WEBVTT - The Biggest Scam in Country Music 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:19.720 What's up. It's Granger Smith. This is the Granger Smith Podcast, 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.400 Episode five. This is the first podcast I've made since 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.320 I've released it to the public. The previous four are 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:28.720 now available, and you guys have made it one of 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.320 the top podcasts in all the music category. Thank you 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:37.760 for that. That motivates me. Memphis, Tennessee. That's where I 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:41.080 am today. I'm parked next to the venue. I'm in 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.599 the back of my bus Wildflower, just like I do 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.600 all these podcasts. And I'm on a busy road, so 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.279 there's traffic, there's cars passing by. You might hear some horns. 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.280 All right, it shouldn't change the podcast. It should add 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:59.360 to the flavor today Episode five. I want it. I 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.000 want this to be a little bit different. Now. The 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.560 previous four have all been a story about me on 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:07.839 the road, how I became a fan, how I became 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:13.319 a songwriter, road travel tour stories. I'm gonna switch gears. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.680 This is totally different. But it's something that I feel 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.560 like needs to be talked about because I'm seeing more 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.360 and more of it, and it's a scary thing. There 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:26.760 are people out there impersonating celebrities, singers, actors, athletes, and 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:31.240 stealing money on the internet, on social media. So I'm 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.440 digging in. I'm gonna find out who these people are 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:37.640 so we don't get scammed. Looking out the window, it's 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.319 kind of dreary, cloudy, a little bit rainy. This is 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:45.520 the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and moved up from the 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.120 Atlantic through Florida and now it's broken up. But it's 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.320 in Tennessee and we're seeing that today. Tonight is a 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.280 guitar pool. That's the style of show that we're about 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:59.040 to play. And that means it's me and other singers 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:01.800 on the stage at the at the same time, and 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.000 we each play a song and we go down the 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:06.040 line and we start over and we do that for 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:10.080 five rounds. Now today it's me and Josh Turner and 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.720 Easton Corbin. So we'll get up there. I have a 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.480 guitar player with me and so we'll have a couple 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:17.840 acoustics and the other guys will do the same and 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:21.440 we'll each play a song. And it's a very different 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:25.320 style show, very low key. We tell stories, we interact 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:29.440 between each other. It's not your typical loud guitars, lights 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:32.200 in your face, running around the stage. It's very low 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:34.960 key in Varieties Despice of Life. So this is going 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:38.600 to be a fun, sold out Wednesday night. I'm excited. 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.799 I'm going to talk about some uneasy, scary stuff today 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:53.119 about scammers on the internet. But there is some good 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:57.799 news today. Today we announced that I'm coming out with 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:02.400 a new album. Twenty seventh is the date. It's called 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.960 When the Good Guys Win. And it's great to finally 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.080 say it and finally tell people because I've known for 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:10.720 a long time. I mean, I've been working on this 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.680 for about a year, but it's good to finally let 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.240 people know you could expect new music and I'm really 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:19.920 excited about it. So in the near future you'll start 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.720 hearing a lot more about this and a lot more details. 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.520 But until now, at least the title and the date 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:31.440 are out in the universe. Are you ready. It's time 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.400 to get a little creepy. I don't like this. I 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.680 don't like this subject, but I need to talk about it, 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.600 and I think you're going to be surprised at what 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.400 happened to me and why I decided to make this 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:48.280 an actual podcast. But I started hearing about this, I 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:51.440 guess about a year ago. Here's the gist. Of it. 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.200 People were getting on social media and they're creating an account, 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:57.080 which is so easy to do, you could do it 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:01.680 in thirty seconds. They create an account with a celebrity's name, 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.320 they use all their same pictures, they fill up the media, 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:12.040 they retweet what that celebrity is saying, or they completely 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.880 recreate the same post that the celebrity made. Essentially, they 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:19.000 create the same looking page. So you just scan it. 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.400 You see a celebrities page, but it doesn't have the 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:24.799 blue check. Now that's the key to this whole story. 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:29.680 If it doesn't have a blue check, it's not that celebrity, right. 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.880 That means they're not verified. So the whole thing, this 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.280 whole problem could be solved if everyone just really paid 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.760 attention to that blue check. If it has a blue check, 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:45.480 it's them. Unfortunately people don't. People fall victim and they're gullible. 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:48.800 They believe this, and so because of that, I have 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.119 to explain more to the story. They're doing this because 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:55.680 they'll take the name and they change one letter in 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.280 the actual username. So for instance, if it's me, it 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:03.159 would say Granger smith S M I T H. So 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.960 one letter's changed. It allows them to get the username. 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.679 But then in the title the main in bold print, 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:14.920 it says Granger Smith spelled normal. So that's how they're 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.760 able to take that domain, that user name because it's 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.240 slightly spelled wrong. Here's the purpose. The reason they do 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.760 this is because they could follow you, or they could 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.040 add you or like you, depending on the social media, 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:31.920 and they expect you to go, oh wow, Garth Brooks 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:35.599 followed me, so I'll follow him back. When you follow 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.240 them back, when you like their page back, they can 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:40.720 then send you a direct message. When they could send 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.760 you a direct message, that's when they could scan me 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.280 from money. Now, they could do this in a lot 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:50.240 of different ways. They could say that they're having a 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.919 charity for a hurricane and they're looking for donations, and 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.800 they want to start it by saying, I'm seeking out 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.760 my best fans, my most personal fans, the ones that 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:03.440 care about me the most, and I can get personal 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.040 donations from these fans, and then they could figure out 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:08.599 ways for you to send the money. Or they could 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:12.840 just say I'm looking to do something that my management 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:14.640 doesn't know about, so I need to do it in private. 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:16.440 I want to make sure that I could trust you. 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:19.800 But I have three hundred thousand dollars on the line. 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.400 I need to move a briefcase from point A to 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:26.039 point B. Can you pick it up for me? And 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:27.800 then they'll figure out a way for you to pay 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:31.840 for the postage or something small, ridiculous that could be 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.839 one hundred bucks, and then there goes your hundred bucks. 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.839 After that, after all these scams, they slowly disappear into 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.359 the night. They're gone forever and moved on to the 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:45.599 next person. It's just wrong. It's criminal. Now, the reason 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:47.760 I first started hearing about it is because people were 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.800 either screenshotting it because they figured out that it wasn't me, 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.200 or it was people that were telling me that they 0:06:55.240 --> 0:07:01.200 had talked directly to me. Now, I don't direct message 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:05.159 fans I have. I consider myself very open to my fans, 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.960 and I consider myself someone that opens up a lot 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.920 and meet and greets, and obviously this podcast. But come on, 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.640 I'm not going to sit there and direct message people 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:21.280 and talk about personal things and ask them for donations 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:25.720 to a charity on through a direct message. It's not 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.720 just gullible people that fall for this. It's smart people. 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.960 It's people, it's family members that might think this. I 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:40.240 had my Midwest record label rep. Jennifer. She told me, 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.000 she said, can I ask you a question? You've been 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.840 messaging me on Instagram and why don't you just text me? 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.840 And I said, Jennifer, I'm not direct messaging you on Instagram. 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.360 That's somebody else that's a scammer that's trying to get 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.880 close to you. And they'll start with several conversations about, 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:01.720 you know, thank you for being a I hope you 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.000 never stopped listening to my music, Where do you live, 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:08.120 what's the next concert you're going to? I hope to 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:10.760 meet you. Then they build this up like it's getting 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:16.800 more personal. So who are these people? That's the question 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:24.240 I have? Who are the people that are scamming innocent 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:34.600 victims and playing on their insecurities and their vulnerability. Who 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.079 are these people? That's the question I have. That's the 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:42.120 question I asked right before I did this podcast. And 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.360 would you believe me if I told you that I 0:08:44.440 --> 0:09:02.679 figured out exactly who they were? Yes? I did? All right, 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:04.160 follow me here. This is where it gets a little 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:07.400 bit weird. So I'm kind of pissed off that there's 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:11.840 people impersonating me and other artists, other celebrities and asking 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.960 for money from our innocent fans. So I'm ready to 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.600 find out who these people are. I don't know what 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:19.640 I'm gonna do when I find out, but I just 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.760 want to know who are these people? So I begin 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:27.000 my crusade. I want to set my trap. I go 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.720 to Twitter, I create a new account. I decide that 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.200 a young girl will be my best bait for my trap. 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.360 I go to Google Images and I actually typed in 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:41.920 cute girl, did a quick image search, grabbed a random picture, 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.640 made it my profile pick, gave her a name, completely 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:50.320 made up a name, and during this process, Twitter asked you, 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:54.440 what are your interest music check? What kind of music? 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:59.000 Country check? Do you want to follow the standard country list? 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:03.600 That's what Twitter isd asking, Yeah, and so boom. It 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:08.160 instantly follows about one hundred people. It's everywhere, It's I'm 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:12.160 one of them. It follows me. It follows Garth Brooks 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:15.320 and Dirk s Bentley and Toby Keith and Darius Ruckerds. 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.920 It's a great way to kickstart your social media page. Now, 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:22.520 this whole process of making this fake person took me 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:28.520 about twenty seconds. By the time I finished, I already 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:30.280 had a follower. I don't even know who. It was, 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.520 just a random bought follower. And then I got a 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:37.360 couple more from certain people that had accounts where they 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:41.480 had some kind of software program written in where if 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:46.120 you follow X person, their account will automatically follow you. 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:50.240 And that's how people use social media on ethically. So 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.079 here I am about sixty seconds later, I have created 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.520 a fake person. I've created a fake profile. I already 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:00.920 have four or five followers. This is just weird how 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:03.880 easy this is. And for the record, I want to 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.319 say for this podcast, don't do this at home. This 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.840 is not good stuff. And my brother Tyler, who's my manager, 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:17.920 was seriously against this, by the way. He said, man, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.520 you can't do that. And then say on a podcast 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:24.320 that you created a fake account. That's illegal, And I said, 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:26.200 I don't think it's illegal, and I looked it up 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:31.440 and sure enough, in Louisiana, this is illegal. I'm not 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.520 currently in Louisiana today or when I created the account. 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.800 Point being, I know it's weird. I'm sorry it does 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:45.000 break the law in certain places, but my intentions are true. 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.160 I'm making this account is bait so that I could 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:52.319 find who these scammers are. I want to see how 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:54.520 easy it is for me to try to get scammed 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.319 because I want to be able to talk about that 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:01.200 process as a warning on this podcast. Asked right and 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.440 after just a few hours there it was the follower 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:08.480 I was looking for Garth Brooks with no blue check. 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:17.000 I found my first scammer. I want to take a 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:21.000 second to talk about EEE Energy. That's my unofficial official sponsor. 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.080 It's also my drink. It's not a partnership with some 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:26.959 big corporation. It's me and my brothers and we made 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:30.840 this from scratch. I'm very proud of it. I'm biased, 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.079 but I think it's the best energy drink. I think 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.040 it's the best drink that I've ever had. But that's 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:40.000 also because we created the recipe and made all these 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.360 adjustments until it was the exact taste that I wanted. 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:45.800 And if you want to see EEE Energy stocked in 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:49.920 your hometown, contact info at EEE energy dot com. You know, 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:51.640 it's not just the drink that we have. We have 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.440 a complete clothing line my brothers and I. Right now 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.400 we have brand new Camo backpacks, tumblrs for drinks, baby onesies, 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.440 new women's tanks, pass lanyards for the fall, we have 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:05.480 new shirts, hoodies, flannels, blankets, beanies, you name it, we 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.520 probably have it with the EEE brand on it. You 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.400 can get all that stuff at grangersmith dot com. Boo 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.120 sitting here in Memphis, and tomorrow we start our Luke 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:20.480 Bryan tour for the fall, and we start that in Roanoke, Virginia. 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:24.280 So we're gonna leave here, We'll drive all night to Roanoke, 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:29.160 and then we play Ronake, Indiana and Illinois this week 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.439 with Luke Bryan. And that is the real Luke Bryan, 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:35.080 the one with the blue check by his name on 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:39.200 the social media, unlike this Garth Brooks account that followed me. 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:41.960 And I want to tell you about that Garth Brooks account, 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.000 but first I want you to hear a story from 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.280 my buddy Chris Lane. Chris Lane's another country artist and 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.040 I've known him for a while, but we got really 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:53.079 close touring together on a Florida Georgia line tour last fall, 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.400 and that was a month long tour in Canada, and 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.840 we got to be really good friends. Recently, we were 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:03.080 doing a show and he told me about this story 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.080 of a fan in a meet and greet line that 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.640 approached him and they figured out he was getting scammed. 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.320 I called Chris just now and he could tell you 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:17.440 about it. Hey, old buddy, old pal, what's going on? Man? 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.640 So hey, I'm doing a little story on these what 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:22.360 do you call it, scammers? I'm doing a little story 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.680 in these scammers, on these scammers. And you told me 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.560 a story the other day that kind of blew me away. 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:33.520 Tell me about that. Yeah. Yeah. So this this guy 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.000 walks up to me after a show. It was him 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:40.120 and his mom, and they basically had this look on 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:41.920 their face as if I should know who they are. 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.480 So the mom says, hey, make sure you return my 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.640 text when you get on your bus, and I was like, ah, yeah, 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:50.360 I just kind of played it off, and then she 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.080 said it again. I said you have my number. She 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:55.760 was like yeah, so make sure you text me that. 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:59.480 And the guy, her son, I guess in the process, 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.600 was like, Chris is mom. And at first, the way 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.320 he started out in the conversation was like, well, are 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:05.960 you not gonna say hello to mom? And I'm just 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:07.960 I was confused in that moment. I thought they were 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:12.360 joking with me. And so, to make a long story short, 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.840 he keeps saying, Chris, it's me, it's your brother, and 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:19.720 I'm like Corey and he's like yeah, and I'm like 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.080 that's crazy because my chin brother's name is Corey. And 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.960 he like looked confused in that moment. Then I was like, 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.400 is are y'all playing a joke on me? Or what's 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:31.960 going on here? And then he was like, well, what 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.040 do you mean? He was like, it's me, it's your brother, 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.640 and I'm like, I'm like all right. At this point, 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.480 I'm just so confused, man, Like what's going on here? 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:46.680 He's like, well, you text me every single day and 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.000 you tell me that you love me, and I'm just 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.200 like I do. He's like yeah, I'm like, show me 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.920 the text message. So he pulls up his text message 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.640 and he's got three texts from people, ones from me 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.000 at the top, one's from somebody I have no clue 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.440 who it is, and then the one under it is 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:07.080 Dustin Lynch and I'm like, well, show me what it says. 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.480 So at the top it says it's him saying hey, 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:13.920 I'm here, and then it's like, look, looks is what 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:16.960 looks like a response for me? And it says, Hey, 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:19.120 I'm just chilling on my bus. I'll see you after 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:24.080 the show Love You My Brother something like that, and 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:26.400 I'm like all right, and I looked at the rest 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:28.480 of the text and I'm just like, you know what, 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.080 this is right, And he's like no. I'm like, man, 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.120 that's not me. That's somebody who is pretending to be me. 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.200 And they look like they had seen a ghost, like 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:39.960 they were like, wait a minute, what this is not 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.160 you kind of thing. But I'm like, yeah, dude, people 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.080 do this every day with every country music artist or 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:49.640 any artists in general. People are pretending to be somebody 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.520 that they're not, and you're basically getting catfished. At this point, 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.480 he's made you think or whoever's behind this has made 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:58.440 you dank that you've been talking to me this whole time, 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.160 and if you're not careful, are gonna ask you for money. 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.760 They do it every single time, Like I get messages 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.639 like this every single day. He's like, well, I've already 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.920 given them a bunch of money and proceeded to say 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.920 that this has ruined his life and kind of broke down, 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:17.200 and I was just like left sending They're like, oh 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:21.040 my gosh, like this is guy to stop people. It's 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.199 hard for me to believe that people actually believe that, 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.320 you know, they're talking to whoever it is that they're 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.920 getting catfished by. But you know, how much money do 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.840 you think he gave him? Man, I don't know. It's 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.439 it's hard to say. He did say it ruined his 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:41.480 life though, so yeah, I don't know. I didn't know 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:43.400 what that meant. I was just a little taken back 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.199 by the situation. But yeah, I get messages every day, 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:48.560 as I'm sure I know you do, and as well 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.440 as a bunch of artists. I've seen cons of artists 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.440 posting up videos saying, hey, make sure you only look 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.159 for the blue check mark. That's how you know it's real. Like, 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.200 you know, people are asking people for money and they're 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.080 doing it for toure dates where they're acting like you 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:05.600 get free tickets to a show if you purchase iTunes, 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.880 gift cards, just like the craziest things ever. I can't 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.920 believe people actually do that, but I guess they're making 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:14.400 money off of it, and people are believing that it's 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.720 really the artist, or they're making up some calls for 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.560 some calls where it's like a, hey, I'm hitting you 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:28.080 up because I need a donation to my childhood Cancer 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:30.680 Foundation of some sorts, you know what I mean. Yeah, 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.720 it's a multi million dollar scam. Oh wow, yeah, that's 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.879 that's crazy. Yeah, well, dude, I hate that happens. I 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:40.399 know you're on the golf course and you got to 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.760 hit some balls. But all right, man, well thanks for 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.240 thanks for letting me share the old story. You're welcome, dude. 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.360 I'll see you soon, all right, brother be So that's 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:54.240 Chris Lane and his story. It's probably like a lot 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.719 of other people's stories. And who are these people? Who? 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:03.000 Who is this guy that's trying to scam Chris Lane's fans? 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:06.720 Maybe it's someone exactly like this Garth account that I'm 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.560 looking at right now. So I dive into looking at 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:13.600 this account. It looks exactly like Garth's account, except for 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:19.280 it has about fifty followers and Garth has hundreds of thousands. 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.040 The name is Garth Brooks, but if you look closely 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:27.720 on the handle, it's at Garth underscore Brooks underscore one. 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.800 These are all things that you probably wouldn't notice if 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:32.959 you weren't looking for it, or if you weren't paying attention, 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:35.920 or if you're just a fan that's excited to see 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:40.199 this Garth Brooks character following you once again, I cannot 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:42.440 stress how important it is to know that it does 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:46.439 not have a blue check. Every celebrity is going to 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.760 have a blue check that means they are verified through management, 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:54.440 through the actual social media account checked and they cross checked, 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:56.760 and they figured out that this person is legit. It's 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.320 the real person, it's the official account. It doesn't matter 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.560 if it says official account. It needs to have the 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:07.520 blue check to signify to you that it's official. Right. 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:10.800 So what I do is I follow back. Following back 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.000 two people following each other allows me to direct message. 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.119 So here's where I'm going to bait my trap, my 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:22.480 little pretty face teenage girl profile. By the way, I 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:25.919 know it's weird that I'm a fake account talking to 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.000 a fake account, but get past that. The point is 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:31.359 that I'm able to warn you now on this podcast 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:35.120 what I'm doing. So I shoot them a direct message 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:39.359 and I say, I know you'll never reply, but I 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:42.920 just want to say I'm a huge fan smiley face, 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.520 and I put huge in all caps, and then I 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.080 went ahead and added a little angel emoji at the end. 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:51.720 I really have to sell this young girl thing, right, 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.000 that's a little bit nerve wracking because now I have 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:57.080 now sent This is the first time I've done this. 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:00.280 I've sent my bait to what I think I think 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.439 is this scam artist. I'm pretty sure this is a 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:07.719 scam artist. And I wait for a reply and then 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:10.800 I get it on the bottom of my screen. It 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.679 says messages. It has a little envelope and then it 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.880 turns blue with a little circle one. Oh my gosh, 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.960 I got a message. I open it up. It's from 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:24.480 Garth Brooks. It says good morning, and then it has 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:28.719 a sunshine and smiley face emoji and it says I 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:32.840 am here to reply, which already this is that's just 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.560 weird English. I'm here to reply who says that? And 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.399 of course I reply back, OMG, is it really you? 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:46.760 Question Mark? Question Mark? The account writes back, yes, real 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:52.719 and legit. Hmm okay. So I say, this might be 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.360 the greatest day of my life. I would do anything 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:58.719 for you. I'm trying to say that to, you know, 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.240 speed up the process of them asking for money. And 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:05.879 guess what he says. He says, are you sure of 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:09.359 your words? And you sound like you can die for me? 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:14.679 So already by reading these words I'm thinking this sounds 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:18.600 like a foreigner. This sounds like somebody that either English 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.080 is a is not their first language, or they're using 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:26.120 an English translator. Continuing with the dialogue, I say, OMG, 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:30.840 I would absolutely die for you, mister Brooks. He says, 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:33.760 sounds so great to me. Baby. Which state are you? 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:39.679 I say, Illinois? When do you come back here? He 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:42.359 says it's not on my tour list for now, but 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:45.040 will let you know anytime I will be coming there. 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:50.840 And then he goes on to say, so are you single, divorce, separated, 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:54.760 or married? And do you have kids? I say single, 0:22:55.600 --> 0:23:02.040 of course, right. You'll never believe what he writes next. 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:09.919 This is unbelievable to me. It says, get me iTunes 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:14.159 card one hundred dollars, and there you have it. He 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:33.239 took the bait hook line and sucker Josh Turner in 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:36.400 my head. Back here in Memphis, the show is now over, 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:40.120 and I've come back to the bus and we're about 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:42.040 to roll to Virginia. I hope you don't mind. Now 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:46.719 the engine is on and I sleep by the engine, 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:49.280 so it's gonna be a little loud by this microphone. 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:53.359 I hope you don't mind. So back to Twitter. This 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:57.200 Garth Brooks, this fake Garth Brooks has straight up asked 0:23:57.200 --> 0:23:59.560 me for an iTunes gift card for one hundred dollars. 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:02.119 Now I want to keep him on the line. I 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:04.560 want to keep this thing going because I'm trying to 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:07.600 put myself in the shoes of a victim. So I 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:10.160 want him to tell me how to go about doing 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:13.560 this so that I could be well informed. So I say, 0:24:14.320 --> 0:24:18.119 how do I do that? Lol? He says, and I 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:21.880