The Inventing Heiress with Nicole Byer (Fraud Friday)

Summary

Scam Goddess - "The Inventing Heiress" with Nicole Byer (Fraud Friday)

Podcast: Scam Goddess
Host: Laci Mosley
Guest: Nicole Byer
Date: July 24, 2026
Episode Theme:
A hilarious and revealing dive into the world of scams with comedic guest Nicole Byer, featuring the story of a fake heiress who conned her way through LA, surprising tales from Nicole's own scam experiences, and the poetic beauty of a Florida man buying a Porsche with a fake check. The episode is infused with signature Scam Goddess banter, insights about why people fall for cons, commentary on representation in commercials, and more.

---

Episode Overview

The main thrust of this episode is twofold:

1. Nicole Byer returns as the first (and possibly only) repeat guest this season to trade scam stories with Laci Mosley, including personal anecdotes and listener-submitted cons.
2. The featured "Historic Hoodwink" is the saga of an Irish "heiress" scammer who milked a trusting friend for almost $90,000, blending drama, comedy, and lessons in human gullibility.

Throughout, the duo delivers the comic camaraderie the Con-gregation loves, weaving in social commentary, pop culture, and advice with their signature sidebars.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Catch-up & Scam Confessions

• Nicole recounts buying a janky bike online and why that was a scam in itself (04:14–06:33).
  • "I got very drunk and was googling bikes ... there's a hole in the box ... and they were like, well, the thing that's poking through the box was there just in case there was damage to the box during shipping." (Nicole Byer, 04:25)
  • Reflection on dubious online shopping, return policies, and letting go of sunk costs.

What’s Hot in Fraud: Listener “Shamika” and the Smoking Patch Hustle

• A listener describes calling the Montana quit line for free anti-smoking patches, which she then resold on eBay for several hundred dollars (12:46–25:47).

  • Discussion about the logistics and morality of exploiting health programs.
  • "I know I made a few hundred dollars doing this, and eventually I just ignored their calls and quit getting the patches. I'm terrible. Signed Shamika." (Laci Mosley reading listener letter, 25:39)
  • Takeaway: The hustle can happen anywhere, even in wellness initiatives.

• Digression into race, small-town America, and college shows:

  • Nicole shares about performing in predominantly white towns and the awkwardness, including a fan gifting her L'Occitane lotion, sparking discussion on white people and ashy skin (08:55–12:46).
  • "I was like, is this a dig? ... It was actually very nice lotion. I cannot say the name of the company—I've been laughed at before. Luctane. L'Occitane." (Nicole Byer, 12:04)

The “Historic Hoodwink” — The Inventing Heiress

Set-Up (26:34–30:45)

• Laci narrates the tale of Jonathan Walton (producer for American Ninja Warrior) who befriends a woman claiming to be an Irish heiress.
• The “heiress” is charming, dresses in designer pastels, and weaves a rich backstory of lawsuits, celebrity friendships, and psychic powers.

"If I ever met somebody who was like, just so you know, I'm an heiress, and I'm gonna inherit $5 million, I'd be like, so you good with money? I don't have to give you shit."
(Nicole Byer, 27:41)

The Long Con (31:07–42:30)

• Over four years, she:
  • Shares family drama, legal woes, inherited fortunes, run-ins with “conniving cousins,” and even “framed for theft” at her travel agency job.
  • Borrows escalating sums: $4,200, $5,800, eventually $60,000+ to cover fictional legal fees, inheritance taxes, and rent.

"She was throwing a lot at him at once. It was probably a lot to process."
(Laci Mosley, 41:07)

Discovery & Fallout

• Walton finally discovers her multiple criminal convictions after seeing her profile on the sheriff’s website (43:20–44:47).
• He realizes she’d been convicted, not “framed,” and that his money—"loans"—were part of her active scams (43:50–44:47).

Takeaway & Commentary

• Both marvel at the work and planning involved, with Nicole noting:

  • "The amount of work she put in, she could have just gotten herself a job. This is work. This is work." (Nicole Byer, 39:43)
  • Calculations: "$20,000 a year, tax free. That's... pretty decent. And I'm sure that's not the only scam she was running on people." (Nicole Byer, 46:44)

• General lesson: Emotional manipulation and the long game can make anyone vulnerable, no matter how “savvy.”

  • "That's the thing about scamming. People think scamming is not work. Scamming isn’t employment. It's a profession." (Laci Mosley, 39:53)

Scam of the Week: The DIY Porsche Buyer (47:10–50:44)

• In classic “Florida Man” style, a guy prints a $140,000 cashier’s check on his home computer and buys a Porsche.
• Tries the same trick at a jeweler for three Rolexes; they don’t fall for it.
  • "The dealership was like, ah, looks right?" (Nicole Byer, 47:32)
  • Hilarious breakdown of how he could have improved the plan, including leasing, fake IDs, and never parking at home.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I feel like a bike is something that most people buy in person. Am I crazy?” (Laci Mosley, 06:33)
• On Why Representation Fails in Commercials:
  • “Who did this? Was it a black person or is this a white person projecting what they think black culture is?” (Nicole Byer, 21:57)
  • The McDonald's 365 commercial “minstrel show” improv anecdote (23:17–24:18)
• “If you want to Venmo me money so I can get my transfers back up—that’s the phrasing.” (Laci Mosley, 44:11)
• Outro wisdom from Nicole’s book:
  • “If someone says something about your body, it means you’re powerful because that person had to stop their day to tell you something and you never thought once about them.” (Nicole Byer, 51:47)

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• Podcast main content starts: 02:34
• Nicole’s bike scam story: 04:14–06:33
• Listener "Shamika" scam (smoking patch resale): 12:46–25:47
• Digression into comedy in white America & lotion story: 08:55–12:46
• Historic Hoodwink: The Irish Heiress: 26:34–46:07
  • Set-up & main scam: 26:34–38:53
  • Scammer’s downfall: 42:30–46:07
• Scam of the Week (Fake Porsche check): 47:10–50:44
• Nicole plugs and closing thoughts: 51:00–52:44

---

Episode Structure

I. Introduction & Banter (02:34–07:30)

• Return of Nicole Byer
• Reflections on personal scam encounters
• Quick-fire comedic exchanges about online shopping

II. "What's Hot in Fraud" (07:30–25:47)

• Listener scam story; scamming health aid programs
• Candid tangents about race, representation, and social quirks

III. Historic Hoodwink: “The Irish Heiress” (26:34–46:07)

• Full breakdown of how the long con unfolded
• Critical analysis; why did it work? How can people avoid similar traps?

IV. Scam of The Week (47:10–50:44)

• Florida Man’s Porsche heist
• Workshop on improving bad scam plans

V. Outro & Nicole’s Plugs (51:00–52:44)

• Uplifting wisdom from Nicole’s book
• Ways to support Nicole, Laci, and Scam Goddess
• "Stay schemin’!" sign-off

---

Final Takeaways

• Scams are everywhere, from multi-year emotional con jobs to “small-time” hustles like reselling quit-smoking patches.
• Anyone can get got—the episode demonstrates, with comedic empathy, how charm, emotional connection, and elaborate stories can override suspicion.
• Being a scammer is work—the hustle rarely looks effortless up close, and the time/energy could often build far more honest success.
• Education, boundaries, and humor are the best shields: Know the red flags, remember your worth, and don’t be afraid to laugh about the wild side of “True Con.”

---

To Listen:

Find Scam Goddess on all major platforms, and for ad-free/early access, check out SiriusXM Podcasts+.

As always:
"Stay schemin’, Congregation."

Transcript

[Fred Armisen]

Hey, Portlandia fans.

[Kerry Brownstein]

Kerry Brownstein and Fred Armisen here.

[Fred Armisen]

The dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form.

[Kerry Brownstein]

We're launching Podlandia AO Rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made.

[Fred Armisen]

And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life, guest stars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Krisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.

[Kerry Brownstein]

Kyle is going for it. Here you fully improvised, not just words, but a song.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, I thought you were all going

[Raiders of the Lost Podcast Host]

to write a song.

[Kerry Brownstein]

I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia AO rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Chelsea Handler]

This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week the news gets worse, the world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

Do you know I just found out who Sydney Sweeney was? If he got a bunch of women, then you have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much. I'm Yamanika and I'm out. Listen to youo're the Problem with yamaneika on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Nick Turturro]

I'm Nick Turturro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the Longest Yard, or Spike Lee's blackkklansman. And on my new podcast, Delivering Happiness with Nick Turturro, I deliver pizza to a new guest. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins, what are you doing with my belt? To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Turturro. It's called Happiness, Delivering Happiness and many, many more. Open your free iHeartradio app search delivering Happiness with Nick Turturro and listen now

[Raiders of the Lost Podcast Host]

on Raiders of the Lost podcast, we explore cinema like no one else, including huge interviews with stars like Ryan Gosling on Project Hail Mary.

[Lacey Mosley]

It was like the Jaws shark didn't

[Nick Turturro]

always work, came with its own problems.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's what made it great.

[Raiders of the Lost Podcast Host]

The cast of Obsession.

[Lacey Mosley]

On set, there was so much magic

[Nicole Byer]

happening with each scene.

[Raiders of the Lost Podcast Host]

We were putting together deep dives into classics like 2001 A Space Odyssey or Fight Club, plus weekly episodes on all industry news. Listen to Raiders of the Lost podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And for more, follow raidersoftheloss podcast and IikTok podcast podcast network on TikTok.

[Lacey Mosley]

Scams co. Robbery and fraud. Scams C. Robbery and fraud. Scam Goddess. What's poppin, Congregation? It's your girl, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. And guys, I'm so. I always say. What do we say? Say it with me. I'm so excited for today' but for real, y', all, okay? This is the first time that we've had a repeat guest. The one, the only, I think for the whole season, this will be the only repeat guest. Guys. She is the Emmy nominated, hilarious queen, one of the amazing hosts of Nailed it. You love her podcast. Why won't you date me? You love her podcast. Best friends. You love her and everything that you freaking see. This is Nicole Byer, guys. What's up, Nicole?

[Nicole Byer]

Lacey, What a beautiful intro. And I love that you tell people to say things with you because I would love to see someone, like, in their car just being, like, just talking with you, feeling themselves. I love it, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

I feel like, especially now, podcasts are like, you're just kind of talking to yourself. So I want you to feel like I'm talking back. Like, what did y' all say? Y' all so crazy. See, we just had a moment, so y' all get to keep that. Well, we've talked about scams, Nicole, and your relationship with scams and yes, yes, yes, I remember you telling me that you've. You've fallen for some scams, right?

[Nicole Byer]

Have I fallen? I don't know if I fall. I scammed. We talked about me scamming my dad.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, yeah, we did talk about you scamming your dad. I thought there was a scam that you fell for. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was wrong.

[Nicole Byer]

Maybe I don't remember. And I'm trying to rack my brain. I mean, I just bought a shitty bike from a shitty company and I think that was a fucking scam. Bikeberry.com I got very drunk and was googling bikes. And, you know, they paid for those ads to pop up first. So I clicked on that paid for ad. I found this purple bike that, like, said it was a cruiser. But then I got it. There was a hole in it. So then I took a picture. There was a hole in the box. And I sent that picture to the company, and they were like, oh, well, the thing that's poking through the box was there just in Case there was damage to the box during shipping. I said, well, I don't know if I really want to open the bike and like figure out other stuff wrong with it. And they were like, all right. And, you know, bad on me for not reading the return policy where it's like you pay for the ship and back. I don't know how much shipping is for a fucking bike on myself. It's probably, probably it's a heavy. It's like 70 or I don't know, not £70, £60, £40, I don't know. And then you pay like a 15 restocking fee. And I was like, so I'm still gonna be out like 50, 60, maybe $80 on this 200 bike. I might as well just put it together. Put it together. This thing is so fucking janky. Like the gears just twist around and I didn't put it together. I can't do that shit. I had a man put it together.

[Lacey Mosley]

Did you put it together? I was about to be like, okay, Nicole, this was not expecting that. That was the scam right there. You put the bike together, had a

[Nicole Byer]

man put it together, and he was like, he followed the directions to a tee and we could like, the gears just spin. It is such a shitty bike. So then I post about how shitty it was and they're like, well, we started a return for you. And I was like, yeah, but I also told you I was going to open it and see how it was. And I opened it and this is a piece of shit bike. I'm very entitled to that opinion. And I'm like, so now you want me to disassemble it? Put this fucking shitty ass bike back in the box. You want me to pay 15%? No, I'm just going to donate it. Jacob Wazaki was like, you should donate it. And I was like, oh, yeah. So I might be able to use the frame because the frame isn't bad. The wheels are bad, the handles are bad.

[Lacey Mosley]

I thought you were saying you were going to donate it to a place where it was like going to be some little kid riding this janky ass bike. I was like, nicole, that I write,

[Nicole Byer]

I donated to like kids in need of bikes and then they die on this bikeberry.com bike.

[Lacey Mosley]

Also, I feel like a bike is something that most people buy in person. Am I crazy? I feel like this is very ambitious of you to like buy a. Not a do it yourself bike.

[Nicole Byer]

I know, I know. It was very ambitious. I thought I was getting a good deal, but you get what you Pay for. John was like. My roommate was like, yeah, you have to go sit on the bike and see it in person. I said, okay, all right, I give up. I'll go sit on a bike another day.

[Lacey Mosley]

I think that's the right choice. Cause, look, I won't even do a sourdough starter, so. You are very brave. You are very brave to buy a whole bike in a box. It's my bike in a box.

[Nicole Byer]

It's a bike in a box.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, goodness. Let's get into what's hot and fraud. I need a name, Nicole, for this person.

[Nicole Byer]

Mm.

[Lacey Mosley]

This person probably identifies as a woman, but I don't care. It can be any name you want in the world.

[Nicole Byer]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

I love that you're really giving this a lot of thought.

[Nicole Byer]

Okay. You just. Just a name.

[Lacey Mosley]

Just a name for a person.

[Nicole Byer]

Okay, let's call her Teresa. What a basic fucking name.

[Lacey Mosley]

You did all that thinking. You did all that time for Theresa,

[Nicole Byer]

and I came up with Theresa. No, Shamika. That's my cousin's name. Shamika.

[Lacey Mosley]

Shamika. I know some Shamikas. They're nice. Most of them, they can fight. Can your cousin fight? Does she look like she can fight?

[Nicole Byer]

I think Shamika could take you on. On a fight. She's tall.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, okay.

[Nicole Byer]

She's a tall woman.

[Lacey Mosley]

I've never met a Shamika that couldn't fight. So that's just something they're skilled at. Okay. There's nothing wrong with that. So Shemeka says I did this scam a decade ago when I was a young, broke adult, and it worked out well at the time. Okay. She says, in my state. Home state of Montana, Shamika. Okay, Shemeika is definitely white. I just looked at the Google photo. Shamika said. Also, she said, my home state of Montana. And that made me shoot my eyes back up to the photo, because I

[Nicole Byer]

was like, is there a black in Montana? I went to Billings, Montana, once, and to get to Billings, Montana, I think I flew to whatever their capital is or whatever their big city is and then got on the tiniest plane to get to Billings. And the black flight attendant looked at me as I got on the plane and said, honey, you going to the right place? And I was like, well, she's asking. I don't know. Then I got there, and I was like, now I know why she was. She was worried about myself.

[Lacey Mosley]

She started smiling and blinking, and the tear came out her eye.

[Nicole Byer]

Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

She was like, no, no, no, no, no.

[Nicole Byer]

Yes, she was. No, no, no.

[Nick Turturro]

Get.

[Nicole Byer]

Get off the plane. Get out.

[Lacey Mosley]

I Feel like you went to one of those towns where, like, they have a population sign and then it, like, goes up when you get there.

[Nicole Byer]

Yep. Huh. It goes right back down. When I left the next day, were

[Lacey Mosley]

you there for work or something? Why were you?

[Nicole Byer]

Okay, I was doing a show at a college. College shows have truly taken me to the wildest, most racist, smallest towns I've ever been to.

[Lacey Mosley]

And it's funny because they hired you.

[Nicole Byer]

Correct.

[Lacey Mosley]

Now. Now, you are very funny, and you're very talented and very beautiful, Nicole. But part of me wonders if they hired you because they're like, this is our one chance to lay eyes on a black person. We're gonna have to pay them, but they will come here.

[Nicole Byer]

Well, a lot of campuses are pretty liberal. Like, you'll be smack dab in the middle of, like, Confederate flag country. Like, I was in Arizona, got off the plane, tons of Trump flags. This is in 2015. And, like, you know, Confederate flags. I saw, like, a peep of a swastika somewhere and then got to the campus, and it was like, hippie, dippy people with, like, neon hair. And I was like, what the fuck did I do? It's so. It's like, once you cross over into the college, they're like, higher learning. We're inclusive. We want to love everybody, so. But also, maybe it is just to see a black one one time.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm sure it was because you're very funny. But also, I'm sure afterwards they were like, wow, that's what it's like, guys, a black person.

[Nicole Byer]

Oh, my God. Did you do meet and greets black or in person? Yeah, I usually do meet.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, so they got to talk to you?

[Nicole Byer]

They did. They did. And one college, a woman gave me lotion, and I was like, is this a dig? I was like, am I? I guess I'm notoriously ashy. I always post pictures and I look so ashy. And it was a white lady, and I was like, oh, no. If they know.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, not if they know. Look, white people don't know about ashiness. They don't know about it. But I will say that Jacqueline Keith says that it's racist when people don't have lotion in the bathroom because black people need lotion after they wash their hands. So maybe. Maybe she was just trying to help you out.

[Nicole Byer]

Maybe. Maybe she was. She was like, there is no lotion in Billings, Montana. Not one Walmart carries a single drop of lotion. So I'll do you a favor. But white people do need lotion.

[Lacey Mosley]

They do. But they don't know that they need it. Oh, you know what? Now is your chance, y'.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

All.

[Lacey Mosley]

Lotion. Everybody needs it.

[Nicole Byer]

Yes, everybody needs it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Wait, here's the indic. Okay, I think this is gonna be indicative. If she was being shady, was it like a fragrant, like a nice lotion, or did she give you some Jergens?

[Nicole Byer]

No, it was actually very nice lotion. I cannot say the name of the company I've been laughed at before. Luctane. L'.

[Lacey Mosley]

Occitane.

[Nicole Byer]

Oh, my God. Yep.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, no, no, no, listen. I didn't know either. I had a boyfriend in college and he spoke fluent French. And one time I was like, ooh, I love.

[Nicole Byer]

And he was like, l'.

[Lacey Mosley]

Occitane. I was like, oh, l'.

[Nicole Byer]

Occitane. That's so. I'll never fucking remember that name.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

L'.

[Nicole Byer]

Occitane. What a treat. L'. Occitane.

[Lacey Mosley]

It really rolls off your tongue, though. You're giving me face.

[Nicole Byer]

It does if you can remember it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, no, she was trying to flex. She went and got you some good lotion, I think. That wasn't shade. That wasn't shade.

[Nicole Byer]

Okay. She was being nice.

[Lacey Mosley]

All right, so back to Shamika, who's definitely white. She says, in my state of Montana, we have a quit line. You can call for free. Free anti smoking items like gum and patches. I took it upon myself to call the quit line and have the short conversation about my smoking habits. They agreed to send me the patches and every two weeks I need to have a 15 minute conversation with them to check in on how I'm doing. That's interesting to me because it's like, if people want to quit, then why do I need to. Like, they're like, okay, yeah, you want to quit. So how was this week? How many cigarettes did you have? How much, like, how much tobacco did you lick on? Like what? What is this conversation?

[Nicole Byer]

Lick on? Well, quitting is very hard. I've tried to quit smoking no less than four times. 10 times, 100 times, and it's hard.

[Lacey Mosley]

I will say that I was never into smoking cigarettes, but for a four month period, I was juuling like I was a 15 year old.

[Nicole Byer]

Well, yeah, you just puff on them inside.

[Lacey Mosley]

It was.

[Nicole Byer]

That's so wild that you weren't a smoker, but you were like, but Jewel,

[Lacey Mosley]

I'll do that because, you know, we do comedy and we'll be outside of bars and afterwards and, you know, you have a few drinks and then people would be like, julian. And I'd Be like. And sometimes back in the day I would like bum a cigarette. So it wasn't like a big deal to like, you know, do that. So I was like, oh, Jewel. Then I was like, oh, it's not sanitary to just like puff someone else's Jewel. I'll just go grab my own for whenever. And then I woke up and Nicole, I kid you not, juul pods everywhere. Like fucking chargers everywhere. And I didn't know when I had become this person. I had a juul charger in my car. So I really tried to plug it in my car and keep the juul charged all day. I had no idea that I was so ridiculously addicted to it.

[Nicole Byer]

So the commercials are real. When there's a team that's like. It started with one puff and next thing I knew my life revolved around Jewel.

[Lacey Mosley]

I was sucking dick for Jewel. Like,

[Nicole Byer]

you know, that's when times is rough, when you are sucking dick for a cigarette or a Jewel.

[Lacey Mosley]

Look, they're not cheap either. And those pods are not cheap.

[Nicole Byer]

How much are those pods?

[Lacey Mosley]

Those pods, depending on what store you're going to, some stores will really rip you off and they'll be like 35 for a four pack.

[Nicole Byer]

Damn.

[Lacey Mosley]

And then some places it's 27 for a four pack.

[Nicole Byer]

Damn. You know, I miss the days where you could share a cigarette with a friend or drink after a friend. Never again. Never again. We was fucking nasty. Like, you know, like now that I think about it, like I kind of like wearing a mask. Especially like working. Cause like people get so close to you to mic you, and now it's so nice that like we're not breathing on each other.

[Lacey Mosley]

I think it's great. I also think it's a wake up call to people who had hot ass breath. And we can never tell people that they breath hot. Like, can we normalize telling people that they breath is hot as fuck? Cause there's people singeing my eyelashes off and now I know they gotta smell that. They gotta have it burn they own nostrils.

[Nicole Byer]

Just right back up in there. I was at a protest and I was like, oh no, I think I have bad breath. And then so she was like, did you. When's the last time you washed your mask? And I was like, wash? But now I'm in it. I'm in the game. I realize it's like clothing. You got to wash it every couple days. So I'm in it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes. I've had, I've had to go out with a funky mask once or twice and I was like, this is fucking torture. Just.

[Nicole Byer]

It's awful. Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

Scams.

[Ari Chambers]

What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers.

[Sam J]

Hey, what's up, y'?

[Nicole Byer]

All?

[Sam J]

It's your girl, Sam J.

[Ari Chambers]

And we're the host of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together. And I heart women's sports because, let's

[Sam J]

be real, women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days.

[Ari Chambers]

So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii.

[Sam J]

My first thought is, like, what's so with the snacks? Like, what are we?

[Lacey Mosley]

What are we eating?

[Ari Chambers]

The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments that take over your entire

[Sam J]

timeline, and the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports.

[Ari Chambers]

Naomi Osaka showing out. She beat Sabalenka.

[Nicole Byer]

Shout out to you, Naomi, you get the palm.

[Ari Chambers]

Naomi, you get the palm for that.

[Sam J]

Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to Everyone watches women's Sports on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Fred Armisen]

Hey, Portlandia fans.

[Kerry Brownstein]

Kerry Brownstein and Fred Armisen here, you

[Fred Armisen]

know us, or rather, you know them. Tony and Candace, Nina and Lance, Spike and yes, the chicken.

[Kerry Brownstein]

We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia AO Rewatch, our brand new podcast.

[Fred Armisen]

Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process.

[Kerry Brownstein]

How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it.

[Fred Armisen]

And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Krisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.

[Kerry Brownstein]

Kyle is going for it. Here you fully improvised, not just words, but a song.

[Nicole Byer]

Well, I thought he was going to write.

[Lacey Mosley]

I thought you were all going to write a song.

[Kerry Brownstein]

I remember you thinking that.

[Fred Armisen]

Listen to Podlandia AO rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Chelsea Handler]

This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse, the world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's irresponsible, you're the problem.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

If you come over here to play games, I'mma check you, okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'mma play you.

[Chelsea Handler]

Join Yamaneka Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on her new podcast. You're the Problem with Yamaneka.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

Do you know I just found out who Sydney Sweeney was.

[Chelsea Handler]

New episodes, weekly every Wednesday is part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men do better or do less so I don't have to do so much.

[Chelsea Handler]

So join Yamaneika each episode as she answers one question. Who's the problem?

[Yamaneika Saunders]

I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to youo're the Problem with yamaneika on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Nick Turturro]

I'm Nick Turturro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the Longest Yard, or Spike Lee's blackkklansman, But I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza. And on my new podcast, Delivering Happiness with Nick Turturro, I deliver pizza from Prince Street Pizza to a new guest.

[Lacey Mosley]

Are you delivering pizzas now?

[Nick Turturro]

Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing? My belt. To Alex Rodriguez. Just to let you people know we're talking to one of the goats here. To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Turturro. It's called Happiness. Delivering Happiness. Mariano Rivera.

[Nicole Byer]

Digging. I'm so brother.

[Nick Turturro]

And many, many more. Open your free I Heart radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Turturro and listen now.

[Lacey Mosley]

But, yeah, so. Oh, my God. I've never admitted. Am I gonna. Maybe I'll cut that out about the Jewel thing. I don't know if I'm ready to tell you guys that I was doing that, but I was. I was. I guess I'll be honest.

[Nicole Byer]

I mean, you don't have to be. Don't do Jewel if you don't want the information out there. I rarely talk about smoking because people look down on you so much and they're like, just quit.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's not good.

[Nicole Byer]

And I'm like, you don't think I know we're in a pandemic And I'm hiding in my house because I'm more susceptible to, like, I have bad lungs yet I know. I know what I've been doing, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

And it's like. And people. That's. But maybe this will be a cautionary tale for someone out there. Guys, don't you. Don't drool. It's bad.

[Nicole Byer]

Don't you. Don't start.

[Lacey Mosley]

Don't start. No, for real, don't start.

[Nicole Byer]

It's like, I had to learn how to smoke. I'm not an inherent smoker. So I would, like, sit in my garage and, like, inhale and then cough, and then slowly inhale halfway, hold the other half of my mouth. It was, why? For what? And now it's, you know, $20 every couple days just so I can get my little fix. It's. It's a thank you. Big Tobacco. That's a scam, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, the biggest. One of the biggest. It's crazy that Big Tobacco also pays for all the ads that warn you about cigarettes, because that's like, do this. That's like their rule. Like, their thing with the government is like Philip Morris. Like, they have to pay for those ads.

[Nicole Byer]

They pay for the truth.

[Sam J]

Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

With the little black kids. Like, I would never smoke. Cause I can't let my hood down. And now we about to dance and play basketball. Why are those commercials like that?

[Nicole Byer]

I mean, yeah, black commercials. Sometimes I'm like, who did this? Was it a black person or is this a white person projecting what they think black culture is?

[Lacey Mosley]

If you want to see a TV show where you can very much tell where everyone on it was white who was writing for the black people, I highly recommend in the Dark. I think that's what it's called on Netflix. That's the show about the blind woman who becomes a detective. That don't even sound right.

[Nicole Byer]

But I'm not being ableist. But maybe I am being ableist. I feel like that would be just a real uphill battle.

[Lacey Mosley]

It is. And that's why the show is fun to watch, because you're watching her like she's impress. But then she saw the murder of her little black friend who saved her once from a mugging. But he's a drug dealer, but he's clearly a British actor. And the whole thing is written by white people. You can just tell that they'd never heard of drug dealers before. They probably watched the Wire a little bit and were like, I can do that.

[Nicole Byer]

I once did a McDonald's commercial where McDonald's, you know, props to them. They have a whole website for black people. It's called McDonald's 365. And they. And it's like they talk about black history all year round. But I.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's how, you know, we eat.

[Nicole Byer]

Customer. You know. But I did this voiceover. It was me and two or three other black women. And I don't remember if I had auditioned for it, but they were like, all right, let's go for it. And my line was, don't steal my French fries. So I said, don't steal my French fries. And they were like, can you. And then I was like, sass it up. And then the other women laughed, and I was like, don't steal my French fries. And then the other women sounded just like me, and they were like, girl, that's my coke.

[Lacey Mosley]

Who did who?

[Nicole Byer]

I'm gonna dip it in the French fry.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, poppity, poppity pop.

[Nicole Byer]

Then after all three of us did it like that, the whoever, I guess it was whoever, like the producers or whatever, the buyers were like, okay, let's just go back to your normal voices. And I was like, point made. I like, I love that we made that point. Because it was like, if you want a minstrel show, you that's what you can have, right? Or you can have, like, just three black women talking. It was wild.

[Lacey Mosley]

I am gonna take that with me because that is an excellent way to not. Who's also, like, why are the lines like, y' all getting robbed?

[Sam J]

Like, why?

[Lacey Mosley]

And your bet, don't speak because I know you like to steal. Y' all know how. Y' all be like, what? Why Getting robbed in this commercial so

[Nicole Byer]

sheer has a pretty good joke about it.

[Lacey Mosley]

I can't remember.

[Nicole Byer]

It was like, the black blinds to go where it was like, you can't see in my house. It was based on a commercial. And then I have a joke about McDonald's and how, my God, sometimes they're just like, my baby daddy took me to get a McRib. And I was like, they both back. And you're like, what the fuck?

[Lacey Mosley]

They both back. I'm leaving. I'm leaving. I have to come back home. And I'm at home. So, guys, what a wild tangent. But to wrap up Shamika White Shamika's letter. White Shamika says after she would have her conversations where she talked about how hard it was. And actually, we just talked about how hard it is. And so I understand these conversations now. She said, I received all three stages of patches. Not sure how many in total, but as soon as I got them. I put them up for sale on ebay. I. And I had no problem selling them for 30 or $40 a box. I know I made a few hundred dollars doing this, and eventually I just ignored their calls and quit getting the patches. I'm terrible. Signed Shamika. So just in case you forgot what we were talking about when we went on these tangents, Shamika.

[Nicole Byer]

Truly, I did.

[Lacey Mosley]

Shamika maybe never smoked cigarettes. Or if she did, she didn't quit or she just called the quit line, got the very expensive free quitting materials, and then she went to ebay and she slanged them.

[Nicole Byer]

You know, I don't. I. I don't knock the hustle. I really don't.

[Lacey Mosley]

Shamika. I fucks with you. Like, I think, come on in Montana.

[Nicole Byer]

Yes. Get it. Shamika. I think Shamika is an entrepreneur.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes. She's a. What do they call it when you're a woman entrepreneur? A hertrepreneur. I thought we had a word for that.

[Nicole Byer]

Do we?

[Lacey Mosley]

Where we just put her in it or something.

[Nicole Byer]

A hertrepreneur.

[Lacey Mosley]

She tropreneur.

[Nicole Byer]

Hurtrepreneur. Truly. Sounds like something wrong with, like, a herniated disc.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah.

[Nicole Byer]

Ooh. I hertrepeneured my disc.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, you're right. It's not very motivating. We don't need that one. So this is my favorite segment of the show, Historic Hoodwinks, where I will regale Emmy nominated Nicole Byer with. I just have to sprinkle it in, like, seasoning a little bit.

[Nicole Byer]

Cause honestly, it truly is such a wild thing. Who would have thought.

[Lacey Mosley]

I would have.

[Nicole Byer]

Who?

[Lacey Mosley]

Who would have thought you're a black queen. I love it. So I'm gonna regale her with the historic hoodwink, and we're just gonna get her thoughts and opinions along the way. Today we're talking about a man named Jonathan Walton, a producer on American Ninja Warrior. That's that show where the athletic people hurt themselves. Yes. And they do an obstacle course. So you watch it hoping that they fall.

[Nicole Byer]

Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

So he was conned out of nearly $90,000 by his best friend. Gonna put that in quotes. Mayor Smythe. Mayor claimed to be a royal Irish heiress waiting to inherit 5 million euros.

[Nicole Byer]

So wait a minute.

[Lacey Mosley]

Irish actors.

[Nicole Byer]

If I ever met somebody. If I ever met somebody who was like, just so you know, I'm an heiress, and I'm gonna inherit $5 million, I'd be like, so you good with money? I don't have to give you shit.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

Right?

[Nicole Byer]

You're good. You about to get it.

[Lacey Mosley]

But I'm about to get it though, girl. Like, I just need the taxes and fees.

[Nicole Byer]

No, don't worry about it. You can pay for all that once you get your inheritance.

[Lacey Mosley]

So I'm gonna tell you some things that are gonna make more sense as to why maybe this worked on him. Okay, so the first time that Jonathan, who was 45, met this woman who became his best friend and turned into his worst enemy, obviously she was offer his building's pool. So Walton lived in a Bunker Hill apartment complex in downtown Los Angeles. Where is Bunker Hill?

[Nicole Byer]

Yeah, I don't know where Bunker Hill

[Lacey Mosley]

is, but it says downtown la. I don't live down there. So it says they lost access to their stunning pool amid a dispute with another building. These are champagne problems. They were like, we lost the pool also. What do you mean a dispute with another building? Y' all was fighting that building. I really want to imagine people punching brick, but I know that's not what's happening, so.

[Nicole Byer]

No, not at all.

[Lacey Mosley]

When Walton, an earnest and animated former news reporter, held a meeting about the incident in his living room, about 30 people showed up. Cause they're trying to get the pool back, guys. I guess so that meeting is where he met 40 something year old woman with jet black hair in a pixie cut. Ooh, she's a manic pixie dream girl. Who soon took charge of the conversation. She was dressed in pastel colored clothes, shoes that looks high in, and she spoke with the slightest trace of an accent, which I'm assuming is an Irish accent, which is a hard accent to do.

[Nicole Byer]

Yeah, to do just like a trace of. I would think it's harder than just fully getting into it.

[Lacey Mosley]

You're like, your charms. I only think so.

[Nicole Byer]

Listen, I want the pool to come back. I don't. Whoop.

[Lacey Mosley]

That was bad. No, that was really good. That was better than anything I could do. I. I literally went to. They're magically delicious.

[Nicole Byer]

Like, I could have never done this. They stole me like a charms and took away my pool.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, this worked also. I feel like he must have equated her just casually wearing pastels. As someone who's like rich, I'm trying to think. I don't see a lot of people just like, unless you're at Coachella, you don't just see people who are walking around in full pastel, not like head

[Nicole Byer]

to toe in pastel. But now I'm thinking about maybe I gotta get more pastel in my life.

[Chelsea Handler]

Right?

[Lacey Mosley]

Is that how I show people I'm a real Fancy hoe is pastel.

[Nicole Byer]

Be like, I got money, I'm wearing lavender maybe.

[Lacey Mosley]

Cause I really don't see it that often. So she said during her conversation where she had taken over that she was a luxury travel agent and her boyfriend was a prominent real estate lawyer. She said that she had sued their own apartment complex a couple of times and won. Oh, have you ever needed to sue your apartment compliment? You live in a house, but when you lived in an apartment, did you need to sue them?

[Nicole Byer]

No, no, no, no, no. Although my landlord. Oh, maybe I talked about this last time. My landlord was running a scam. So he was like, you can give me or the super your rent. And then a couple years down the line, there was a note on the building that was like, do not let Louis in the building. He was embezzling money. And then in the paper, we were like, oh, shit. Yeah, he was like, embezzling money and send his kids to private school. Which I was like, you know, that's nice, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

That's a nice thing. Let's get it for the children. You know, that's nice also, we need

[Nicole Byer]

to teach the children.

[Lacey Mosley]

Let them lead the way.

[Nicole Byer]

Yes, but no. I've never had to sue my apart. I don't pay rent. I never paid rent on time. This is the first time in my life where I've paid my living expenses on time because it comes out of my bank account.

[Lacey Mosley]

All right? Cuz it's like auto withdraw. Yeah, I'm childish. I won't do that. And I know that it could withdraw forever and I'd probably be fine, but I. Every month I just get the email and I beg, begrudgingly, go over there and like hit the payment button. And I don't know why I do it. I think I get like high from it. Sometimes I'll wait because I only get till the third. I don't even get till the fifth before you get a late fee. So I'm like, you only get to the third. The third girl.

[Nicole Byer]

They don't play my apartment in New York. When I finally moved out, I would also never pay rent on time. I would pay like three months at a time after the three months. And then when I finally moved out, they were like, your last month of rent is due. And I was like, that's why you have security. And they're like, no, the security's covering all your late fees. And I was like, I don't live here no more. So I. This is beautiful.

[Lacey Mosley]

You really are a scammer, Nicole. She was like, that's why you got that deposit.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

Bye.

[Nick Turturro]

Bye.

[Lacey Mosley]

So she's very charismatic. She's bantering with the neighbors. She sued the building a bunch of times. I imagine her going to like, Judge Joe Brown suing the apartment building. I hope that's where it happens. And her story is that she, in time would also mention that she was pals with Ashley Judd and show him a closet full of allegedly thousand dollar designer shoes and share that she had a psychic gift. Now, I know what you're thinking. If you met somebody and they were like, hey, I be suing my apartment building every other Thursday. I own thousand dollar shoes. Ashley Judd is my homegirl. And also I'm a psychic. Like, if you heard all of that at one time, you would be like, bitch, what's going on?

[Nicole Byer]

I would be like, I should stay away from this fucking person. This is too much.

[Lacey Mosley]

But they were friends for four years before she scammed him.

[Nicole Byer]

Honestly. Bravo. This is bravo. What a long time, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

I was very impressed. So I get how over the years, if you have a casual conversation, like, my homegirl would be like, girl, you know, I'm a brujah. And I wouldn't think that's crazy. I was like, yeah, you a brujah. But I've known her for years. I was like, sure, you're a brujah. She hasn't asked me for $90,000 yet, but.

[Nicole Byer]

But beware, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

But she has shown me some nice clothes, she is friends with some famous people and she's a brujah. So technically I already know somebody like this. I'm just saying she worked it in a way. I was like, all seems legit, seems normal. So she unwound her story over many, many meetings, like we were just talking about. And later on, in a visit to her apartment, Walton glimpsed at a small frame printed on what Smith said was the Constitution of Ireland. So it's her last name is Smith. So he looked at this frame and then he was like, what is this? And he was like, oh, this, the Constitution of Ireland. You know, casual, hanging in my living room. She said that her great uncle had signed it, she explained, pointing out his signature. Later she said that the same great uncle had just died and stood to inherit. She stood inherit part of his 25 million dollar euro, or excuse me, million euro inheritance, which is about 27.5 million dollars. So in keeping with her image as a wealthy and worldly heiress, she occasionally showed Walton texts and emails from her friends, like Ashley Judd, whom she had met in college. Ashley, I'm So sorry. Why did you.

[Nicole Byer]

Yeah, truly. That her name is dragged all over this.

[Lacey Mosley]

Also, like, is she, like, relabeling somebody's number in her phone? Ashley Judd and texting her?

[Nicole Byer]

Probably, probably. But also, what a wild person to pick. No shade to Ashley Judd. But she's not. Well, I guess. Honestly, what a smart pick. Because she's not super famous. But, like, we all know Ashley Judd's name.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, didn't Harvey Weinstein ruin her career? I think that's what happened. Poor Ashley Judd. Girl, I could be absolutely wrong about that. Let me say allegedly.

[Nicole Byer]

Allegedly.

[Lacey Mosley]

By allegedly, I mean I thought that. But last time I came on here and I said that Michael Jackson song at the end, where they go, mama, say mama sama gusa. I was like, it's actually words, guys. That means I'm gonna keep going to Knocko Stop. I'm gonna keep going. And I definitely told everybody that was true. And they're like, no, it's not.

[Nicole Byer]

That is. I love that you just up on here lying to people. People be telling their friends facts that they learn from Lacey, and then they're like, girl, that's not it. That's. No, she lying to you.

[Lacey Mosley]

Look, the scam facts are true, guys. We researched. I swear. But anything that I say off the cuff could be a lie. But it's not a lie if I believe it. Remember, that's how the truth works. I taught y' all that.

[Nicole Byer]

That's what I honestly believe.

[Lacey Mosley]

So due to her family's money, she said that she didn't need a job, but preferred to keep busy working for luxury tour operators.

[Nicole Byer]

Sure.

[Lacey Mosley]

PacificIslands.com and later as a psychic. In the time Walton knew her, she also had several plastic surgeries, including what he recalls as a nose job, a breast enhancement, and some liposuction. So she's an LA girl?

[Nicole Byer]

Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

She getting it.

[Nicole Byer]

Waist snatched. Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

Getting lip fillers, huh?

[Nicole Byer]

Yeah, as you do. She's. She's a housewife. I love it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Not mad at all. So they are have this really close friendship. He opens up to her her about his family and about his sexuality and how some people didn't accept him. She understood how painful alienation from family members could be, she said, revealing that her cousins were trying to get her disinherited. The drama. So she showed him nasty texts and emails from these cousins, especially one named Fenton, who occasionally wrote in Gaelic. Walton was enthralled with the family drama. So she basically was like, I wouldn't be surprised if this was like all the plot of several Tyler Perry movies that she has seen.

[Nicole Byer]

She just put some Irish, I'm gonna do my own. I mean, Tyler doesn't take too much time to produce them. I think she took more time to produce a Tyler Perry movie than Tyler takes to produce his own stuff, to produce these emails.

[Lacey Mosley]

You might be right.

[Nicole Byer]

And I'm not being shady, because he is. He works very quickly. He shoots seasons in the matter of weeks, and he does, which is wild.

[Lacey Mosley]

And I know actors who work for him, and they work very hard. I was like, shout out to y',

[Nicole Byer]

all, because long days. Long days.

[Lacey Mosley]

Long days.

[Nicole Byer]

And wigs the wig, wigs, wigs, wigs, wigs, wigs, wigs on wigs on wigs, the wigs.

[Lacey Mosley]

Just. If you could manifest struggle into a hairpiece. Those wigs, they're rough. Robbery and fraud. So basically, she moves to a new loft, and they call each other all the time, tell each other that they love each other. So now let's get into her inheritance. By April 2015, homegirl had come to Walton with tears cascading down her face, asking for a loan. So the first loan that she got was for $4,200. Then she came back and said she needed another $5,800 to pay rent at her new loft. Which is crazy because she had an inheritance, right?

[Nicole Byer]

Yes. And she's a psychic, so she didn't see it coming. She didn't move before she couldn't afford to pay it.

[Lacey Mosley]

She did not move before she could afford to pay it.

[Nicole Byer]

Okay, get out.

[Lacey Mosley]

She said that her great uncle's will contained a clause stating that anyone with a convicted felony would be exempt from the will. Walton voiced his fears that Smith's cousins might frame her to push her out of the will. So this is why. So in 2014, Walton's speculation seemed to come true. He received a collect call from a detention facility that Smith had been arrested on charges that she had stolen about $200,000 from PacificIslands.com, which is the travel agency that she worked for.

[Nicole Byer]

Mm.

[Lacey Mosley]

So she basically sold this as, like, my cousins are setting me up. That call that you got from jail, that's Fenton and them, was it in Gaelic?

[Nicole Byer]

I mean, this is exhaust. Honestly, the amount of work she put in, she could have just gotten herself a job.

[Lacey Mosley]

This wasn't.

[Nicole Byer]

This is work. This is work.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's the thing about scamming. People think scamming is not work. Scamming isn't employment. It's a profession. I'm honestly upset that scammers can't get unemployment right now because they have been self employed. And, you know, that's something we need to work on.

[Nicole Byer]

Mm.

[Lacey Mosley]

They want. They need they stimulus too. We need a scam stimulus for robbery. Okay. How you gonna be doing robbery when everybody in they house?

[Nicole Byer]

Truly, I was just thinking that the other day. I was like, how do you rob a house if everybody's home?

[Lacey Mosley]

So just like hairdressers can't do hair in person, robbers can't do their normal robberies in person.

[Nicole Byer]

They can't rob in person.

[Lacey Mosley]

Exactly. So everybody's really hurting rob right now. So I feel for her. I feel for myself.

[Nicole Byer]

I really do.

[Lacey Mosley]

So cut back to. She's crying to him, like, I need this money. I gotta go down to the attorney's office because they done froze my bank accounts. The LA District Attorney froze my coins up because they think that I did this robbery at this job that I definitely worked at. But really it was my cousins who had set me up. But for some reason, the jail called you. But really it was my cousins who had put me in jail from Ireland. This makes sense.

[Nicole Byer]

I mean, the fact that he fell for that is so wild.

[Lacey Mosley]

She was throwing a lot at him at once. It was probably a lot to process.

[Nicole Byer]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

You know what I mean?

[Nicole Byer]

And he's like, but that's my pastel friend. Right?

[Lacey Mosley]

And he came out to her about his lifestyle. Like, she accepted him. So they had an emotional relationship. So it makes sense. So he wrote her a cashier's check, which. Those are the checks that go.

[Nicole Byer]

That's money, that's liquid.

[Lacey Mosley]

So he agreed that she said when she regained access to her bank account or received her inheritance, she would pay him back. In the meantime, she moved back into Bunker Hill Towers for a relatively cheaper rent. With a case still ongoing, she asked him for another $3,800 the next month for rent. Over the year, as it passed on and dragged on, with Walton receiving frequent updates, she was still asking him for money. So in September 2016, she finally came and just really got the bag. She said that, hey, they're gonna give me a plea agreement for this money that I didn't steal from my job, that my definitely my cousins have framed me from a different country for. Great plea agreement. I'm getting $50,000 and serve jail time, but I'm gonna need $50,000 from you.

[Nicole Byer]

And this man gave her $50,000.

[Lacey Mosley]

He forked over nearly $60,000. Yeah. And he also loaned her $2,000 for the lawyer to help her avoid eviction, because then she wasn't paying rent.

[Nicole Byer]

Then what was she spending the money on? This man needed to ask questions. I would be like, what?

[Raiders of the Lost Podcast Host]

How?

[Lacey Mosley]

No, he didn't ask a single question.

[Nicole Byer]

Well, so he just had $60,000 laying around. This man is a smart man to have that much cash laying around.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, he worked in tv, so, you know, he might have been getting the checks.

[Nicole Byer]

I mean, damn.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's why he believed her. He believed that she was going to repay him. But one day during her February 2017 sentence, when Walton logged onto the jail's website to schedule a visit, he clicked on her profile at the LA County Sheriff's website, and he noticed something strange. She had been charged and convicted with a felony, so she was trying to avoid eviction. She eventually did have to go to jail. And then when he was going to go see her, probably put some money on her books for some ramen noodles and stuff.

[Nicole Byer]

Mm.

[Lacey Mosley]

He looked and they were like, yeah, she was convicted of a felony. Felony. Like, she was doing crime.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

Crime.

[Lacey Mosley]

So he took a day off work, traveled to the airport courthouse near LAX to draw up the records on her case. When he started looking through the records, he realized that everything that she told him was, say it with me, guys, a lie. The plea agreement meant that she had pleaded guilty, that her bank accounts had never been frozen. They weren't frozen. They just were empty.

[Nicole Byer]

Empty.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm gonna start telling people, my bank account frozen. If it ain't no money in there, it basically is. The bank won't let me make transfers anymore because they said it's no money in there. So they stopped. They froze my transfers.

[Nicole Byer]

They froze it. So if you want to, you know, PayPal me some. You want to Venmo me something so I can get my transfers back up. That's. My God.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's excellent wording. If you want to Venmo me money so I can get my transfers back up. That's the phrasing. That is excellent phrasing for I don't have no money. Send me money so I can start spending money again. That's amazing. So her plea agreement was for $40,000, not 50, and it included 180 day jail sentence, later reduced to 30 days. Oh, God. So basically, she skimmed him. She, like, upped. She was like, I need $50,000 so I can get this time served. But then she just kept a little tin so she could get her transfers back up. So she was like, some for the

[Nicole Byer]

court, some for me, some for me.

[Lacey Mosley]

On the day of the release, he picked her up, which I'm like, bro, why are you even still fucking with her?

[Nicole Byer]

Yeah, why are you still involved?

[Lacey Mosley]

Cause I think he was trying to get his money back. So he was like, you've been lying to me this entire time about everything. The next day, he filed a police report alleging a total theft of $75,000. Right. So Walton's landlord shared that homegirl also was $12,000 behind in apartment payments and had delayed them further because she said she had cancer and that her disability insurance wasn't arriving on time. She was running off.

[Kerry Brownstein]

She.

[Lacey Mosley]

My God, where was the money for rent going? Cause remember, he. He helped her with an eviction lawyer, quote, unquote, $2,000.

[Nicole Byer]

Well, that's how she had that expensive shoes and shit. She was just buying stuff.

[Lacey Mosley]

Buy shoes.

[Nicole Byer]

She's funny.

[Lacey Mosley]

I love her. They were like, ma', am, we gonna put you in the street. She was like, okay, but I really need these lubitins. Also. My cancer hurts right now, so.

[Nicole Byer]

My cancer hurts so bad, I better go buy a shoe. That's the cure.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, I can't actually talk about this right now because. Ooh, that was my cancer. Okay, so I'm gonna close the door now.

[Ari Chambers]

Bye.

[Nick Turturro]

Bye.

[Lacey Mosley]

So background checks revealed that she'd also been charged with writing bad checks, fraud in Tennessee, in Florida, grand theft, among other counts. She was also doing San Andreas.

[Nicole Byer]

I love her.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes. And then the jury found that Smith was guilty of grand theft and sentenced her to five years in jail. So this is on top of the 180 days that she got from robbing her. Her former employment. She did end up having to go to jail for robbing her homeboy. And, man, there's a lot to unpack there that we just don't have time to unpack. You guys unpack it in your cars, wherever you are. But this Irish woman is a queen.

[Nicole Byer]

I love her.

[Lacey Mosley]

She was so fun.

[Nicole Byer]

That's it. That's like, over the course of four years, you stole $80,000. That's pretty good. That's 20 a year. That's nice. Tax free. That is $20,000 a year. That's, like, pretty decent. And I'm sure that's not the only scam she was running on people.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, obviously not. She had the cancer. Rent scam. She had grand theft. She had, like, her whole life was a grift.

[Nicole Byer]

She doing it. She doing big things.

[Lacey Mosley]

So for scammer of the week, we just want to highlight a king, a Floridian, a Florida man. You know, if you really just want trash, if you really just want and I can say that I lived in Florida. It's okay for me to say that. A Florida man bought a hundred forty thousand dollars Porsche with a check that he printed from home on his computer. I don't even know how people think of stuff like this.

[Nicole Byer]

But also the dealership was like, ah, looks right?

[Yamaneika Saunders]

What?

[Nicole Byer]

How, What?

[Lacey Mosley]

Look, times are hard. They trying to sell these Porsches. They say, anybody want to come in here?

[Nicole Byer]

I guess so.

[Lacey Mosley]

42 year old K. Casey William Kelly. Oh, I love that he has three first names. That's what I'm talking about. Robbery. Was charged with a grand theft of a motor vehicle and uttering a false banknote. According to the Walton County Sheriff's office, he allegedly handed over a cashier's check that he printed from his home computer to buy the car. The car was later reported stolen to Okaloosa County Sheriff Office. So he. So also we just talked about in the last story, like you do a cashier's check that's as good as cash

[Nicole Byer]

pretty much if it's looks real, if it looks legit.

[Lacey Mosley]

So this is what he did. Shortly after purchasing the German luxury car, authorities say that Kelly then attempted to buy three Rolex watches. He was gonna let it ride. He said, where my printer at? Get the inkjet.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

I've been.

[Nicole Byer]

That's so funny. That is so fucking funny.

[Lacey Mosley]

He handed over a fraudulent check for $61,000 to a jeweler. However, the jeweler kept the watches until they could determine if the check was would clear. See, because jewelry, you know, obviously he's a white man.

[Nicole Byer]

People don't with jewelry because jewelry goes up in value sometimes.

[Lacey Mosley]

Right?

[Nicole Byer]

So like, like a vintage Rolex, those go for like a, like a ton of cash. So.

[Lacey Mosley]

Right.

[Nicole Byer]

Smart on them. But also with the car, I would have done a lease. I would have given them a fake address. I would have done. I mean, you probably had to put some money down. So you get the fraudulent check for that, give them a dummy address, and then never park the car near your house and be like, I don't know what you're talking about.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's a good one. Because then it's also like they might contact you like, oh, this check didn't go through. But you. We got this lease set up, we got all your info and then you could drive it around for longer. He just straight up like stealing it.

[Nicole Byer]

Okay, now I have the perfect plan. Okay, so we get a fake driver's license with your picture, different name, different address. Because I don't think they do any sort of background check. So if you can make fraudulent checks, write that check for the down payment on the lease. How will they get to you?

[Lacey Mosley]

They can't.

[Nicole Byer]

They can't find you. And then the bank is on the hook because when you lease a car, the bank buys the car. You pay the bank. So you are literally out of it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Everyone go out there and print your cashier's check. Emmy nominated Nicole Byer has taught you how to do this scam. That was her TED Talk. It was free for you and for me. I just. I think also the jeweler probably caught on because jewelers deal with criminals all the time. Like criminals love jewelry. Like that's their go to.

[Nicole Byer]

And you're buying three Rolexes. For what? For what?

[Lacey Mosley]

For who, for why, for how. So you know what? But shout out to a three first name king, Casey William Kelly, because I don't even know how you thought to print out a cashier's check at your home. Probably been sitting inside too long. Coronavirus. She was like, I could print out a cashier's check from my home.

[Nicole Byer]

Or maybe he saw catch me if you can, that movie with Leonardo DiCaprio running all them scams and he was like, I can do that. I'm cute.

[Lacey Mosley]

Listen. And he, he did, and did. He did get the car off the lot. So I'm proud of this king.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

But we.

[Nicole Byer]

Me too.

[Lacey Mosley]

We have reached the end of the show.

[Nicole Byer]

Nicole Lacey, thank you so much for having me back. Honestly, it's just a treat to talk to you.

[Ari Chambers]

It is.

[Lacey Mosley]

Thank you for being here. Seriously. Seriously. Wait, where do you want to be found?

[Nicole Byer]

Hopefully engaged with a nice man. No, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter at Nicole Byer. I have other podcasts. Why won't you date me? Best friends, 90 day ban patreon, drag her with mono Agape where we talk about drag Race newcomers with Lauren Lapkis, where now we are watching Lord of the Rings and good Lord, that movie's a scam. They're too fucking long. They should have been broken up. But yeah, you can just. Oh, and I have a book, Very fat, very brave. It's a self help guide for fat women. But if you're a thin and you have low self esteem, I guess maybe you'll help.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know what a sales pitch there. And if you're thin and you hate yourself. No, no, no, no, no.

[Nicole Byer]

Yeah, I can. I can help you, you thin self hating bitch.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, I'm kidding. No, no, no, no, no. But it's a good book for just confidence in general.

[Yamaneika Saunders]

General.

[Nicole Byer]

Yeah. And it's got, like, little comebacks if someone insults you. The main takeaway of the book, I'll just tell you I'd prefer if you bought it is like if someone says something about your body, it means you're powerful because that person had to stop their day to tell you something and you never thought once about them. Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

I love that. Yes, guys, very fat, very brave. Oh, my God, all the things you have so many podcasts as always, guys, email us scamgoddesspotmail.com snitch on your friends, your family and yourself if you want to find me. D I V A L A C I D valacy on all platforms if you want to support a black queen out there. Okay. If you want to do your activism for today, like, wait, I was about to say like a subscribe business ain't YouTube. Subscribe to our show, give me 5 star reviews and talk about how lovely of a human being being that I am. That's how you can help me. And then you help the black person. Today you get to go to bed. Like, I did it.

[Nicole Byer]

I did something.

[Lacey Mosley]

All right, congregation, thank you. Lacey, Stay scheming. Scam Goddess. This has been an Earwolf production in association with Team Coco. Scam Goddess stars and is hosted by me, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. Our producer is Jessica Cisnero and our audio engineer is Rich Garcia. Research for the show is conducted by Kate Doyle. Stay scheming.