The Infomercial Imposter w/ Tawny Newsome (Fraud Friday)

Summary

Scam Goddess: "The Infomercial Imposter w/ Tawny Newsome (Fraud Friday)"

Date: March 13, 2026
Host: Laci Mosley
Guest: Tawny Newsome

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Episode Overview

This classic "Fraud Friday" episode of Scam Goddess, hosted by Laci Mosley with guest Tawny Newsome, dives into both hilarious and alarming tales of scams—from lighthearted personal anecdotes to an in-depth look at infamous infomercial fraudster Don Lapre. The episode blends sharp social commentary, comedy, and genuine admiration for the creativity (if not the ethics) of con artists—plus a nod to why everyday people sometimes get swept into schemes.

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1. Opening Banter & Scam Relationships

[03:30 – 07:53]

Highlights

• Laci and Tawny riff on their rare first names, stories about other "Lacys" and "Tawnys", and the joy of getting to yell at someone who deserves it.
• Tawny describes growing up under the vigilant watch of her mom and dad—a "head on a swivel" upbringing that made her difficult to scam or pickpocket.
  • Notable Quote
    "I'm the paranoid friend you want with you on a crowded train in another country." — Tawny (04:32)
• Tawny recounts her mom catching a child pickpocket in Barcelona, treating the incident with a bizarre kind of compassion.

Insights

• Black families' generational vigilance about scams and safety.
• The spectrum: from "hardcore marks and empathizers" to "alert/light scam dabblers," with Laci teasing that people like Tawny could be great at fraud if they tried.
  • Quote:
    "You’re probably closer to, one day, being a scammer...That’s how the scale goes." — Laci (07:26)

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2. Scam Psychology, Line-Cutting, and Everyday Chicanery

[07:54 – 11:10]

Key Discussion Points

• Laci shares how a college psychology class on social behavior led her down a scammer’s thought path, realizing that people's need to avoid confrontation is exploitable.
  • Quote:
    "If you give anyone an excuse in a line, they'll usually let you cut…People don't want confrontation." — Laci (08:45)
• Laci recounts her own low-stakes scams: cutting lines at events, using chaos to her advantage, and manipulating group outrage.
  • Tawny reacts in awe, claiming she lacks the boldness but recognizes the method.

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3. Listener Scam Story: Counterfeit Money & Barbie Fabrics

What's Hot and Fraud
[13:59 – 21:46]

Story Overview

• Listener "Slick from Seattle" describes printing fake $20 bills on Barbie "Fashion Designer" fabric during the transition between old and new bill designs—initially using them at convenience stores, later to dupe high school dealers.
• The hustle escalates: buying cigarettes with fake bills, reselling or bartering, and eventually a quick, casual pivot to armed robbery.
  • Memorable Moment:
    "By then, we were old enough to move on to armed robbery. So, fuck it." — Listener "Teddy" (21:33)
  • Hosts' Reaction:
    "Whoa, my God!...Teddy, how you gonna slip that in at the end like that?" — Laci (21:35, 21:49)

Commentary

• Both hosts process the shock and hilarity of the twist ending, joking about deleting listener emails to avoid FBI entanglements.
  • Quote:
    "I might just delete this email after we record...just in case any feds is listening, they can't call your girl." — Laci (22:09)

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4. Historic Hoodwink: The Rise and Fall of Don Lapre

[22:52 – 53:35]

The Scam Breakdown

Early Schemes

• Don Lapre: Infomercial king, master of vague business names ("Unknown Concepts") and “money-making secrets.”
  • Quote:
    "What y'all do over there? — Unknown." — Laci mocking Lapre’s business name (25:49)
• Early legal troubles: Banned from credit repair, moved to dubious "federal loan refund" booklets.

Infomercial Fame

• Lapre’s signature pitch: "By placing tiny classified ads in the newspaper, I’m able to make $50,000 a week from my tiny one-bedroom apartment." (29:27)
  • Quote (satirical):
    "No one questioned Don Lepre and was like, how are you making $50,000 a month and living in a bachelor [apartment]? Where the 50K go?" — Laci (31:23)
• The game: Sell tape/booklet "secrets," then upsell telemarketed schemes (chat lines, web packages) for hundreds or thousands.

Legal & Financial Downfall

• Sued for fraudulent practices; forced to return tens of thousands, bankrupt, IRS troubles.
• Shift to vitamin pyramid scheme: "Greatest Vitamin in the World"—selling the idea that anyone could get thousands by getting others to buy vitamins via shoddy internet sites.
  • Quote:
    "He was telling people to buy newspaper ads…and now he’s like, 'Sell vitamins and also sell them on the Internet.' So he’s just combining two scams.” — Laci (45:35)
• FDA crackdown: False medical claims (vitamins “cure” all ailments).
• The scam collapses; Lapre goes on the run, ultimately takes his own life before trial.

Social Commentary

• TV as legitimizer in the 1990s—no Twitter, so infomercials were persuasive.
• Parallels between past infomercial scams and current social-media schemes.
• Sympathy for working-class people lured by Lapre’s relatability.
  • Quote:
    "He looks like a working-class guy...I could easily see why people would look at him and be like, he's one of us and he's trying to help us scam the system and get rich, too." — Laci (52:13)

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5. Scammer of the Week: Antonio Wilson’s Jennifer Lewis Con

[54:47 – 60:43]

The Scam

• Con man Antonio Marriott Wilson targets legendary actress Jennifer Lewis (“Black-ish”), scamming $50,000 and convincing her of a fake romance and film investment.
  • Quote (reaction):
    “You better not get Jennifer Lewis! You absolutely cannot.” — Tawny (54:59)
• Wilson’s lies: Claims to be an Oscar-winner, software mogul (Second Life), sound company owner (Ultimate FX), Oxford professor, Navy SEAL—all while working at LA Fitness.
  • Quote (mocking):
    "Bruh, you gave yourself a real accomplished life for working at LA Fitness!" — Laci (59:54)
• Jennifer Lewis successfully sues LA Fitness for negligence in hiring.

Insight

• Hosts stress: This scammer is NOT celebrated—"You scammed our queen. It ain't right." (Laci, 60:43)

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6. Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the spectrum of scam-adjacent personalities:
  “I would love to do some light fraud. I wonder if it’s just never occurred to me, but I think I would be good at it. Is that a bad thing to say?” — Tawny (07:53)
• On fake miracle cures:
  “You can’t just be like, my pill works for diabetes, rashes, eczema, restless leg syndrome…It can’t work for everything, Don. Pick a lane.” — Laci (47:04)
• Meta comment on scam TV culture:
  "A lot of this stuff…the scammer spelled it all right out for you…And you still said, 'OK, I want in.'" — Tawny (31:50)
• On desperation and scam appeal:
  "When your 'despo meter' is high…you just want in on a system that seems to be helping people cheat the game." — Laci (52:13)
• Genuine praise for (ethical!) sex work and hustle:
  "Let the sex workers get their coins. And I love women being able to get their money from home by being fine." — Laci (39:00)

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7. Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | | ------------ | --------------------------------------------------------- | | 03:30–07:53 | Scam vigilance and personal backgrounds | | 07:54–11:10 | Psychology of scams, social behavior anecdotes | | 13:59–21:46 | Listener story: Barbie fabric counterfeit bills | | 22:52–53:36 | Historic Hoodwink: Don Lapre infomercial guru | | 54:47–60:43 | Scammer of the Week: Antonio Wilson & Jennifer Lewis |

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8. Tone & Host Style

• Laci’s signature comedic warmth, blunt honesty, and incisive social critique.
• Tawny’s dry wit, self-deprecation, and candid engagement with the mechanics of fraud.
• The episode balances playful storytelling with real empathy—especially for scam victims who are simply trying to navigate a system stacked against them.

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9. Closing & Plugs (Skip-to-content suggestion: 62:16)

• Tawny plugs her Netflix show "Space Force" and podcast "Yo, Is This Racist?"
• Laci directs listeners to Scam Goddess social channels and celebrates the supportive, creative bond between Black women.

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Bottom Line

This episode is a prime example of Scam Goddess's best—funny, irreverent, educational, and packed with wild tales that spark both laughter and real reflection on why some scams are so seductive. From childhood vigilance to infomercial empires, a Barbie-based counterfeiting scheme, and a shocking celebrity con, Laci and Tawny leave the audience both entertained and just a bit wiser.

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As the Scam Goddess signs off: Stay schemin’!

Transcript

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[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

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[Tawny Newsome]

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[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

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[Tawny Newsome]

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[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

What's Poppin Congregation? It's YA girl. Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. Welcome to an episode of Fraud Fridays where we release older episodes from the Scam Goddess vault. That's right, Fraud Fridays is where we bring back your favorite episodes from behind the Paywall. Enjoy this episode from behind the Paywall and as always, stay scheming Scams Robbery and Fraud Scams C Robbery and Fraud Scam Goddess what's Poppin Congregation we are back for another installment of Scam Goddess. And yes, we are at home on our couches in the cribs and that's all we're gonna Say about that? I'm your host, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam goddess, and I'm super thrilled. Look, I gave y' all a new word. I know I say excited. I'm saying thrilled. Okay. Even more excited for our guest. She's a queen. You've heard her on her podcast, yo, is this racist? Which is so amazing and popular and fucking dope. Also, you can see her starring in the new Netflix show with Steve Carell called Space force. We have Ms. Tawni Newsome. Tawni, did I say your last name right?

[Tawny Newsome]

Oh, Lacey. Thank you so much.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I think so.

[Tawny Newsome]

I don't know. There's a weird delay. It could have been wrong, but you probably got it.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

It's Newsome. I just feel like I never say your last name.

[Tawny Newsome]

Like I know you.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

We are just always tawny. Like I never really say your last name.

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah, you don't really need. I don't really know many other tawnies, so we don't need it.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

It's a good name. It's a really. It's like Lacey.

[Tawny Newsome]

We're pretty rare.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I rarely meet a Lacy. There's like Lacey Duvall, she be fucking. And then Lacey Peterson. That was sad. People used to call me Lacy Peterson.

[Tawny Newsome]

I know a Lacy. I know a white Lacey who used to teach spin classes in my old neighborhood. But then she got fired for yelling at a white man. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

She was. I think I like that Lacey. I think I like that Lacey. She sounds like we would be cool.

[Tawny Newsome]

I think I was on her side. She did, she did yell at him real hard, but also like he was wild. So I'm with that Lacy. All the Lacy's I know personally, I'm

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

with yes I, I can. I've only gotten to really yell at somebody real hard like twice in my life. And boy, can I tell you, it's liberating. Have you ever just cussed somebody out real good?

[Tawny Newsome]

I don't think they've done it either.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

They. Because they deserved it. They deserved it. I did it once and unfortunately the circumstances weren't great because I was outside of a theater, we won't say which. And there was a valet line and I started cursing these heifers out so bad. The valet line started clapping at the end. I was like, oh, I need to.

[Tawny Newsome]

Hell yeah.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

So first I want to ask you just a little question, like, do you have any relationship with scams? Have you ever been scammed?

[Tawny Newsome]

You know, I was raised by a very tough mom. Who always taught me to be on the lookout for shenanigans and taught me to keep my wits about me. I will say this. I have never been pickpocketed. I have never been mugged. I have never. And a lot of that is luck. A lot of that is my height and my stature. I'm not a small woman, so I am less likely to. To be grabbed or to be. For people to try and pull some shit with me. But also, like, my head is on a swivel, honey, to the point where I look crazy. When I travel, I look, I'm just. I'm the. I'm the paranoid friend you want with you on a crowded train in a country you've never been to before.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Like, if you were in Taken, they

[Tawny Newsome]

would have been spotted.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

If you were in Taken, you.

[Tawny Newsome]

Oh, yeah, I would have been in

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

the car with him. Oh, damn, you would have been, Liam. You would even have been the friend. Zamia.

[Tawny Newsome]

I would have said I would have.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I am a little, like, I'm a

[Tawny Newsome]

little bit of a vigilante in that way, just because, like, I can see. My mom just taught me to recognize behaviors of just people who meant you harm, even if it's, you know, mild harm, even. It's just like pickpocketing or whatever. So I will say that I have been lucky and I've been strategic, and that's never happened to me. I will recall one time I went with my mom to Barcelona. And you know, a lot of European cities have a lot of just like, petty pickpocketing that's not even any shade. America has way bigger problems. But just in Europe, the pickpocketing game is rampant.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

It's cute. It's a little cute there. It's like the little kid.

[Tawny Newsome]

It's a little Oliver Twist.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Hello. May I rub your pockets? And you know, it feels a little cute. I'm like, yeah, why not?

[Tawny Newsome]

Why not? And I will never forget coming down some steps in a subway and I turn around to look for my mom, and my mom has a 12 year old daughter, child by the wrist, and she's just looking her in the eyes and going, why did you put your hand in my purse? And the kid's like. And then just breaks free and runs away. I was like, okay, we're gonna. We're gonna be all right. Because I was a little nervous, like, traveling. I was traveling with my mom, my husband's mom. It was like we had all these moms with us. And I was like, oh, I'm dragging them through, through Europe, they're gonna get their ass pickpocketed or something. But no one did, so. Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I loved how your mom was.

[Tawny Newsome]

She was like, why are you. Mom was very. Because she was also like, it's a child. Right? Like, she wasn't. Tell me why. She was just like, hey, we don't do that. I also say my dad is a very paranoid person, and he has always raised me to be paranoid.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Yeah, that's a black people thing.

[Tawny Newsome]

It's a real black people thing. He loves to send me an article about the kkk, like, you know, often, so. And most of the time, he's right. But what it's just done for me is it's kept me. It's kept me aware of scams, even when they're a little. Even when maybe they're not that, you know, threatening.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Bad.

[Tawny Newsome]

I think I'm.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Yeah.

[Tawny Newsome]

Head on a sword pretty well.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I appreciate that. So you're definitely not a mark. So you're probably closer to maybe one day being a scammer. Cause that's, you know, that's how the scale goes. It goes. We have hardcore marks and empathizers on one side, and then we have people who are real, real alert towards the middle, and. And then the far right is, like, really bad scammers. And then the middle of the right is, like, people who just like, a little. You know, just like a little light fraud. You know, just like a little taste of chicanery. Mm. You know, every now and then we

[Tawny Newsome]

skip a lot of. I would love a little bit of. I'd love to do some light fraud. I wonder if it's just never occurred to me, but I think I would be good at it. Is that a bad thing to say?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

No, I think that's an excellent thing to say. And I also think you would be excellent at it, as you are at most things. All things, really, that I know that you do, Tani, are excellent. So I. I fully believe that you would also succeed at this. You know, what's funny about scamming is, like, a lot of times it's just shit that nobody thinks of to do. Like, I took a psychology class, which really, in college, which really, really started me, like, being interested in scams, because they were teaching me stuff in the psych class about, you know, bystander effect and ways that, you know, social communities interact with one another as a whole. And then I was reading it and started to realize that I was like, oh, I can just start cheating people. That's not what they were trying to Teach me. But I was like, that's what I took from it. Shout out to the University of Pittsburgh College. Like, for example, if you're in a line and you give anybody an excuse in front of you for why you need to cut them, Unless, like, it's like, a concert or something that people are real thirsty for, like, a sneaker release or whatever, they'll normally let you in front of them. So if you're just in line at the grocery store and you're like, hey, my car is running. People will let you in front of them. Like, what does that even mean, your car is running? See, because people don't want confrontation.

[Tawny Newsome]

Why'd you leave it run? Turn it off.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And, like, anytime I've come.

[Tawny Newsome]

You know what, Lacey? I. I get this so hard because I am terrified of consequences. So I. I guess I'm not a scammer because I don't want to get caught doing shit like this. But you know what makes me a super head on a swivel person is if you come up to me and go, hey, my car's running. Can I get in front of you? I will let you. But I will always be like, this is a scam. I will always be like, okay, I'm gonna let you have your scam. But even people who are, like, trying to do legitimate things, I'm usually like, this is a scam they're running, right?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And a lot of times they are. Cause my ass be out here scamming. I remember one time I was going to, like, a Barry Jenkins film festival.

[Tawny Newsome]

Some.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Some shit that. Where he was speaking, and they were, like, playing one of his movies, and it's pretty exclusive. I got there way too late. The line was wrapped around the block, and I was like, I don't be doing lines like that. So I walked right up to almost the front, like, maybe six people behind. And then I just started standing on the cor. And then I just started leaning in closer and just leaning in closer all the time on my phone or, like, pretending to talk on the phone. Like, I was distracted, and then I was good. But it was a black event, right? It's Barry Jenkins and Ryan Coogler. These six white people come up, and they get in line right in front of me with somebody who had been holding their place. Now there is this little Latina woman, Afro Latina woman. And she was not having it. She said, we want to have it. And she was like, I know y' all didn't all just get in front. And I was like, damn, they really did get in front of you y', all, huh? You know, actually, how about you go up there? I was like, you skip all of them and then I'm gonna get behind, you know, and damn well I cut her too.

[Tawny Newsome]

Woo. So you used. You used someone else's failed scam to advance your own. Now that, that is some inception level scamming. And I applaud you.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I was like, damn, sis, I know how you feel. I can't believe they did that to you. You've been here since 3 o'. Clock. It's 8pm

[Tawny Newsome]

See, this is a boldness that I don't possess.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

It's mostly panic because I'm like, I can't lose. Something comes over me and is like, I cannot lose. And then I'm like, I got to

[Pharmaceutical Announcer]

keep going Scams Eczema is unpredictable, but you can flare less with Epglis, a once monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema after an initial four month or longer dosing phase. About four in 10 people taking Eglis achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.

[Pharmaceutical Safety Information Reader]

HempGlass Lebricizumab LBKZ, a 250mg injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to Epglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with ebglis. Before starting Ebglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection.

[Pharmaceutical Announcer]

Ask your doctor about ebgliss and visit ebgliss.lily.com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

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[Tawny Newsome]

All.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Have y' all seen my little Parisian photo in the black dress with the fur and the umbrella where I'm standing in front of the doorway looking all cute? Yes. That is a quint dress. I made it Parisian, honey. I can also throw it on with a jean jacket and make it wearable to the grocery store. That's what I love about Quince. Right now. Go to quince.com goddess for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to Q u I n c e.com Goddess for free shipping and 365 day returns.

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[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

But yes, Tani. So let's get into our first segment. What's hot and fried? So I got a listener letter for you, Tani. And this listene letter really intrigued me because when I first opened it, it says I didn't want to send this until I checked the statute of limitations. And I said, yes, yes, okay, whatever. This is spicy, flavorful, delicious. I will imbibe and we will call this person. You know, I'm going to call this person Teddy Riley. And that's just a deep cut for y' all black folks.

[Tawny Newsome]

Teddy Riley, I love your aliases. You be giving people, they crack me up, right?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Like y' all white folks. Google Teddy Riley vs Battle so y' all can get the gifs and the memes. That was so funny. Who Teddy Riley was doing the most?

[Tawny Newsome]

Oh, my God.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Shout out to a king.

[Tawny Newsome]

That was like wild.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I can't believe that. That was like months ago. It's crazy.

[Tawny Newsome]

So Teddy Riley said that was early teen.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Damn. It was the teen is the time is starting to fly by. Which I'm okay with because I'm like Let's get to November because we got work to do so the teen can keep flying. Although my birthday is coming up the 4th of July, and if I gotta be inside on my birthday by myself, like, I'm gonna really be sad. My city voice.

[Tawny Newsome]

You're gonna loot your own house.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

My city girl's voice came out. I was like, I'm gonna really be sad because I was supposed to be having a hot girl summer, and instead I'm having an air conditioned lonely girl summer. Like, no. Aw, it's not hot at all.

[Tawny Newsome]

No, no. We'll have a little. We'll plan you a little social distancing hang like we did for producer emeritus Zig.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I don't want that shit. I love Zig. And I went to it. But I want a party. I want to rent a mansion.

[Tawny Newsome]

You throw this in my face. I planned that soiree. I had to.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

No, I loved it.

[Tawny Newsome]

What'd I have to do? I had to send a zoom link. I had to. What'd I have to do? I had to get myself a drink. It was hard planning.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I had to. What I had to do. I had to.

[Tawny Newsome]

What I had to do.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Having to recall what you had to do.

[Tawny Newsome]

Guys, whenever I had to have the Zoom Pro account.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Yeah, you do have to have the account to send the links. I just click on links. I ain't never started a zoom in my life, honey. That's my scam. Yeah, don't start the zoom. Just have people invite you. But, guys, you know, when I have

[Tawny Newsome]

and see, I recognize my inherent privilege, and so I say, I can afford the Zoom Pro account.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

You got Zoom Pro coins, Miss Space? Okay, okay, okay, Miss Space Force. So, guys, I just have to say, you know, when I have a friend on the show, we gonna be making tangents, okay? So don't be tweeting me about these. Okay, but like we were saying, Teddy Riley. So Teddy Riley told us I need to make sure I didn't send this in before the feds could watch. And we appreciate that, Teddy. We're not trying to get you arrested. Teddy said, please don't use my name. Anyway, if you must call me, call me Slick from Seattle. Oh, Teddy had already come up with a name. Okay, well, Teddy. I like Teddy better, but Slick from Seattle is cute. Anyway, anyone that deserves to know will know. Anywho, this was all back about 18 to 20 years ago. The first new 20s with the big faces were the norm, and old 20s were still very common. This was also right when Laserjet printers got good. My Cousin and I tried printing off some $20 bills, and they looked very convincing, but they didn't feel like real money. You know what I mean? Oh, you know, I know what you mean. I used to work at bars where I had to rub the money because there's parts on the money that's like,

[Tawny Newsome]

on me too, right?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

That has that, like, kind of surface on it. Yeah, that's textured. And then we would mark it with a pen. We'd hold it up to the light. Cause we, the fake twenties in New York were flying. So I know what you talking about. He says, we tried to pass off fake bills at some convenience stores. And it worked a couple times, but a couple times we had to run away from a suspicious clerk. After this, we just used fake bills to burn corny high school drug dealers. We were still young at the time. We weren't beating up little kids. Okay, I guess. Listen, high school drug dealers need.

[Tawny Newsome]

That's his.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I guess they need their money the least.

[Tawny Newsome]

I'm just confused about. Yeah, that's true. I'm just confused about his range of bad things to do. Give fake money to corny drug dealers, to beating up little kids. I don't really understand.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

You thought we were gonna A to C. You thought we were gonna go from, oh, he's giving fake money to high school children to he's beating them up. I wasn't gonna go there. Were you beating them up? I think you might have been beating them up, Teddy Riley. I think you might have been beating them up. So one day I saw a TV ad that gave me an idea. And here I have a photo, and it's Barbie. Mattel's Barbie guys. And it's called the Fashion Designer Refill Kit. It says, make more real clothes for your Barbie doll. So Barbie is making these, like, printout, like, digital printer kind of things so that kids can, you know, give Barbie a new fit. Honey, did you ever have a Barbie doll?

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah, I had a bunch of Barbie dolls.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Did you ever tear their hairs off?

[Tawny Newsome]

Tear their what? Tear their hair off?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Yeah. Is that weird? Who does? Why.

[Tawny Newsome]

Why would I do that?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

You ain't never got your Barbie shape up? I mean, no.

[Tawny Newsome]

I guess I was just, like, so fucking brainwashed and covetous of the long straight hair they all had. I was like, oh, beauty.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Oh, damn. I guess something was wrong with me because I was giving my Barbie spades and shit. I was like,

[Tawny Newsome]

I bet they looked great. No, my Barbies were corny. They stayed in the outfits they came in. They didn't have other outfits. I had to build them a dream house. I wasn't allowed to have a house for it. Cause I guess my parents thought you can have 37 Barbies. But if you have. If they have any. If the Barbies own any property, then you're too bougie. So I had to build them. I had to take scarves and clothes and build them little tents. So my Barbies look like they live in a little refugee camp most of the time.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Oh, no, your Barbies was hippies. They out here in yurts. We love to see it.

[Tawny Newsome]

Your Barbies were a little bit burning, man.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Yeah, yeah, right, right. Yo, Barbies out here trading shit for, like, Ken. I can trade you this. This dirt for the sports car. That's a lot. I love it. So this product's available for kids to design and print out Barbie outfits. The ad said something about it being real fabric, and I figured something. We got a pack and printed a bunch of twenties on them. And they looked right, and they didn't quite feel like real money, but they didn't feel like paper you would use, you know, like from a printer. The old twenties didn't have the color change thing, so we didn't need to worry about that. Plus, at this point, people were used to new twenties, so an old one feeling a little different didn't freak people out. We made it look worn. Seriously, all that shit that they did in the wire to stain money is hella real. He says in parentheses.

[Tawny Newsome]

Huh?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And then my cousin, who looked like an, like, older than she was, would buy cartons of cigarettes from the gas station, and we'd sell them out of our trunk or trade cigarettes for weed and sell that. This was very reliable hustle for about a year until people got so used to new twenties that the old ones started tripping them up. By then, we were old enough to move on to armed robbery. So fuck it. Oh, my God. Whoa, My God.

[Tawny Newsome]

This took a turn.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Teddy.

[Tawny Newsome]

Armed robbery Teddy is a grand.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Teddy.

[Tawny Newsome]

Oh, I like discovering this in real time with you, Teddy.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

How you gonna slip that in, Teddy? How you gonna slip that in in the end? Like that?

[Tawny Newsome]

I love that he has emailed an entertainment podcast and been like, hey, please don't use my name. Cause, like, I'm just not sure about some of the statute of limitations. And we think he's just gonna talk about some little counterf. Funny bullshit. And then he's like, and then we had guns and we're robbing people.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Teddy.

[Tawny Newsome]

What?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And like. But I will say this about Teddy That I fuck with. He trusted me enough to send me this from a real email account. Like, I would never snitch on nobody. And honestly, I might just delete this email after we record this show. So I have no record of where it came from. So just in case any feds is listening, they can't call your girl. I am going to delete the email. Y' all can't call me. Looking for text. Cause I don't know where he at. Okay.

[Tawny Newsome]

No.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And I'll never know him.

[Tawny Newsome]

We don't know him.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

For all we know, Teddi could be lying. You know, Teddy could be lying. This could be all a lie. So that's true.

[Tawny Newsome]

Maybe he's one of those little, like, halfway criminals who's like, dang, this Barbie money story makes me look kind of soft. I better throw in some armed robbery at the end.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Bitch, I'm about to be a character witness at Teddy trial. Teddy was a good man. He was a kind man. He ain't never did nothing to nobody. Teddy, you slipped this armed robbery in here. Oh, my God. You crazy? All right, it's time for Historic Hoodwinks, my favorite segment of the show, where I will regale Tawny with the historic hoodwinks. And she will interrupt as she pleases freely with opinions and questions and whatever she likes. She is a queen. So, Tani, I love this. Today we're talking about Dawn Lapre. So Don Lapre was a multi level marketing and infomercial guru. Honey, he sold packages that would teach people to make money or any other number of things that simply did not work. His infomercials were so familiar, they were parodied by David Letterman and Saturday night Live. All eventually came to a halt in 2011 when Lapre was convicted on 41 charges of fraud, curious conspiracy, and money laundering. Arrested and indicted, he allegedly scammed more than $50 million from at least 220,000 people from 2004 to 2007. Ooh, wow. I'm trying to think. Don Lepre, was he that shamwow nigga? No, he wasn't that guy who was.

[Tawny Newsome]

Dawn,

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I'm trying to look up right now.

[Tawny Newsome]

I think this was maybe before our. Before our, like, real, you know, cognitive. Cognitive time? Is that the word I'm trying to say? Like, before we were old enough to be watching Letterman and stuff, right?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I'm looking him up now. And he used to do, like, the greatest vitamin in the world and making money secrets. He was popping in, like, the 90s and the nine nines and the 2000s as cash money would say. He said, give me all your cash here. I won't give it back yet. Yes. Dollar prank.

[Tawny Newsome]

Somebody needs to remake. Remake one of his commercials with that. Yes.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Girl, you looking good. Why don't you open that wallet up? Come on, now. Wallet didn't work, but, you know, why

[Tawny Newsome]

don't you open that cash app?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Girl, you look good.

[Tawny Newsome]

I guess there were no cash apps.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

That's right. That's what it is. Girl, you looking good. What you are. Open that cash up. You was a big fire woman once you open that cash up. Call me rich daddy when you open that cash up. Don, we love you already. Lepre moved to Phoenix with his family when he was a child. In 1988, he married Sally Redondo. Ooh, Sally Redondo. Did you have some money? Did you own Redondo Beach? And two years later, the pair started a credit business called Unknown Concepts. Let me tell you something about scammer names. What for businesses?

[Tawny Newsome]

What?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Your business? Yes, I'm saying bitness. Your bitness is called Unknown Concepts. What y' all do over there? Unknown.

[Tawny Newsome]

It's unknown. Mm.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Don't worry about what we do over here.

[Tawny Newsome]

It's not known. It is not known. Yeah, you don't need to have a concept of. We do.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

It's unknown.

[Tawny Newsome]

Like, what? You're not even trying to make this sound legitimate, Like, Right.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

They said, Scams Incorporated, can you give yourself a real business name? Like something that's gonna garner some kind of trust in the public? But anyway, the Attorney General's office charged the couple with violating the state's Consumer Fraud act and obtained a consent judgment permanently assisting or participating in any credit services from engaging. So basically, they. I was trying to read this. This is very complicated law language, but to break it down to layman's terms, they said, y' all are violating the fraud act, and you can no longer engage or participate in any credit services because you're basically being deceptive as fuck. So unknown Concepts, which really seem like.

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah, judge, I. I'm not. Okay. But may I please start up my new organization, which is called Unintelligible Dreams? That has nothing to do with credit. We think

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

we have a new business. It's called Vague, Incorporated. It has nothing to do with anything.

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah, basically nothing.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

So please let us. The judge said you cannot, because in Credit Repair, you have to be able to run people's credit scores. So people do have to trust you with a bit of personal information. And this is why, you know, a lot of credit bureau kind of online Liaisons got sued, and a lot of people got restitution because when they got hacked, they released a lot of people's personal information. And, you know, freecredit.com, a lot of these places exist online. I'm not saying it was free credit, but this is a common practice. We all use these sites to check our credit. So they came up with unknown concepts steps, which was like, y' all put your credit information in here, and we gonna. We're gonna make sure it's one. 800. 800. That's what. That's a good score, right? 800. We're gonna make sure it's 800. So the judge said, y' all can't be nobody's credit.

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah, I always get it confused with SAT scores. I think it's. They're both. 800 is what you're shooting for.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

It used to be 16, but then they lowered it because I remember when I did the SATs, I think like a 1200 was the best you could get. So they were like, yeah, we gonna make sure your credit score didn't. Your credit score is Andre 3000. Okay. So just enter your information, and we will check on your credit immediately. So the judge ruled that y' all can't check nobody's credit no more. Y' all are doing fraud with their information. Right. Lest they be deterred, though. Okay. The defendants were ordered to pay a civil penalty and more than $5,000 of restitution to complaints. Then they moved on and started selling 36 page booklets explaining how to recover a Federal Home association insurance refund after paying off a home mortgage. I don't even know what that is. I might be interested.

[Tawny Newsome]

An FHA loan, as I understand it, is a type of loan that you can get if you're a first time home buyer. And it has a very low down payment, and I think it means you can usually secure a low interest rate. So they're trying to teach people how to pay off the house, but then get an insurance back somehow.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Yeah, they say you can get an insurance.

[Tawny Newsome]

Oh, because your mortgage insurance. Interesting. I don't understand that fully, but it sounds like fraud and scams, right?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

So on his infamous infomercials, which took off shortly after he began Unknown Concepts, AKA Vague, Incorporated, his trademark sales pitch was, by placing tiny classified ads in the newspaper, I'm able to make $50,000 a week from my tiny one bedroom apartment. LA Prairie began broadcasting the Making Money show with don lapre in 1992. Whoo. Okay. We were very young during this Time. So for years, that's where all these

[Tawny Newsome]

Instagram make $5,000 a day people came from. This is the forefather. This is the L. Ron Hubbard of those motherfuckers.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Yes. This guy is on Mount Rushmore of infomercial scammers. Okay, you thought miracle spring water's been around, honey. But my man Don, he paved the way. He is a leader in the movement of chicanery. And I Stan. So for years, the show was ranked among the 10 most frequently broadcasted cable infomercials. The principal product was his money making secrets, a package of booklets and tapes and common sense tips for placing ads. The product was sold through the new strategy, whose parent company was Tropical Beaches. Soon after purchasing the package, buyers would be telemarketed by sales representatives who offered additional psychic dating entertainment and chat 900 lines plus free websites that together cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. So after you bought the whole booklet about how you can advertise in newspapers and make $50,000 from your one bedroom apartment, which also, like, nobody questioned Don Lepre and was like, how you making $50,000 a month and you living in a bachelor. What? How that. Yeah, where the 50. Where the 50 can't go?

[Tawny Newsome]

What are you doing with it? Are you making the 50,000? But then you have to pay 48,000 to something.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I'm confused. But you know what he said unknown. And that's what he means by unknown concepts. You will never know.

[Tawny Newsome]

Mm. Also, you will never know the concept of where all this money goes he's supposedly making.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Honestly, he sounds like an honest man. He was being truthful. He said unknown. You're not gonna know. You never will know. And I appreciate that. A king.

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah, a lot of this. I mean, as I am a fan of this show, a lot of this stuff, the more you listen, you're like, well, the scammer spelled it all right out for you. They said, I am a scam. This is fraud. This is crimes I'm going to do unto you. And you still said, okay, I want in.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Well, you know what? It's legitimized by television. And in the 90s 90s, television was a legitimate source for information. We didn't have Twitter. We didn't have any other resource to, you know, get our information from. I mean, look at all the protests that have been happening. If we had just only had the news, bruh, we would not know what the fuck was going on in America. Because I've seen news reporters straight up lie with a, like, do a voiceover. On a video where I'm. I have eyes, I have retinas, and I'm looking right? Pupils engaged.

[Tawny Newsome]

I have to tell you, I just saw. I just saw a news reporter. And I don't need to put her name out there because it really was a slip of the tongue. But Lacey, this news reporter was reporting from a protest and she turned around and said, you know what's interesting is that it is all types of people out here. Not just color people, but white people too. And I'm like, I did not just hear colored people on the news right now. The news has to go. The television. Throw it away, Throw it away.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Throw it in the trash. That's like when Kobe Bryant passed away. God bless. And the woman was on the news, and I won't say her name either. She said, the Los Angeles Nakers. She was about to say niggers.

[Tawny Newsome]

Yes. Oh, the LA Nakers.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

The LA Makers.

[Tawny Newsome]

Uh, so.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And specifically what I was talking about was in a protest. I'm watching with my pupils and my retinas right dilated, not dilated. And I see the police shove an old white man with a cane to the ground. And this police officer said, this old white man fell. I said, girl, it's a video playing. We know he ain't fall. We just saw him get pushed. What?

[Tawny Newsome]

Also, why are you shouting about the thing that just happened? If I saw an old white man fall in front of me, my words would be, are you okay? Do you need help? Not. Looka here. This old white man hath fallen like, what are you, the town crier? They're clearly lying.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

They're like, look, we came here to report the news, okay? We can't help. We cannot help anybody.

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[Pharmaceutical Safety Information Reader]

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[Pharmaceutical Announcer]

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[Commercial Announcer]

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[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

The deadlines, the pressure, the tension, you may just brush it off as stress. But is your hair. I gotta tell you, it's eating us alive, weakening our very roots, breaking us apart. And the more you stress, the more we slip away. Now, please take a deep breath. There's something you can do. Pantene abundant and strong system. Strengthens your hair against stress, reducing hair loss by 85%. Only the strongest will survive the shedding. Pantene abundant and strong and fraud. So like we're saying in 1992, like, television was this viable resource. It's why stereotypes are so bad. It's why everything you know has been so rough for especially Gen X and baby boomers. Because television was the only information people had so they could create the narratives at that point. And that cable wasn't really popping at this time. So all we had was what we were spoon fed by these networks. So something that you see on TV looks legitimate at this time, period. Which is why I love going back in the past, because I love scammers and I love talking about the scams of the current, you know, moment. But I also love talking about how we've evolved from them because obviously now no one's running scams on television because it's just too hot. You do it on Instagram, you do it on Twitter, you email people from fake email addresses. You try to tap into personal, more closely related systems to them. You don't just get on television and Be like, unless you miracle spring water, which does still air every night at 3am on Adult Swim or actually on BET. And I love it. I almost ordered some of Peter Popov's miracle spring water. I was like, shit, it's 2020. What can it hurt? Let me put some miracle spring water out here.

[Tawny Newsome]

I mean, at the very least, you'll be hydrated, right? That's good for you.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

By Jesus, or, you know, somebody adjacent. Johnny. Johnny, Jesus. You know somebody, so. And also, they're calling people who have purchased these packages to be like, hey, now, advertise for these other businesses that we have. And at the time, 9, 800, chat or 900 chat lines were still popping. Child. I thank God that in my acting career, I never had to get on TV and be like, we are 18. We is so horny.

[Tawny Newsome]

I know.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Hey, hey, nasty men. We horny. Call us now. Like, I bet you everybody at we are 18 is a strong 37, and that ain't no shade. I'm proud of y'.

[Tawny Newsome]

All.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Like, hi.

[Tawny Newsome]

Well, I'm proud of the way it's done now, where I feel like women are more empowered.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Yeah.

[Tawny Newsome]

In some instances, in some circumstances, they're definitely still being exploited. But I'm just saying I see more and more stuff that's like. Like, no, I want to be a webcam girl. I'm. I'm taking control of this actual content, and I'm selling this purposefully.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Hell, yeah.

[Tawny Newsome]

As opposed to back when we were young and we'd just see those girls on, like, a. On a billboard dressed in nothing, holding a Super Soaker that just says, come on down and buy a tractor or whatever. The. I'm like, oh, no.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And they would. They would look at the bill. You could see their eyes in the billboard. Like, hell, Hell, like, now. Yeah. I feel like I'm watching.

[Tawny Newsome]

They've been lied to. While the picture was being taken, you

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

could tell they showed up and they thought it was an acting job. And they was like, where this. It's like, this is floss. This is dental floss. And now, you know, OnlyFans, which OnlyFans is starting to be shady because after celebrities got involved, now they're trying to boot off the sex workers who made the website what it is. And I do not fucking appreciate that shit. I have friends who are sex workers. Like, fuck that shit. Like, let the sex workers get their coins. And I love women being able to get their money from home by being fine. Okay. I love it. I remember I used to always joke in college about how, like, if shit didn't work out, I was gonna become a stripper. Then I saw stripper stripping, and I said, oh, bitch. Oh, so y'. All. Gabby Douglas. Oh, so I can't do this, huh? This is a real talent. Here I was the whole time thinking I just had to get out here and shake my ass and look a little sad. But y' all are strong. Like, I can't do this.

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

It really thwarted me.

[Tawny Newsome]

I was like, wow, there's too much strength involved.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Like, strength, beauty, charisma. You gotta be able to talk to everybody, honey, and have the energy. Like, that's a talent. And I don't care what y' all say, because a lot of us have gone to strip clubs, but then we still want to be shady towards strippers, and I don't believe in it. Honey, get that money anyways.

[Tawny Newsome]

Let them have it. I don't even wear high heels walking around on the earth, let alone. Can you imagine dancing or being on a pole with them? I tell every costume designer I'm 5 foot 10 and I never learned to walk and heels. And I just accept my little sad pair of loafers and my feet don't hurt. Your offers are cute, girl. I can't.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I just.

[Tawny Newsome]

I would be a mess.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Your. Your flashers are very cute.

[Tawny Newsome]

I know. I try to just.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

You be giving fashions, and I try

[Tawny Newsome]

to make it sound like I'm.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I wear heels because I have a tall personality, but I'm five feet tall. So every time I take a picture, everybody. And you're good at me.

[Tawny Newsome]

You look good.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

They're like, why are you so short? I'm like, what you mean? You heard my voice. You thought I was tall. That's my scam.

[Tawny Newsome]

That is a scam. And that's a scam that you're running, and you're doing it well.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

So obviously, they upsell these people after they bought this package, and they're like, go sell these we are 18 ads and go sell all this other shit. But they would rarely even receive what they paid for. And many customers, like, complained that the opportunities were minimal and they were being ripped off. In 1994, Lapearre was forced to pay the state of Arizona $45,000 for unemployment and withholding taxes that he neglected to file in 1993 and 1990. In 1999, Lepre had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on behalf of himself. New strategies, Tropical beaches, Dolphin Media, Don's Making Money, another one of his businesses, and the National Reminder Service, which I don't even what Is that these businesses that you.

[Tawny Newsome]

What is that?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I don't know, but I love these. These businesses. The names that Don gave them are just delicious. So his filing listed his assets.

[Tawny Newsome]

The National Reminder Service is almost, like, too specific. Like uncertain times or whatever. You know, unknown vortex. That one is, like, too vague. But, like the reminder company. I'm like, okay, I guess I know what you do, but I still don't understand.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

You gonna forget? So we here to remind you nationally, I love it. I don't even know what it means. I never know what Don Lepre's businesses mean, and I love it. So his filing listed assets of $9 million and liabilities of 12.5 million. In 1997, the Internal Revenue Service issued a of $957,000. Excuse me. It's $957,909.49 against Donald and Sally Lapre for failing to pay delinquent taxes. So now he's in tax trouble. And that's where you don't want to be, because Uncle Sam is the pettiest motherfucker alive. I don't know how Uncle Sam does it. It's crazy, because I've talked about this before, but people lobby the IRS to make sure that they never are funded enough to be able to audit billionaires. So if you're in the middle class or the upper middle class like Don the Prey, you are going to get that smoke. Because they can't come after the Jeff Bezos of the world because they're offshoring their money. They have money in too many different places. It's too expensive to audit them. Which is why fuck billionaires, guys. They're not paying proportionally what you're paying in taxes. They don't have to. And we don't have the physical capabilities to make them. So instead, they're going after John Lepre. And they said, we saw you on tv. Uncle Sam was like, we saw you on tv, girl. And last time I checked, I did not get my coins. So this is when Don enters the vitamin world. Don is busy. He is busy. So now he said, you know what?

[Tawny Newsome]

So many things.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

We're not doing advertisements from home anymore. We're selling vitamins. Which is also another scam, because health industries are a scam, guys. We all know that when you're born, it's like this weird trap where you're like, damn, I gotta die someday. I ain't even had wanted to be alive. But then you're like, being alive is cool. And I don't know what comes after. So I want to stay alive, you know? So health is one of the biggest scams in every industry because you're trying to buy more life. And to a certain extent, you feel better about yourself when you drink something. Grass. I've drank wheat grass and bluegrass and any type of grass they tell me to drink. I say, okay, it's scratching my throat, but I feel alive.

[Tawny Newsome]

I take a handful of pills every day that I got from a woman who I met in Santa Monica, and she had glowing skin. And I said, I want this life. And I still take those pills because I. I paid for them.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Your skin do look good.

[Tawny Newsome]

Your skin looks good.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Looks like it's glowing, girl. Thanks.

[Tawny Newsome]

But I think it did both.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Yeah, it probably did. But no harm in keeping it up, maybe. Here's what I have to say about it, right? Yeah.

[Tawny Newsome]

And what's the harm I'm doing by

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

swallowing these little fish oil?

[Tawny Newsome]

I'm putting a little too much, right? You know?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

No, I absolutely agree with you. I also have to say that even though a lot of health stuff is a scam, placebo effect is real. So if you feel better about the way that you're living your life, if you feel good about the crystals you buy, if you feel better when you wave some sage up in your house. Honey. Because I be doing that, honey. Then it's worth what you paid. Because really, what you want is calm and peace and things that reduce stress and cortisol. And even if it's not directly from the product that you've purchased, if you're. See, I'm. I'm a scammer because I'm over here trying to convince y' all to buy.

[Tawny Newsome]

What's interesting is you're a scammer, but you're up in this instance. You're a proud mark. Like you. You accept your markness, but only in this instance, because otherwise you're a very scammer. You know, we're all multifaceted.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

You're right. And I. I have been dup. Been scammed, which is why I love scams. And I can love them from both sides because I've been hurt by scams. Absolutely. And I want to keep you guys from being hurt. But also, like, there's some scams that I'm like, this ain't so bad. So he starts selling vital mans. Eventually, authorities started to notice one of La Prair's newer projects, the Greatest Vitamin of the World. Customers were being told that they could earn commission checks of $1,000 or more by getting people to Buy vitamins through customized websites that sold Internet advertising packages. So now he's just combining two scams. He was telling people to buy newspaper ads and he was sending them advertisers. And now he's like, sell vitamins and also sell them on the Internet. So according to federal prosecutors, the marketing was mostly ineffective and full of pop up banner ads, which in the 90s, if you got a pop up, it will ruin your whole computer. That's before we had Macs. And Macs have kind of been the most fortified when it comes to viruses. So you got a HP or a desktop like honey, those pop ups were.

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah, you had a gateway, you had to throw it away.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

That's the rhyme. When you got a gateway, you gotta throw it away. Everybody knows a gateway. You got two years out of that bitch before every pop up is coming up like penis enlargement and you gotta just put it in the trash.

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah. Then it's just. Then it's just a doorstop.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

So in 2005, the Food and Drug Administration cited the entrepreneur for his claims that his vitamins were for diseases like diabetes, stroke, heart disease, insomnia, cancer, and arthritis, warning him in a statement that his products were not generally recognized as safe or effective. So not only were they not effective, they're like, these might kill people also. You try to treat too many diseases, Don. You can't just be like, my pill works for diabetes, rashes, eczema, restless leg syndrome. You got corneas, you got cataracts, you got a bad tooth, you got, like, it can't work for everything, Dawn. Pick a lane.

[Tawny Newsome]

I feel like that's the hallmark of a fake. That's the hallmark of a fake miracle cure. Right? Because, like, you look at aspirin, aspirin cures one, two, three things. Maybe they'll be like, does your head hurt? Does a small thing in your body hurt? Are you maybe having a small heart attack?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I'm having a very chill heart attack. Bayer. Don't even go to the doctor. You having a chill heart attack. You're just like, ow, my heart. Go ahead and have some Bayer.

[Tawny Newsome]

Just like a whisper and take a nap. Right. But like, all these miracle ones, try to. Oh, my God. You know what? I actually remembered my husband and I once, we were in Ecuador and he got food poisoning. And this is a small tangent, dear readers, but he got food poisoning. And the people we were staying with were like, oh, well, we have this stuff that we can give you. You have to mix it really carefully. And here, you should read this Binder to make sure you're okay taking it. And they were these chill, like, Ecuadorian hippie people. So I was like, okay, I'll read their little hippie cure or whatever. And it was that, mm, MMS stuff, you know, that, like, miracle solution, whatever that they say cures, like, autism, but you're drinking bleach. And I was like, no, no, no, no.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Y' all were like, why does the bottle say Clorox?

[Tawny Newsome]

Right? Why? How come something that's supposed to cure. He ate a bad piece of chicken and he's taken a drug supposedly that cures autism. Oh, good.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

The company failed to substantiate the following advertisement claims. They said, our company will pay you $1,000 upfront or 200amonth for the rest of your life every single time you get 20 new people to try our amazing vitamin. You know, and this is something that. This is language that's really deceptive when it comes to the type of people who are probably participating in this scam or people who may have lower income. I've had people in my family take really poor deals because they wanted cash up front. But the interesting thing here is that they're saying 200amonth forever or $1,000 right now. And so, of course, people are going to equate 200amonth forever is more money and go with that. But each week, they say that they pay you on all the revenue earned the week prior. This is the easiest way in the world to start generating a thousand dollar checks over and over again. This don't make no damn sense. They said our top people have made thousands of thousands of dollars doing this, which very much sounds like Donald Trump. Like, can y' all put a real number on it? Each month you get just 100 new vitamin clients. Just 100, you know, a chill. Hundred new Vitamin clients. And we pay you $5,000 as a bottle bonus. You know how hard it is to get 100 people to buy anything when you're just a person?

[Tawny Newsome]

You know how hard it is to get a hundred people to just, like, follow you on social media. If you don't have something specific, you're off, like, to convince a hundred people to do.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

You can't even get a hundred people on Evite to RSVP to your function.

[Tawny Newsome]

Like, you can't get a hundred people to come to, you know, a ladies night at a club where, like, the drinks are half off early. Like, there's still gonna be. You're gonna get, like, 58, three before

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

11 at the club. Can't get 100 people. And y' all thought we was gonna get 100 people buying vitamins in the 90s. So they told all these lies. And his business was raided by the U.S. postal Inspection Service. By the beginning of 2008, his greatest vitamin of the world sites were no longer functioning. So they did an investigation on my guy. On the day he was supposed to appear in court for his arraignment, he was found near a local fitness center in bad physical condition, apparently living inside of a gym for a day and a half before he was found. He underwent emergency surgery and was arraigned at the hospital. Leading up to his death, Lepre posted what seemed to be a farewell statement on his website, saying that he was left to fight a battle that will for sure destroy what energy I have left inside. I mean, he was charismatic. He was a great scammer, I guess. He decided to hide out from the feds in a gym. He went to 24 Hour Fitness and he was like, I'm gonna be here 24 hours, I guess.

[Tawny Newsome]

Wait, what did he die of?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I haven't told you what he died of yet. He actually, this is the only bummer, guys. We try to keep it light here, but Don the prey, unfortunately took his own life in prison. But he added, I tried to create the best product on earth, paid out millions, made very little, trying to make a getting success. I have been accused of something I did not do. I did not have the perfect company, but never once did I allow one thing to be done that would violate any law. He concluded by thanking his supporters and telling them to never stop dreaming. He has one commercial on YouTube. That's his last commercial. And all the comments are just fans of Don Lapre. He had a following. He had a lot of people who loved him. He was essentially a cult leader. And they're charismatic. I mean, I've looked him up online. He just has a kind of face that you would kind of trust. Because you know what it is when you're in a position where your despo meter is high, like we say on the show, and you may not be making a lot of money. I mean, capitalism is fucked. As we've seen over the past few weeks, America's been scammed by our government, by our political leaders. They're giving more 50% of LA's budget right now, which we all emailed and called, but we don't know if it's gonna work yet. Is going to the LAPD 54%. Mind you, they. They are outfitted like they are going to War in these protests. Meanwhile, our healthcare providers and professionals don't even have ppe. They're covering themselves in trash bags to treat coronavirus. Like, we have fucked up priorities in this country and we. Everything's fucked up when it comes to where our money goes. And I look at Don and I've looked at his face and he looks like a working class guy. He looks like a guy who's been through shit. I could easily see why people would look at him and be like, he's one of us and he's trying to help us scam the system and get rich, too. Because I don't think anybody looked at unknown concepts and thought that that shit was a legitimate business. They were like, we're entering a scam business and we happy to.

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah, they want to join the scam a little bit, which you don't. I don't blame some people for. They've been working hard, too hard and not being rewarded. So then they want. They want something that seems a little easier.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Not being rewarded, not being respected by this country. So I absolutely understand why people be like, we might as well go ahead and join the national reminder. I' ma give reminders nationally. That makes sense.

[Tawny Newsome]

Oh, I love that name.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I absolutely adore it. I think it's fantastic. But, guys, this is always the saddest portion of the show. This is what I'm going to have to lend my sis Tawny Go. But before she goes to live her excellent life. I just adore everything about you, Tani. You have no idea. Scammer of the week. So, Tani, we're just going to talk about an infamous charlatan that is worthy of our praise and the scammer of the week. Okay, so I have to caveat this because the scammer of the week this week. I don't like this scammer. But he scammed somebody that we love. A black queen.

[Tawny Newsome]

Oh, no.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Antonio Marriott Wilson is a con artist who targeted Jennifer Lewis of Blackish.

[Tawny Newsome]

You better get Jennifer Lewis. You absolutely cannot.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Absolutely. Every black person's auntie, mama and grandma say, since I was alive, Jennifer Lewis. And it ain't right.

[Tawny Newsome]

The queen of her Chin in the air.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Acting. The chin in the air and the annunciation Acting. How dare you, Antonio.

[Tawny Newsome]

You will hear her consonants and vowels.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

What? Oh, I love her.

[Tawny Newsome]

What did this man do to her?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

What's that? My Fair Lady? Is that it? What's that movie where they teach that white lady how to talk? Is she British?

[Tawny Newsome]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's some Henry Higgins Eloquence the knife

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

was landed with the knife or whatever the fuck. Like, she could never. She could never. Okay, honey, nobody has a grasp on consonants like our queen ever.

[Tawny Newsome]

And I am hearing you. What you're saying is, what you're saying is we need a reboot of My Fair lady with Jennifer Lewis in the lead. And I do sign that petition, and

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

honestly, we need it. The culture needs it. So Antonio actually pled guilty a few weeks ago to a federal wire charge for conning Lewis and three other women to invest in a fake business. And this is from KTLA in Los Angeles. The Santa Monica man tricked $387,000 out of these women. Wilson, that's Antonio, is 57. He worked at an LA Fitness gym in Los Angeles where he met Jennifer Lewis. Lewis states that Wilson conned $50,000 from her following a three month romantic relationship with him and falsely convinced her that he was an Oscar winner and that the money was an investment in a film project.

[Tawny Newsome]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So in addition to stealing her money, he also, like, dirty Johned her. Like, he conned her into a romantic relationship too?

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Yes, and I listened to an interview with Jennifer where she was saying that she was very busy at this time. Obviously she was doing Blackish. She was preparing to be an honorary graduate at a university and give a speech at their graduation. She was very kind of overwhelmed in this part of her lifestyle. Like, Honey's working, she's booked and busy, and she's a queen. And honestly, Antonio, I have to infer that you got good dick because, you know, it's just. It's just right there. Like, you must be out here really piping it, you know, because otherwise how are we getting so distracted? Also, like, Oscar winner, I love Jennifer. Oscar winner. But now he work at the LA Fitness, right?

[Tawny Newsome]

Like what he did. He won an Oscar for stunts. Maybe that would be.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Oh, no, no, no. He said he wanted for a film.

[Tawny Newsome]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

He said he had wanted for a film girl. So, you know, and that's not to

[Tawny Newsome]

say that she was busy. She was busy.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

She was busy. I'm trying to defend my queen. I'm like, that's not to say you can't get to a certain statue in Hollywood or get to a certain position or make a certain amount of money. And that can change. Actors have to pay aggressive taxes on what we make. We don't get taxes pulled out by the government. So Uncle Sam comes for us for five, six figures at the end of the year. But, you know, nothing that we do is stable he engaged in a romantic relationship with three other women via the Bumble Dating app and convinced them into giving him money to invest in a software company called Second Life and sound design company called ultimate fx. Now, these, unlike what was vague enterprises that Don had, unlike his names, these sound legitimate. When I hear sound design and I hear ultimate fx, I'm like, that sounds like sound. When I hear Second Life, I think software, I'm like, these are good names. But obviously both were shams. Jennifer Lewis sued the gym and settled out of court for $13,000, according to Daily Mail. In addition to falsely claiming. Because basically what she was saying in her interview was that he got the job at the gym because he had targeted Jennifer Lewis because he had found out that she worked out at this gym. So then he went and got a membership because he was trying to get next to her. So in addition to falsely claiming to have won an Academy Award, Wilson also claimed to be an Oxford University professor and a U.S. navy SEAL. Bruh, you were. You gave yourself a real accomplished life for working at LA Fitness. No shade. If you work at LA Fitness. No shade at all. But I am saying, if you went to Oxford in London and you were a professor and you were a US Navy seal, it just would seem like you have enough other skill sets to not necessarily warrant working at a gym.

[Tawny Newsome]

Right? It's like, he added too many things. And I know you talk about this a lot like scammers. They just be like, they've given you too much information because why is he gonna be like all these things? And then, like, it's just too much. It's like, oh, I'm also the Prince of Monaco and my dad is Desmond Tutu, and I invented Post Its.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I also have a sailboat. And it's like, why we didn't ask this?

[Tawny Newsome]

I have a nut owl.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I don't know these things about a man, right, that I've dated for three months. I don't know these things. So Wilson used the money to pay for credit card debt and personal expenses. He had previously served four years in prison for tax evasion and wire fraud. So he is a career scammer. He faces up to 20 years during this sentence. Antonio, I do not applaud this scam. I know you're scammer of the week, but it's not for a good reason. You scammed our queen. It ain't right.

[Tawny Newsome]

It's not right. And I know that brings Lacey no joy to not support one of her good scammers, but you pushed us too far.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I'm depressed.

[Tawny Newsome]

Not this week. Not this week. Not. You're not gonna mess with a black dare you not a matriarch this week, sir.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

A pillar of the community.

[Tawny Newsome]

The community.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And I made sure to pronounce all of those. Yes, the community. I pronounced every continent.

[Tawny Newsome]

You heard both M's in community.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

I'm going to add some more Continent. Okay, like, no. I can't believe you, Antonio. You ain't right. You ain't right.

[Tawny Newsome]

We don't approve.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And on that note, we have reached the end of another episode. As always, guys, if you are doing armed robbery, you want to email us, we will never say your name and we will delete your email before the feds come. Scamgoddesspodmail.com if you want to reach out to us. Scam contact. Got his pod on Twitter and on Instagram if you want to find me and whatever antics I'm up to. D I V A L A C I Diva Lacey on all platforms. Guys, Tawny Newsom's in a hot new Netflix show with Steve Carell and the girls and the late Fred Willard, who is so hilarious. So this is your last time to see him, girls. I'm pretty sure Space Force on Net Blix, it is out now. And Tawny, where would you like to be found? And what else would you like to plug?

[Tawny Newsome]

Oh, my Lord. I'd like to be found safe in my house. And I'd like you to all be found there as well, just safe and inside. Because the world is crazy and bad right now. No, but thank you. Thank you, Lacey. This was delightful. You can find me online. I'm at Trondhe Newman. Or you can put Tawny Newsom in. There's no other ones. You'll find me. My hair will be different all the time. So if you don't understand that. That maybe you won't find me and then you'll learn some things. But I don't know, I feel crazy. But this was really nice to talk to you and to and to learn about just some cool hoodwinks.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And also. Yo, is this racist on Earwolf? Guys, if you enjoy the fact that I'm black on here and you like hearing about black things or want to become more educated about not even just black things. It's also hosted by Andrew T. Who was a Asian man of color. If you want to hear their amazing show on Earwolf. Yo, is this racist as well? Sorry, Tati, I'm doing audio plugs.

[Tawny Newsome]

No, it's good because you have better energy than I do. I've been. That's so funny. I've been so looking forward to this episode with you and then I feel like I came on and I was like the world. But but no. So thank you for doing that.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

And you're a te. This is a testament to black women rallying for y' all guys because our shit is on fire. But we are still making for y' all because we love you and we're here for you. So go ahead and be here for us, honey.

[Tawny Newsome]

Especially when we can do it together. That's the whole reason I'm here is for Ms. Lacey for yalls Queen. This is one of my favorite shows. You are doing it. You are keeping me entertained on a lot of airplane rides. So thank you.

[Lacey Mosley (Scam Goddess)]

Thank you. We love you. Congregation, Stay scheming Gab Goddess Eczema is

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[Pharmaceutical Safety Information Reader]

Epglis Lebricizumab LBKZ, a 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies. Epglis can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Ebglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with ebglis. Before starting ebglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection.

[Pharmaceutical Announcer]

Ask your doctor about eglis and visit ebgliss.lilly.com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979.

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