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[00:00:30] This is Scams & Cons News with Jim Grinstead.
[00:00:40] In today's news billionaire Mark Cuban loses nearly $1 million in a cryptocurrency scam and our officially created voice tried to rob money from banks but we begin with the story of a Florida school principal who gave away $100,000 to a scammer pretending to be Elon Musk.
[00:00:59] When exposed, parents called for Dr. Jan McGee to be fired. WESH was at the meeting.
[00:01:06] McGee says she spent months talking to someone she thought was Elon Musk. She was hoping to get the space pioneer to invest millions in the school and exchange for a 100,000 upfront investment. The school's business manager got wind of what happened and canceled the check before it was cast.
[00:01:22] But tonight at a sometimes chaotic and packed school board meeting, other school administrators say McGee was repeatedly warned it was a scam and laid out other issues they say led to a toxic work environment.
[00:01:33] A Florida man called his bank about a major cash transfer he was planning to make. Once he worked out the details, he called the bank again trying to change the arrangements.
[00:01:44] But instead of the customer, the bank heard an AI voice which had been cloned from the customer's voice. Fortunately, the bank caught the fraud before anything happened but experts say it's a scam that's happening more frequently.
[00:01:58] A representative of the firm Pindrop which monitors the audio traffic for many of the largest US banks said the number of such scams and their sophistication has been growing.
[00:02:10] Pindrop officials say individual banks received 1000 to 10,000 calls a year. Some of our listeners have been skeptical about whether squatters can take over someone's home and there's nothing police can do about it.
[00:02:24] CBS Chicago spoke with Dard Hula Young who experienced it first hand.
[00:02:29] You're calling the police? The irony here on Wentworth.
[00:02:32] What are you doing there with those scissors?
[00:02:34] Getting you the f***ing life for my s*** that's what s*** I'm doing.
[00:02:37] This angry woman is accused of trespassing. She's a squatter says Clarice Mason, whose name is on the deed.
[00:02:44] I noticed three women entering the house and I'm like no they could not be entering my house.
[00:02:49] That was last year after the senior citizen says she spent $40,000 renovating the home to sell it.
[00:02:55] Putting new cabinets in, new countertops, everything stinging steel, everything.
[00:03:01] It's unclear how the uninvited guests got into the house but they showed the homeowner this lease.
[00:03:07] Clarice says it's fake. Her attempts to evict them didn't go well.
[00:03:11] She says that it's not your home.
[00:03:13] I don't give a f***ing question. I mean, f***ing mind.
[00:03:15] As outrageous as this situation seems, an eviction attorney I spoke with says Clarice is not alone.
[00:03:21] Squatters are technically protected under the governor's eviction moratorium.
[00:03:26] Police came to the scene and said it was a civil, not a criminal matter, and it would have to be taken to civil court.
[00:03:33] Police left without making any arrests.
[00:03:36] This is Scams & Cons News.
[00:03:39] Billionaire Mark Cuban fell for a cryptocurrency scam that reportedly cost him nearly $1 million.
[00:03:47] Cuban said he mistakenly selected and downloaded a fraudulent version of popular crypto wallet, Metamask,
[00:03:53] which gave scammers access to some of his crypto holdings.
[00:03:57] A blockchain analyst posted screenshots indicating that the funds were being drained from a wallet called Mark Cuban 2 after it had been inactive for more than 150 days.
[00:04:09] F***ing 17 in Austin says police cracked a major fraud ring.
[00:04:13] A Travis County judge set a quarter of a million-dollar bond for Tony Cal Lee.
[00:04:18] According to court documents, Lee was arrested earlier this year in Utah after going on a spending spree with stolen IDs.
[00:04:26] They were allegedly duplicated after hacking information from victims like an Austin software engineer.
[00:04:33] The arrest of Lee is part of a much larger case of identity theft that's being tracked by cyber expert John Mary.
[00:04:40] I certainly wish it would have been sooner and they would have caught more of them.
[00:04:45] Unfortunately, what's actually surprising is that they caught anyone.
[00:04:49] It was orchestrated by a Chinese crime gang located in New York.
[00:04:54] The stolen personal information, according to McCraw, made it possible for the gang to fool the state and descending them more than 3000 Texas driver's licenses, fake renewals which were then duplicated into fake IDs.
[00:05:08] According to court documents, investigators found 1273 Texas driver's licenses at three addresses in Oklahoma linked to Tony Cal Lee.
[00:05:18] And the telephone scammer didn't win a prize when he found himself live on the air of an Edmonton Alberta radio station called the bear.
[00:05:26] It's the Jess Jackson Show.
[00:05:28] When it comes to scammers on my phone, I'm usually pretty strict. I do not answer the phone and I immediately block the number.
[00:05:35] But it's a different story when it's not my phone. When it's the bear's phone, that's what I can mess with them, right?
[00:05:42] Hi, the bear.
[00:05:44] Hello. We are calling from online listing group because your Google business listing needs attention.
[00:05:50] Oh my God!
[00:05:51] If you're the business owner, press one now to verify or update your information.
[00:05:56] Press me.
[00:05:59] Hi, thanks for holding in my speaking with the owner.
[00:06:04] Are you better?
[00:06:06] All right, is this the studio contest line? Did I win?
[00:06:10] No.
[00:06:12] Why not?
[00:06:13] Because what are you calling for?
[00:06:16] I'm calling about your Google listing but you're good buddy. Have a great day.
[00:06:21] Bye!
[00:06:22] This was in a little close to home.
[00:06:25] Was this guy actually calling for Edmonton? Does he listen to the bear? That was great. Just fantastic. I hope I made his day.
[00:06:31] This is Scams & Cons News.
[00:06:37] From DNA testing to the Dixie Mafia,
[00:06:40] Cromcapsule brings you new stories of true crime in American history.
[00:06:45] I'm your host, Benjamin Morris.
[00:06:47] Join us for exclusive interviews with authors from Arcadia Publishing,
[00:06:52] writing the hottest books on the most chilling stories of our country's past.
[00:06:57] You can find us wherever you get your favorite podcasts or on evergreenpodcasts.com.
[00:07:03] Cromcapsule, history so interesting, it's criminal.