45:46)

• On Taking One for the Team (Andy King):
  “He said, ‘Andy, if you will go down and suck Cunningham's dick, who’s the head of customs and get him to clear all of the containers with water, you will save this festival.’” – Andy King (52:05)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:19 – Jalapeno home remedy banter
• 03:43 – Episode theme & trigger warning
• 06:31 – Listener letter: Blogger convention scam
• 13:42 – Start of Fyre Festival breakdown
• 15:50 – Magnesis card & early Billy McFarland scams
• 27:01 – The saga of Reggie Muscles, Big Fred, and booking Ja Rule
• 31:10 – Fyre festival influencer marketing
• 53:43 – The cheese sandwich; on-the-ground chaos
• 57:08 – Lawsuits and wrap-up of festival disaster
• 66:41 – Billy fleecing his own employees
• 69:00 – Scammer of the Week: Ferrets as poodles

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Conclusion

This episode is a raucous tribute to the art of audacious scamming, with Laci and Yassir delivering side-splitting asides and sharp cultural critique as they break down the epic saga of the Fyre Festival’s collapse. The episode drives home lessons about privilege, gullibility, and the enduring allure of the con—while reminding us that, as wild as it is, sometimes the funniest part isn’t the scam itself, but that so many willingly believed it.

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Stay schemin’.

Transcript

[Scam Goddess]

Scams C, robbery and fraud. Scams C, robbery and fraud. Scam goddess.

[Lacy Mosley]

You just eating full chips. Feels crazy.

[Scam Goddess]

They were helping with my asthma chips.

[Lacy Mosley]

What has happened?

[Scam Goddess]

The jalapeno was helping my cough.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay,

[Scam Goddess]

listen.

[Lacy Mosley]

Home remedies. You know what? Sure. How about that? Absolutely.

[Scam Goddess]

I'm from Texas. Okay. Sometimes you gotta do a little home remedy. It's like a little vapor.

[Lacy Mosley]

Home remedy is like. Yeah, it's like, oh, yeah, you, like, bite into a jalapeno or whatever. Yeah, but you have like these jalapeno chips that I got from 7 11. Help me with my asthma. Sounds crazy.

[Scam Goddess]

It's a little bit of a Vicks Vapor row.

[Lacy Mosley]

No, it's not. Vicks is Vicks vapor.

[Scam Goddess]

You know what? Let me have at least my little. My little placebo effect so I can stop coughing.

[Lacy Mosley]

I truly can't believe you just ate chips. As you're recording a podcast, we.

[Scam Goddess]

Sorry. I'm getting into the scams of asmr.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay.

[Scam Goddess]

I'm gonna start an ASMR podcast.

[Lacy Mosley]

That would be. You watch bigger?

[Scam Goddess]

No, not yet.

[Lacy Mosley]

I really like it.

[Scam Goddess]

You do? Okay. That means a lot. I'm gonna try to watch it.

[Lacy Mosley]

It's weird, but it's interesting.

[Scam Goddess]

People keep saying weird because it's not

[Lacy Mosley]

because has all the makings of what a BET show about four friends are. And then all of a sudden they'll just show you a dick and you're like, oh, I wasn't expecting to see a full dick today.

[Scam Goddess]

I love that. Niggas think that's weird. That's not how other television is. Euphoria showed 37 dicks in three minutes.

[Lacy Mosley]

Right, but what I'm saying is that if we are to use the idea of societal norms. Societal norms is that you either see breasts or you see breasts and you see a dick. Yeah, but this show is just full on. So everyone is wearing clothes the whole time. Even in the sex scenes. Like, they're just, you know, it's like the girls wearing a bra and whatever.

[Scam Goddess]

Right?

[Lacy Mosley]

But then, like, the dude will get up and his dick will just be hanging out and be like, hey, so I would really love to see you again.

[Scam Goddess]

Oh, my God.

[Lacy Mosley]

But like, not played for comedy. It's crazy. It's just like a little unexpected. But like, it's like that. They do like, weird, like shit with cartoons. Anyway, you should watch.

[Scam Goddess]

Okay, I'm gonna watch it just for the dick.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, watch it.

[Scam Goddess]

Were the dick's good.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, I mean, like, I'm not the judge.

[Scam Goddess]

Okay. Okay. Fair they weren't like.

[Lacy Mosley]

I mean like, in terms of like, you know, in pornos, you've seen good ones and you see bad ones. I feel like they're bigger.

[Scam Goddess]

Okay.

[Lacy Mosley]

Just niggas running around.

[Scam Goddess]

So like, okay, great. I can't wait to see these dicks. Yeah. Yeah. We're actually gonna talk a lot about dicks in this episode. Guys, this is so. First of all, I have to introduce my fucking. So talented, so funny, so amazing, so decorated. Yasser Lester decor.

[Lacy Mosley]

I'm not a soldier.

[Scam Goddess]

What are you talking. I love this man so much, guys, like, you don't even understand. Oh, Lacy Mosey. I met him and I was like, we're friends now. You're my friend.

[Lacy Mosley]

Just a lot of hugs and being like, what's going on with you?

[Scam Goddess]

Right. That's literally what we do. What's happening with you? We did that before we started this podcast and we're like, okay, we actually have to work also. Guys, this is the Fyre Fest episode. I know you've been waiting. I know you've been wanting it and I had to have the perfect guest for it and I finally do. So we're fucking doing it. So there's gonna be a lot of talk about sucking dick and dick in general. Trigger warning. If dick's triggering you.

[Lacy Mosley]

That would be a weird like, no, I can't. I can't do it. I will say I'm the perfect guest. Cause I'm the only person who uses a magnesis card.

[Scam Goddess]

You had a magnesis card? I've touched one.

[Lacy Mosley]

Have you?

[Scam Goddess]

Hell yeah. Wow, it's heavy. It's like a black Amex.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

And I. Cause I was like 21 and such a dumb little thing in New York City. I was fucking this guy who looked like a pit bull.

[Lacy Mosley]

Uh huh.

[Scam Goddess]

I hope he hears this.

[Lacy Mosley]

The dog or the rapper?

[Scam Goddess]

He looked like the dog, not the rapper.

[Lacy Mosley]

Pitbull.

[Scam Goddess]

He looked like a physical pit bull.

[Lacy Mosley]

Gotcha. What, man? But pit bulls are muscular.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah, he was very muscular. He was very muscular. I've seen a hot pit bull that I was like, I'd let that pit bull hit. No, that feels. That's too far. But joking clearly. Bestiality. Oh God. So he looks like a pit bull. And I was dating him just because, like, I don't know, he's really muscular and like, I don't know, I thought he was like kind of rich. He like pulled out this magnesis card and put it in my hand and it was so heavy. I was like, ooh, this is so nice.

[Lacy Mosley]

I mean it sincerely. You literally just became my favorite person on this planet. Like, I haven't known one person who's ever, like, been even been around one. You touched one.

[Scam Goddess]

Touched one fully. He would pay for stuff with it.

[Lacy Mosley]

That is crazy.

[Scam Goddess]

Yes. And it worked. And he was a part of the Social Club, so, like, when the Rick Ross concert happened, he was there. I remember his Snapchat stories where he was so fucking close to Rick Ross. Like, closer than where we are across this table. And he was performing. So this was a thing. And he would go hang out at the club. He was scammed, fully scammed by Billy McFarland.

[Lacy Mosley]

Can we just real quick. Truly, nothing but love and respect should be given to Billy McFarlane.

[Scam Goddess]

Honestly, truly.

[Lacy Mosley]

Any person who's mad at him, I'm like, that's not Billy's fault. I know Billy technically did all of it, but that ain't Billie.

[Scam Goddess]

I know technically, Billie did con you out of money, but you also conned

[Lacy Mosley]

yourself, because you shouldn't have even allowed yourself to get that level of conversation.

[Scam Goddess]

But did you have a good time? That's the thing. Like, if a con happens and you had a good time. That's how I run my scams. Everyone has fun. Yeah. And it's great. But, guys, we're gonna get into our first segment. We're not even into historic hoodwinks yet, but I just cannot resist talking about Fyre Fest. So this is a letter that we got. Guys, like I told you, if you've got some hot fraud, some cons that you're running, make sure they're retired. But if they're retired, email [e-mail] because we want to know all about them. Also, if you've been conned, I sympathize with you. Please let us know your con stories so that we can share that with the community. Okay, guys. I will laugh a little bit at it. You guys know that by now, though, right? But I love you. All right, so this scam comes from. I'm going to call her Wendy Williams. So Wendy Williams says you inspired this little scam for us. Aw, me. So we thought we'd share our little con. We have redacted some of the specifics so that we can run the scam again. Yes. Shout out to a queen. Don't give us those specifics. Keep running that con. My friend and I are bloggers and we go to a convention. So being a blogger in general is a scam. It's a scam career. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Your career is like talking about other things that people are doing in some

[Lacy Mosley]

way or but then also being like, oh, and by the way, I'm not an expert.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah, bloggers don't have to be experts.

[Lacy Mosley]

Most keys.

[Scam Goddess]

I am doing that as well. Cause y' all love to tweet me. Talking about this was inaccurate. Bitch, I'm not a journalist. When did I say I was a journalist?

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh my God. I never said that.

[Scam Goddess]

Okay, that was a scam if you thought I was a journalist. Okay, so they're bloggers and they go to a convention every year where they get tons of free swag and they do their best to review all of it throughout the year with their non expert but very followed opinions. You know, I don't even know if y' all experts. Wendy Williams, you could definitely be an expert. I didn't even go shade you, sis.

[Lacy Mosley]

I am.

[Scam Goddess]

You're not.

[Lacy Mosley]

You're not an expert. It's impossible.

[Scam Goddess]

So in the past years, we've paid $350 to go to this convention and we're from different countries, so that means everything in the US is already marked up 30% for us with the exchange rate word on top of that, because we are attending as bloggers, we had to apply to attend basically by sending them our resumes, our metrics of scale for our website, and then stress e a month before so nobody from corporate could judge us worthy. What?

[Lacy Mosley]

Aw, this feels like a Lost in Translation.

[Scam Goddess]

So stress eating for a month before, I guess to be skinnier, that's what I'm gonna just. So it was worth it for them to go because we would get ahead in all of our blog posts for the year and ultimately save buying swack of the year. Got it. So cut to recently when the convention told us that that our hard earned money wasn't good enough for them and to try again next year. We were devastated. This would completely destroy our year of blogging for us. Plus, we're really not good enough for them. Please. So the convention sounds like they leveled up a little bit. And they was like, look, we got a Kardashian. It is a baby, but it's got more followers than you. And so unfortunately, Psalm Saint west is gonna have to take your spot this year. Like, people are gonna come up and take pictures with the baby. The baby's gonna try the products. The baby. Kardashian's gonna try the products.

[Lacy Mosley]

I'm gonna have Chicago hit this CBD pin, see what ol sweet Chicago thinks.

[Scam Goddess]

If it's good enough for Chicago.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, then it's good enough for me. For the rest of us. Absolutely.

[Scam Goddess]

I only wanna smoke cbd that Chicago is smoking. So after a week of depression, I went on their site. God damn, sis. They fucked our whole business model up. Chicago pulled up and ruined her business model. I'm sorry you hate to see it. So after a week of depression, I went on their site and realized that whole bunch of categories other than blogger that paid half the entrance fee that bloggers had to pay and had no oversight whatsoever. Gotta find a back door. I call it the doggy door. You know, sometimes the front door might be locked, the back door might be locked, the window's locked. But that doggy door, people forget about that doggie door. You crawl your ass right on it. So we picked a cheaper category, put in our credit card, and used our middle names and made up a fake organization. And in less than a minute, we signed up to the con to get all the free swag for half the price, baby. Going to check everyone out. Who am I to tell them how to do their jobs? Here's hoping they don't figure it out next year.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay, can I. Is this a scam or just witty? Because there is a difference. Like a scam to me and, you know. Correct. This is. You are the goddess. Yes, but to me, a scam would be like, we got in there and we robbed everybody.

[Scam Goddess]

That's robbery.

[Lacy Mosley]

No, but you know what I'm saying. They'd be like, oh, they thought they were given to a charity. But actually, she was just like, I changed my name. I used my.

[Scam Goddess]

She used her middle name.

[Lacy Mosley]

That's not even, like, you know.

[Scam Goddess]

But nobody knows your middle name. Like, no one knows my middle name.

[Lacy Mosley]

What's your middle name?

[Scam Goddess]

Oh, my God. I'm going to tell everyone my middle name.

[Lacy Mosley]

I feel like you should. Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

My middle name is Rose.

[Lacy Mosley]

Rose.

[Scam Goddess]

Not Rose. All my friends do this because y' all niggas Ra. Zay Rose. It's the opera singer. Rose Singer.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay, but, like, if my middle name was liqueurish and someone went licorice, I'd be like, no, it just sounds. You can't be mad that it sounds exactly like a thing that we all know already.

[Scam Goddess]

It don't sound like.

[Lacy Mosley]

And those almost sound identical.

[Scam Goddess]

Okay, fine, fine, fine.

[Lacy Mosley]

Anyway, it's stunning.

[Scam Goddess]

Anyway.

[Lacy Mosley]

It's a beautiful name. My God. Yes.

[Scam Goddess]

Gorgeous name.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay.

[Scam Goddess]

But yeah, so using a middle name, I think this is. Okay, So I guess it is almost the definition of when you go to the movies and if you buy, like, a senior Ticket or a child's ticket to get it cheaper. Is that a scam? Cause this is basically that level.

[Lacy Mosley]

Well, here's the thing. Like, to me, a scam. If we're using the movie theater, right? The scam isn't doing that again. That's just like. Especially if you do it online. It's just like, who cares? The scam to me is like, I'mma buy a ticket for Ad Astra, but I'mma go see the joker. Like, you know what I'm saying? Actively faked. I don't know. I guess maybe the senior thing works because you save money.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah.

[Lacy Mosley]

Ok. All right. It's a scam. They scammed, they saved money.

[Scam Goddess]

Yasser's not impressed by this, but I just.

[Lacy Mosley]

I just.

[Scam Goddess]

I don't know. I'm glad that you guys went to this convention no matter what, okay? They tried to play you just because a new Kardashian baby was born. And that's not fair.

[Lacy Mosley]

See, a scam would have been like, we're calling on behalf of Chicago West.

[Scam Goddess]

Oh, yeah, that truly is. That's that scam.

[Lacy Mosley]

You know what I'm saying? So y' all take that one next year.

[Scam Goddess]

Yes. Go be Chicago west at this blog fest next year. Okay, guys, we'll be right back after some non scam advertisements all read by me. Scams, cunt. And we're back, guys. It's time for my favorite segment of the show.

[Lacy Mosley]

I'm Lacy Mosley, and this is my favorite segment of the show. And it is called Take It Away Yasser.

[Scam Goddess]

It's called Take It Away Yasser. Historic hoodwinks, guys. And you already know we're talking about the fyre fest. I couldn't even keep it a secret for a single moment. Up top. So, I mean, how do you even begin, right? There's so much shit that happens.

[Lacy Mosley]

White people.

[Scam Goddess]

And, like, what a beautiful thing. Being white is such a scam.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

Alabaster is a scam. And if you have some alabaster, I really hope you're out there using it to its fullest, okay? I don't blame white people for whiting, okay? Because if I was white, I would white as well.

[Lacy Mosley]

I'm going to say. And I tell my friends this all the time. I was like, if I were white, I would be worth 73 billion. I would just do all of it, all the things. I would just burn down forests. I would lock up kids. All of it. I'm like, what? What gets me the money? And I would just do it. I wouldn't think twice. Because here's the thing. We also. We don't now we. We don't even expect white people to do the right thing.

[Scam Goddess]

No. I was like, yeah, yeah, burn it down, baby. I'm white. Give me my racks. Give me my racks.

[Lacy Mosley]

That's how it ended up.

[Scam Goddess]

I mean, like, the Koch brothers, like,

[Lacy Mosley]

they did it right.

[Scam Goddess]

They did it right. And one of them, literally, like, 10 years longer with pancreatic cancer because he had so much money to donate to research. Mind you, he wasn't about to be giving that shit to breast cancer, to the heart association. He was giving it to his specific disease.

[Lacy Mosley]

It's there also Bill Gates. All the Bill Gates stuff that just came out with him and Jeffrey Epstein just, like, dapping it up behind closed doors.

[Scam Goddess]

And this is after Epstein got the pedophile. Like, the pedophile charges. I'm sorry if I'm gonna hang out with a pedophile after he's been convicted of pedophilia.

[Lacy Mosley]

Ain't gonna be a camera in, are you? There's no.

[Scam Goddess]

I'm coming in through the sewer.

[Lacy Mosley]

I'm like, okay, here's what I need you to do. And once I leave, I need you to burn all my clothes, right? I never was here at all. Drop me off naked at my place and then burn all my clothes.

[Scam Goddess]

Drop off naked.

[Lacy Mosley]

Emma pillow, but you know what I mean.

[Scam Goddess]

Pull a mask, but you know what I'm saying.

[Lacy Mosley]

Can you imagine if you was just like. That would be like. If you had a picture right there. Be like, this is me and my nigga R. Kelly. And it's just like you doing finger guns at R. Kelly. And he's, like, shrugging like, I don't know.

[Scam Goddess]

Holding up today's mask. Everybody knows it's current. That's so crazy, so insane.

[Lacy Mosley]

I didn't mean to cut you off.

[Scam Goddess]

No, no, no. You're amazing. You can talk whenever you want. Yeah. But that's absolutely insane. So the Fyre Fest, if you don't know, was a fraudulent luxury music festival founded by Billy McFarland, CEO of Fyre Media Incorporated, which doesn't even sound like a company. And Fyre is spelled F Y Fire Media, Inc. If anyone calls you from FI or anything, please know that it's not real.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

And rapper Ja Rule. Now, that really should have tipped y' all off. Ja Rule was involved, but we persist. And created with the intent of promoting the company's Fyre app for booking talent. The festival was scheduled to take place April 28th through 30th and May 5th through 7th in 2017 in the Bahamas. But. But spoiler, never happened. Billy before the fire. In 2013, 22 year old Billy McFarlane started to make a name for himself with Magnesis, an elite club for New York millennials, which was accessed by the club's black card membership, which cost $250. And it was meant to give members discounted access to exclusive events.

[Lacy Mosley]

But see, this is what again about being white, which is the only thing I think about every single day.

[Scam Goddess]

I think about being white a lot.

[Lacy Mosley]

It's shocking.

[Scam Goddess]

Like, if I was a white woman, I literally said that to people that I was working with. I was like, if I was 100 pound white woman, you wouldn't treat me this way.

[Lacy Mosley]

And it's true. They'd be like, no, you wouldn't even be working here because we'd be too busy worshiping. Yeah, you know what I mean? You would be a God to us. That being said, can you imagine a 22 year old black person walking around being like, hey, you should sign up for my credit card.

[Scam Goddess]

You would be like, nigga, I'm about to stab you. I'm not signing up for my crazy.

[Lacy Mosley]

Russell Simmons is a billionaire and he couldn't get rush card to happen.

[Scam Goddess]

Yo. The funniest part about rush card was when Russell stopped giving n they money n started going to his daughter's page and commented being like, tell your dad to run me my money on Angela Simmons page. And I was like, this is the black.

[Lacy Mosley]

So crazy. But that's what I'm saying. Like being white, there's never any doubt. It's, it's almost beautiful. But you know what I'm saying, Truly. But like, I think about me at 22 years old, I just lived in LA for a little over a year. And the idea that my grand idea is like, I'm gonna tell people to sign up for my credit card, it's like, like I just, I can't imagine the confidence it takes to walk into a room of people older than you and being like, oh, what do you use? American Express. Have you thought about Magnesis, perhaps? It weighs 33 pounds.

[Scam Goddess]

It's the heaviest. Like, it is actually a weight.

[Lacy Mosley]

It's a dumbbell from Equinox that I taped a magnetic strip to. And you just, you use that with, in conjunction with your Ralph's phone number. You get discounts. You can hang out at my partner's house. Not my partner, my partner's house.

[Scam Goddess]

And the craziest thing is that he came up With Magnesis in his apartment when he realized that you could transfer the magnetic stripe on a card to a metal, like a piece of sheet metal. So he did this at home, which every scammer knows. Credit card scams foundation of our community.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, absolutely.

[Scam Goddess]

So he does this and then he goes to the local bodega, uses it and it works. And this is where his idea comes from.

[Lacy Mosley]

Again, like shout out to the homie for just having the idea. Like, there's only a few geniuses in our lifetime, you know what I'm saying?

[Scam Goddess]

And this also piggybacks off of Millennials because we can't get a fucking black card. You have to have a hundred thousand dollar spending limit.

[Lacy Mosley]

But if you spend a minimum of $16,000 a month, and if you're in

[Scam Goddess]

New York and you're young and you got a little bit of money and you trying to flex, like, this would be a flex. This worked on me.

[Lacy Mosley]

Well, I have to ask you the question. As a scammer, as the goddess of scammers. Yes. Now, why does the, like, when did we decide weight of cards matter? Like, you know what I'm saying? If someone was like, I have $3 million, I'd be like, well, your card is 2 ounces.

[Scam Goddess]

Card is plastic.

[Lacy Mosley]

You broke, nigga.

[Scam Goddess]

I don't believe you. I don't feel the dollars in it, right. I have a red bank of America card and I'm thinking about like just switching it just because I'm like, I need a nastier flex. Like, I need people to know there's money just by looking at the card. But it, because like I, when I used to wait tables and people would come in with a black card and they would play with it, it was luxurious.

[Lacy Mosley]

No, When I was a server too, you would feel it, it was titanium.

[Scam Goddess]

And like you were like, this person is so nasty rich. And I loved it. So I think that's where the appeal comes from is it's like iconography. It's like having a Gucci bag versus having just a regular purse. It all does the same shit. And it's probably made in the same place.

[Lacy Mosley]

Absolutely.

[Scam Goddess]

So it's just the flash, but.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay, but here's what I'll say just real quick, like, Gucci has a level of quality, right? Like Louis Vuitton's leather is patent to an extent, you know what I'm saying? Like, there's, there's, there's certain things that come with a price point, but like a credit card, like again, because also money doesn't exist. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's all. Money's a scam. Yeah, money's a scam. So, like, I just. I guess I'm genuinely just one, because American Express is the only company that I know outside of the homies. Magnesis, you know, big shout out, God bless. To have, like, a weighted card. So it's just really weird that, that, like, all this, we. We are all trained to know that a heavy card means something.

[Scam Goddess]

Yes.

[Lacy Mosley]

But in every other aspect, like, you're not, like, man, his phone was a million dollars. It weighs six pounds.

[Scam Goddess]

His cell phone.

[Lacy Mosley]

Right?

[Scam Goddess]

You wouldn't want that. You wouldn't want to weigh in capacity.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah. I got the heaviest shoes. They were $33,000. They made a cement.

[Scam Goddess]

Those are bricks, y'.

[Lacy Mosley]

All. Yeah, yeah. It was expensive, too.

[Scam Goddess]

And they took you.

[Lacy Mosley]

That was scammed. Oh, man. I knew it. They said, we hate you, and then they threw me off a boat.

[Scam Goddess]

They said, sleep with the fishes.

[Lacy Mosley]

I thought they were saying, get some sleep and then eat some fish. No, no, no.

[Scam Goddess]

They may sleep with the fish forever.

[Lacy Mosley]

Like, you are dead, man. I feel stupid. And I gave them all this money for these shoes.

[Scam Goddess]

I paid them for these.

[Lacy Mosley]

I paid them.

[Scam Goddess]

You throw me off. You paid for your own murder.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, that's right.

[Scam Goddess]

So Magnesis, unfortunately, wasn't delivering on its promises. Business Insider reported that Magnesis members were complaining that they were not receiving tickets on time, trips were being canceled, and refunds were taking more than a month to be processed. Can you imagine a credit card company being like, give us 30 days to give you your refund back? No, we got you. We got you. We do, but your bank needs a little more time.

[Lacy Mosley]

Here's how confident he should have been, because everything is confident up until this point. If someone wrote me and was like, I want a refund, I literally would have wrote back, none of this is real. This would have been like, what are you talking about? No, I'm keeping your money. None of this is real. Get out of here.

[Scam Goddess]

Imagine getting an email like that.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay, there's.

[Scam Goddess]

I'm keeping your money. Scram.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay, here's. This isn't a scam, but it's kind of a scam just because the company's so big and they allowed someone to talk to me. Like, back in the day, your boy was. I'm doing a little bit better. But back in the day, your boy was. I wasn't just broke. Like, you know, when you look at someone, you're like, they are poor. Like, as when you. When I first got to LA, like, my first seven years were like.

[Scam Goddess]

You were dressed like an 18th century beggar.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, my God. Just like, you know when you can tell someone's wearing vintage clothes to, like, be stylish? And when someone. And you're like, that is just someone wearing old clothes. Oh, no, I was that. You're like, oh, wow. So anyway, I couldn't. I could never pay my cell phone bill on time. It was, like, the one thing that I was always late on. So one. The one time I was late on it and I did that thing, this was my scam, is that I would be like, you know what? The money's coming in a week. Just keep it on one more week. And then I would call, like, the day before. I'm like, you won't believe it. They done stole my money. So you just got to keep it on one more week.

[Scam Goddess]

They stole your money?

[Lacy Mosley]

And they're like, who? I'm like, day. They done stole it.

[Scam Goddess]

They and them.

[Lacy Mosley]

But it's T Mobile at the time, which was like, the black cell phone carrier. They're like, nigga, we know, Whatever. So I did this for, like, two months, and finally a dude called me, and I didn't pick up. It still gives me anxiety thinking about bill collectors calling me, even though I'm like, what are you really gonna. Like, it's like, you're not gonna fight me?

[Scam Goddess]

So, like, they know how to intimidate you via.

[Lacy Mosley]

Exactly, Exactly. So I was, like, not answering. So finally the person leaves a voicemail, and I was like, all right, I'll just listen to the voicemail. And I swear to God, this is the whole voicemail. And it's like, this is a call from T Mobile. And then it kicked in an audio recording of the actual operator, and he just went, nigga, pay your bills. No. And that was it. And I was like, I don't believe you. I was like, I was so broke, I made that dude mad at his job.

[Scam Goddess]

Like, he don't even get the money. Would you pay? He don't get it.

[Lacy Mosley]

It affects him none. But he was like, this dude is so poor that it ruined my day. Yeah. So anyway, the scam didn't. The scam worked for three weeks, four weeks.

[Scam Goddess]

That's a good amount of time. So that's exactly what Billy McFarlane was doing. She was like, you know what? They stole it.

[Lacy Mosley]

That's funny.

[Scam Goddess]

But we're gonna get it back from them.

[Lacy Mosley]

This is so funny.

[Scam Goddess]

Cause essentially what this was was, like, a Ponzi scheme. Where he was getting more money and then using that money to make good on the promises that he had offered. So he would offer, like, courtside stuff, seats to basketball games and stuff like that. And he'd be like, I'll give them to you for a heavily discounted rate because you're paying this $250 a month. But then it got ahead of him. So the tickets were expensive. Like, too much. Like, he couldn't keep up with the cop. So people calling, like, hold on, bro. Like, the bank's not calling me back.

[Lacy Mosley]

Also, like, I'm courtside at a high school game. What?

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah, we said courtside. We didn't say which court you got to redefine for.

[Lacy Mosley]

Why am I courtside at the Knacks game?

[Andy King]

You.

[Scam Goddess]

That look just like mixed tickets to the Nash.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah. I'm sorry.

[Andy King]

Oh, wow. Yes.

[Scam Goddess]

So this is how Billie and Ja Rule meet.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, finally. A romance of the ages. The old Billy Ja Rule meetup.

[Scam Goddess]

You know, it's a meet cute. So in an interview, Billie said, I love Ja Rule since I was a kid. And you're 22. Like, you're literally a kid right now. Like, his music probably came out when you were, like, three. Like, Ja Rule hasn't put out any music in a while.

[Lacy Mosley]

It's murder.

[Scam Goddess]

You don't know it's murder. So loved him since I was a kid. A lie. And I think more importantly, the girl who I liked at the time loved Ja Rule even more than me. And so I said, let's book Ja Rule for this private concert for Magnesis. So I'm like, shit, where do I go? I went to Instagram and found this guy named Reggie Muscles. Reggie Muscle. All right. You know, he's running cons. Jesus. Reggie Muscles. Who claim to represent and know Ja Rule. So I sent Reggie Muscles a direct message, and he said, give me $500 plus the money for Ja Rule, and he'll show up at your party. This don't sound. Reggie Muscles does not sound like a reliable guy.

[Lacy Mosley]

Wait, wait, Who. How much was Ja Rule charging?

[Scam Goddess]

I think, like, five grand.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay, so $5,500. 55. Like, that's just so funny. Like, give it to me. Pass the reg, Reggie Muscles. And I'm gonna make sure that Josh shows up.

[Scam Goddess]

So I paid Reggie Muscles the next day, and Reggie Muscles. Reggie Muscles is in here a lot. The name is Very Funny. Brings a guy named Big Fred. All these people are doing crime full time. Big Fred says, give me $500 and I'll get you Ja Rule. I pay Big Fred. This happens two more times until I finally meet a guy named Gutter. Gutter. A little smarter now. Gutter ass for $1,000. And then I'll get you Ja Rule. Now I'm in this whole big hole, right? Made an offer to Ja Rule, and the Gutter guy called me a week later saying, ja Rule hates your offer, but if you get him a helicopter, he'll come to do your concert. So I said, shit, he lives in New York. Why do I need to get him a helicopter? But I figured out a way to get him a helicopter for a 20 minute ride. And I booked Ja Rule after this. Eventually, Ja Rule becomes a Magni Spirit Spokes Magnus spokesperson. So this actually worked out. He ended up having to pay like 30 dudes. Big Fred, Reggie Moss didn't work out.

[Lacy Mosley]

Like, if someone was. If you right now were like, yasser, can I have a sandwich? I'm like, all right, pay me. And then I'm going to tell Zig to get you a sandwich. And then you gave me the money. I was like, oh, but you also got to give money to Zig. And then Zig was like, but you got to give money to my nigga. And then like, you did that 50 times and then you got the sandwich. You wouldn't be like, it all worked out. You. I paid $30,000 for a subway sandwich.

[Scam Goddess]

But I think you would be happy, though, because if you really wanted Ja Rule, like, you know, celebrities come.

[Lacy Mosley]

No one really wants Ja Rule. Come on. I went for Ja Rule because he thought he was going to be cheap. And then he just was so scared of black people.

[Scam Goddess]

That's what happened.

[Lacy Mosley]

He just kept paying money to. It's just like, I can't say no now. Ja Rule is going to kill me.

[Scam Goddess]

You know, a guy named Reggie Muzzle has muscles.

[Lacy Mosley]

There's no way that you can go to Reggie Muscles and be like, I decline your offer, good sir.

[Scam Goddess]

Reggie Muscles is like, nigga, I know where you live.

[Lacy Mosley]

Are you like, all right, here's $3,000. Please, please. Who else? I need to get money?

[Scam Goddess]

That's exactly what happened. So he got shaked. They shook him the fuck down.

[Lacy Mosley]

That's so funny.

[Scam Goddess]

So in late 2015, early 2016, McFarlane and Rule. I'm not calling Ja Rule. Ruel McFarlane and Ja Rule co found a new venture called called Fi, which has two arms, an app for booking celebrity appearances, which obviously McFarlane has no experience with because he just paid everyone in Gyro's camp. And an ultra luxe festival to promote it, they pick the Bahamas as the location. So festival organizers invite a bevy of beautiful influences. Models like Kendall Jenner. Like Chicago, a baby model.

[Lacy Mosley]

Athletes baby model, Chicago old person model. The guy from Sound of Music, Christopher

[Scam Goddess]

Plummer, all the models, DJ producers with large Instagram followers. They brought them all to the Bahamas to do a photo and video shoot. The Fyre Festival social media blitz began as models started posting photos of themselves in the Bahamas. And a day where the influence flooded their followers with an announcement image, which was just an orange. And this was brilliant marketing because, like, just an orange square. I'm immediately curious. I need to know, what's tea? So this worked. Kendall Jenner was reportedly paid $250,000 for her endorsement, while less popular influencers got, like, 10,000 per post. I wonder what our bloggers at the top of this episode would get.

[Lacy Mosley]

They'd be like, oh, we scammed them a cheese sandwich. Yeah. We changed our display names, and so they sent us one free orange square to post. Like it was free.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah. I wonder what they would get. I don't know. They've been blogging for a while. If you make it a living off blogging, you're doing decent. No.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay, but, like, making a living off blog. Like, if I lived in a closet, I could technically make a living off.

[Scam Goddess]

You know what? I'm not doing this with you. I love my scam congregation, and I think that they're great bloggers.

[Lacy Mosley]

I'm proud of them. Scam me. How about that, y'?

[Andy King]

All?

[Lacy Mosley]

If y' all are so good, Scam yasser less than.

[Scam Goddess]

Don't ask for that.

[Lacy Mosley]

I am.

[Scam Goddess]

They will do it.

[Lacy Mosley]

I am. I'm waiting.

[Scam Goddess]

So many did not disclose that they were being paid to promote the Fyre Festival, which is a violation of the FTC's regulations for influencer marketing, because now there are regulations. You have to put ad at the bottom of something that you post about, which is crazy to me.

[Lacy Mosley]

Right. But that changed because of Fyre Festival, right? It wasn't there yet, I don't think.

[Scam Goddess]

No, it was.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, okay. It was already. That's wild.

[Scam Goddess]

Cause this is a violation of the regulations.

[Lacy Mosley]

Gotcha.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah. So, list of celebrities and models in the promo. A few names like Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajowski, Els Haas, Kaylee Baldwin. Now Hailey Bieber, Rose Bertram, Giselle Oliveira, you know, just all the thin, beautiful, young white women you can think of. If there was a thin white woman who was famous, she was there.

[Lacy Mosley]

The color orange.

[Scam Goddess]

So Billy hires a TV production company to shoot A reality show about the festival. But this plan falls through when he reportedly fails to pay $100,000 bill. Yeah, that might happen. Fyre Fest continues to promote itself on social media, teasing limited tick. Even as it offered 25% discounts, Kendall Jenner offered her followers a promo to attend the fire after party. So, one, it's a festival, right? But then there's all these, like, exclusive upgrades and, like, which is so a thing. Now. You can't just go to a concert or an event. You gotta go and then you gotta get, like, the shuttle pass and you gotta get the VIP and then you gotta get those things so you can enter through the back door and you don't have to talk to the plebes. And, like, if you pay a little

[Lacy Mosley]

extra, like, yeah, take a picture with Chink.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah, exactly. If you pay a little extra. Just a little extra.

[Lacy Mosley]

A little extra. Like, Chingy just wants his self esteem raised a little bit. Take a picture with Chingy.

[Scam Goddess]

Take a picture with Chingy.

[Lacy Mosley]

Then you get to meet 50 Cent's lawyer, right?

[Scam Goddess]

And this is all amazing. That's who I want to be. Not 50 Cent. I would love to meet his lawyer. So Billy arranged to lease the island from current owners on the strict condition that he make no reference to the fact that Pablo Escobar is in connection with this island, because the island was trying to rebrand to be, like, a family island. So they were like, please don't tell anybody. The Pablo Escobar, like, murdered so many people on this island and did so much cocaine. That's not our brand anymore. They were like, all the blood, we've swept it up out of the sand and into the ocean. So the promotional venue continues to advertise Norman Kayes as once owned by Pablo Escobar. He was like, sure, I won't tell a soul that this was owned by Pablo Escobar. Then he was like, y' all want to come out here and party on this island that used to be owned by Pablo Escobar? It's bones and cocaine and bitches out here. Like, he did the exact opposite of

[Lacy Mosley]

what they told him, which, again, objectively, just hilarious. Like, I just like, I hate when we come down on kings like this.

[Scam Goddess]

Like, he's gonna do whatever he wants. That's Billy, and I love it.

[Lacy Mosley]

It's just sweet Billy for it.

[Scam Goddess]

They were like, please call it Norman Kay's Island. He was like, tight. Will do. He was like, pablo Escobar's coke filled. He was like, nose Candy Island. Like, sir, you went real Hard on the rules.

[Lacy Mosley]

Billy McCarlan rules.

[Scam Goddess]

And also, they can see you, my nigga. They can see your post.

[Lacy Mosley]

Anyways, all right, all right.

[Scam Goddess]

So they sold day tickets from 500 to 1500 dollars in VIP packages, including airfare and luxury tent accommodation, which we'll get to for $12,000. Customers were promised accommodation in modern eco friendly geodesic domes and meals from celebrity chefs. Thefts. It was like, emeril's gonna be there. Who else gonna be there? Who? That racist woman who called people the N word.

[Lacy Mosley]

Paula Paul. I almost said Paula Poundstone.

[Andy King]

Paula.

[Lacy Mosley]

Not Paula Bell.

[Scam Goddess]

Paula. Y' all know who we got? Paula Deen.

[Lacy Mosley]

Paula Dean.

[Scam Goddess]

Paula Dean gonna be there, and she will call you the N word. And she will make macaroni a cheese

[Lacy Mosley]

for as good as her food is. I'm like, look, sometimes you just gotta say, come on, come on.

[Scam Goddess]

Have you had her Mac and cheese? Now, I know she stole it from black people.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, but is she supposed to not say it and not cook? Come on now.

[Scam Goddess]

Honestly, she might be saying it to the food, and maybe that's why that tastes so good. We going to hell. These are jokes. Okay, so customers were promised accommodation in these nice things meals by celebrity chefs. The final advertised Lineup was for 33 groups, including Pusha T, Tyga, Designer, Blink 182, Major Lazer, Disclosure, Migos Ray, Schmur, Murmur Murmur, Murd, Katranada, Lil Yachty, Matoma, King Y Andy, Skepta, Clapton Le Youth, Tin Snake Bondish, and Lee Burridge. Don't know who Lee is. So all these people are set to come. Leading up to the festival, all the acts pull out because they weren't paying them.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, my God.

[Scam Goddess]

Imagine you bought tickets to a music festival and all the acts pulled out.

[Lacy Mosley]

Wait, this is a call real quick. You're Billy McFarlane. All right. Okay.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah, man. I'm not on Molly.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh. Oh, that's weird that that's how you started the call. It's. It's us.

[Scam Goddess]

It's a normal way to start.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah. Yes, it does. Blick182. We just wanted to call and make sure everything was cool.

[Scam Goddess]

Oh, man. Everything's amazing and fun and everything is soft. Ooh, so soft.

[Lacy Mosley]

Everything. You mean like, like the sand or like what?

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah, like. I mean, I'm talking about the festival. Everything we're working on, everything's gonna feel so good on your skin, and you're gonna have a good time, right?

[Lacy Mosley]

And then you're saying this. You answer by saying, you're on Molly.

[Scam Goddess]

I said I'm not on Molly.

[Lacy Mosley]

You said you're not on Molly, which means that you are. Because no one starts. No one starts a conversation with a not doing. No.

[Scam Goddess]

Like some people do. It's like, you wanna. I want people to be.

[Lacy Mosley]

We're done. We're not coming to the concert. You scared us.

[Scam Goddess]

What?

[Lacy Mosley]

You scared us, Billy.

[Scam Goddess]

Guys, come on. I have your money.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, okay.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah. Like, as soon as y' all touch down here, the money is gonna be wired.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay.

[Scam Goddess]

It's actually on a wire right now. But sometimes, you know how. Wires. It's just like the subway. Like, you know how the sub. We'll stop for a little bit, they'll be like. We are now experiencing. That's what happened to the white.

[Lacy Mosley]

She got caught up. Okay, that's great. And I know it's on the island, so I just want to make sure it's a really lovely, safe island, right?

[Scam Goddess]

Oh, it's very safe.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

Pablo Escobar definitely doesn't.

[Lacy Mosley]

Pablo Escobar doesn't what now?

[Scam Goddess]

I'm not doing cocaine.

[Lacy Mosley]

See, there again, you're saying the thing that I wasn't assuming. You. You know what? You know again? I. I think. Are you. So you're sniffing the cocaine too, while you're on the phone? What?

[Scam Goddess]

No.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay.

[Scam Goddess]

No, that was the wind.

[Lacy Mosley]

That was the wind. Oh, the wind sounds like it has the sniffles.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay, we'll call you back.

[Scam Goddess]

Okay.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay. But don't check your email right now. Cause there might be an email that you won't like, but don't check it.

[Scam Goddess]

Okay, I won't check it, but we're

[Lacy Mosley]

hanging up and everything is fine.

[Scam Goddess]

I won't check it. I'll see you soon.

[Lacy Mosley]

See you soon, partner.

[Scam Goddess]

That's exactly how the. That's exactly how it went. So everyone's pulling out, right? To make matters worse, Fyre Festival planned their event April 28th through the 30th on the same weekend as the Exuma Regatta, a Bahamian sailing race that utilizes all of the island's hotels, vacation rentals and resources. And they were told this. They were told that this boat party thing was happening, and they were like, ah, you negroes can have your boat party. That's not going to interfere with the fact. Office.

[Lacy Mosley]

I love him. Again, just so cocky.

[Scam Goddess]

I love it. So when it starts falling apart. With less than two months until showtime, organizers attempt to line up logistics. At this point, the toilet paper and shower supplier told Vice News that fire was already down to the wire. Just ordering trailers. That would have cost a million dollars before. The cost of shipping and disposal. They're like, spending so much money on just, like, trying to get these trailers and these toilets and showers. They're like, whatever we can get. In a cash crunch, Billy obtains a 5 million doll interest loan to cover expenses. So, see, you can just get a $5 million loan. That's fucking wild. Yeah, but the interest is, like, 75%. That's not accurate. But they said high interest, so I'm wondering how high that interest is. Two months to go. Before the fire festival, the Bahamian government gave Billy a permit to use the site set aside for developing at Roker point on Great Exuma, just north of sandals resort. So this is what they were showing people pictures of that Sandals resort. But really, they was in the dirt lot up the street. But again, like, so in reality, the festival is in a remote parking lot north of the Sandals Resort and nearby marina, where locals would store their boats.

[Lacy Mosley]

Can I say something?

[Scam Goddess]

This is why.

[Lacy Mosley]

This is why eat the rich burn their houses down. Like, all because rich people love to clown, like, what they think is undesirable, right? So you see these commercials where they're just like, oh, I would never be caught out of sandals. I would, blah, blah, blah.

[Scam Goddess]

But they don't.

[Lacy Mosley]

They. That's the thing about all rich people. They never know the difference because they never do their research. So you could show them a picture of an exclusive island or of sandals, and you're like, the sandals one actually cost more. They're like, yeah, I knew that. It's like how they don't know the difference between wine because they don't. You know what I'm saying? And I don't drink wine.

[Scam Goddess]

Well, no one knows the difference between wine. And. We talked about that.

[Lacy Mosley]

Like, truly. I know.

[Scam Goddess]

And there's some small Malays, but.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, but we know. We know wine is a scam. I would just. I would come out and I would just, like, look at the customer and be like, the tannins on this thing.

[Scam Goddess]

Your mouth. When I tell you the mouth feel right now.

[Lacy Mosley]

I can tell you right now on the palate, like, you probably like, I don't like eating a whole grape. But guess what, Guess what. This one bottle of wine.

[Scam Goddess]

That's just one grape, bro. We done squeezed a whole bottle. The tannins. The tannins. Well, you know, they left a little flesh on it. So it's gonna have just that.

[Lacy Mosley]

This was in space. This was. This was so far north.

[Scam Goddess]

Italy.

[Lacy Mosley]

It was space.

[Scam Goddess]

It was space. It goes north Italy and then space.

[Lacy Mosley]

Ionosphere you ain't never had in your life. You ain't never had tanners like these.

[Scam Goddess]

Bro, it's all a scam.

[Lacy Mosley]

But anyway, sorry. I digress. I'm very mad at rich people.

[Scam Goddess]

See, I could tell y' all so Works in television, so he's mad at himself.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay. Number one, Lacy.

[Scam Goddess]

12 chains on his. 12 gold chains on him. He tried to tell me how he mad at rich people.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay?

[Scam Goddess]

This nigga has 34 chains on his. Number one.

[Lacy Mosley]

You can't keep upping the number. People won't know what the real number is. A B. I'm still. Look, I'm here for the bleach people. No, I'm still here for the bl.

[Scam Goddess]

What kind of watches is that?

[Lacy Mosley]

We're not gonna talk about that.

[Scam Goddess]

Exactly. Exactly.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay, stop.

[Scam Goddess]

So anyway, Yazza hates himself a little bit.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yes.

[Scam Goddess]

For being so rich. Okay, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? So in reality, the Fyre Fest is in this remote parking lot, right? It wasn't private. It wasn't a remote island. It was a remote parking lot. And the festival site was scheduled to take place in an abandoned resort development full of roads that led to nowhere. Billy never. He simply renamed the island Fire Cay. With no infrastructure and no villas, the team had under two months to turn Rokers Point into Fire K. They just kept putting fire in front of everything. So with no experience staging an event on the festival scale, Billy began approaching companies that did. Why he didn't do this in the beginning. This should have been the first part of the scam. How you go, you. So you thought you was just gonna throw a music festival, and you've never thrown a music festival before? He's like, I don't know when we need a stage. 182. That's it.

[Lacy Mosley]

It would be like opening a restaurant in a week before being like, should we do hamburgers, or are we a pizza place? Do we like mashed potato salmon? I haven't thought about salmon. Oh, what if we just made this a CPK

[Scam Goddess]

Sushi. Which I like sushi. Who's down for sushi?

[Lacy Mosley]

If we was eating lunch right now and we was in this empty space,

[Scam Goddess]

what would you want?

[Lacy Mosley]

What would you want?

[Scam Goddess]

Quesadillas, right? Oh, we need different equipment for those things.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay, so wait, is this a bonitos or is this a sushi?

[Andy King]

Stop.

[Lacy Mosley]

Rock, paper, scissors for me right now.

[Scam Goddess]

Billy is fucking crazy. So he finally approaches the company. He's like, hey, I need to throw a real quick Music festival. You got less than two months. And he was taken aback when informed that the event would cost at least $50 million to stage in time available, as he promised. So the more experienced consultants told them that in addition to the cost, an event of this magnitude would need an extra year to plan. Billy and his associates believed the cost was far less and continued with their plans under that assumption. Billy just said no. The organizers tried to do things themselves where possible. Billy supposedly learned how to rent the stage by doing Google search. You really can't find everything on Google.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

So get off Twitter. Stop asking people for shit that you could Google on the Internet. Billy McFarlane. McFarlane's on Twitter. Like, how do I run a state? Y' all tweet at me. How do I win a stake? So in an effort to raise more money, McFarlane tried to get attendees to add money to wristbands so that they could buy things while at the event. This involved people getting phone calls, someone telling them they should add money, and claiming that the majority of attendees were adding around $3,000. So they said they were going cashless. Billy, he came up with so many scams. Boy, oh, boy. He said they were going cashless. And so everyone would get a wristband, and then you. You would just tap the wristband, and that's how you would pay for things at the festival.

[Lacy Mosley]

But it's also like. And again, granted, I don't trust anybody for anything, but if someone was like, hey, we're gonna be in the middle of nowhere. But don't worry, wifi will be perfectly available, and all of your secret money is gonna be loaded on a wristband. I'd be like, you are lying to me. There's no way that's possible.

[Scam Goddess]

And also, you're calling me and suggesting that I put thousand dollars onto a

[Lacy Mosley]

wristband to buy what, two designer T shirts?

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah.

[Lacy Mosley]

Or a Blink 182 signed guitar. Like, I just don't get what. What, you thought you were going to get any.

[Scam Goddess]

No one does.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

So the first public signs of trouble appear. As the Wall Street Journal reports, some fire performers didn't receive money promised in their contracts on time. And ticket holders are nervous about the lack of communication regarding their travel arrangements. Meaning people are calling like, so where the hotel at? So we trying to figure out when we get there, where are we going? Going. Wait, Billy, where are we gonna go when we get there?

[Lacy Mosley]

I zoomed in on the picture, and it said Watermark Sandals. Is it We. We staying at Sandals.

[Scam Goddess]

Are we going to Sandals.

[Lacy Mosley]

Or is it because it looks north?

[Scam Goddess]

It says north sandals. I did a Google image search and I saw a parking lot.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, no, you can't trust Google, baby. Okay, okay, I'm gonna need $6,000.

[Scam Goddess]

Okay.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, can you actually, for inconvenience of me by calling, you're gonna need to load that wristband with $6,000.

[Scam Goddess]

Okay, I guess I will.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

But also, where are we staying?

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah. Oh, that's a good question. All right, talk to you later.

[Scam Goddess]

Like what? So Calvin Wells tried to expose what McFarlane was doing. Now, Calvin Wells was a thirsty motherfucker.

[Lacy Mosley]

I hate Calvin Wells.

[Scam Goddess]

And he's a hater. Yeah, Calvin Wells is a hater. You heard it here first. He's a fucking hater. We hate him because he went into a deep dive to try to expose Billy McFarland. He was like, I know this is a. He made a fucking Twitter. He made a fucking Instagram because he was so thirsty. You know what I mean? He was a player hater.

[Lacy Mosley]

Exactly.

[Scam Goddess]

His hate was so strong.

[Lacy Mosley]

You ain't gonna let a God shine like Billy McFarlane.

[Scam Goddess]

He was the king at the player haters ball. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.

[Lacy Mosley]

Unbearable.

[Scam Goddess]

So he started up a Twitter account called Fire Fraud, but had little success. It had like 100 followers. Not even. Nobody gave a fuck about this broke ass.

[Lacy Mosley]

This is Billy McFarlane gang on this side, bro. Gang.

[Scam Goddess]

OK, so Comcast Venture capital arm reportedly considered investing as much as $25 million in the Fyre Fest celebrity booking apps. But they pulled out days before Fyre Festival was set to begin. The following a due diligence review and the failure of Fyre to provide crucial financial information. Probably didn't provide any. They were like, no, it's gonna work. Just give us the money. It's about to be fire.

[Lacy Mosley]

Here, I can let you look at my notes app on my phone. And like, we got some. Oh, oh, man, look at that right there. What's that say?

[Scam Goddess]

Fight. That's his fire.

[Lacy Mosley]

Now what's that, what's that say under that?

[Scam Goddess]

That says lit.

[Lacy Mosley]

Huh? Now under that, what does that say?

[Scam Goddess]

Job rule.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah. So we gonna. We gonna need that 25 million. Thank you so much. God bless, man. God really do be coming through, huh?

[Scam Goddess]

So as a festival drew closer, ticket holders started asking more and more questions like, where is my money going?

[Lacy Mosley]

Hey, do you want to see my notes? Apple?

[Scam Goddess]

No, we saw that.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, okay. Well, hit me up later.

[Scam Goddess]

It doesn't even say ja rule. It's an emoji of a Black guy that I just had to assume was Ja Rule.

[Lacy Mosley]

Right, right. You're very astute. So you need to load your wristband.

[Scam Goddess]

I already loaded it.

[Lacy Mosley]

Uh huh.

[Scam Goddess]

I already loaded it.

[Lacy Mosley]

Again, please.

[Scam Goddess]

So. And more questions on Fyre Fest's Instagram about amenities and lodging that had not yet been confirmed. So just like we talked about earlier when the rush card stopped working, people take to Instagram, they're like, where is my money, Angela Simmons, tell your dad to run me my fucking money. So eventually the organizers and their publicity firm just started deleting negative comments off the account, which is personally my brand. If you leave me a hateful comment on any of my Instagrams, I will just delete it.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

I will not talk to you. If you hit me up and you're trying to have a fight with me about something, I will not engage. I will delete it. I'm sorry. I'm not so the famous take one for the team story. So we all know this story about Dick.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

Andy King. So Andy King was an event planner that worked on logistical details for Fyre Festival. King had experience working with McFarlane and believed in his ability to produce great experiences, which is why he stayed on board with the Fyre Fest production for so long. In one of the most jaw dropping, literally moments of Netflix documentary, King admits to being prepared to perform sexual acts on a Bahamian customs officer in lieu of of paying 175,000 in cash and fees for bottled water for the festival. Okay, here we go. So when Andy King gets to the customs, he said the officer couldn't have been nicer. And he'd released the water once the people had paid the import fee. And we have a little clip of Andy recalling this story.

[Andy King]

Cup. And when I came back, I'd missed the big meeting with customs. And of course customs had said to Billy and the gang, you need to pay us $175,000 in cash today for us to release the water. I went down. Well, Billy called me. I'm going to speak completely. You know, this won't go that far, I'm sure. But Billy called me.

[Scam Goddess]

This won't go that far.

[Andy King]

Take one big thing for the team. And I said, oh my gosh, I've been taking something for the team every day. He said, well, you're our wonderful gay leader and we need you to go down, will you? You suck dick to fix this water problem. And I said, billy, what? He said, andy, if you will go down and suck Cunningham's dick, who's the head of customs and get him to clear all of the containers with water. You will save this festival.

[Scam Goddess]

He literally started putting on lip gloss,

[Andy King]

drove home to shower. I drank some mouthwash. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm really. And I got into my car to drive across the island to take one for the team.

[Scam Goddess]

So not only did he put the mouthwash on, he took a shower like it was about to be.

[Lacy Mosley]

Let it be known there's no team that I love enough that I just like a dick. But not even that. I just mean, like, if someone was like, oh, for the team. We need you to give $10. Are like, no, damn.

[Scam Goddess]

You're not doing anything.

[Lacy Mosley]

There's no teams. There's no teams. Listen, God is my. God is my teammate and he don't need my money.

[Scam Goddess]

The day of the festival, on Thursday afternoon, before fire is set to begin. They go this far. I cannot believe they let it go to the actual festival. Blink 1 E2 Blink 182 pulls out and saying that they're not confident that they have what we need to perform that evening. Like money and a stage and a place to sleep. They do have water, though,

[Lacy Mosley]

on an island.

[Scam Goddess]

So that evening attendees began to arrive in Exuma via chartered planes from Miami. And instead of the luxury villas and gourmet catering, they document an unfinished gravel lot scattered with disaster relief tins, a skeleton staff, and the infamous cheese sandwich.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, I liked that sandwich, Cuz here's the thing for the hood. Like, we like two pieces of bread.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah, but Swiss, though.

[Lacy Mosley]

But here's what I'm saying. Like, here's where they mess up. I was going to say. That's what I was going to say. That's literally what I was about to say. It's like they just had. They had a little bit of butter, one pan, flap, flap. Oh, that's a grilled cheese.

[Scam Goddess]

That's a grilled cheese.

[Lacy Mosley]

You know, and white people pay money for like a grilled cheese. Just some cheap food. They're like, oh, oh, I had the most amazing oatmeal this morning.

[Scam Goddess]

It was steel cut.

[Lacy Mosley]

$76. It was nothing in it but a pinch of your love. And you're like, wait, so you had plain oatmeal, $76. You're like, yeah, but the best part is that it was inconvenient to get to.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah. Cause that's a flex.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

Just being like, no. Well, a shaman, like whispered words of affirmations into my oatmeal and now it's worth $76.

[Lacy Mosley]

Like nigga, this Trader Joe. That's a Trader Joe's bowl of oatmeal.

[Scam Goddess]

A shaman. They were wearing rags.

[Lacy Mosley]

No, but his name was Shaman, I believe, and he worked at Trader Joe's. What does that mean anyway?

[Scam Goddess]

You get that they don't have what it means or what Blink182 needs. And this is the cheese sandwich.

[Lacy Mosley]

Okay. Last thing. I do wish there was an alternate universe where all of the artists showed up.

[Scam Goddess]

That would be so much fun.

[Lacy Mosley]

It's just designer being, like, what happens.

[Scam Goddess]

I wouldn't love to have Migos there. Cause Migos be beating niggas up.

[Lacy Mosley]

Like, Migos is violent.

[Scam Goddess]

I would have loved to seen Migos

[Lacy Mosley]

beat up Ja Rule dressed like a bunch of aunts, beating people up.

[Scam Goddess]

Like a bunch of baroque, like, patterned silk shirts.

[Lacy Mosley]

Like, yeah, I got beat down by a nigga wearing a blouse, boot cut leather jeans.

[Scam Goddess]

Yes. And a very loud blouse that's only buttoned one button.

[Lacy Mosley]

And then now we stuck on this island.

[Scam Goddess]

That's the life. That's the life I want.

[Lacy Mosley]

No Popeyes, no nothing.

[Scam Goddess]

Oh, Popeyes. So pictures were emerging like breaking news. Push notifications all over different social media platforms. The festival goers who had already managed to get there by chartered flight were stranded. Tents had blown away, and the ones that were left standing looked like disaster relief shelters because they were. There was no food. There was no accommodation. And men throw. Throwing out food like aid to luxury campers. Later that night, the Bahamian officials canceled all inbound flights. Travel chaos ensued as many attendees decided to turn around in the overwhelming Exuma's airport. Also, it's a tiny airport.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah. And there's so much foot traffic happening now. In the early a.m. fire reverses course, announcing that the Fyre festival is postponed and all attendees will have to go home. How you gonna postpone something when I'm there? You cannot postpone something when I have showed up. That's not how postpone postponing works. That's not how it works.

[Lacy Mosley]

It would be like showing up to someone's birthday party and being like, happy belated birthday. It's like, nigga, my birthday is right now. Why are you saying this? You having a stroke, right?

[Scam Goddess]

Postpone. You can't postpone some shit when I'm present.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, you ain't gonna believe this. We postponed.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah. Did nobody tell you?

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, man.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah, we put it on Instagram and we have postponed.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, no. We deleted that comment.

[Scam Goddess]

So Ja Rule issues an apology.

[Lacy Mosley]

Finally.

[Scam Goddess]

Oh, finally writing that the festival was not a scam and not My fault again.

[Lacy Mosley]

Just. Again. You can't start with a statement being like, it's not this.

[Scam Goddess]

It's like, it is this. I'm not on Molly. I told you it's not a sketch.

[Andy King]

Damn.

[Scam Goddess]

He also deletes a number of earlier Instagram posts promoting it. Like, nigga, we saw those. You should have just left them up. The Bahamian Tourism Ministry publishes a statement disowning fire. Billy goes into damage control mold, saying organizers were a little naive. A little okay. And blaming bad weather for complications. He says that Fyre Festival will try again in 2018 at a US beach location. In addition to full refunds, he promises everyone who bought a 2017 ticket can attend free the next year.

[Lacy Mosley]

I'm like, oh, wow. Thanks for the blessing.

[Scam Goddess]

Right? Fyre Fest sends a questionnaire to VIP ticket holders suggesting that in lieu of refunds, they accept additional VIP passes to the yet to be announced 2018 festival. TMZ reported that McFarland and Rural banned from attempting another event in the Bahamas. So the Bahamas was like, you cannot come here and host anything. A birthday party, a dinner party party. No party whatsoever. If you were caught in the Bahamas in a gathering of more than three people, you will be arrested.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, my God, they're stunning humans.

[Scam Goddess]

Like, you can't come back here at all. So on May 2, someone apparently leaks the entire fire pitch deck presentation McFarlane and his partners use to court investors. It's packed full of Instagram models and words like ideate. That's a good word. It's a fancy word, and it makes me feel bad.

[Lacy Mosley]

We just gotta say that. We just gotta start saying that.

[Scam Goddess]

They're like, do you have any money? And we're like, ideate. Okay, look at this flowchart. So it starts with understand brand goals, then it goes down to ideate, Then it goes across to conceptualize, Then it

[Lacy Mosley]

goes down to execute, which is, by the way, literally. Literally everything.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah.

[Lacy Mosley]

Every single thing you do is just like, oh, that was an idea. Then I think about the idea, then I do it. Yeah, like, you didn't. Also, that's not a flowchart. Like, why doesn't it just go straight down?

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah. Cause it is. The flowchart has a lot of arrows, and they're not necessarily going direct. One direction.

[Andy King]

Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

Are we ideating and conceptualizing at the same time?

[Lacy Mosley]

Hey, man, can you just go straight down Fairfax? That's where I live. All right, how about I take six detours? Nope. If you just go straight down Fairfax.

[Scam Goddess]

No. We're going to do several left Turns that will amount to a U turn right, Lacey.

[Lacy Mosley]

Again, like if you just go straight down Fairfax. That's where I live.

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah, but you know what you could also do? Go down La Brea a mile too far and then turn around.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, but see, why would you want to turn around? Like, but why don't you conceptualize for two seconds?

[Scam Goddess]

I'm ideating.

[Lacy Mosley]

Oh, all right. Oh, okay. Then let's execute it. Execute it. Lacey.

[Scam Goddess]

People are absolutely insane.

[Lacy Mosley]

White people.

[Scam Goddess]

Celebrity attorney Mark Garagos files a hundred million dollar class action lawsuit on behalf of the attendees claiming fires, organizers and a flu guests into the Exumas even though they knew the festival grounds were uninhabitable and unsecured. Organizers asked attendees to upload money to festival wristbands for a cashless event. So some no emergency cash for taxis. The lawyer's right. Damn. So y' all just brought no cash? Cuz they said it was cashless.

[Lacy Mosley]

It's like, nigga, the whole island ain't a fire.

[Scam Goddess]

Right?

[Lacy Mosley]

Like what did you think was going?

[Scam Goddess]

Well, he did originally say it was going to be on a whole island, so they thought they was about to be on the cashless fire.

[Lacy Mosley]

But doesn't everyone kind of assume to just have $20 on you?

[Scam Goddess]

If I'm going to the Bahamas, I'm going to have more than $20, you

[Lacy Mosley]

know what I'm saying?

[Scam Goddess]

Just because like, woohoo. Like niggas get robbed, right? Do you think that you're going to get in a cab in the Bahamas and they're going to tap your wristband for the fire fest?

[Lacy Mosley]

I know everything you've ever heard about us is 30 years behind. But don't worry, you can pay with this cabin Minority Report cash future money where you just tap your wrist.

[Scam Goddess]

So at least one of the attendees suffered a medical emergency and lost consciousness after being locked inside a nearby building with concertgoers waiting to be airlifted from the island. The suit also includes a photo of the cheese sandwich. A second hundred million dollar lawsuit accuses McFarland and Rule of breach of contract and fraud, saying they tricked people into attending the event by paying more than 400 social media influencers and celebrities to promote a festival that did not exist. May 3rd, a lawsuit filed in New York. Everybody is suing McFarland. I just feel. And their mama, we should sue him. Why not? I was also hurt.

[Lacy Mosley]

I feel like it's unfair.

[Scam Goddess]

Also he don't got money for all these lawsuits. He doesn't have the money for the lawsuits.

[Lacy Mosley]

And also it's like, you don't get to sue me cuz you got played.

[Scam Goddess]

Right? You don't get to sue me cuz you got played. So a third lawsuit in New York accuses McFarlane and of rule. Why did I keep writing rule?

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

Of ja rule of negligence, fraud and violating consumer protection law. Upon the arrival of guests, the I island was lacking basic amenities, like food was covered in dirt. Now that's how most islands are. It's an island and guests had to sleep in tents with wet blankets.

[Lacy Mosley]

Well, but here's. That's camping. Like, why do you get to be mad because you're camping?

[Scam Goddess]

Wet blankets?

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah, it's just sleeping outside and being uncomfortable.

[Scam Goddess]

Why? People do love camping.

[Lacy Mosley]

They love camping. They're like, ooh, what's dangerous?

[Scam Goddess]

And there was no communal showers or bathrooms as promised. Instead, there were porta Potter. Only one for every 200 yards that

[Lacy Mosley]

I truly feel like you could sue for.

[Scam Goddess]

That's nasty as hell.

[Lacy Mosley]

I feel like you.

[Scam Goddess]

And you know, those Porta Potties were stanking because everybody's doing cocaine and you know, they got to go poop a lot and I can't.

[Andy King]

We gotta move on.

[Scam Goddess]

Oh, we gotta move on. So a leaked email thread with a subject line red Flag bathroom shower Shipping shows organizers trying to stretch funds as far as possible as they dealt with the unexpectedly high cost of shipping toilets to the island. If we cut it out in half and just have like double lines for the weight, I'm seeing some sites that say we could get away with 75 toilets. Damn. A senior member wrote another organizer in the exchange, remarking the fact, like, for the event's caterer, they said that the Star Catering group had pulled out and someone said, no one's eating, therefore no one's pooping. So they were like, if our caterer pulls out, no one's gonna be eating.

[Lacy Mosley]

Hey.

[Scam Goddess]

So no one's gonna be eating.

[Lacy Mosley]

That's a win win.

[Scam Goddess]

This is a two day festival and we not gonna eat nothing.

[Lacy Mosley]

Look again. A God. Like, that's. That's future thinking.

[Scam Goddess]

So two more lawsuits were filed against the Fyre Fest organizers, bringing the total count to five. The fourth is another class action initiated by a ticket buyer. The fifth comes from staffing companies of the National Event Services, which says that FIRE contacted it to provide medical services at the festival. According to Fire failed and or refused to buy cancellation insurance and failed to secure a contract with a medical evacuation, helicopter or plane. So if you got sick on Fire island, you was gonna die there.

[Lacy Mosley]

Yeah.

[Scam Goddess]

There was no one to help you

[Lacy Mosley]

Imagine getting to heaven and God is like, nigga, you died at Fire Festival.

[Scam Goddess]

That's so embarrassing. I can't imagine I'm more embarrassing.

[Lacy Mosley]

Like, I mean, think about all the people that have died and like, I mean, like, I hate to be like, mass shootings and all this stuff. And like, nigga, you died in Fire Festival. At Fire Festival, with all that money on your bracelet.

[Scam Goddess]

Technically, there was no money on the bracelet. I wonder if they even had the technology to put money on bracelet.

[Lacy Mosley]

My first question would be like, hey, if I'm giving you all this money, will this help me at a hospital?

[Scam Goddess]

No.

[Lacy Mosley]

Will the hospital take wristbands?

[Scam Goddess]

Nope. You can't have cash for that. So an audio call between McFarland and Fry employees, fire employees, rather, leaks, in which McFarlane informs his staff that they will not be getting paid for their work. What a phone call they have to make. After conferring. This is a quote. After conferring with our counsel and all the financial people, unfortunately, we will not be able to proceed with payroll. We will not be able to proceed with payroll. Hey, guys, we're gonna Postpone payroll, okay? McFarland can be heard saying, we're not fir firing anyone. We're just letting you know that there will be no payroll in the short term. So we're not firing anyone. We do expect you to work for free.

[Lacy Mosley]

Come in. Come on in.

[Scam Goddess]

The phrasing of this is just Chef's kiss. Yeah. So after the fire in late 2017, Billy was already awaiting sentencing for the Fyre Festival. He allegedly continues to conduct criminal business as usual, selling non existent tickets to fashion, music and sporting events. Billy has been sentenced to six years in prison and also faces a child $26 million forfeiture order. McFarland pleaded guilty in March to the wire fraud charges. Because a big part of the scam was is he would tell people that they were getting wired their money and that they needed to wait. So he would make in Photoshop fake wire transfer documents. And I say this all the time, guys. Photoshop, Photoshop, Photoshop. If you're gonna be a scammer, you have to know how to use it. So he was falsifying documents. All right. The Netflix and Hulu docs, we've all seen them a lot of. I'm just gonna do a little bit of the highlights. So. Ja Rule has denounced both documentaries on Twitter where he pointed out that the films both paid their sources. He goes, I love how people watch a doc and think they have all the answers. Hulu paid Billy that Money should have went to the people in the Bahamas. He wrote on Twitter, Netflix paid Fuck Jerry who also did the promo for the festival. And clearly it's also there fault. So Fuck Jerry actually did get paid for social media. It's very crazy and I think if you do a documentary and you pay people, that's it really invalidates it immediately.

[Lacy Mosley]

You think so?

[Scam Goddess]

Yeah. So fun facts. Billy's Russian girlfriend is a model with the Silence Model agency and they stayed together. She stayed with him through all of this. That's a real bit.

[Lacy Mosley]

She's really down for you, you know, when you're around royalty.

[Scam Goddess]

Mike. The situation revealed that McFarlane allegedly was thrown into solitary confinement for attempt to record conversations with other inmates. He supposedly smuggled in some sort of recording device and he was caught with it. Mike claimed on the show, he said that they he was trying to record high profile inmates. They threw him in the shoe.

[Lacy Mosley]

What was he trying to get from him? Does it say?

[Scam Goddess]

I don't know, it doesn't say. But I love that he's still running scams.

[Lacy Mosley]

I love that also.

[Scam Goddess]

I love that he's in jail with Mike. The situation.

[Lacy Mosley]

Can you imagine being a normal person getting thrown to that jail and you're like is that Billy McFarland talking to the situation? Am I?

[Scam Goddess]

You're having a jail. All right guys, we're take a quick break for some non scam advertisements. We'll be back for the end of the show. Robbery and fraud. All right guys, we're back. And this is scammer of the week. This is a long ass episode. If you made it through this shit, God bless. We, we scammed you. We scammed you. So this time shout out to just a real queen and a king and you know, animals of all genders. Argentinians are falling victim to a ferret scam where the ferret poses to be like this cute dog. They give the ferret a blowout.

[Lacy Mosley]

Uh huh.

[Scam Goddess]

And they basically pose it up to be like a cute little white fluffy dog. And then people buy it and when they get home they realize it's a ferret.

[Lacy Mosley]

Can I say showing me that I'm like, like that is a fluffy ferret. Like there's no. That doesn't look like dogs have black noses unless they are pit bulls. Like that looks like a. That looks like a rat with a blowout.

[Scam Goddess]

I don't know, I haven't seen every dog. So this might get me.

[Lacy Mosley]

I would be like oh wow, this dog looks like a mouse. That would be my first thought.

[Scam Goddess]

That's what a ferret is high key. It's just like a bigger rat. It's not a sexy pet, but people

[Lacy Mosley]

are getting scared, so it is funny to take a ferret that doesn't. You would not ear. Like, what about the ears? Like, you know what I'm saying? You would. You would absolutely be like.

[Scam Goddess]

And they're saying that this is a pedigreed poodle. Maybe if you don't know what you're like, look, this is the rarest poodle. Like, they got light skin noses now of like.

[Lacy Mosley]

It's weird that my dog won't play fetch and is only eating groundhogs.

[Scam Goddess]

Oh, shout out to the scam. Ferrets need love too. Guys. All right, we've reached the end of the show. Lord Jesus. Yassir, where do you want to be found? I always ask people where they want to be found.

[Lacy Mosley]

Instagram. Instagram. So yasserlester Y A S S I R L E S T E R I'm there. Twitter is dead.

[Scam Goddess]

You have a Twitter.

[Lacy Mosley]

I know, but I'm saying Twitter is a whole is dead. There's more joy to be found on Instagram.

[Scam Goddess]

I. I find joy on both.

[Lacy Mosley]

Do you?

[Scam Goddess]

Okay. And guys, as always, if you want to email us your scams if they're retired or not, scamgottispodgmail.com follow us on Instagram and Twitter amgoddesspod and you can follow.

[Lacy Mosley]

Lacy's full address is.

[Scam Goddess]

Okay, don't make me reach over there and take off one of these 600 chains that you have on your neck. I can be found at D I V A L A C I Diva Lacey on all platforms. Congregation stay ski scam. Goddamn.