Speaker 1: What's up. It's Granger Smith. This is the Granger Smith Podcast,
Speaker 1: Episode five. This is the first podcast I've made since
Speaker 1: I've released it to the public. The previous four are
Speaker 1: now available, and you guys have made it one of
Speaker 1: the top podcasts in all the music category. Thank you
Speaker 1: for that. That motivates me. Memphis, Tennessee. That's where I
Speaker 1: am today. I'm parked next to the venue. I'm in
Speaker 1: the back of my bus Wildflower, just like I do
Speaker 1: all these podcasts. And I'm on a busy road, so
Speaker 1: there's traffic, there's cars passing by. You might hear some horns.
Speaker 1: All right, it shouldn't change the podcast. It should add
Speaker 1: to the flavor today Episode five. I want it. I
Speaker 1: want this to be a little bit different. Now. The
Speaker 1: previous four have all been a story about me on
Speaker 1: the road, how I became a fan, how I became
Speaker 1: a songwriter, road travel tour stories. I'm gonna switch gears.
Speaker 1: This is totally different. But it's something that I feel
Speaker 1: like needs to be talked about because I'm seeing more
Speaker 1: and more of it, and it's a scary thing. There
Speaker 1: are people out there impersonating celebrities, singers, actors, athletes, and
Speaker 1: stealing money on the internet, on social media. So I'm
Speaker 1: digging in. I'm gonna find out who these people are
Speaker 1: so we don't get scammed. Looking out the window, it's
Speaker 1: kind of dreary, cloudy, a little bit rainy. This is
Speaker 1: the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and moved up from the
Speaker 1: Atlantic through Florida and now it's broken up. But it's
Speaker 1: in Tennessee and we're seeing that today. Tonight is a
Speaker 1: guitar pool. That's the style of show that we're about
Speaker 1: to play. And that means it's me and other singers
Speaker 1: on the stage at the at the same time, and
Speaker 1: we each play a song and we go down the
Speaker 1: line and we start over and we do that for
Speaker 1: five rounds. Now today it's me and Josh Turner and
Speaker 1: Easton Corbin. So we'll get up there. I have a
Speaker 1: guitar player with me and so we'll have a couple
Speaker 1: acoustics and the other guys will do the same and
Speaker 1: we'll each play a song. And it's a very different
Speaker 1: style show, very low key. We tell stories, we interact
Speaker 1: between each other. It's not your typical loud guitars, lights
Speaker 1: in your face, running around the stage. It's very low
Speaker 1: key in Varieties Despice of Life. So this is going
Speaker 1: to be a fun, sold out Wednesday night. I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about some uneasy, scary stuff today
Speaker 1: about scammers on the internet. But there is some good
Speaker 1: news today. Today we announced that I'm coming out with
Speaker 1: a new album. Twenty seventh is the date. It's called
Speaker 1: When the Good Guys Win. And it's great to finally
Speaker 1: say it and finally tell people because I've known for
Speaker 1: a long time. I mean, I've been working on this
Speaker 1: for about a year, but it's good to finally let
Speaker 1: people know you could expect new music and I'm really
Speaker 1: excited about it. So in the near future you'll start
Speaker 1: hearing a lot more about this and a lot more details.
Speaker 1: But until now, at least the title and the date
Speaker 1: are out in the universe. Are you ready. It's time
Speaker 1: to get a little creepy. I don't like this. I
Speaker 1: don't like this subject, but I need to talk about it,
Speaker 1: and I think you're going to be surprised at what
Speaker 1: happened to me and why I decided to make this
Speaker 1: an actual podcast. But I started hearing about this, I
Speaker 1: guess about a year ago. Here's the gist. Of it.
Speaker 1: People were getting on social media and they're creating an account,
Speaker 1: which is so easy to do, you could do it
Speaker 1: in thirty seconds. They create an account with a celebrity's name,
Speaker 1: they use all their same pictures, they fill up the media,
Speaker 1: they retweet what that celebrity is saying, or they completely
Speaker 1: recreate the same post that the celebrity made. Essentially, they
Speaker 1: create the same looking page. So you just scan it.
Speaker 1: You see a celebrities page, but it doesn't have the
Speaker 1: blue check. Now that's the key to this whole story.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't have a blue check, it's not that celebrity, right.
Speaker 1: That means they're not verified. So the whole thing, this
Speaker 1: whole problem could be solved if everyone just really paid
Speaker 1: attention to that blue check. If it has a blue check,
Speaker 1: it's them. Unfortunately people don't. People fall victim and they're gullible.
Speaker 1: They believe this, and so because of that, I have
Speaker 1: to explain more to the story. They're doing this because
Speaker 1: they'll take the name and they change one letter in
Speaker 1: the actual username. So for instance, if it's me, it
Speaker 1: would say Granger smith S M I T H. So
Speaker 1: one letter's changed. It allows them to get the username.
Speaker 1: But then in the title the main in bold print,
Speaker 1: it says Granger Smith spelled normal. So that's how they're
Speaker 1: able to take that domain, that user name because it's
Speaker 1: slightly spelled wrong. Here's the purpose. The reason they do
Speaker 1: this is because they could follow you, or they could
Speaker 1: add you or like you, depending on the social media,
Speaker 1: and they expect you to go, oh wow, Garth Brooks
Speaker 1: followed me, so I'll follow him back. When you follow
Speaker 1: them back, when you like their page back, they can
Speaker 1: then send you a direct message. When they could send
Speaker 1: you a direct message, that's when they could scan me
Speaker 1: from money. Now, they could do this in a lot
Speaker 1: of different ways. They could say that they're having a
Speaker 1: charity for a hurricane and they're looking for donations, and
Speaker 1: they want to start it by saying, I'm seeking out
Speaker 1: my best fans, my most personal fans, the ones that
Speaker 1: care about me the most, and I can get personal
Speaker 1: donations from these fans, and then they could figure out
Speaker 1: ways for you to send the money. Or they could
Speaker 1: just say I'm looking to do something that my management
Speaker 1: doesn't know about, so I need to do it in private.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that I could trust you.
Speaker 1: But I have three hundred thousand dollars on the line.
Speaker 1: I need to move a briefcase from point A to
Speaker 1: point B. Can you pick it up for me? And
Speaker 1: then they'll figure out a way for you to pay
Speaker 1: for the postage or something small, ridiculous that could be
Speaker 1: one hundred bucks, and then there goes your hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: After that, after all these scams, they slowly disappear into
Speaker 1: the night. They're gone forever and moved on to the
Speaker 1: next person. It's just wrong. It's criminal. Now, the reason
Speaker 1: I first started hearing about it is because people were
Speaker 1: either screenshotting it because they figured out that it wasn't me,
Speaker 1: or it was people that were telling me that they
Speaker 1: had talked directly to me. Now, I don't direct message
Speaker 1: fans I have. I consider myself very open to my fans,
Speaker 1: and I consider myself someone that opens up a lot
Speaker 1: and meet and greets, and obviously this podcast. But come on,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to sit there and direct message people
Speaker 1: and talk about personal things and ask them for donations
Speaker 1: to a charity on through a direct message. It's not
Speaker 1: just gullible people that fall for this. It's smart people.
Speaker 1: It's people, it's family members that might think this. I
Speaker 1: had my Midwest record label rep. Jennifer. She told me,
Speaker 1: she said, can I ask you a question? You've been
Speaker 1: messaging me on Instagram and why don't you just text me?
Speaker 1: And I said, Jennifer, I'm not direct messaging you on Instagram.
Speaker 1: That's somebody else that's a scammer that's trying to get
Speaker 1: close to you. And they'll start with several conversations about,
Speaker 1: you know, thank you for being a I hope you
Speaker 1: never stopped listening to my music, Where do you live,
Speaker 1: what's the next concert you're going to? I hope to
Speaker 1: meet you. Then they build this up like it's getting
Speaker 1: more personal. So who are these people? That's the question
Speaker 1: I have? Who are the people that are scamming innocent
Speaker 1: victims and playing on their insecurities and their vulnerability. Who
Speaker 1: are these people? That's the question I have. That's the
Speaker 1: question I asked right before I did this podcast. And
Speaker 1: would you believe me if I told you that I
Speaker 1: figured out exactly who they were? Yes? I did? All right,
Speaker 1: follow me here. This is where it gets a little
Speaker 1: bit weird. So I'm kind of pissed off that there's
Speaker 1: people impersonating me and other artists, other celebrities and asking
Speaker 1: for money from our innocent fans. So I'm ready to
Speaker 1: find out who these people are. I don't know what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do when I find out, but I just
Speaker 1: want to know who are these people? So I begin
Speaker 1: my crusade. I want to set my trap. I go
Speaker 1: to Twitter, I create a new account. I decide that
Speaker 1: a young girl will be my best bait for my trap.
Speaker 1: I go to Google Images and I actually typed in
Speaker 1: cute girl, did a quick image search, grabbed a random picture,
Speaker 1: made it my profile pick, gave her a name, completely
Speaker 1: made up a name, and during this process, Twitter asked you,
Speaker 1: what are your interest music check? What kind of music?
Speaker 1: Country check? Do you want to follow the standard country list?
Speaker 1: That's what Twitter isd asking, Yeah, and so boom. It
Speaker 1: instantly follows about one hundred people. It's everywhere, It's I'm
Speaker 1: one of them. It follows me. It follows Garth Brooks
Speaker 1: and Dirk s Bentley and Toby Keith and Darius Ruckerds.
Speaker 1: It's a great way to kickstart your social media page. Now,
Speaker 1: this whole process of making this fake person took me
Speaker 1: about twenty seconds. By the time I finished, I already
Speaker 1: had a follower. I don't even know who. It was,
Speaker 1: just a random bought follower. And then I got a
Speaker 1: couple more from certain people that had accounts where they
Speaker 1: had some kind of software program written in where if
Speaker 1: you follow X person, their account will automatically follow you.
Speaker 1: And that's how people use social media on ethically. So
Speaker 1: here I am about sixty seconds later, I have created
Speaker 1: a fake person. I've created a fake profile. I already
Speaker 1: have four or five followers. This is just weird how
Speaker 1: easy this is. And for the record, I want to
Speaker 1: say for this podcast, don't do this at home. This
Speaker 1: is not good stuff. And my brother Tyler, who's my manager,
Speaker 1: was seriously against this, by the way. He said, man,
Speaker 1: you can't do that. And then say on a podcast
Speaker 1: that you created a fake account. That's illegal, And I said,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's illegal, and I looked it up
Speaker 1: and sure enough, in Louisiana, this is illegal. I'm not
Speaker 1: currently in Louisiana today or when I created the account.
Speaker 1: Point being, I know it's weird. I'm sorry it does
Speaker 1: break the law in certain places, but my intentions are true.
Speaker 1: I'm making this account is bait so that I could
Speaker 1: find who these scammers are. I want to see how
Speaker 1: easy it is for me to try to get scammed
Speaker 1: because I want to be able to talk about that
Speaker 1: process as a warning on this podcast. Asked right and
Speaker 1: after just a few hours there it was the follower
Speaker 1: I was looking for Garth Brooks with no blue check.
Speaker 1: I found my first scammer. I want to take a
Speaker 1: second to talk about EEE Energy. That's my unofficial official sponsor.
Speaker 1: It's also my drink. It's not a partnership with some
Speaker 1: big corporation. It's me and my brothers and we made
Speaker 1: this from scratch. I'm very proud of it. I'm biased,
Speaker 1: but I think it's the best energy drink. I think
Speaker 1: it's the best drink that I've ever had. But that's
Speaker 1: also because we created the recipe and made all these
Speaker 1: adjustments until it was the exact taste that I wanted.
Speaker 1: And if you want to see EEE Energy stocked in
Speaker 1: your hometown, contact info at EEE energy dot com. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not just the drink that we have. We have
Speaker 1: a complete clothing line my brothers and I. Right now
Speaker 1: we have brand new Camo backpacks, tumblrs for drinks, baby onesies,
Speaker 1: new women's tanks, pass lanyards for the fall, we have
Speaker 1: new shirts, hoodies, flannels, blankets, beanies, you name it, we
Speaker 1: probably have it with the EEE brand on it. You
Speaker 1: can get all that stuff at grangersmith dot com. Boo
Speaker 1: sitting here in Memphis, and tomorrow we start our Luke
Speaker 1: Bryan tour for the fall, and we start that in Roanoke, Virginia.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna leave here, We'll drive all night to Roanoke,
Speaker 1: and then we play Ronake, Indiana and Illinois this week
Speaker 1: with Luke Bryan. And that is the real Luke Bryan,
Speaker 1: the one with the blue check by his name on
Speaker 1: the social media, unlike this Garth Brooks account that followed me.
Speaker 1: And I want to tell you about that Garth Brooks account,
Speaker 1: but first I want you to hear a story from
Speaker 1: my buddy Chris Lane. Chris Lane's another country artist and
Speaker 1: I've known him for a while, but we got really
Speaker 1: close touring together on a Florida Georgia line tour last fall,
Speaker 1: and that was a month long tour in Canada, and
Speaker 1: we got to be really good friends. Recently, we were
Speaker 1: doing a show and he told me about this story
Speaker 1: of a fan in a meet and greet line that
Speaker 1: approached him and they figured out he was getting scammed.
Speaker 1: I called Chris just now and he could tell you
Speaker 1: about it. Hey, old buddy, old pal, what's going on? Man?
Speaker 1: So hey, I'm doing a little story on these what
Speaker 1: do you call it, scammers? I'm doing a little story
Speaker 1: in these scammers, on these scammers. And you told me
Speaker 1: a story the other day that kind of blew me away.
Speaker 1: Tell me about that. Yeah. Yeah. So this this guy
Speaker 1: walks up to me after a show. It was him
Speaker 1: and his mom, and they basically had this look on
Speaker 1: their face as if I should know who they are.
Speaker 1: So the mom says, hey, make sure you return my
Speaker 1: text when you get on your bus, and I was like, ah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just kind of played it off, and then she
Speaker 1: said it again. I said you have my number. She
Speaker 1: was like yeah, so make sure you text me that.
Speaker 1: And the guy, her son, I guess in the process,
Speaker 1: was like, Chris is mom. And at first, the way
Speaker 1: he started out in the conversation was like, well, are
Speaker 1: you not gonna say hello to mom? And I'm just
Speaker 1: I was confused in that moment. I thought they were
Speaker 1: joking with me. And so, to make a long story short,
Speaker 1: he keeps saying, Chris, it's me, it's your brother, and
Speaker 1: I'm like Corey and he's like yeah, and I'm like
Speaker 1: that's crazy because my chin brother's name is Corey. And
Speaker 1: he like looked confused in that moment. Then I was like,
Speaker 1: is are y'all playing a joke on me? Or what's
Speaker 1: going on here? And then he was like, well, what
Speaker 1: do you mean? He was like, it's me, it's your brother,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm like all right. At this point,
Speaker 1: I'm just so confused, man, Like what's going on here?
Speaker 1: He's like, well, you text me every single day and
Speaker 1: you tell me that you love me, and I'm just
Speaker 1: like I do. He's like yeah, I'm like, show me
Speaker 1: the text message. So he pulls up his text message
Speaker 1: and he's got three texts from people, ones from me
Speaker 1: at the top, one's from somebody I have no clue
Speaker 1: who it is, and then the one under it is
Speaker 1: Dustin Lynch and I'm like, well, show me what it says.
Speaker 1: So at the top it says it's him saying hey,
Speaker 1: I'm here, and then it's like, look, looks is what
Speaker 1: looks like a response for me? And it says, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm just chilling on my bus. I'll see you after
Speaker 1: the show Love You My Brother something like that, and
Speaker 1: I'm like all right, and I looked at the rest
Speaker 1: of the text and I'm just like, you know what,
Speaker 1: this is right, And he's like no. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: that's not me. That's somebody who is pretending to be me.
Speaker 1: And they look like they had seen a ghost, like
Speaker 1: they were like, wait a minute, what this is not
Speaker 1: you kind of thing. But I'm like, yeah, dude, people
Speaker 1: do this every day with every country music artist or
Speaker 1: any artists in general. People are pretending to be somebody
Speaker 1: that they're not, and you're basically getting catfished. At this point,
Speaker 1: he's made you think or whoever's behind this has made
Speaker 1: you dank that you've been talking to me this whole time,
Speaker 1: and if you're not careful, are gonna ask you for money.
Speaker 1: They do it every single time, Like I get messages
Speaker 1: like this every single day. He's like, well, I've already
Speaker 1: given them a bunch of money and proceeded to say
Speaker 1: that this has ruined his life and kind of broke down,
Speaker 1: and I was just like left sending They're like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, like this is guy to stop people. It's
Speaker 1: hard for me to believe that people actually believe that,
Speaker 1: you know, they're talking to whoever it is that they're
Speaker 1: getting catfished by. But you know, how much money do
Speaker 1: you think he gave him? Man, I don't know. It's
Speaker 1: it's hard to say. He did say it ruined his
Speaker 1: life though, so yeah, I don't know. I didn't know
Speaker 1: what that meant. I was just a little taken back
Speaker 1: by the situation. But yeah, I get messages every day,
Speaker 1: as I'm sure I know you do, and as well
Speaker 1: as a bunch of artists. I've seen cons of artists
Speaker 1: posting up videos saying, hey, make sure you only look
Speaker 1: for the blue check mark. That's how you know it's real. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, people are asking people for money and they're
Speaker 1: doing it for toure dates where they're acting like you
Speaker 1: get free tickets to a show if you purchase iTunes,
Speaker 1: gift cards, just like the craziest things ever. I can't
Speaker 1: believe people actually do that, but I guess they're making
Speaker 1: money off of it, and people are believing that it's
Speaker 1: really the artist, or they're making up some calls for
Speaker 1: some calls where it's like a, hey, I'm hitting you
Speaker 1: up because I need a donation to my childhood Cancer
Speaker 1: Foundation of some sorts, you know what I mean. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a multi million dollar scam. Oh wow, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Yeah, well, dude, I hate that happens. I
Speaker 1: know you're on the golf course and you got to
Speaker 1: hit some balls. But all right, man, well thanks for
Speaker 1: thanks for letting me share the old story. You're welcome, dude.
Speaker 1: I'll see you soon, all right, brother be So that's
Speaker 1: Chris Lane and his story. It's probably like a lot
Speaker 1: of other people's stories. And who are these people? Who?
Speaker 1: Who is this guy that's trying to scam Chris Lane's fans?
Speaker 1: Maybe it's someone exactly like this Garth account that I'm
Speaker 1: looking at right now. So I dive into looking at
Speaker 1: this account. It looks exactly like Garth's account, except for
Speaker 1: it has about fifty followers and Garth has hundreds of thousands.
Speaker 1: The name is Garth Brooks, but if you look closely
Speaker 1: on the handle, it's at Garth underscore Brooks underscore one.
Speaker 1: These are all things that you probably wouldn't notice if
Speaker 1: you weren't looking for it, or if you weren't paying attention,
Speaker 1: or if you're just a fan that's excited to see
Speaker 1: this Garth Brooks character following you once again, I cannot
Speaker 1: stress how important it is to know that it does
Speaker 1: not have a blue check. Every celebrity is going to
Speaker 1: have a blue check that means they are verified through management,
Speaker 1: through the actual social media account checked and they cross checked,
Speaker 1: and they figured out that this person is legit. It's
Speaker 1: the real person, it's the official account. It doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if it says official account. It needs to have the
Speaker 1: blue check to signify to you that it's official. Right.
Speaker 1: So what I do is I follow back. Following back
Speaker 1: two people following each other allows me to direct message.
Speaker 1: So here's where I'm going to bait my trap, my
Speaker 1: little pretty face teenage girl profile. By the way, I
Speaker 1: know it's weird that I'm a fake account talking to
Speaker 1: a fake account, but get past that. The point is
Speaker 1: that I'm able to warn you now on this podcast
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. So I shoot them a direct message
Speaker 1: and I say, I know you'll never reply, but I
Speaker 1: just want to say I'm a huge fan smiley face,
Speaker 1: and I put huge in all caps, and then I
Speaker 1: went ahead and added a little angel emoji at the end.
Speaker 1: I really have to sell this young girl thing, right,
Speaker 1: that's a little bit nerve wracking because now I have
Speaker 1: now sent This is the first time I've done this.
Speaker 1: I've sent my bait to what I think I think
Speaker 1: is this scam artist. I'm pretty sure this is a
Speaker 1: scam artist. And I wait for a reply and then
Speaker 1: I get it on the bottom of my screen. It
Speaker 1: says messages. It has a little envelope and then it
Speaker 1: turns blue with a little circle one. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I got a message. I open it up. It's from
Speaker 1: Garth Brooks. It says good morning, and then it has
Speaker 1: a sunshine and smiley face emoji and it says I
Speaker 1: am here to reply, which already this is that's just
Speaker 1: weird English. I'm here to reply who says that? And
Speaker 1: of course I reply back, OMG, is it really you?
Speaker 1: Question Mark? Question Mark? The account writes back, yes, real
Speaker 1: and legit. Hmm okay. So I say, this might be
Speaker 1: the greatest day of my life. I would do anything
Speaker 1: for you. I'm trying to say that to, you know,
Speaker 1: speed up the process of them asking for money. And
Speaker 1: guess what he says. He says, are you sure of
Speaker 1: your words? And you sound like you can die for me?
Speaker 1: So already by reading these words I'm thinking this sounds
Speaker 1: like a foreigner. This sounds like somebody that either English
Speaker 1: is a is not their first language, or they're using
Speaker 1: an English translator. Continuing with the dialogue, I say, OMG,
Speaker 1: I would absolutely die for you, mister Brooks. He says,
Speaker 1: sounds so great to me. Baby. Which state are you?
Speaker 1: I say, Illinois? When do you come back here? He
Speaker 1: says it's not on my tour list for now, but
Speaker 1: will let you know anytime I will be coming there.
Speaker 1: And then he goes on to say, so are you single, divorce, separated,
Speaker 1: or married? And do you have kids? I say single,
Speaker 1: of course, right. You'll never believe what he writes next.
Speaker 1: This is unbelievable to me. It says, get me iTunes
Speaker 1: card one hundred dollars, and there you have it. He
Speaker 1: took the bait hook line and sucker Josh Turner in
Speaker 1: my head. Back here in Memphis, the show is now over,
Speaker 1: and I've come back to the bus and we're about
Speaker 1: to roll to Virginia. I hope you don't mind. Now
Speaker 1: the engine is on and I sleep by the engine,
Speaker 1: so it's gonna be a little loud by this microphone.
Speaker 1: I hope you don't mind. So back to Twitter. This
Speaker 1: Garth Brooks, this fake Garth Brooks has straight up asked
Speaker 1: me for an iTunes gift card for one hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: Now I want to keep him on the line. I
Speaker 1: want to keep this thing going because I'm trying to
Speaker 1: put myself in the shoes of a victim. So I
Speaker 1: want him to tell me how to go about doing
Speaker 1: this so that I could be well informed. So I say,
Speaker 1: how do I do that? Lol? He says, and I
Speaker 1: quote because I'm not misreading this. He says, just went
Speaker 1: to Walmart or any store and buy iTunes card. So
Speaker 1: obviously by now we know this is not an American
Speaker 1: by the way that they're typing. I say, and then
Speaker 1: how do I get it to you, mister Brooks? He says,
Speaker 1: when you buy it and you open it and snap
Speaker 1: the front and send it to me. So me trying
Speaker 1: to keep him on the line, trying to keep things
Speaker 1: going here, I say, Okay, I love you, I don't
Speaker 1: have much money, but I want to get you this
Speaker 1: gift card. Why do you need me to do this?
Speaker 1: Will I get to meet you? And how many do
Speaker 1: you want? He says, Well, Well, I needed to upgrade
Speaker 1: my phone and I am in tour. I want you
Speaker 1: to be one of my biggest fans that I could
Speaker 1: be able to visit when I come down there. Okay,
Speaker 1: so there's the hook, right. He's promising fans you get
Speaker 1: to meet him and you could be guaranteed one of
Speaker 1: his biggest fans if you buy him an iTunes card.
Speaker 1: I say, OMG, if you promise to visit me, I
Speaker 1: can give you thousands of dollars of gift cards or
Speaker 1: do you only need one hundred? I'm kind of joking here,
Speaker 1: he says. If you could afford one thousand iTunes card,
Speaker 1: I will use it, but I have to be one
Speaker 1: hundred in to ten whenever that means, and I promise
Speaker 1: you that I will visit you. Oh, he promised me.
Speaker 1: I say, I'm so excited buying them now. I also
Speaker 1: just got tickets to your show in Indiana. I'll bring
Speaker 1: them with me and give them to you by your bus. Okay,
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars. This is my way to see. Well,
Speaker 1: how's he going to handle fans telling him? How about
Speaker 1: we meet in person? He says, my show in Indiana
Speaker 1: is October fifth. I said, yes, I know. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: He said, And here's the kicker. If you are true
Speaker 1: to your word, kindly get some now and send it
Speaker 1: to me and get the rest when you come to
Speaker 1: my show. Then I will know you are serious. Man,
Speaker 1: he's being harsh. Huh. He says, I need to upgrade
Speaker 1: my phone now, So you want me to wait till
Speaker 1: October fifth before upgrading it? The guilt trip, right, I say,
Speaker 1: that's what I thought. I was just wondering why you
Speaker 1: need my one hundred dollars. I loved you, garth, He says,
Speaker 1: I have told you that I need to upgrade my phone.
Speaker 1: If you really love me, you won't be questioning me.
Speaker 1: So you know. By this point, I'm pissed off because
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about he's talking to my profile pick I
Speaker 1: told you as a young girl. So he's talking to
Speaker 1: a young American fangirl, the kind of people that put
Speaker 1: me in business. Hell no, you can't talk like that
Speaker 1: to us. So I snap on him. I say, my
Speaker 1: name is not the name I put on the profile.
Speaker 1: I'm actually a middle aged man. I report scam accounts
Speaker 1: like yours. You will not be caught today, but sometime soon,
Speaker 1: somewhere in your life, you will slip up far away
Speaker 1: in whatever foreign country you live in. Karma will catch
Speaker 1: you and you will pay good luck. Oh and thanks
Speaker 1: for the conversation. I was able to screenshot silence. He
Speaker 1: didn't say a word. So several hours go by and
Speaker 1: I say, no more talking. You're a coward. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to hook him. He says, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: I say, what kind are you in right now? He
Speaker 1: says Canada. That's a lie. I say, what's your nationality?
Speaker 1: Don't be a coward, open up to me. That's the
Speaker 1: last I heard from that Garth. He then blocked me.
Speaker 1: So I realized at this point, Okay, if I want
Speaker 1: to find out anything about these fake people, if I
Speaker 1: want to know who they really are, I can't just
Speaker 1: attack them. I can't just say you're gonna get caught.
Speaker 1: Karena's gonna catch you. That was just me being angry.
Speaker 1: So I decided to change my tactics and start over.
Speaker 1: By the way, by this point, by the end of
Speaker 1: this conversation with Garth, I've had a lot of friend
Speaker 1: request and they're all, guess what fake accounts? Let me
Speaker 1: just name you. The request I got Dustin Lynch, Jason
Speaker 1: al Dean, Danielle Bradberry, Toby Keith, Dirks Bentley, Dirks Bentley again,
Speaker 1: Darius Rucker, Garth Brooks again, Keny Chesney, Thomas Rhet, John Party, Colsewindell,
Speaker 1: Garth Brooks again, Dirk s Bentley again, Martina Bride, Brad Paisley,
Speaker 1: Brad Paisley again, loret Alynn that's creative, Trace Akins, Garth Brooks,
Speaker 1: Garth Brooks again and again, and Cole Swindell, all of
Speaker 1: which I accepted, all of their friend request and all
Speaker 1: of which we started a conversation. Let me tell you
Speaker 1: more about that. Shutting Payne and Nowhere Town sign up,
Speaker 1: the Sundown, making bad summer time money. Damn. Okay, we're
Speaker 1: rolling now, rolling to Virginia, and I haven't done a
Speaker 1: podcast since we've been rolling, so I hope you don't mind.
Speaker 1: This engine's going to be loud. I'm debating whether I
Speaker 1: should finish this tomorrow, but we're gonna be busy tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and I'm on a roll, and I've got this story,
Speaker 1: and I've got Twitter pulled up, and i've got these
Speaker 1: fake conversations that I've had with people that I really
Speaker 1: want to read to you. So if you don't mind.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep going. But let me go to the
Speaker 1: one that I finally had a breakthrough on. I had
Speaker 1: a couple in between that first Garth and then I
Speaker 1: found Dirks Bentley at d I E r k ss
Speaker 1: Bentley with no eve before the y. So that's how
Speaker 1: they're able to make the fake account. So I started
Speaker 1: this one. I started the first message. I said, I'm
Speaker 1: a huge fan, and he says, how long have you
Speaker 1: been my fan? I said a long time. I would
Speaker 1: do anything for you. He says, thanks for your love
Speaker 1: and support. Have you ever been to my concert? I
Speaker 1: say yes? Is this the real you or management? He says,
Speaker 1: thanks for your love and support? Have you ever been
Speaker 1: to my concert? Yes? He just repeated the same thing.
Speaker 1: I think he's I think a lot of these guys
Speaker 1: copy and paste. And then he says, what are your
Speaker 1: dreams and determinations, which obviously he's using a translator, copying,
Speaker 1: pasting into some kind of English translator, which it makes
Speaker 1: no sense. So I just cut right to the chase.
Speaker 1: I take what I learned from Garth and I say, hey,
Speaker 1: you want an iTunes gift card? He says, what do
Speaker 1: you mean? I say, I just love you. He says,
Speaker 1: why do you ask such a question? I say, because
Speaker 1: I love you and I would do anything for you
Speaker 1: just to notice me. He says, do you believe you
Speaker 1: were able to achieve your dream? Okay, this and now
Speaker 1: it's just getting stupid. So I just cut to the point.
Speaker 1: I say, what country are you in right now? He says,
Speaker 1: am in the state preparing for concert? I say, no,
Speaker 1: not your fake account, the real you, whoever you are.
Speaker 1: Where are you Africa? He says, I will open up
Speaker 1: to you. What Okay, I got something now right This
Speaker 1: might be the first truth I've seen from any of
Speaker 1: these guys, and so I say, okay, open up right now.
Speaker 1: He says, Okay, promise me you won't report me. I
Speaker 1: say yes, he says, I'm from Nigeria. I said, do
Speaker 1: you have many friends that do this on Twitter? Pretend
Speaker 1: to be famous singers? He says no. I said, do
Speaker 1: you live in Aboujah? I just googled it and that
Speaker 1: was the first city that came up. He says, no,
Speaker 1: I live in Lagos. I said, how much money have
Speaker 1: you made doing this? I won't report you, he said,
Speaker 1: I swear to God. I just started I said, how
Speaker 1: do you decide to try it? He says, just an idea.
Speaker 1: I'm very creative. By the way, that's a lie. I
Speaker 1: know he's lying. I said, I don't believe you. Be honest,
Speaker 1: Many many people do this, he said, I swear to
Speaker 1: Almighty God, I don't have friends that do this. I
Speaker 1: just opened up to you. I said, Okay, how old
Speaker 1: are you? He said twenty? I said, do you have
Speaker 1: a real Twitter account? I want to see the real you?
Speaker 1: He says, no, I only have a Facebook. I say,
Speaker 1: what's your name? He said, let me send you a
Speaker 1: friend request on Facebook. I say, I don't have a Facebook.
Speaker 1: What's your real name? He said, Are you try trying
Speaker 1: to track me? I'm scared. I said, I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to track you. Can you just set a pick of yourself.
Speaker 1: I want to see the real you. You don't have
Speaker 1: to tell me your name, he said, send me yours first.
Speaker 1: I said, I wonder if you have a boss that
Speaker 1: won't let you. He said, no, I'm alone here. I
Speaker 1: stay alone. I'm just scared. I said, no, one can
Speaker 1: trace a selfie from your phone. Send a peace sign
Speaker 1: so I know it's you. He said, it's late here.
Speaker 1: I said, yes, I know it's twelve twenty eight. I
Speaker 1: was watching his time. He said, yes, you're right, and
Speaker 1: guess what he did. He sent me a selfie and
Speaker 1: so there I get the first look at what these
Speaker 1: these thieves look like. And it's a young man about
Speaker 1: twenty African American. Obviously. He has a white shirt button
Speaker 1: up with a dragon on the front, and he's given
Speaker 1: me kind of a melancholy face and a peace sign,
Speaker 1: just like I asked him. I said, thank you. You
Speaker 1: have a real name. He says, yes, Raphael, that's my
Speaker 1: real name. I said, yes, I believe you. I say,
Speaker 1: are jobs hard to find in Nigeria? He says, yes,
Speaker 1: very hard to find for the youth. People are suffering here.
Speaker 1: I say, and by the way, he still thinks I'm
Speaker 1: a girl. I say, I'm a man. I made a
Speaker 1: fake account, just like you. He said, where are you from?
Speaker 1: I say, Texas, USA? He said, okay, that's good, Sirs,
Speaker 1: so nice to meet you. Say you take care of yourself.
Speaker 1: Be careful on Twitter. Most people aren't who they say
Speaker 1: they are. He says, I know I'm being careful, sir.
Speaker 1: May I ask why you did create your fake account? Sir,
Speaker 1: I say to find guys like you and ask them
Speaker 1: to please not take money from innocent girls. It hurts
Speaker 1: people's lives. He says, Oh, okay, that's good, sir. I'll
Speaker 1: delete this fake account soon, Sir. I say, find ways
Speaker 1: to help people, not hurt them. I know you can,
Speaker 1: he said, Okay, I will. He still hasn't deleted that account.
Speaker 1: That was several days ago. He still hasn't deleted it.
Speaker 1: I checked just for the record, knowing that I was
Speaker 1: going to do this podcast about this subject, because I
Speaker 1: think it's important for if you're listening to this podcast,
Speaker 1: to spread the words, spread the message. Tell your friends,
Speaker 1: say make sure your look for that blue check. You're
Speaker 1: not talking to celebrities, right because this is a multi
Speaker 1: million dollar scam. I looked it up. It's called the
Speaker 1: four to nineteen scam. Four nineteen that was named after
Speaker 1: a Nigerian law. It's been around a long time. And
Speaker 1: all of these, all of these people, at least all
Speaker 1: the all the ones that I talked to are from Nigeria,
Speaker 1: all about twenty years old. And I started going right
Speaker 1: to it. I started some of these friend requests. We
Speaker 1: would have one conversation, one back and forth, and I
Speaker 1: would immediately say what part of Nigeria are you from? Lagos?
Speaker 1: There's several other towns, but they're all in Nigeria. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they would block me right away, and sometimes they would
Speaker 1: open up. Sometimes they would call me a fool. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they would speak out in their own language and yell
Speaker 1: at me and say things like settle down, crazy woman,
Speaker 1: and their language. I looked at that. I looked it up.
Speaker 1: Raphael wasn't the only guy that sent me a picture
Speaker 1: I actually got. I got several people to send me
Speaker 1: pictures of them. It's crazy, I know, but I was
Speaker 1: so curious about their life. And a lot of these
Speaker 1: guys are saying that they just graduated college or they're
Speaker 1: still in college, and when you graduate, there's no jobs
Speaker 1: in Nigeria, so they they have no money, They have
Speaker 1: no way to pay for their school. They just they
Speaker 1: just got out of and everybody else is doing this
Speaker 1: four nineteen scam. And to me, what they're probably thinking
Speaker 1: is America is so far away, Western Europe is so
Speaker 1: far away, and everyone has money, right, they're doing great.
Speaker 1: So if I get one hundred dollars here, fifty dollars here,
Speaker 1: or two hundred dollars here from these people. It helps
Speaker 1: me and it's nothing off them. I guarantee you that's
Speaker 1: that's their mindset. But I I talked to a few
Speaker 1: really nice people that opened up and that that got nice.
Speaker 1: But then there's a deeper, darker side to this. I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot more that I don't know. And
Speaker 1: that's when my brother Tyler's saying, hey, you need to
Speaker 1: stop going down this rabbit hole. You're gonna find something
Speaker 1: you don't want to see. So to date, so far
Speaker 1: since I started this, and by the way, I started
Speaker 1: this three days ago knowing that I was gonna do
Speaker 1: this podcast in Memphis today. Three days ago from when
Speaker 1: I started did this fake account, and I started hunting
Speaker 1: these scammers. I've talked to twenty two people. Twenty two people.
Speaker 1: They're all from Nigeria. They're all in their mid to
Speaker 1: lower twenties. Some of them are nice. Some of them
Speaker 1: tell me to go to hell and block me. Here's
Speaker 1: a funny one. This is from another Dirk Spentley. It said, hello,
Speaker 1: thanks for the likes of my page and all the
Speaker 1: love that you've shown me. I hope you never stopped
Speaker 1: listening to my music, and I say you're welcome. How
Speaker 1: long you been doing four nineteen and then block I'm deleted.
Speaker 1: Sometimes that's all it takes. And there's a lot of
Speaker 1: different tactics. There's a lot of ways that I handled
Speaker 1: these twenty two people. But the one question I still
Speaker 1: have that no one has answered is do these people
Speaker 1: Are they really doing it alone as they're all saying
Speaker 1: they are and they don't know about each other, which
Speaker 1: has to be a lie. Or is there some kind
Speaker 1: of boss that's running this thing? Are there mob bosses?
Speaker 1: Is this some big underground operation? Is this some room
Speaker 1: with a bunch of computers and one leader walking around
Speaker 1: and forcing these people to do this? And what a
Speaker 1: scary thought. It's scary even talking about it on this podcast.
Speaker 1: But is that true. Here's a conversation I had with
Speaker 1: a Dustin Lynch impersonator and after several back and forth,
Speaker 1: and this person admitted that they were a scammer, and
Speaker 1: I admitted that I wasn't the girl on my page.
Speaker 1: And on day two person said, can you please send
Speaker 1: me your phone number? I said no, I prefer to
Speaker 1: talk here. And then the Dustin Lynch said, nothing much
Speaker 1: to say to you unless you get this package. If
Speaker 1: you're not ready, to pay then buy. And what's funny
Speaker 1: is this person copied and pasted the wrong reply to
Speaker 1: the wrong person. That wasn't even to me, that was
Speaker 1: to some other poor soul that they're talking to. And
Speaker 1: I said, are you messaging the wrong person? And they
Speaker 1: said yes, I'm sorry. Can you send me your number
Speaker 1: so we could really talk? And I said no, I'd
Speaker 1: prefer to talk here and they said I could not
Speaker 1: talk here any longer. I'm being watched. Sorry, goodbye, and
Speaker 1: that's the end. The hell does that mean? I'm being watched?
Speaker 1: What's going on with these people? To another person? This
Speaker 1: was Toby Keith. I said, how long have you been
Speaker 1: doing four nineteen? He said, we have no choice, man,
Speaker 1: I said, our job's hard to find. Do you have
Speaker 1: a boss not letting you talk? He said I couldnot
Speaker 1: speak about this oga ou Ean boys at ye whatever
Speaker 1: the heck that means, and then he blocked me. That's
Speaker 1: some weird stuff. And honestly, I'm gonna be happy to
Speaker 1: delete this fake account and stop these conversations with Nigerians.
Speaker 1: And I gotta say I have to. I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: truthful in this podcast without saying that I feel sorry
Speaker 1: for him. I do. I do I wake up? You know.
Speaker 1: I yesterday before I came on this tour, I stopped
Speaker 1: by the grocery store and I went in and I
Speaker 1: got groceries for the tour. Then I was checking out
Speaker 1: and I pulled out my credit card and swiped it
Speaker 1: and got my bags and got back on my truck
Speaker 1: and went and met the buses. And it just occurred
Speaker 1: to me that, you know, Americans, the easy, simple things,
Speaker 1: we just get it. It's no big deal, go get groceries,
Speaker 1: And it's not like that in Nigeria. And I feel
Speaker 1: sorry for him. Is what they're doing right? Hell no,
Speaker 1: it's wrong. That's that's why I'm trying to bring awareness
Speaker 1: to it. But that doesn't change the fact that I
Speaker 1: feel sorry for him. I do know. I can't. I
Speaker 1: have no empathy for their lives. I have no idea
Speaker 1: what they're going through. Their own government embezzels money from them,
Speaker 1: Their own government is corrupt, their own government is part
Speaker 1: of four nineteen. I mean, there's people that do this
Speaker 1: same scam in the government at Nigeria. You know. I
Speaker 1: saw my mom the other day and as I was leaving,
Speaker 1: she said, hey, thanks for finally adding me as a
Speaker 1: friend on Facebook. Yeah, I said, Mom, I didn't add
Speaker 1: you as a friend on Facebook. I have an artist page,
Speaker 1: a fan page. I can't add anybody. She said, well,
Speaker 1: who added me? And I said a Nigerian added you, Mom.
Speaker 1: She said what I said. Listen to my podcast episode
Speaker 1: five and I'll tell you inside out of the Blue
Speaker 1: Scats last year Winny capinside nothing news is writ into you,
Speaker 1: Julie or you can do to keep her around until
Speaker 1: the moon goes down in her back at your house.
Speaker 1: One things to another, you love at each other when
Speaker 1: look can you never loved back? It happens like that.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. I got a lot of tourdys and
Speaker 1: I hope you come see us when we're close to
Speaker 1: you at cratorsmith dot com backslash tour. And remember Mom
Speaker 1: always looked for that blue check.