The Greedy Mofos Podcast

GoFraudMe

OneOne21 Productions Season 1 Episode 9

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0:00 | 32:49

A heartwarming story can empty your wallet faster than a hard sell, especially when it’s built to go viral. We talk about how crowdfunding fraud works on GoFundMe and social media, why “too perfect” stories spread so fast, and how ordinary people become greedy scammers when there’s quick money on the table.


We share practical online donation safety tips.  If you found this helpful, subscribe, share it with a friend who donates online, and leave us a review with your best scam-spotting rule. 

Welcome Back And New Topic

SPEAKER_00

Greedy mofos Catch your coins while the world burn slow Greedy Mofos Still so for us and show greedy mofos Every promise that you make we know Greedy Mofos Greedy Mofo Welcome Greedy Mofo fans thank you for your patience we've been on hiatus for a couple of weeks but we are back Aston. I think you are ready to dive in with your uh story this week.

SPEAKER_02

I am, and I actually had a different topic before the hiatus, and the hiatus was completely my fault because I was sick and I sounded like a like a frog for a couple of weeks. Um and I was looking at something on the news, and the topic that I had, I thought I saw that the person I was gonna be talking about was just pardoned by President Trump. Okay, and I was like, okay, so I can't talk about him right now because I gotta make sure that it's the right person. And it was a really, really global worldwide scam. I mean, on big levels, billions and

How GoFundMe Became Scam Bait

SPEAKER_02

billions of dollars. So I'm saving that one for another time. Today I'm going to talk about ordinary people who are greedy mofos, and I'm specifically gonna target people that was so callous, evil, conniving, scammers, and it's gonna be a few different GoFundMe accounts.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, this sounds like our everyday life that we see all the time.

SPEAKER_02

So do one in particular, or well, I'm gonna touch on one in particular, and then I'm gonna just kind of mention a few of the other scams that were out there. Okay? Okay, all right. So we really know you and I know, we've talked about this before, that GoFundMe when it first came out, great platform. People had worthy causes, they were able to raise money if something happened, those kind of things, right? But it got really bad, and people started pulling all these scams, trying to raise money on Go to Fundme, just lying and fabricating all these tragic stories from like illnesses and fatal accidents or some charity or hoax or anything like that, right? So I was like, well, I knew it was out there. I just wonder how many were out there. The good thing is GoFundMe does refund the donations. That's the good news. That is true but there are so many greedy mofos pulling scams on GoFundMe.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And one of the biggest, huh?

SPEAKER_00

I remember one in particular, it made worldwide news, the homeless man up in uh the the couple that allegedly ran out of gas, and the homeless man gave him the last 20 bucks he had. That's one of them. That's one of the biggest ones. Okay, that's the only real scam, the uh one of the bigger ones that I know about.

SPEAKER_02

That's one of the bigger ones. Now, I'm I've been used to some scams with YouTube channels. I've been used, I've I've

The Pay It Forward Hoax

SPEAKER_02

seen a lot of those scams, and I may talk about those later in in the series. Um, but one of the biggest ones, the one that you're talking about, they called it the Pay It Forward Hoax.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. I did not interact with that.

SPEAKER_02

And that was that was in 2017.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02

And the couple, Caitlin McClure and Mark D'Amico, and the homeless veteran, his name was Johnny Bobbitt Jr.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So that's the one where they lied and fabricated a heartwarming story that raised over $400,000 on GoFundMe.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So Babbitt used the veteran, Johnny Babbitt Jr., said he used his last $20 to help the stranded McClure's. And so the trio, who were connected by a mutual acquaintance, spent the donation on gambling, luxury items, and vacations. Was he $400,000 from a heartwarming story of some homeless vet that gave him his last $20? My first question is how many homeless vets have $20? Right.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I mean, I if they're panhandling, I can see why they would have $20.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And so it's kind of, and and my thing is, because I always look at these things with skepticism to begin with, right? But my thing is, okay, they were stranded, but I wanted to know more about the strands, the how they got stranded. So they claimed that you know she ran out of gas in Philadelphia and it was on highway I-95 or something. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So Johnny Bobby Jr., he was the hopeless marine veteran. Okay. So he used his last $20 to buy her some gas. So they posted this all on go fund me. It went viral, and they had over 14,000 donors, and they raised over $400,000. Crazy. But you want to know how everybody found out it was

How Greed Got Them Caught

SPEAKER_02

a scam? Yes, I do. The greedy mofos, the Caitlin McClure, okay. Uh-huh. Bobby sued them because they didn't give him his share of the money.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

What kind of greedy mofos is that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. What what is that? Don't don't con a conner, don't steal from a thief. What is that? There's some like cliche.

SPEAKER_02

Um so it was basically like he sued the couple claiming they were not giving him his share of the money. So I don't know. I guess he was supposed to get 50%. I don't know how much he was supposed to get. I mean, but if you're gonna scam somebody and you get $400,000, toss the man a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand.

SPEAKER_00

You better pay the share.

SPEAKER_02

I know. That's how they got caught.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, now that is a stupid greedy muscle.

SPEAKER_02

How greedy is that? The guy helped you scam, told, came up with this story, helped you scam the GoFundMe out of $400,000, and you didn't give him his share of the deal. How greedy is that? Was he even homeless? See, that's the thing. Because maybe he was, but they say he was connected with them through an acquaintance. Maybe he was a veteran, but it doesn't really say if he was actually homeless, but that was the story. He was a homeless veteran. Okay, he could have just been an ordinary guy. But that was the story. Okay. So um the investigation and everything said revealed that text messages from early on, where McClure told a friend, wait by the gas station, and that part was completely made up, but the guy isn't. So he was probably a veteran, and he was maybe homeless. I don't know, but it didn't make sense, but they got caught.

SPEAKER_00

Huh? Okay, so someone else was involved, the friend waiting at the state.

SPEAKER_02

Well, she was texting, she was texting a friend because remember when I said they were connected by a mutual acquaintance? Oh. So the guy who portrayed the homeless veteran knew somebody that Caitlin McClure knew. Caitlin McClure told him to wait by the gas station, and this is the story we're gonna come up with, and then that's what they posted on GoFundMe. Goodness. Yeah, that's so the whole thing about her running out of gas and he giving her $20 wasn't true at all. But when they did the investigation, uh, because they got investigated after he sued them, then everything kind of came out. So that's when the investigation turned up text messages talking about how they planned this scam, basically.

SPEAKER_00

So I wouldn't even say she's stupid, I would just say she is extremely greedy. That the greed took over. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Totally agreed. Totally agreed. And so if if she and maybe the acquaintance was the Mark D'Amico, because the homeless veteran, supposedly, the alleged homeless veteran was Johnny Bobbitt. So maybe Kate Humble? That's what I'm wondering. Caitlin and Mark, either they were friends or a couple, and they kept all the money instead of giving Johnny Bobbit his share of the money. That's greedy. Well, first of all, that's some smart scammers. But how they got caught is where they were stupid. Just give the guy his share of the money.

Sentences, Refunds, Restitution

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they didn't think that through.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So um Caitlin pleaded guilty to theft by deception. She was sentenced to prison. Okay. Mark pleaded guilty and was sentenced to state prison. Johnny Bobbitt pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation in order to pay restitution.

SPEAKER_00

Wait, only he had to pay restitution?

SPEAKER_02

Well. Caitlin pleaded guilty to federal and state charges and got a one-year federal sentence. Mark D'Amico, oh, they called him the ringleader. He was sentenced to five years in New Jersey state prison and 27 months in federal prison, running concurrently for his role. And Johnny pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money, laundering, and theft by deception. And he got five years probation and mandatory drug treatment. Wow. So GoFundMe refunded all the donors, worked with the law enforcement to make sure those people got convicted, and the defendants were ordered to pay full restitution.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And supposedly this case is featured in the Hulu documentary.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, wow. Did you see the Hulu documentary?

SPEAKER_02

Is that why it's familiar?

SPEAKER_00

No, I just remember when it was on the news. I I remember when it came out, and then I remember the big scandal when it was discovered that it was fake, but I never dug into it. Did they still have the money or had they spent it? Like how how much time had elapsed um before like during the incident, the alleged running. Allegedly.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, so they it there was nothing left for them to pay restitution. So that's coming out of their future pockets.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm. So GoFundMe, it came out of GoFundMe pockets, refunded all the donors their money.

SPEAKER_00

But they'll have to pay restitution to GoFundMe.

SPEAKER_02

If they ever have any money, they don't have any money. They're in jail.

SPEAKER_00

Well, whenever they go back to work, it can be garnished because it's a judgment. So it should.

SPEAKER_02

If I was, I would do a class action suit, all those 14,000 people that they scammed.

SPEAKER_00

Well, no, they got their money back, so there is no class action.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but I'll still do one. I'd teach them a lesson.

SPEAKER_00

I don't think you'd win that one.

SPEAKER_02

No, probably not.

SPEAKER_00

But GoFundMe, they'll have to pay restitution to GoFundMe because GoFundMe's out all that money.

SPEAKER_02

Yep, yep. Wow. So that's one of the biggest GoFundMe scams.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Ooh, tell me another.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. The other one, and these are

Fake Cancer And Fake Funerals

SPEAKER_02

scams, and basically GoFundMe was when I looked up the worst scams in Go with using GoFundMe as a front and everything, they talked about several different ones. And then they gave you some tips to fight to spot fake scams and stuff like that. Okay. So one of the ones that's really popular are fake cancer fundraisers.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

So Pete, the parents raise thousands of dollars by lying about their children who have terminal cancer, leukemia, and stuff like that. That's that's a popular one. So there's there's several of those, okay? Another one that people do is the fake funeral tragedy fundraiser. And so the scammers mostly create campaigns for victims of like violent crimes, or somebody that was killed, or somebody that died, and the family didn't have any money, or they lost their house, and some kind of tragedy or something like that. Now, I will say there was one case that was big, and it's called the Facebook Killer

The Facebook Killer Clickjacking Scam

SPEAKER_02

Case.

SPEAKER_00

I have not heard of this.

SPEAKER_02

You haven't heard about that?

SPEAKER_00

Is it a real or a scam? Is it real?

SPEAKER_02

It's a real scam. And basically what they do is let's see, I'm gonna summarize it and then I'm gonna tell you the the the chronological order of what happens. Okay? Okay. So basically what they do is that it's kind of like clickjacking, and it's a survey. I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know what click jacking is.

SPEAKER_02

That's when you click on something and they hijack you information. Oh you click on the link or something. Okay. Okay. So yeah. So what they'll do, like they'll put the scam on GoFundMe. Okay. And then they'll link it to Facebook to get you to click on it because you're thinking, oh, it's breaking news or something, or it says there's a killer lose or a killer kill these people. It comes up, they all different kinds of ways that they can do it, right? So there's links in the post, and then it'll take you to like maybe a news feed or something. Okay. When you click on the link, it doesn't really take you to an actual genuine news link, it takes you to a fake web page or a landing page. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And then they hijack your computer from there.

SPEAKER_02

And so then what happens, and because people always click on links and posts, that's on social media, right? So what happens is that once you start clicking links, it may lead you to something, and how they get your information is like they have a survey attached to it. Okay. Okay. With the survey you put in your name, your email, maybe your phone number, or something like that. Or it could be like a sweepstakes, but it's always linking to something else that's getting your information. That's why they call it clickjacking.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_02

And people click on links when they're looking at these GoFundMe posts that's asking for donations and stuff, and they'll just click whatever links in the post, thinking it's giving them more information about the fund that they're raising the money for.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So after you go through all these different steps, you're sharing your information, and then with the information, these people are either earning commissions or they're hijacking your information and using it somewhere else to scam people money, kind of thing. Or they may come back to you and scam more money and that kind of stuff. So that's another one, but it's called the Facebook Killer. Why it's called the Facebook Killer, I don't know, but that's what it was called.

SPEAKER_00

People will click on that. It's interesting. That I mean, that would you would think, oh my gosh, this is happening right now. You know, what's what what's the deal? Um, you know, it's compelling. Yeah. Okay, give me another one. I'm so excited. Give

Fake Pet Emergencies For Profit

SPEAKER_00

me another one.

SPEAKER_02

So that was one. And they say, and you'll this one you'll probably see, and and and if you haven't already, but people use animal cruelty for profit. They'll set up campaigns for their pets or so-called fake injured pets. They'll find photos of pets that's been injured or traumatized or whatever.

SPEAKER_00

Or catfishing, catfishing pets.

SPEAKER_02

And set up a GoFundMe page for like emergency surgery, and people will donate to it. That's another popular one. Wow. Wow. And then there's scammers.

SPEAKER_00

People fall for kids and pets.

SPEAKER_02

That's true. I'll fall for a pet before I'll fall for a human. To me, humans can can can can manage to take care of themselves and do what they need to do. Pets, they're totally dependent on people. So I I feel more sorry for pets than I do humans. Oh. I hate to see pets that are traumatized or being cruel and treated bad or you know, hurt or homeless. I hate to see that. I see a traumatized pet every day. And then there's the scammers that'll just look at what's going on in the news and see what's trending or what's popular. And then they'll just make fake GoFundMe campaigns based on that, and they'll pull the pictures from like news, online news sites and and stuff like that, and they'll just create fake campaigns. And you can have 10 campaigns for the same thing by people doing this.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You know, you know so, like when they had that shooting, the Parkland shooting, and then they had the one down in Texas.

SPEAKER_00

I bet that went really viral. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I'm sure there were so many scams going on around that time with GoFundMe. Yeah. So there's a lot, and I I mean, you can go into a deep dive because there's so many different ways to scam. And um, I think a lot of people right now are kind of more cautious before they donate on GoFundMe.

SPEAKER_01

Or you can't.

SPEAKER_02

I think I would like to believe that people are.

SPEAKER_00

It's yeah, it's someone, it's like a a family member of someone you know, or you know, you there are ways to verify it. You you can you can confirm. If someone has shared it, they'll if someone shares, they'll typically say

Red Flags That Signal A Scam

SPEAKER_00

this is a family friend, or um, so I mean, there are ways to verify it. You just have to take a few extra minutes to to confirm that it is legitimate.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm. So some of the red flags to spot scams on GoFundMe or anywhere, to be honest, is lack of updates. Because if you're telling the truth and you're legitimate and you're honest, and it's not a scam, you usually post updates to keep everybody up to date as to what's going on.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Once the scammer gets the money, they often stop updating and they're cash out, basically.

SPEAKER_00

Because they're gonna like just not even try for more. They're just gonna, you know, take what they've got.

SPEAKER_02

I'm sure they keep trying different, but knowing them, they probably close that one out and just start a different one. And try another one, a new one, yeah. Um, another red flag is if the details are too vague, so like there's not specific names or specific names of hospitals or the nonprofits or anything like that, or there's no connections to the beneficiaries.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. So no vague details. So you gotta look for stuff like that. And if their social media profiles are new, you have to have a long history of a social media profile. If it's a new social media profile or you don't have a lot of friends, then it's probably fake. It's a red flag. And then another red flag is the too good to be true stories. These are the highly emotional stories that go viral instantly. So you want to be careful when you see those kind. Like the homeless war veteran that gave his last $20 to this woman for guests.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, okay. Okay. So in that category. Okay.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Too good. I would I would have been like, okay, that's just too good to be true. I don't believe that.

SPEAKER_00

So back when GoFundMe was kind of new, you know, why would anybody doubt it back then? You know, because they had not been scammed yet.

SPEAKER_02

So um, so these are when it was new, everybody thought it was legit.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. But now so these people paved the way for one multiple uh or new scammers, but also they've paved the way for us as consumers and donors to look out for red flags. So you can just learn from that stuff.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And then one thing that you also don't want to do, because even if you are generous and kind and you want to donate to something, you know, I'm sure there's a way to get in touch with the people that set it up. You know. Of course. And I'm sure either you know somebody that kind of sent the links to you or shared it with you, because it's kind of like, you know, when you want to raise money, you contact your friends on Facebook and you know, say, hey, you know, donate to this link, it's a good cause kind of thing, you know, that kind of stuff. So you just gotta be careful and just not click on anything you don't know about, you know, because people hijack your information this went that that way. And you just gotta watch. If people make donations, sometimes they put their name, sometimes

Report Fraud And Get Refunds

SPEAKER_02

they do anonymous, you know. That's but that's true. You just you just gotta do some research. But the good news is, even though they have scammers out there, GoFundMe has a zero tolerance policy for fraud. So if you see a donated campaign and you think it's suspicious, just report it to GoFundMe and they'll investigate.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, wow. That's good to know.

SPEAKER_02

And then if it's fraudulent, GoFundMe will refund the money to the donors.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. And then put a stop to future donors. Mm-hmm. Good, good, good.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Wow. So as yeah, so it was kind of like, man, they I'm I knew people scam. I knew there were greedy mofos out there like that. And I was like, you know what? These are everyday people scamming people by trying to lie and say, Oh, I have a GoFundMe page, please donate, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So people gotta be careful.

SPEAKER_00

So in addition to let's recap the red flags, vague details, uh, too good to be true. And what what was the second one? Lack of updates. Lack of updates, okay.

SPEAKER_02

And then like new social media profiles or no history on your social media.

SPEAKER_00

That's that's a red flag just on social media. Yeah, it's so good.

SPEAKER_02

Don't click on any surveys, whatever you do, don't click on any surveys, whether it's GoFundMe or anywhere.

SPEAKER_00

Don't click on surveys. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Because you don't want to get clickjacked.

SPEAKER_00

Clickjacked.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, so don't click on links and you don't and you because a lot of times now you can kind of tell when a link is real or not. Because you know how they send you text messages sometimes, and they say this is ATT, and you need to update your password or something like that. Oh, when you look at the link, it does not say ATT. It's a long link and is like, I'm not clicking that ATT. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And and they, the legitimate companies will warn you uh, or like when you call in for service or something, they'll say, please expect a survey. So they'll tell you, and they'll they'll typically tell you, I'm gonna send it either via text or via email. So you should know who you're getting a survey from for the most part.

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00

If you've done recent business with them, yes. But again, look at the link. Don't ever just take it for granted just because you've done business with them recently, that it is legit, but that does help to know that um yeah. So boy, people are just so bold and they're just gonna get bolder because so many people do not want to work and um they have no issue with taking somebody else's hard-earned money. And it's it's very sad. It's very sad.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Everyday people coming up with scams because they're greedy mofos.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Well, hijacking people's hijacking people's tragedy and pain. Oh my gosh. And just lying and just to scam some money. And I'm

Safer Ways To Donate Online

SPEAKER_02

just like, really?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. So verify any GoFundMe listeners if you if you get a link for a GoFundMe, check with the person who sent it, check with the person who shared it. You know, read the read research Google, Google it and see if it's a legitimate news item. You know, that's another way. If if it's a stranger and you don't know who it is, I mean, one, I probably wouldn't donate for a stranger, but if it's a dog that needs um help, you know, I don't know how you Google news stories about dogs because that's typically not going to happen. But if you see a story and you feel compelled to help, just instead of donating to that particular story, just hop on the, you know, Best Friends Society or ASPCA and and donate there. And that'll, you know, give you that uh dopamine or serotonin or whatever it is. So just, you know, take that story and channel it to a legitimate uh, you know, charity and need.

SPEAKER_02

And, you know, don't be a greedy mofo.

SPEAKER_00

Please don't be a greedy mofo.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, just don't be a greedy mofo. I mean, these are just ordinary people doing things to scam people out of money, and they're just being greedy about it. And they wouldn't even and the worst part is they probably wouldn't have gotten caught if they would have just gave that man his share.

SPEAKER_00

Probably so.

SPEAKER_02

Now they're in jail.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I'm glad they got caught. I'm glad they didn't give them a share. So and you know, us as consumers, do not perpetuate this. Don't donate if you don't know who you're donating to. It's just, you know, rule of thumb. If if that if that story is just pulling out your heartstrings, just like I said, go find something legitimate to donate to it.

SPEAKER_02

Go find a real nonprofit and donate to it.

SPEAKER_00

You know?

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Don't do don't do any donations online unless you check it out. Verify, verify, verify. Yes. You know.

SPEAKER_00

So well, Aston, this was a really good story. Um, very interesting. And it's, you know, everyday greedy mofos scamming their way through

Send Us Scams And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00

life.

SPEAKER_02

I'm telling you. Okay. But we go catch them and we gonna talk about them.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. Well, listeners, if you know of any um social media scams, you know, send us an email, info at oeneoene21.com. We'd love to hear about it and look into it.

SPEAKER_02

That's right. And now I've even been watching some YouTube videos and some of these big influencers that claim they made millions of dollars on social media and all this. Now they got videos going around exposing them and how fake most of them was. Oh, so that could be watched a couple.

SPEAKER_00

Those are fun. Mm-hmm. So all right.

SPEAKER_02

Well, that was a nice one. Yes. I enjoyed looking at it. I did get pissed a few times. I was I was pissed a few times. I was like, these people, these greedy mofos, you know, I I guess my mind just doesn't work that way.

SPEAKER_00

Nope, mine either. And hopefully our listeners don't either.

SPEAKER_02

No, but we're if there's any greedy mofos out there that's the trapdoor drop be aware.

SPEAKER_00

Or you can email us and tell us about your scam and we'll broadcast it. And hopefully help you reform. We'll help you reform.

SPEAKER_02

You can let you in jail.

SPEAKER_00

Alright. Please do. Please do. Uh no, I don't greedy mofo. Well, we will do that.

SPEAKER_02

We will meet again on another episode. It'll be your turn to come up with a great greedy mofo story.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_02

Alright, have you everybody have a great day.

SPEAKER_00

Bye. Bye.

SPEAKER_01

Let's just go preach about things. Catch an intro, smile on camp.