She says in the article she is intelligent but was groomed for months. Why are you not intelligent enough to ask yourself why a billionaire needs $100,000 from a Florida principal. His family is rich, he has rich friends, he can probably easily call up a bank and get a line of credit or liquidate stick options. No.
because a whole lot of 50+ americans are functionally incompetent at a modern life. they cant tell fact from lies. they refused to learn about technology and so they dont understand how its used to take advantage of them. and when you try to explain it to them they just get mad that youre smarter than them about anything.
a generation of narcissists, which makes them really easy to grift if you can put up with telling them the pretty things they demand to hear.
It absolutely blows my mind that the generation of people who raised MY generation are as far as I can tell dribbling idiots. My mother in law bought FOUR blenders she saw on a TV commercial because in the commercial they blended rocks into dust. Like she honestly believed it.
And then it makes me worry that I am going to become the idiot to the next generation and I don't know what to do about it.
I tell myself that mindset is a function of the pre-information age. I don’t think either our generation or any successive one will ever have the same outlook again.
We’ll develop new problematic ones, for sure, but I feel like that one is a product of the transition to a new age of human development.
I love how she had to say that she’s a smart and well-educated person. Glad she clarified that, lest we think she is foolish and bad at making decisions.
They way I see her statement is:
"If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone. I'm smarter than most."
But unwittingly losing 100k all at once is not something most people can easily accomplish.
"If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone."
Nope. Because unlike this lady, a lot of people **wouldn't gamble with money that isn't theirs,** either out of ethics or a basic desire to avoid prison.
What if, amazingly, it wasn't a scam and she got $60 million? This lady thinks that she would have been hailed as a hero, and that her downfall was the bad outcome. But in reality, she would still be a thief and she should still go to prison for misuse of funds.
Shame on the media for focusing this story on the scam. Regardless of the outcome, she violated her fiduciary duty. That should be the story and the reason for her firing and, hopefully, criminal prosecution.
Unless this is a different principal, I am pretty sure she was warned this was a scam too.
Edit. It is. https://www.businessinsider.com/principal-resigned-sent-100000-check-to-scammer-impersonating-elon-musk-2023-3
It mentions others warned her she was talking to a scammer.
"I love this school more than anything else. If it means your administration is going to stay, I'm turning in my resignation," she said.
Damn. She’s gas light-y. No wonder she ‘made the work environment toxic’.
I can see myself losing 100 or so to a well-crafted scam, if I was having a bad day. Even 1000, depending on circumstances. But much more than that and I'm doing some due diligence. Most scams I've seen rely on victims not doing at least a little bit of research.
100k? I'm going to be researching the hell out of that, up to and including wanting to speak to the muskrat himself to verify.
I mean, I'd even be doing some basic due diligence on the $100. Or less, tbh. I'm not well off by any stretch - but I run a business and so paying out 3 or 4 figure sums isn't uncommon. But $1000+ is where I'd really start thinking 'hold on a moment, are you *sure* about this?'
I just couldn't imagine a time when I'd send out any significant amounts of money without being 100% sure it was legit.
The bright side of the story, at least. Well, that and I'm always a fan of incompetent people losing leadership positions. Yeah, I don't doubt for a second people wanted her out, imagine being told what to do by this person that had to be stopped from losing $100k on an extremely rudimentary scam.
That's the funny part to you? The funny part to me is she sent money to a billionaire. Even if it wasn't a scammer, you gotta be dumb as rocks to give money to someone like that.
I once tipped some girl scouts $5 for cookies. Their mom said "TYSM! We donate the extra cash to the military!"
I threw up in my mouth a little.
Go to any college, you'll find a lot of morons. Earning a degree takes time, money, and effort. Smarts can offset some of the effort, but it's hardly a requirement.
I knew MBA grads... It's why I decided to not go for an MBA mid-career.
Although, there were some absolute morons in my engineering classes as well. Incredibly book smart, and could memorize anything. Couldn't derive something if their life depended on it though. If they didn't know the equation to solve a problem, they were SOL.
I mean some of the higher level/more advanced topics I’m definitely rusty on, but I feel like falling for a scam is much different than forgetting how to do multi variable calculus.
“I am a very smart lady. Well-educated. I fell for a scam,” McGee said.
“McGee said she gave the check to someone she believed was Musk's right-hand man with the promise of getting $6 million back.”
Yeah, no, you’re not a very smart lady.
I'm a PhD candidate and I am reminded almost daily of the things I'm fuckin' dumb about. I only have a handful of colleagues who aren't totally boneheaded outside of their research interests.
Even Carson's surgical career isn't what it's cracked up to be. The big surgery that made him famous was separating twins conjoined at the head and having them survive the operation. It was a huge media story.
The problem is that their separation was hugely celebrated and then the story largely ended there. One of the twins fell into a vegetative state and stayed that way for a couple decades until he eventually died, and the other is horribly disabled and has to live in a full time care home.
Their mother basically said that she wished the surgery was never done in the first place because it fucked them up for life.
The line where Carson calls it "the first successful surgery of it's kind, the first 23 attempts ended in a death of one or both twins." Yeah the very next line is "Although Carson was able to separate the boys, they were both left profoundly disabled."
That's the thing... you realize you don't know shit, but that means you are self-aware enough to know what you don't know and learn.
There are absolute shit heads running around society thinking they are infallible, have no desire to learn anything new (God forbid they are wrong about anything) and I don't know how they put their shoes on the right way.
100%. The people that thing they're smart about one thing makes them smart about everything are fucking awful. Being smart is realizing you aren't smart about what you don't know about.
That's one of the main ways I identify truly intelligent people. When it's incredibly obvious that they're very knowledgeable about a subject or subjects, but are quick to say "I don't know" outside of their fields, it speaks to an actually thoughtful mind.
>I'm a PhD candidate
Ok, maybe... Let's hear you out.
>...and I am reminded almost daily of the things I'm fuckin' dumb about.
Yep. Checks out.
Nothing left me feeling dumber than the oral prelim and thousands of hours spent on dead-end research with nothing to show...until the one day I finally figured things out.
Hang in there my dude, I promise it gets better.
^(Especially if you get the fuck out of academia.)
My mother has a master’s degree and was arguing with me yesterday that the computer monitor was the computer and ‘that box’ (the actual ass computer) was unnecessary.
I’m convinced that you just pay the 50k or whatever the hell a master’s is going for these days and it’s all a sham.
Maybe she's still thinking about the original imacs.. although, I'm not sure how that logic works with flat screens these days...
"The files are IN the computer!"
There's different kinds of intelligence, but a degree (any degree, at any level) is much more about information transfer than about intelligence. Don't get me wrong, you need to be much smarter to be able to do the kind of abstract work necessary for a graduate degree than for undergrad or lower, but it's still mostly about how to apply vast amounts of domain knowledge within a narrow field, and the rest is just transferring that knowledge.
It's not uncommon for someone to go through that process and believe their narrow expertise extends beyond it's boundaries.
Did she say what she thought the purpose of "that box" was, why it was there at all? Has she ever tried disconnecting it to see what happens?
To be fair, my generation and older inhaled a looot of leaded gasoline. Lifetime exposure to pfc and micro plastics. We rehabbed the lead paint in our houses and got loads of concussions. Really, it’s sort of a miracle we have marbles rolling around up there at all.
Convinced apropos of nothing, that the Egyptian pyramids were primarily for grain storage. Per a personal interpretation of some text in the bible, not supported by any archeological or historical records....
On r/antimlm I once read a comment about a nuclear scientist who fell for one of the fashion mlms.
The only person I know RL who was in an MLM is a physiotherapist. In my state of Queensland, Australia, physiotherapy degree placements are highly coveted. So you need to be a high school student in the top percentile to get in, even! So she's not dumb.
But while logic saves you from scams, emotions get you into them. In my friend's case, she was burnt out working as a physio, was in a bad marriage with domestic violence in the mix and had small kids. She wanted to manifest a work-from-home business that would get her enough money to leave her husband and look after her kids. She was easy pray emotionally.
I imagine the principal in question had a need for validation she thought she could fill with Musk bucks, and here we are!
A lot of educated people fall for ponzi scams or fraud scams because they are desperate to overachieve. You have one charismatic person, some financial mumbo jumbo with a convincing hook and reel them in. This woman was desperate to get Musk associated with the school and thought she would be a hero and make the school millions.
Alleged billionaire. Given how much he begs for cash from his idiot followers, and how much debt he seems to have, I doubt he's actually a billionaire.
Then again, he could be worth trillions and would still try to dupe people into giving him money. Defrauding people is practically the only thing he's ever been successful in.
I really wish we could see everything that was said, because this makes no sense.
I can't picture anyone smart falling for it in any capacity, it sounds like the most obvious scam of all time. This is what they parody in shows but there they include a laugh track when the idiot falls for it.
Seriously she thought she was going to get $6mil? That seriously sounds like a joke amount intentionally set so high as to be absurd.
One of the most important aspects in scams is the red flags. If your target misses the use of weird slightly off formatting and spelling errors, they’re more likely to miss other larger red flags and are worth committing resources to.
I think it’s also fair to say that her own narcissism had a hand in it. Clearly she believed that if anyone was going to get $6m from Elmo’s right-hand man, it would be *her*💁♀️
> “McGee said she gave the check to someone she believed was Musk's right-hand man with the promise of getting $6 million back.”
Isn't that, like, literally exactly how every single Nigerian prince scam goes?
Yeah wtf lol. This isn't a whoopsie slipup, it's not like falling for updog. There's a dozen reasons off the bat to not fall for the scam, even if it *wasn't* obvious up front (which it is).
Why would Elon Musk need 100k? Why would he ask some random old lady for it instead of any of his thousands of connections? How would he find her? This is like someone convincing you to jump off a building and try flying like in The Matrix.
They weren't super extra clever enough to get past her brains, she just didn't have any to begin with
Exactly. Oh, and can we add the whole fraud angle to it? She's authorized to write checks up to 50k. This one was for 100k.
Now, I know PhD programs might not teach you about the latest in scamming, but I'm pretty sure that leading up to that doctorate, in some math class early on in elementary school, you learn that 100k is more than 50k.
She could write a $50K check with no oversight?! As an educator? Public school teachers have to buy their own printer paper, but oversight for charter schools? Well, our wealthy donors might be inconvenienced by that; so, no.
I had a very convincing one once where they said I missed jury duty and owed money. They were going to put me in front of a zoom judge and everything who would resolve the case. Lots of legalese thrown out there super quick. They had my old address as well so the "I guess my summons went to the wrong address" made some sense. They had the name of the court wrong though. Kent county? Kent is a city, I don't think this is real. And then he told me "this is fucking serious" and I was like, ok, mr potty mouth, now this really isn't real. *Click* Scam ended up in the news since it was so convincing and so many were falling for it.
Realizing that you're usually an idiot about most things is a requirement to be a smart person.
If you're not generally doubting most things you know, you're not smart. I'm not sure if this is true--but I'm pretty sure.
Most schools make their art teachers buy art supplies for their classes and can't afford extra curricular activities but somehow this FL school had $100k laying around?
Me: OMG what school district would give a principal that much access to money without question and where did this happen?
*opens link to article*
Me: Ah, a charter school in Florida. Yep, that explains it.
Edit: spelling
Florida principals have extensive authority over far too much. For instance they have ultimate authority to approve or deny all hires within the school and can fire teachers they don’t like.
I've sadly watched in real time as some really angry people who seem hell bent to punish those who don't think and act just like them, take over our school board. The last election was just brutal. I now need to go figure out how much oversight individual school principals have on matters such as teacher firings and spending limits. At first glance that might sound like a good idea. Oh hey the principal can fire bad staff members or go buy a bunch of printer paper without having to deal with red tape. But the flip side of that coin is way more terrifying.
That's such a high limit, holy shit. I'm on a board that recently needed to spend $6,100 to fix our building's A/C. We had to vote on that.
"Here are two checks!" 😄
That's taking public funds away from public schools.. and the sad thing is that these charter schools can push religious and other agendas... I don't understand how this is allowed.
Exactly. And I've actually met his real assistant. He's an Indian man called David who works in a busy call centre shared by Microsoft. I'll be getting my money back any minute now.
I think with these type of scam, the scammer will convince the target to send money to verify the account or to process the payment.
I imagine after 4 months of buttering her up, the scammer says something like, Mr. Musk like what your school is doing and has decided to give your school $6 millions. Now can you send your bank account and routing number so we can transfer the fund? The scammer then says that there's something wrong with the account number and the transfer was rejected. They would probably show her a screen shot to make it more convincing. They probably make her jump through a few more hoops and pretend that the transfer keep getting rejected to make her feel more desperate to solve the problem. The scammer then says, hey we just talked to our bank and it seem our bank thought your account was fraudulent so that why they didn't let the transfer goes through. We ran in to this problem a few times before and the best way to solve this is you transferring $100,000 to our account to prove to our bank that your account is a real account, then we'll transfer the $100,000 and the $6 millions back to your account.
They'll also add a deadline to rush her and not give her a chance to talk to other people. They'll call at 4 PM on a Friday and says, that they have to get the transfer done today or next week, Musk is going to give the money to another school. She can see the $6 millions within grasp and about to slip away and break protocol to send the $100,000 to the scammer and they disappear.
Starting to think that whole thing about Florida having more lead pipes than anywhere in America. . . Maybe there really is something in the water. Like brain damaging lead.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/epa-says-florida-has-most-lead-pipes-in-u-s
I mean it's definitely why historians think the Mayans were off their rocker. Very high soil ~~lead~~ mercury and water levels. Similar brain effects as lead.
She had signing authority for $50K but she signed a check for $100K? Why would a principal have signing authority over such a large amount? $100K is the kind of money that should need signoff from others.
In what world is it a principal's business to make financial investments on behalf of their school? Why wasn't there any oversight preventing her from making a financial investment with the school's money?
She knew she was going double over her limit, but she figured the board would be ok with it once the 6mil came back and they would be so happy they would break her off a piece as a reward for being so smart.
Not once the 6 mil came back. She was definitely going to fucking pocket that shit. She was hoping to replace the 100k and never have anyone truly find out. She shoulda broke it up to two 50k checks
I wonder if she figured it out herself or if she told someone and if so, I wish I could have been there to witness that conversation.
"You did WHAT????"
Because the check was $100,000. That was over her limit. Seems like if she sent $50,000 it might have gone through. Or maybe not, seems like employees were aware and told her it was a scam she did it anyway.
I live in this community and know several families that send their kids to this school. Yes, she did do that but only after trying to get approval from the board and the finance office (they told her it was a scam and to drop it). She did it anyway. The check got flagged because they did have safeguards in place to prevent this from happening. The check was cancelled and they did not lose the $100k.
So after being told that it was a scam by everyone who she should have listened to, she went ahead and did it anyway. Probably because she thought she was very self-assured of her own intelligence or something. Sure, people get scammed... but they also have to deal with the consequences.
It's a real shame because other than this dumb dick move she generally had a very good reputation in the community as an educator and administrator. At least that is what has been told to me by the parents of the children who attend. It's a pretty good school insofar as schools in this area of Florida go. I don't have children but if I did I would send them to Burns. It's a shit situation that should have never happened and thankfully no money was lost. The only thing that got burned this lady's career and rightfully so.
Do you have any more info on what the fuck "Elon" told her over the course of 4 months that led to this? I can't wrap my brain around any scenario in which a reasonably intelligent person would do this with $100,000.
She sent the SCHOOL'S funds! She somehow believed that if she sent $100k they'd send $6 million back. I'm dying to know what convoluted tale she was told. In fact, the more I think about it the more I wonder if it actually *was* Elon Musk.
My wife sent $1000 to a puppy scammer. She is very smart. Has two degrees. She would never say the words “I am very smart and educated” normally but that’s exactly what she said when we teased her about the scam
>“When you lose the respect of… When your leadership is now in question, you can't properly lead and that's going to cause chaos,” Amalfitano said.
Lose respect and have your leadership questioned? Try embezzlement. The check was stopped but what she tried to do was embezzle money. This school receives both federal and state funding. You can't take money out of its accounts to gamble with even if your intent is to enrich the school. She tried to embezzle $100k for a harebrained get-rich scheme and is allowed to step down with no charges filed when it's probable that most people who did this with these funds would not fare so well. So strange.
> Dr. Jan McGee, who was the principal at Burns Science and Technology Charter School in Oak Hill, said she was "groomed" by someone for four months who was posing as the SpaceX founder who is also the CEO of Twitter and Tesla.
I’m gonna guess this lady is a DeSantis supporter. This is based on the fact that she trusts Musk and doesn’t understand what “groom” means. Nevertheless, I think it’s a pretty safe bet.
I am here to tell you that Janet McGee of Oak Hill, FL, Occupation: Principal donated $1,000 to Michael Waltz (R) 2020 campaign for US House Rep.
From DeSantis’ own former district.
https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=Janet+McGee&cycle=&state=FL&zip=&employ=&occupation=&jurisdiction=&cand=&type=
I was wondering if she was a republican. A stupid, vaccine-resistant Dunning-Kruger effect gullible Christian moron. Half way through the comments I thought I was probably being unfair, but there it is.
I'm actually genuinely incredibly annoyed at what the far right is doing to the word "grooming". It was a really great way to describe an important concept, and these fucking assholes are polluting the meaning of the term by applying it to anything and everything they don't like.
It happens with everything. "Fake news" is and was a real thing, and an important issue to try to combat, and then it became any story they didn't like or agree with.
She actually uses the term more accurately than most conservatives I’ve heard in the last couple years. It hasn’t always been related to CSA as it seems to now, but people could be groomed for different career or class positions.
She is 100% a DeSantis or Trump supporter because only they would think they're so special that Billionaires would take time out of their day for them.
This is who we have educating the next generation, people.
This is why education in Florida sucks. There is no emphasis on deductive reasoning skills.....
Source: Floridian
Hello, Elon Musk here, I’m looking to get into contact with Dr. Jan McGee, Principal at Burns Science & Technology Charter School. I was told that she has some money for me. Thank you.
I think most of the people who fall for these scams have a huge ego. Why the fuck would Elon Musk contact some random ass school and ask for money. Do you really think you are that important?
My elderly neighbor thought she was dating Keanu Reeves for months until recently. Sent him hundreds upon hundreds in Google play cards. Told her she was getting scammed and asked her why would he be asking a random old lady in Maine on facebook for Google play cards after he just finished his recent film, but of course he would *never* scam people, and she looks great for her age so she obviously has a chance. Even showed me a picture of him holding a sign with her (very horribly photoshopped) name in cursive, so it is him and said I am dumb for thinking it's fake.
People fall for the most wild things sometimes.
I use to work in an an IT help desk at a college. Many times an instructor with a PhD would, angrily, come to me with a problem that they couldn’t fix. Insisting that they weren’t stupid, but that we set them up with faulty equipment or software. That was the only reason it wouldn’t work. It was never their fault.
Yeah a billionaire really needs your money
She says in the article she is intelligent but was groomed for months. Why are you not intelligent enough to ask yourself why a billionaire needs $100,000 from a Florida principal. His family is rich, he has rich friends, he can probably easily call up a bank and get a line of credit or liquidate stick options. No.
She is probably "intelligent" and "well educated" in comparison to her fellow Floridians.
As a man who grew up in Florida and lives elsewhere, I say yes to this statement.
because a whole lot of 50+ americans are functionally incompetent at a modern life. they cant tell fact from lies. they refused to learn about technology and so they dont understand how its used to take advantage of them. and when you try to explain it to them they just get mad that youre smarter than them about anything. a generation of narcissists, which makes them really easy to grift if you can put up with telling them the pretty things they demand to hear.
It absolutely blows my mind that the generation of people who raised MY generation are as far as I can tell dribbling idiots. My mother in law bought FOUR blenders she saw on a TV commercial because in the commercial they blended rocks into dust. Like she honestly believed it. And then it makes me worry that I am going to become the idiot to the next generation and I don't know what to do about it.
I tell myself that mindset is a function of the pre-information age. I don’t think either our generation or any successive one will ever have the same outlook again. We’ll develop new problematic ones, for sure, but I feel like that one is a product of the transition to a new age of human development.
Sadly this is true. I’ve spent so many hours explaining scams to my older relatives.
But that's what Trump's been telling them for years.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Maybe Musk will gift her a free blue checkmark.
Nah, those cost money. You don't get to be a billionaire by writing a lot of checks.
Yeah, most of us just get it from our family’s secret emerald mine.
Buy em out, boys.
I love how she had to say that she’s a smart and well-educated person. Glad she clarified that, lest we think she is foolish and bad at making decisions.
They way I see her statement is: "If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone. I'm smarter than most." But unwittingly losing 100k all at once is not something most people can easily accomplish.
"If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone." Nope. Because unlike this lady, a lot of people **wouldn't gamble with money that isn't theirs,** either out of ethics or a basic desire to avoid prison. What if, amazingly, it wasn't a scam and she got $60 million? This lady thinks that she would have been hailed as a hero, and that her downfall was the bad outcome. But in reality, she would still be a thief and she should still go to prison for misuse of funds. Shame on the media for focusing this story on the scam. Regardless of the outcome, she violated her fiduciary duty. That should be the story and the reason for her firing and, hopefully, criminal prosecution.
Unless this is a different principal, I am pretty sure she was warned this was a scam too. Edit. It is. https://www.businessinsider.com/principal-resigned-sent-100000-check-to-scammer-impersonating-elon-musk-2023-3 It mentions others warned her she was talking to a scammer.
It's extremely obvious that it was a scam, if she told anyone their response would likely be "you are being bamboozled"
"I love this school more than anything else. If it means your administration is going to stay, I'm turning in my resignation," she said. Damn. She’s gas light-y. No wonder she ‘made the work environment toxic’.
I can see myself losing 100 or so to a well-crafted scam, if I was having a bad day. Even 1000, depending on circumstances. But much more than that and I'm doing some due diligence. Most scams I've seen rely on victims not doing at least a little bit of research. 100k? I'm going to be researching the hell out of that, up to and including wanting to speak to the muskrat himself to verify.
I strive to be in a financial position where I only start to do meaningful due diligence on purchases/transfers at $1000...
I mean, I'd even be doing some basic due diligence on the $100. Or less, tbh. I'm not well off by any stretch - but I run a business and so paying out 3 or 4 figure sums isn't uncommon. But $1000+ is where I'd really start thinking 'hold on a moment, are you *sure* about this?' I just couldn't imagine a time when I'd send out any significant amounts of money without being 100% sure it was legit.
>losing 100k No money was lost. The check wasn't honored by the bank because she didn't have the authority to write it
The bright side of the story, at least. Well, that and I'm always a fan of incompetent people losing leadership positions. Yeah, I don't doubt for a second people wanted her out, imagine being told what to do by this person that had to be stopped from losing $100k on an extremely rudimentary scam.
That they repeatedly told her was a scam. Them threatening to quit was the only reason she resigned.
My favorite part is how she gave money to a scammer, but then it turned out to be a different scammer posing as a well known scammer.
That's the funny part to you? The funny part to me is she sent money to a billionaire. Even if it wasn't a scammer, you gotta be dumb as rocks to give money to someone like that. I once tipped some girl scouts $5 for cookies. Their mom said "TYSM! We donate the extra cash to the military!" I threw up in my mouth a little.
It's for a good cause. The military is famously supporting orphans. It's making more and more of them every year, all around the world! God bless.
[удалено]
She probably was at some point. She got her Bachelor's over 50 years ago. I imagine most people's (including mine) brains will be 90% pudding by then
Go to any college, you'll find a lot of morons. Earning a degree takes time, money, and effort. Smarts can offset some of the effort, but it's hardly a requirement.
[удалено]
That's MBA.
Mational basquetball association
Found the principals burner
I knew MBA grads... It's why I decided to not go for an MBA mid-career. Although, there were some absolute morons in my engineering classes as well. Incredibly book smart, and could memorize anything. Couldn't derive something if their life depended on it though. If they didn't know the equation to solve a problem, they were SOL.
Math hard.
The only requirement for an mba is showing up
And $70k for 2 years...
I mean some of the higher level/more advanced topics I’m definitely rusty on, but I feel like falling for a scam is much different than forgetting how to do multi variable calculus.
Educated doesn't always mean smart.
Let’s be honest. She’s an idiot
“I am a very smart lady. Well-educated. I fell for a scam,” McGee said. “McGee said she gave the check to someone she believed was Musk's right-hand man with the promise of getting $6 million back.” Yeah, no, you’re not a very smart lady.
The scammer’s favorite target is not merely gullible, but also someone who believes very strongly that they aren’t.
Literally a King of the Hill episode from like 30 years ago.
How dare you say such a thing. King of the Hill came out 10 years ago, and it will always have come out 10 years ago.
Shit, man. It's been almost 14 years since we lost Brittany Murphy. Just crazy.
A principal of a STEM charter school with a doctorate.. doesn't realize that scammers exist and that Elon wouldn't require a rinkydinky 100k.
there is a post on /r/askreddit today about well educated people who are profoundly stupid and i think she qualifies
I'm a PhD candidate and I am reminded almost daily of the things I'm fuckin' dumb about. I only have a handful of colleagues who aren't totally boneheaded outside of their research interests.
it's like fish that live in coral reefs, they're highly specialized for a specific environment and extremely fragile when removed.
Ben Carson.
Even Carson's surgical career isn't what it's cracked up to be. The big surgery that made him famous was separating twins conjoined at the head and having them survive the operation. It was a huge media story. The problem is that their separation was hugely celebrated and then the story largely ended there. One of the twins fell into a vegetative state and stayed that way for a couple decades until he eventually died, and the other is horribly disabled and has to live in a full time care home. Their mother basically said that she wished the surgery was never done in the first place because it fucked them up for life.
I did not know this about the surgery. I always assumed it was some random successful surgery on some random person. Not something like this
[удалено]
The line where Carson calls it "the first successful surgery of it's kind, the first 23 attempts ended in a death of one or both twins." Yeah the very next line is "Although Carson was able to separate the boys, they were both left profoundly disabled."
That's the thing... you realize you don't know shit, but that means you are self-aware enough to know what you don't know and learn. There are absolute shit heads running around society thinking they are infallible, have no desire to learn anything new (God forbid they are wrong about anything) and I don't know how they put their shoes on the right way.
100%. The people that thing they're smart about one thing makes them smart about everything are fucking awful. Being smart is realizing you aren't smart about what you don't know about.
That's one of the main ways I identify truly intelligent people. When it's incredibly obvious that they're very knowledgeable about a subject or subjects, but are quick to say "I don't know" outside of their fields, it speaks to an actually thoughtful mind.
>I'm a PhD candidate Ok, maybe... Let's hear you out. >...and I am reminded almost daily of the things I'm fuckin' dumb about. Yep. Checks out. Nothing left me feeling dumber than the oral prelim and thousands of hours spent on dead-end research with nothing to show...until the one day I finally figured things out. Hang in there my dude, I promise it gets better. ^(Especially if you get the fuck out of academia.)
Isaac Asimov [wrote](https://talentdevelop.com/articles/WIIA.html) about this.
truly intelligent people are aware of their limitations and defer to the resources of their community to inform themselves.
My mother has a master’s degree and was arguing with me yesterday that the computer monitor was the computer and ‘that box’ (the actual ass computer) was unnecessary. I’m convinced that you just pay the 50k or whatever the hell a master’s is going for these days and it’s all a sham.
Maybe she's still thinking about the original imacs.. although, I'm not sure how that logic works with flat screens these days... "The files are IN the computer!"
Nah, she’s just dumb af. Trust me. I’ve known her my whole life.
There are plenty of all in one PCs out there, but yeah…this story definitely isn’t that.
There's different kinds of intelligence, but a degree (any degree, at any level) is much more about information transfer than about intelligence. Don't get me wrong, you need to be much smarter to be able to do the kind of abstract work necessary for a graduate degree than for undergrad or lower, but it's still mostly about how to apply vast amounts of domain knowledge within a narrow field, and the rest is just transferring that knowledge. It's not uncommon for someone to go through that process and believe their narrow expertise extends beyond it's boundaries. Did she say what she thought the purpose of "that box" was, why it was there at all? Has she ever tried disconnecting it to see what happens?
To be fair, my generation and older inhaled a looot of leaded gasoline. Lifetime exposure to pfc and micro plastics. We rehabbed the lead paint in our houses and got loads of concussions. Really, it’s sort of a miracle we have marbles rolling around up there at all.
Dr. Ben Carson. Neurosurgeon and certified fucking moron.
Convinced apropos of nothing, that the Egyptian pyramids were primarily for grain storage. Per a personal interpretation of some text in the bible, not supported by any archeological or historical records....
On r/antimlm I once read a comment about a nuclear scientist who fell for one of the fashion mlms. The only person I know RL who was in an MLM is a physiotherapist. In my state of Queensland, Australia, physiotherapy degree placements are highly coveted. So you need to be a high school student in the top percentile to get in, even! So she's not dumb. But while logic saves you from scams, emotions get you into them. In my friend's case, she was burnt out working as a physio, was in a bad marriage with domestic violence in the mix and had small kids. She wanted to manifest a work-from-home business that would get her enough money to leave her husband and look after her kids. She was easy pray emotionally. I imagine the principal in question had a need for validation she thought she could fill with Musk bucks, and here we are!
MLMs intentionally target people down on their luck. Physically/emotional exhausted women with small children are one of their go tos for a reason. 😔
[удалено]
Jeeeesus. “Just gimme $100k and I’ll 60x your money. Source: trust me bro” Moron.
A lot of educated people fall for ponzi scams or fraud scams because they are desperate to overachieve. You have one charismatic person, some financial mumbo jumbo with a convincing hook and reel them in. This woman was desperate to get Musk associated with the school and thought she would be a hero and make the school millions.
She's an even bigger idiot if she wanted Musk associated with the school
Desperate to have Musk associated with the school should be a red flag.
People send *ostensible* *billionaire Donald Trump money all of the time.
Alleged billionaire. Given how much he begs for cash from his idiot followers, and how much debt he seems to have, I doubt he's actually a billionaire. Then again, he could be worth trillions and would still try to dupe people into giving him money. Defrauding people is practically the only thing he's ever been successful in.
"charter school" There it is.
And her doctorate is from Duquense University of the Holy Spirit. Doesn't inspire much confidence.
So she has a degree in bologna?
I keep hearing Elon is strapped for cash after buying Twitter, he might actually need the 100k.
I really wish we could see everything that was said, because this makes no sense. I can't picture anyone smart falling for it in any capacity, it sounds like the most obvious scam of all time. This is what they parody in shows but there they include a laugh track when the idiot falls for it. Seriously she thought she was going to get $6mil? That seriously sounds like a joke amount intentionally set so high as to be absurd.
One of the most important aspects in scams is the red flags. If your target misses the use of weird slightly off formatting and spelling errors, they’re more likely to miss other larger red flags and are worth committing resources to.
I think it’s also fair to say that her own narcissism had a hand in it. Clearly she believed that if anyone was going to get $6m from Elmo’s right-hand man, it would be *her*💁♀️
> “McGee said she gave the check to someone she believed was Musk's right-hand man with the promise of getting $6 million back.” Isn't that, like, literally exactly how every single Nigerian prince scam goes?
But he's a South African prince, you see.
In what asset can you invest $100k to make $6m? Even when it is not a scam: That is not investing, that is gambling.
All I can think of is ways to make $6m into $100k.
You have been invited to join /r/wallstreetbets
Yeah wtf lol. This isn't a whoopsie slipup, it's not like falling for updog. There's a dozen reasons off the bat to not fall for the scam, even if it *wasn't* obvious up front (which it is). Why would Elon Musk need 100k? Why would he ask some random old lady for it instead of any of his thousands of connections? How would he find her? This is like someone convincing you to jump off a building and try flying like in The Matrix. They weren't super extra clever enough to get past her brains, she just didn't have any to begin with
Exactly. Oh, and can we add the whole fraud angle to it? She's authorized to write checks up to 50k. This one was for 100k. Now, I know PhD programs might not teach you about the latest in scamming, but I'm pretty sure that leading up to that doctorate, in some math class early on in elementary school, you learn that 100k is more than 50k.
[удалено]
She was getting 6mil back so it's cool bro.
She could write a $50K check with no oversight?! As an educator? Public school teachers have to buy their own printer paper, but oversight for charter schools? Well, our wealthy donors might be inconvenienced by that; so, no.
Principal not a teacher.
What’s up dog?
Not much, what's up with you?
Fuckin GOTTEM
[удалено]
I got the ' I'm a sheriff pay x or I'm coming to sever you' even though I was positive it was a scam it still made me anxious for a few minutes.
Sever? Threatened to cut you in half?!
[удалено]
I had a very convincing one once where they said I missed jury duty and owed money. They were going to put me in front of a zoom judge and everything who would resolve the case. Lots of legalese thrown out there super quick. They had my old address as well so the "I guess my summons went to the wrong address" made some sense. They had the name of the court wrong though. Kent county? Kent is a city, I don't think this is real. And then he told me "this is fucking serious" and I was like, ok, mr potty mouth, now this really isn't real. *Click* Scam ended up in the news since it was so convincing and so many were falling for it.
A smart person would say “I am a complete idiot” at that point.
Realizing that you're usually an idiot about most things is a requirement to be a smart person. If you're not generally doubting most things you know, you're not smart. I'm not sure if this is true--but I'm pretty sure.
I know that I know nothing
Jesus. She fell for an MMO scam.
Trade me ill trim your full rune!
Florida smart.
"I am very smart" is 100% something only people who are not very smart would ever say.
It's like "stable genius". No stable genius has ever needed to reassure everyone that they are a stable genius.
What an absolute imbecile. Why would the world’s richest man need 100k from some backwoods principal from Florida? Is he hurting for cash?
Most schools make their art teachers buy art supplies for their classes and can't afford extra curricular activities but somehow this FL school had $100k laying around?
> The principal had permission to write checks of up to $50,000 without board approval. I do hope the board fixes that at their next meeting.
Me: OMG what school district would give a principal that much access to money without question and where did this happen? *opens link to article* Me: Ah, a charter school in Florida. Yep, that explains it. Edit: spelling
Florida principals have extensive authority over far too much. For instance they have ultimate authority to approve or deny all hires within the school and can fire teachers they don’t like.
I've sadly watched in real time as some really angry people who seem hell bent to punish those who don't think and act just like them, take over our school board. The last election was just brutal. I now need to go figure out how much oversight individual school principals have on matters such as teacher firings and spending limits. At first glance that might sound like a good idea. Oh hey the principal can fire bad staff members or go buy a bunch of printer paper without having to deal with red tape. But the flip side of that coin is way more terrifying.
That's such a high limit, holy shit. I'm on a board that recently needed to spend $6,100 to fix our building's A/C. We had to vote on that. "Here are two checks!" 😄
> charter school There's your answer. A school run as a profit center.
I worked at one. My kids went to 3. Every insane story you've heard is true.
It's real dumb that we haven't figured out why public means public in that context.
They are publicly funded lol. But they aren’t really focused on education as much as they are commercial real estate investing
And specifically *not* teaching critical thinking to avoid scams, because that might affect church attendance
And affect their political party choice.
That's taking public funds away from public schools.. and the sad thing is that these charter schools can push religious and other agendas... I don't understand how this is allowed.
All those years of chipping away at the social contract is finally paying off!
Republican voters decided to change the laws to funnel public funds to private schools so their kids don’t need to go to integrated schools.
they exist to undermine public schools, that’s how.
Pretty easy to free up when you’re only ordering about 10% of the books other states order.
you only need to order one book in florida
And they are free if you ask right organization.
Why would anyone think Elon Musk needs money? There's something in our water, y'all.
The REAL Elon Musk always asks for money in the form of $500 gift cards for the Apple Store, everyone knows that.
Exactly. And I've actually met his real assistant. He's an Indian man called David who works in a busy call centre shared by Microsoft. I'll be getting my money back any minute now.
Is that the same David that used to work at Visa Mastercard? Bro is going to wipe my CC debt just for a few hundred dollar processing fee!
People believe Trump is mega rich and keep sending him tons and tons of money.
And all of those people are fucking idiots
I think with these type of scam, the scammer will convince the target to send money to verify the account or to process the payment. I imagine after 4 months of buttering her up, the scammer says something like, Mr. Musk like what your school is doing and has decided to give your school $6 millions. Now can you send your bank account and routing number so we can transfer the fund? The scammer then says that there's something wrong with the account number and the transfer was rejected. They would probably show her a screen shot to make it more convincing. They probably make her jump through a few more hoops and pretend that the transfer keep getting rejected to make her feel more desperate to solve the problem. The scammer then says, hey we just talked to our bank and it seem our bank thought your account was fraudulent so that why they didn't let the transfer goes through. We ran in to this problem a few times before and the best way to solve this is you transferring $100,000 to our account to prove to our bank that your account is a real account, then we'll transfer the $100,000 and the $6 millions back to your account. They'll also add a deadline to rush her and not give her a chance to talk to other people. They'll call at 4 PM on a Friday and says, that they have to get the transfer done today or next week, Musk is going to give the money to another school. She can see the $6 millions within grasp and about to slip away and break protocol to send the $100,000 to the scammer and they disappear.
Water? You mean like from the toilet?
[удалено]
Elon Musk: tech guru, Nigerian prince.
No one would believe him if he said he is South African, Canadian and US Citizen.
Starting to think that whole thing about Florida having more lead pipes than anywhere in America. . . Maybe there really is something in the water. Like brain damaging lead. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/epa-says-florida-has-most-lead-pipes-in-u-s
I mean it's definitely why historians think the Mayans were off their rocker. Very high soil ~~lead~~ mercury and water levels. Similar brain effects as lead.
She had signing authority for $50K but she signed a check for $100K? Why would a principal have signing authority over such a large amount? $100K is the kind of money that should need signoff from others. In what world is it a principal's business to make financial investments on behalf of their school? Why wasn't there any oversight preventing her from making a financial investment with the school's money?
She knew she was going double over her limit, but she figured the board would be ok with it once the 6mil came back and they would be so happy they would break her off a piece as a reward for being so smart.
Not once the 6 mil came back. She was definitely going to fucking pocket that shit. She was hoping to replace the 100k and never have anyone truly find out. She shoulda broke it up to two 50k checks
1. Give $100k 2. ? 3. Profit!
it also says it was stopped before being paid
I wonder if she figured it out herself or if she told someone and if so, I wish I could have been there to witness that conversation. "You did WHAT????"
[удалено]
Because the check was $100,000. That was over her limit. Seems like if she sent $50,000 it might have gone through. Or maybe not, seems like employees were aware and told her it was a scam she did it anyway.
I live in this community and know several families that send their kids to this school. Yes, she did do that but only after trying to get approval from the board and the finance office (they told her it was a scam and to drop it). She did it anyway. The check got flagged because they did have safeguards in place to prevent this from happening. The check was cancelled and they did not lose the $100k. So after being told that it was a scam by everyone who she should have listened to, she went ahead and did it anyway. Probably because she thought she was very self-assured of her own intelligence or something. Sure, people get scammed... but they also have to deal with the consequences. It's a real shame because other than this dumb dick move she generally had a very good reputation in the community as an educator and administrator. At least that is what has been told to me by the parents of the children who attend. It's a pretty good school insofar as schools in this area of Florida go. I don't have children but if I did I would send them to Burns. It's a shit situation that should have never happened and thankfully no money was lost. The only thing that got burned this lady's career and rightfully so.
Do you have any more info on what the fuck "Elon" told her over the course of 4 months that led to this? I can't wrap my brain around any scenario in which a reasonably intelligent person would do this with $100,000.
You ask so many questions. They all can be answered with four words: "It happened in Florida"
Every answer to every question in this case is: “it’s a Florida charter school.”
I could see how someone might mistake a scammer for Elon Musk.
My friends in Nigeria would LOVE to get her email address!
She sent the SCHOOL'S funds! She somehow believed that if she sent $100k they'd send $6 million back. I'm dying to know what convoluted tale she was told. In fact, the more I think about it the more I wonder if it actually *was* Elon Musk.
that's the thing, saw the headline and just thought she was a fuckin idiot that got scammed out of her own money. but nope.
"I am very smart and educated" are words I personally have never heard a truly smart and well educated person say. Hmmmmmmm...................
My wife sent $1000 to a puppy scammer. She is very smart. Has two degrees. She would never say the words “I am very smart and educated” normally but that’s exactly what she said when we teased her about the scam
I'm impressed when a puppy pees outside, much more so when they can scam people.
They're really devious when left alone with a computer.
My first question would be “what does a puppy need a thousand bucks for?”
Starbucks does a “pup cup” so there’s that
Fell for the oldest trick in the Runescape book
RuneScape made me a man and prepared me for scams in the real world.
>“When you lose the respect of… When your leadership is now in question, you can't properly lead and that's going to cause chaos,” Amalfitano said. Lose respect and have your leadership questioned? Try embezzlement. The check was stopped but what she tried to do was embezzle money. This school receives both federal and state funding. You can't take money out of its accounts to gamble with even if your intent is to enrich the school. She tried to embezzle $100k for a harebrained get-rich scheme and is allowed to step down with no charges filed when it's probable that most people who did this with these funds would not fare so well. So strange.
What’s her email address? I have 6 million to give her…
> Dr. Jan McGee, who was the principal at Burns Science and Technology Charter School in Oak Hill, said she was "groomed" by someone for four months who was posing as the SpaceX founder who is also the CEO of Twitter and Tesla. I’m gonna guess this lady is a DeSantis supporter. This is based on the fact that she trusts Musk and doesn’t understand what “groom” means. Nevertheless, I think it’s a pretty safe bet.
I am here to tell you that Janet McGee of Oak Hill, FL, Occupation: Principal donated $1,000 to Michael Waltz (R) 2020 campaign for US House Rep. From DeSantis’ own former district. https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=Janet+McGee&cycle=&state=FL&zip=&employ=&occupation=&jurisdiction=&cand=&type=
I was wondering if she was a republican. A stupid, vaccine-resistant Dunning-Kruger effect gullible Christian moron. Half way through the comments I thought I was probably being unfair, but there it is.
Florida✔️ Stupid✔️ Greedy✔️ Criminal✔️ Getting grifted✔️ Definitely Republican
I'm actually genuinely incredibly annoyed at what the far right is doing to the word "grooming". It was a really great way to describe an important concept, and these fucking assholes are polluting the meaning of the term by applying it to anything and everything they don't like.
It happens with everything. "Fake news" is and was a real thing, and an important issue to try to combat, and then it became any story they didn't like or agree with.
Woke also.
[удалено]
She actually uses the term more accurately than most conservatives I’ve heard in the last couple years. It hasn’t always been related to CSA as it seems to now, but people could be groomed for different career or class positions.
[удалено]
She is 100% a DeSantis or Trump supporter because only they would think they're so special that Billionaires would take time out of their day for them.
This is who we have educating the next generation, people. This is why education in Florida sucks. There is no emphasis on deductive reasoning skills..... Source: Floridian
Hello, Elon Musk here, I’m looking to get into contact with Dr. Jan McGee, Principal at Burns Science & Technology Charter School. I was told that she has some money for me. Thank you.
I think most of the people who fall for these scams have a huge ego. Why the fuck would Elon Musk contact some random ass school and ask for money. Do you really think you are that important?
My elderly neighbor thought she was dating Keanu Reeves for months until recently. Sent him hundreds upon hundreds in Google play cards. Told her she was getting scammed and asked her why would he be asking a random old lady in Maine on facebook for Google play cards after he just finished his recent film, but of course he would *never* scam people, and she looks great for her age so she obviously has a chance. Even showed me a picture of him holding a sign with her (very horribly photoshopped) name in cursive, so it is him and said I am dumb for thinking it's fake. People fall for the most wild things sometimes.
That's so sad. This lady is clearly very, very lonely.
Why do people keep falling for scams that ask them to give large amounts of money to very wealthy people?
The $6 million in returns. That’s why
A scammer posing as a scammer. Meta.
"Give me 100k and I'll give you 6m back" How does anyone think that's legit? Let alone someone with a PhD.
Life pro tip: Pretend to be an american millionaire/billionaire, so dumb americans will send you money. Worked with Trump, worked now.
“I am a very smart person” …and she sent the school money to….a billionaire? Aw man
I use to work in an an IT help desk at a college. Many times an instructor with a PhD would, angrily, come to me with a problem that they couldn’t fix. Insisting that they weren’t stupid, but that we set them up with faulty equipment or software. That was the only reason it wouldn’t work. It was never their fault.
I mean, I knew Florida’s education system was fucked, but this is still shockingly stupid