WEBVTT - Ghost Students Scamming California Community Colleges for Financial Aid 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.040 It's the John Phillips Show on this Jimmy Buffett Friday. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.880 Johnny is back on Monday. It's Randy Wang here and 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:08.960 the phone number to join us is eight hundred two 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:11.959 two two five two two two one eight hundred two 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.640 two two five two two two. You can email us 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.000 at Johnny Don't Like show at gmail dot com and 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.960 search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcasts. 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:24.520 Right at the top of the show, let me just 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.320 say that I walked in here about an hour and 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:30.720 a half ago, and Lewis, my program director, points at 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.280 the TV and says, that's the saddest thing I've seen 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:38.440 all day. And that is how I found out that 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:45.440 comedy legend, if there ever was one, Catherine O'Hara, who 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:54.360 you know from SCTV Home Alone, all the Christopher Guest movies, Beatlejuice, 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:58.240 and of course the sitcom that I can't even say 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:02.080 on the radio, Blank's Creek, which is one of my 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.720 favorite shows of all time. My wife and I just 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.720 finished our fifth or sixth rewatch. It was our It's 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.120 our bedtime show that we have in rotation with so 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:17.840 many other shows. She was incredible. She is hilarious, so 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.520 unbelievably talented, and finding out today that she passed away 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.600 at the age of seventy one, it's it's heartbreaking. I mean, 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.440 I am my entire life considering that, you know, I 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.720 was about five when Home Alone came out, So I've 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:38.959 been a fan of her my entire life, and she 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.560 will be missed. But one of the beautiful things about 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.320 somebody who's that talented is she has an incredible life 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:50.560 of work that is all accessible at our fingertips. So 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.880 Catherine O'Hara dead at the age of seventy one, she 0:01:56.320 --> 0:02:01.040 will be missed. Okay, now onto some thing pretty exciting. 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:07.080 I'm very excited to tell you that I am now 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:14.919 making sure that you have the ability to get every 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.639 single story that we curate for this show. What am 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:20.560 I talking about? So let me tell you how my 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.360 day works. I wake up at about six, maybe seven if 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:26.760 I had a little too much to drink, and I 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.359 immediately start prepping for this noon to three show and 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.560 my five o'clock show on KABC, and I start scrolling 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:38.720 through YouTube. I am subscribed to so many YouTube channels. Specifically, 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:42.200 the ones that are important are our local news stations 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.919 in southern California, our local news stations in northern California, 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:50.040 in the Bay Area, the Sacramento stations, the San Diego stations, 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.280 the Central Valley stations, even if you in the North State. 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.880 I subscribe to all of them, and so I scroll through, 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.799 I look at what happened the night before I fly, 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:03.120 and I put it in my Watch Later folder. And 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:07.160 then around nine o'clock, I go on my walk with 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.880 my dogs and I listen to all these stories, and 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:15.000 whichever one's I don't finish listening to on the walk 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.200 with the dogs, I finish on my car. Right here, 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:20.320 when I'm sitting on the four or five Freeway coming 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.400 from the Valley to Culver City, I am listening to 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:25.800 all of the stories that we bring you here. I 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.800 am previewing them, seeing if they're worth the air, if 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.799 it's something that we want to talk about. Curating all 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.840 the crime blotders, because you know how much Johnny loves those, 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.320 So then I organize everything into a little cut sheet 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.600 so it's easy for john and I to navigate. Here's 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.400 what's going on today, Here's what was going on yesterday. 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.640 And for the longest time, I've just been putting all 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.880 this together and just sharing it with myself and Johnny 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:59.600 and I don't know why. Inspiration struck at about six am, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.160 where I was like, you know, since I'm already curating 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:06.480 all of this, since I know not to toot my 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.560 own horn too much, but I have a better sense 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.040 of what's important to this audience than probably almost anybody. 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.080 And since we almost never get to all the stories 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:20.680 that I put together, what if I started putting them 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:25.520 out in a deliverable way where you can get all 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.880 those stories and then you can share them with your friends, 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:33.120 your family, your social media, the local news that really 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:37.560 matters in southern California, the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:42.359 Central Valley, and of course crime blodder stories. So I 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.960 am proud to announce that I have just launched a 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:50.040 new sub stack. It is completely free. There's no way 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.279 I'm ever looking to make money off of this. This 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.560 is just a way to share with you, the audience, 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.840 the stories that we're doing every single day, and then 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:00.800 if you want to share them on social media. You 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.320 want to share the what I'm calling the California Report, 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:08.480 how original is that you can share it and you 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:12.920 can show everyone everything that's going on the local news 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.559 that you might not have seen all over social media 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.080 because everyone's so obsessed with what's going on in Washington, DC. 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.919 So if you would like to check out all the cuts, 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:26.960 all the videos, all the YouTube videos of all the 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.720 news stories that I collect every single day, I am 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.000 now putting them on a daily substack. It'll post right 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.840 before the show starts every day. But you can also 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.160 subscribe to the substack and then it goes in your 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:41.719 email and you can see the new stories, the ones 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.080 that interest you. You can watch them on your own time, 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.880 and you can share them and you can comment on them. 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.040 So you want to be a part of this, you 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.159 can subscribe to my new substack where you can see 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.960 the California Report, which is going to be what this 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:56.760 is called till I come up with a better name, 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:03.480 Randy Wangradio dot substack dot com. That's Randy Wangradio dot 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:07.600 substack dot com. And you can check out today's California Report. 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:13.320 Now the best story on the California Report today. It 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.120 comes from ABC seven in the Bay Area. And you know, 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.360 we try to do our best to highlight the incredible 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:21.320 reporters that we have up and down the state. We 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.480 had a lot of fun talking with Matthew Sedor for 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.680 Fox eleven yesterday. We had mar Leteas on earlier in 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.240 the week. But we've shouted out so many great people. 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.400 We feature a lot of Ashley Zavala, the political director 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:36.520 for Ksey Orra three. We love Julie Watts, who is 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:42.160 the investigative reporter for CBS Sacramento, but one investigative reporter 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.039 in the Bay Area. Anytime he has a story, you 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:50.000 know it's gonna be good. His name is Dannis and 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:53.080 he's been around for a very long time. In fact, 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.400 there are videos of Dan Noise getting yelled at by 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:00.360 then Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom for being too 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.279 much of an investigative reporter because there were stories circulating 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.599 at the time about Gavin having a drinking problem. Gee, 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.720 I wonder where they got that. Anyway, Dan Neis you 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.760 might know through this show because Dan Neis is usually 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.520 the first person to break any news related to Shang 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:20.280 E Tal. 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:22.680 Absolutely absolutely, and. 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.400 So I'm always excited when Dan Noise has a new story. 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.480 He also was the first person on the scene to 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:34.160 report the insanity going on with then Alameda County District 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:35.840 Attorney Pamela Price. 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.720 She called me a crime boss. 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:43.400 Where when she first got inaugurated, she held this bizarre 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:47.400 meeting at the Colisseum where she needed to be addressed 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.200 as Madame District Attorney by all of her employees and 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.400 the press was not allowed in to hear what she 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:58.720 was saying. Really weird anyway, Dan Neis has a great 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:03.440 story and it's also a ghost story, but not the 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.400 kind of ghost you're thinking about. We don't need to 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:09.640 call the ghostbusters for this one. It's about ghost students 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:14.320 and the AI scammers that are trying to get money 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:19.800 out of California community colleges. For more on this, we 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.080 get ABC seven in the Bay and Dan Nois. 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:27.680 We are losing millions of tax dollars right now to 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.080 what are known as ghost students, online scammers who enroll 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.360 in community colleges and get away with a financial aid 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:36.320 meant for actual students from. 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:36.720 The Bay Area. 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.040 ITEAM reporter Dan Noise is here with the results of 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.920 a joint investigation with ABC News Dan Larry and Christen. 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.240 These ghost students scammers mainly come from overseas and they 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.920 are problem throughout California and across the country. They often 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.959 use artificial intelligence to expand their reach and evade fraud 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:59.839 detection controls. Admission staff for San Jose's community colleges are 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.840 stretched then trying to catch ghost students who you've stolen 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.960 or fake identities to enroll in classes and obtain financial aid. 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:15.200 So we now have scammers that are trying to get 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:21.840 grants and loans from our community college system and obviously 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.840 take that money and run with it. This is wild. 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.640 The online scammers have had a real impact. 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.520 So we would have courses where we'd have fifty seats 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.680 and another one hundred plus on a waiting lists, and 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:38.079 we would find that maybe. 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.880 Six, So those actual and rollees or students. 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:46.120 Wait a second, can we hear that one more time? 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:50.080 So we would have courses where we'd have fifty seats 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.240 and another one hundred plus on a waiting lists, and 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:55.480 we would find that maybe. 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.400 Six, So those actual and rollees or students. 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.560 So they had almost one hundred and fifty people enroll 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:05.440 for a class, there's only fifty spots. There's one hundred 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.359 on a waiting list for a class at a California 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:15.080 community college, and only six of them are real people. Okay, 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:20.199 how easy is it to scam California Community Colleges College 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.600 of the Canyons. I'm looking at you. That's the community 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.600 college I went to. My high school biology teacher used 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:29.840 to call it College of the Crayons. 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:32.040 And the rest were fraudulent account school students. 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.640 Doctor Chida has explained she sees the most fraud and 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:38.200 asynchronous courses in which students can work online at their 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:38.840 own speed. 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:42.920 But also, okay, so apparently you can get an AI 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:47.240 chatbot that can apply to go to community college in 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:52.120 online only courses and somehow also apply with stolen social 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.400 Security numbers and stolen ID to get financial aid. And 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.320 I'm guessing it's working, or they wouldn't be doing it. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.400 In person classes. Fifty eight year old Morat Meyer is 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.160 a business analyst with a PhD. He has no interest 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.240 in attending community college, but as he started applying for 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.480 financial aid for his teenage son, he discovered that scammers 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:16.160 had stolen both of their identities, signing the father and 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.360 son up for community college classes across the country. 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:24.200 Oh so this isn't just California. What is going on? Well, 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:26.240 you know the old Chris rockbit. Is the thing with 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.560 community college is anybody in the community can go. I 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:33.440 think we now have automatic enrollment to California community colleges, 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.680 and community college is supposed to be free. Apparently this 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.120 is open the door to the scammers. 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.359 He noticed that there are a lot of activity. 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:48.000 There are a lot of applications, loan applications, grant applications 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:50.840 on dan we panicked. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.560 California Community Colleges confirms that in twenty twenty four, the 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:58.400 most recent data available, thirty one point four percent of 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.760 all applications to the states one hundred and sixteen community 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:03.160 colleges were fraudulent. 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:11.640 One third of all applications to California community colleges are fraudulent. 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:14.079 That is a problem. 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:18.120 The scammers are sometimes able to navigate the system of enrolling, 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:22.000 getting accepted, and applying for financial aid to get away 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:24.000 with millions of your tax dollars. 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.079 Can you give okay, how do we shut this down immediately? 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:28.920 Can you give me an idea of the amount of 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.280 money that was actually sent to the bad guys over 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:34.679 the past three, four or five years, right. 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.240 Without preventing you an actual amount, I can tell you 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:38.440 that it is in the millions. 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:40.560 So they were able. 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:44.720 To yet another example of waste, fraud and abuse this 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.800 on the abuse side of it, scammers finding ways to 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:53.880 defraud California Community colleges by applying for phony financial aid, 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:55.160 so they. 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.920 Were able to fraud the system of millions of dollars, 0:12:58.120 --> 0:12:59.920 and those millions of dollars would have gone directly. 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.000 Who are are students? I mean financial aid resources. 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:06.280 The total loss to financial aid fraud in twenty twenty four, 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:10.720 according to California Community Colleges, about three million dollars in 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.840 state funding and ten million dollars in federal funding. 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:14.920 Oh boys. 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:19.000 The Apartment of Education reports the federal government has lost 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.720 more than three hundred and fifty million dollars to go 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.200 student scams over the past five years. 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.080 That is a lot of money going out the window. 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:28.960 How do we shut this down now? 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:33.320 The DOES Inspector General has launched some two hundred investigations 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:34.079 coast to coast. 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:36.840 As you're stilling identities, these loans are not being repaid. 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:38.920 They're being assigned to people they don't even know they 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:40.960 have a debt with the US Department Education. Or you 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.760 get some letter from the Department or the servicer or 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.680 the Internal Revenue Service that says you owe the Department 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:48.480 Education money for something you don't even know. 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:52.559 About community colleges are fighting back, hiring consultants such as 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:54.559 Maury Simpkins, the former. 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.720 I mean, shouldn't it be easier? Maybe we need to 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.760 do I don't know, Like when you're applying for a 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.480 credit card, you need to show them a picture of 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.360 your face. You know there's some credit cards. Now you 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.240 have to show them a video of yourself. Hell, when 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.480 I added a new YouTube channel, Google made me shoot 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:15.760 a live video of myself to show that I'm a 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:21.040 human being. Maybe there's some more guardrails we can put 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.880 on applying for financial aid when we've got millions of 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.040 dollars flying out the window. And this isn't just state money, 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:28.320 it's also federal money. 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:32.200 Former NFL linebacker and his wife run a software security 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.080 firm that's now screening students as they apply to more 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:37.479 than one hundred and fifty schools nationwide. 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:39.720 That's essentially the way I like to look at it. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:41.640 From a football term, it's an offensive line. 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:46.160 Simpkins says they found digital footprints from criminal rings around. 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:51.280 The world Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria. Most recently, we've been seeing 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:56.080 some Russian data where I mean it's actually coming in 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:57.760 Russian characters in some instances. 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:00.840 Oh my, and we're still saying yes, how much of 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:02.040 this stuff is automated? 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:07.600 California Community colleges are deploying machine learning that recognizes false applications, 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:09.240 multi factor of. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:11.680 We're going to combat AI with AI. 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:16.640 Multi factor authentication that includes selfies or live video, resistance 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.320 to bots and automated script attacks. They are also counting 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.640 on professors to catch a name on their roster who 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:27.440 never appears in class. Gener Luchitas tells me these efforts 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.880 have vastly reduced the number of ghost students who get through. 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.840 It's still happening, so we still remain diligent. You know, 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.720 we want to make sure that we're serving actual students. 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:39.600 We're providing financial. 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.480 Resources to actual students, not losing those resources to g 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.280 students to the criminal activity still happens, and that's where 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:47.240 we remain diligent. 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.160 I spoke with one professor who told me the scammers 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:55.200 will sometimes answer an email, even complete a classroom assignment 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.960 just to keep the financial aid money flowing, and once 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:01.320 they get that money, they disappear. 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.000 Okay, so now we've actually got the AI enrolling in 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.040 school and they're completing the subjects so the scam can 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:12.080 keep going. This is gonna be a tough one to fight. 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.360 But oh my goodness, there you go. You never heard 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.880 this term before, but you'll never forget it. Go students 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:25.320 at California Community Colleges. And how exciting is this. We're 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:29.040 going back to Gladstone's in Long Beach a week from today. 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:31.800 We're heading to Gladstone's in Long Beach for our next 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:35.320 live broadcast, and you're invited. Come enjoy the great food, 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.720 good vibes, and a fun afternoon by the water. John 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.920 Seigmeister is gonna take care of you. We're gonna have 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.760 special guests like Susan Shelley from the Howard Jarvis Taxpay Association, who, 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:46.480 by the way, will be on this show at one o'clock. 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.160 She'll tell you more about your taxpayer rights and protecting 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.480 Prop thirteen because the courts have made it easier to 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.520 raise your taxes. Come by and sign the petition to 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.200 save Prop thirteen. The deadline is coming fast. She needs 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.240 all those signatures by February seven, so come hang out 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:03.800 with us, grab a bite. Peep part of the broadcast 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:08.000 Friday the sixth, from noon to three at Gladstone's in 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:13.120 Long Beach and let's do this right now, seven ninety 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:16.640 KABC welcomes Luke Bryan The Word on the Street Tour 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:19.560 at the Long Beach Amphitheater August fifteenth. Tickets are on 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.520 sale next Friday at ticketmaster dot com. But right now, 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:25.520 calling number nine at one, eight at eight seven ninety 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:27.080 five to two to two two gets a pair of 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.480 tickets to the show. Tickets furnished by Live Nation. Good 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:35.960 luck diling, download or go to my new substack if 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.320 you want to see all of the videos that we 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.080 curate for this show every day, I'm posting them every 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:45.439 day Randywangradio dot substack dot com and you can follow 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.840 along and share it with your friends. Now, look, I 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:57.440 get it. California is severely overregulated. I understand. The legislature 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:01.720 crafts nearly one thousand bills every single year, and most 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:04.720 of them are full of nonsense that just make it 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:10.280 more difficult to do business in this state. That being said, 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:15.440 I am one hundred percent behind this new proposed bill 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:21.960 because it has to do with probably the most irritating 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.760 time in most of our lives. No, not sitting on 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:28.440 the four or five freeway, the other most irritating time 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:34.639 of your life sitting on hold with customer service. A 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.600 new bill working its way through Sacramento would require companies 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:43.040 that have customer service departments to make sure you can 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:47.119 get to a human in less than five minutes and 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.880 you don't have to sit there over and over and 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:54.880 over again in these endless phone trees where you're constantly 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:59.919 screaming at the AI get human agent. Seriously, it might 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.479 be the angriest some people get is when they are 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:07.439 screaming at the robot to connect them to a human being. 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:12.240 For more on this, we got a Fox forty in Sacramento. 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:14.960 Oh, we've all been stuck on hold for well over 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:17.720 an hour trying to get past AI chatbox. 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.600 Now the right to hear, By the way, I just 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:25.119 want to make sure will this bill, if passed, also 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:29.400 apply to the State of California. What I mean by 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:33.560 that is will it apply to governmental agencies? Because we 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:37.200 need a level playing field. And I think everybody remembers 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:40.800 how awful and insane it was to try to get 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.880 a hold of ed D during the lockdown days next 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:50.760 Thanks Babs and people were literally going on Reddit and 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.119 hiring people to sit on hold because it was that 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:57.239 bad and people navigating those phone trees. So if we're 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:59.840 going to do it for private industry, we also got 0:19:59.880 --> 0:20:02.040 a do it for the DMV. We got to do 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:04.320 it for EDD, we got to do it for city Hall. 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.119 I'm all for it, though I am so tired of 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:12.280 talking to robots. When you call customer service, you should 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:16.200 be able to reach a person without having to navigate 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:18.360 the world's longest phone tree. 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.480 Now, the Right to Human Customer Service Act would require 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:25.600 companies to connect customers with a human representative within five 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.320 minutes between the hours of six am and eight pm. 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.200 Due to high call volumes, we are now providing customers 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:33.840 automatic callbacks. 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:35.280 Assembly Bill sixth. 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:36.800 Yeah, I always get worried about that one. Do you 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.920 trust the automatic callback? Every once in a while, I'll 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.879 do it, and then I'm convinced they're never calling me back. 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.720 Whenever you've got an issue with an airline, that's when 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:49.199 it's really tough. Although I will say I have a 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.600 pretty good track record when I have to call American Airlines. 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:54.560 So I have to call American Airlines every time I 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:57.600 book a flight because I always book a flight with 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:00.199 my Alaska Points because it's cheaper and I have just 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.640 a ridiculous amount of Alaska point. It's not worth it 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.240 to explain all that to you right now, But I 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:09.640 have to call them because you cannot change your frequent 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:14.600 flyer account on the online reservation. You can't do it 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:16.720 on the app, you can't do it on the website. 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:19.280 And if I book through Alaska, I can't put in 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:21.520 my advantage number, and I have to put in my 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.439 advantage number so I get my free check bag. So 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:26.800 every time I book a flight, I have to call them. 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.280 And it's real simple because they know exactly who I am. 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:32.439 They know my phone number. It's creepy. As soon as 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:35.280 I call them, like hi, we'll connect you right away. 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:37.879 You sit on hold for a minute or two, but 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:39.639 then they pick up and it's like, hey, can you 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:42.840 add this to my reservation? And it's great, But having 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.520 to go through a computer for that would be a nightmare. 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:48.400 Due to high call volumes, we are now providing customers 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:49.520 automatic callbacks. 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:53.840 Assembly Bill sixteen oh nine would also ensure customers are 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:57.359 not placed on hold for more than five minutes after 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:01.000 their initial call is answered. Large business serving. 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:03.119 You know, because at some point some people just give up, 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:05.680 especially when you're dealing with a return or some kind 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:06.400 of a complaint. 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:11.600 Large businesses serving California consumers online would also be required 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:15.399 to offer a phone based customer service option and post 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:17.119 that number on their website. 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:21.000 That's another thing. Sometimes it is really difficult to find 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.520 the phone number to contact these companies. And no, no, 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:26.359 no, no no, we want you to mess with our AI chatbot. 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:30.840 That's another thing. It drives me crazy. And maybe we 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.000 can apply this to it as well. You're like, okay, 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.200 I don't have the patience to sit on the phone tree, 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:38.719 so why don't I? It says, right there, contact us 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:43.760 on the website, use our helpful chat and you explain 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:49.760 your situation, and then you get a automated response that says, oh, 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:52.399 that's awful. Is it one of these five things? 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:53.040 No? 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:55.760 Oh, is it one of these five things? 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:56.240