the financial advice columnist who gave $50k in a shoebox to a scammer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think she made this up.

If she did…

I wonder if this will all blow up in her face. It screams of entitled rich scammer journalist. The call is coming from inside the house next level

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PSA: Victims of Fraud are no longer able to deduct the loss on their taxes. (Related to the article, she makes mention of this and I hope her CPA was aware of the change because otherwise she’s going to have another problem)

The 2017 Trump Era Tax cuts removed ability to offset phishing/fraud on your taxes. There have been multiple stories recently of people who gave their tax deferred accounts to scammers and now owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the IRS.

Why don't these account administrators withold estimated taxes on withdrawal?? This is insane.

That's an option you can choose while withdrawing. I am sure the scammers coach the victims not to choose that option, something about it not being necessary, etc.

If you think it should be automatic, that would be very hard to do without significant client information.No way for a 401k administrator to know what rate to withhold at. Could be a huge range.

It's essentially wage income, which is well understood for withholding.

You could get a refund if you overpay. No one who'd be overpaying needs the money immediately.

IRS not taking tax money from exactly the people most likely to spend it and die, and also most likely to miscalculate taxes owed, is idiotic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think she made this up.

If she did…

I wonder if this will all blow up in her face. It screams of entitled rich scammer journalist. The call is coming from inside the house next level

How can it blow up in her face? Is her daddy going to take back her trust fund?

[Anonymous]

Channeling Ratatouille, when they say "this can happen to anyone" , what they mean is "cognitively disabled people can be anywhere", either due to dementia or being born into privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think she made this up.

If she did…

I wonder if this will all blow up in her face. It screams of entitled rich scammer journalist. The call is coming from inside the house next level

How can it blow up in her face? Is her daddy going to take back her trust fund?

No. She made the whole thing up. She never got scammed. She just wanted a big article to turn into a Netflix movie. It will be on Netflix. But about how she fooled everyone and how she caught

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

super easy to rag on this woman -

but my own husband fell for one of these online scams in a bad moment. ended up buying a couple thousand dollars in gift cards, made a couple of bank transfers - finally i realized what was happening and literally hung up his phone. but it was insane - it was just insane. i couldn't believe it happened.

luckily it wasn't $50k - gd forbid! - but it was a couple thousand dollars. i am still really shaken up that he fell for this - and it did make me worry that any of us could be vulnerable to something like this if it's the right scam at the wrong moment.

all that said - i don't see how this person can be a financial advice journalist after this!

i do think she'll get a book deal worth more than $50k.

Your husband never, ever did anything to hint that he was vulnerable to this? And wasn't being blackmailed for naughty behavior?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think she made this up.

If she did…

I wonder if this will all blow up in her face. It screams of entitled rich scammer journalist. The call is coming from inside the house next level

How can it blow up in her face? Is her daddy going to take back her trust fund?

No. She made the whole thing up. She never got scammed. She just wanted a big article to turn into a Netflix movie. It will be on Netflix. But about how she fooled everyone and how she caught

Ever Netflix can't cancel this series before ends.

Episode one: a stranger calls
Episode two: I gave him $50k because what can that be worth, 5 bananas?
Episode three: the entire world thinks I'm a moron, and the neighbors laugh at me and my family avoids me at the country club.
Fin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think she made this up.

If she did…

I wonder if this will all blow up in her face. It screams of entitled rich scammer journalist. The call is coming from inside the house next level

How can it blow up in her face? Is her daddy going to take back her trust fund?

No. She made the whole thing up. She never got scammed. She just wanted a big article to turn into a Netflix movie. It will be on Netflix. But about how she fooled everyone and how she caught

Ever Netflix can't cancel this series before ends.

Episode one: a stranger calls
Episode two: I gave him $50k because what can that be worth, 5 bananas?
Episode three: the entire world thinks I'm a moron, and the neighbors laugh at me and my family avoids me at the country club.
Fin.

I would totality watch this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PSA: Victims of Fraud are no longer able to deduct the loss on their taxes. (Related to the article, she makes mention of this and I hope her CPA was aware of the change because otherwise she’s going to have another problem)

The 2017 Trump Era Tax cuts removed ability to offset phishing/fraud on your taxes. There have been multiple stories recently of people who gave their tax deferred accounts to scammers and now owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the IRS.

Why don't these account administrators withold estimated taxes on withdrawal?? This is insane.

That's an option you can choose while withdrawing. I am sure the scammers coach the victims not to choose that option, something about it not being necessary, etc.

If you think it should be automatic, that would be very hard to do without significant client information.No way for a 401k administrator to know what rate to withhold at. Could be a huge range.

For DC, they do have to withhold. I just liquidated an inherited IRA (much smaller than the writer's here!) and asked for some withholding, but they called me and said they had to withhold at least 10.8% for DC taxes...that was a little more than I requested so they needed to get my permission to withhold more before releasing the funds.

[Anonymous]

Reddit highlights
https://www.reddit.com/r/blogsnark/comments/1ark1oh/how_i_got_scammed_out_of_50000_by_charlotte/

Even the FTC tweeted to mock this clown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being asked to buy gift cards or wire money should be a huge red flag.

That was me. I was looking for a car. They said I had to buy $1,000 in eBay gift cards and then do something I forget. I caught on after I bought the gift cards. So not too bad I just had $1,000 in eBay cards to use.

[Anonymous]

I guess i don’t understand how she thought she might be implicated in major crimes and her immediate thought wouldn’t be I need to find a lawyer right now. Like how was she not googling that right away? I would freak out by such a suggestion and so would have hung up immediately and started calling lawyers bc I wouldn’t a wasn’t to say anything without a lawyer. I might lose a couple hundred bucks at most talking to a lawyer who would then tell me it is a scam but better than. being out thousands

[Anonymous]

Who answers their phone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being asked to buy gift cards or wire money should be a huge red flag.

That was me. I was looking for a car. They said I had to buy $1,000 in eBay gift cards and then do something I forget. I caught on after I bought the gift cards. So not too bad I just had $1,000 in eBay cards to use.

What happened between them telling you to buy $1000 in gift cards and you buying the cards?

Do you often "lose time".

BTW please send me $800 n Amazon gift cards as we discussed. I don't mean to press you, but if you don't sent them tonight, your son might die and you'll go to jail. Don't worry, I'll send you back $1200 tomorrow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are a fool if you fall for these. Im seen 3-4 like the article and had a half dozen others. The moment they break out the large money, the urgency, etc, you say I need to call my lawyer and we will call you right back. they always say you cant tell anybody, including lawyer. That's always the tell. And then you can just taunt, belittle and abuse them after that.

The funniest thing was that they said she couldn’t call anyone to discuss because the bad guys might be monitoring her phone.

“You mean the phone that you’re talking to me on right now?”