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Speaker 1: Can't I AM six forty.

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Speaker 2: You're listening to the John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio

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Speaker 2: app AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app

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Speaker 2: round the air one until four every day.

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Speaker 3: Well, from time to time we see these stories about

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Speaker 3: business owners that are just We did one a couple

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Speaker 3: of weeks ago on a restaurant in West Hollywood where

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Speaker 3: the business owner there was just fed up with the

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Speaker 3: crime and homelessness. It was affecting his business and neighboring businesses.

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Speaker 3: He's the one that's shutting down the business. Every city

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Speaker 3: council meeting to go in there and complain. Now, we're

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Speaker 3: going to talk to a business owner up in the

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Speaker 3: San Fernando Valley in Granada Hills who's had a store

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Speaker 3: for about fifteen years, and he's talking about how and

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Speaker 3: this is the way the world works.

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Speaker 1: Now there are two worlds.

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Speaker 3: There's enforcement against what we call the regular people, and

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Speaker 3: then there's nothing done often with homeless and homeless encampments.

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Speaker 3: And he has fed up with all of the sign

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Speaker 3: enforcement people, code enforcement agents coming to his business as

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Speaker 3: much as four times in a.

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Speaker 1: Month for signs.

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Speaker 2: Right, this guy signs, this guy defecating you know, on

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Speaker 2: the sidewalk. But this guy has an improper sign, or

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Speaker 2: so they claim.

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Speaker 1: Four times in one month they came.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, how bad? How bad can the sign be? Well,

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Speaker 2: we're gonna we're gonna talk to him now. His name

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Speaker 2: is Alric air Am I pronouncing that right? Oh yeah,

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Speaker 2: well Rica, welcome to the Johnny Ken Show. There's a

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Speaker 2: quote in one of the news stories. You say, no

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Speaker 2: matter what I do, it's always illegal. What is it

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Speaker 2: that you're doing that's always illegal?

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Speaker 1: The signs? Really?

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Speaker 4: Oh okay, yeah, I said the sign over there, if

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Speaker 4: it's touching a little bit of the curve is illegal.

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Speaker 4: So you will say, okay, So you guys know about

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Speaker 4: four times that they came in one month, but this

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Speaker 4: is going on for years and years. Then they could

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Speaker 4: complaining about different different objects. So it was starting, you know,

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Speaker 4: like with other American flags that was outside and they

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Speaker 4: were giving tickets for that and it was one within

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Speaker 4: sixty one dollars. And I have videos of those inspectors

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Speaker 4: whenever they come, and the inspector that actually arrived and

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Speaker 4: give the first ticket. Like this was a while back.

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Speaker 4: They start a couple of years back for them the

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Speaker 4: American flags. He claimed that it's not American flag, that

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Speaker 4: this is a banner. They consider them to be flat banners,

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Speaker 4: and this is a market where businesses. And then on

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Speaker 4: is it's some American flag?

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Speaker 2: Can I ask you the sign on the curb? What

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Speaker 2: kind of sign is it? Is it one of those

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Speaker 2: fulled out sign?

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Speaker 4: Okay, So it's an a frame. So it's an a frame

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Speaker 4: that's standing on our property. So you know, they have

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Speaker 4: the building and then you have the awning like the

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Speaker 4: ceiling of the building, and it's right underneath the ceiling

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Speaker 4: of the building, and it's like it's you know, the

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Speaker 4: wind will move it. It's a wood a frame. It's

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Speaker 4: like a two feet by four feet and you know

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Speaker 4: it's enough. Did someone go and give it a small kick?

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Speaker 4: It will move a little bit and it's not a

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Speaker 4: big deal. So it's the sidewalk over there is like

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Speaker 4: sixteen foot wide. You can drive literally two cars over

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Speaker 4: there instead of people walking there, and it's not a problem.

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Speaker 4: So this guy came one time and say, oh, someone

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Speaker 4: was reporting, and I said, okay, but you say there's

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Speaker 4: no violation, but then you're still here. It'll be eack.

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Speaker 4: But you can just move it a little bit. In

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Speaker 4: like one or two inches. I said, why you say yeah,

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Speaker 4: because it's touching city property. And say, okay, everybody around here,

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Speaker 4: all the homeless people took entire curves over here. They

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Speaker 4: have entire encampments over there, like they're living there. They're

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Speaker 4: doing their needs on the sidewalk, the cooking crystal mets

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Speaker 4: over there, and you care about the one inch the

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Speaker 4: time touching a property of the city. Then I saw that,

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Speaker 4: I got rid of the guy. And then a week

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Speaker 4: after he came back again, and he is from Code

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Speaker 4: Enforcement Investigation, code enforcement for the city of La His

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Speaker 4: name is Lazarro, Pablo Lazarro. And then he can back

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Speaker 4: again and then he tell me, oh, yeah, can you

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Speaker 4: move your sign another inch? I need to take a picture.

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Speaker 4: And I said, you know what, at this point, I'm

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Speaker 4: taking the video for my surveillance and then put it

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Speaker 4: on YouTube. I put it on my YouTube. It's redget

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Speaker 4: five or five, and I send it to the mayor office,

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Speaker 4: and I send it to John Lee's office. And when

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Speaker 4: I talk to John Lee's office and tell them, look,

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Speaker 4: I'm not breaking any laws. I'm not doing anything. And

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Speaker 4: just by my sign is on the floor where I'm

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Speaker 4: conducting a business where nobody else wants to do any business,

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Speaker 4: and everybody shut down and walked away. And I'm still trying.

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Speaker 4: You know what. We borrow so much money during the

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Speaker 4: pandemic that we're still paying huge loans when the city

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Speaker 4: shut us down, and now we have to pay this

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Speaker 4: money back. But the city has a problem that we

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Speaker 4: advertise for this business that initially first produced money for them,

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Speaker 4: because every dollar that we make, they make money from it. Okay,

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Speaker 4: they're making their taxes for me instead of California want

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Speaker 4: their text every four months. It used to be every year,

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Speaker 4: then every six months, every four months. They want to

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Speaker 4: get their taxes. But they don't at the same time

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Speaker 4: that they want their money. They don't want you to

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Speaker 4: advertise your business the way you should. And we're going

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Speaker 4: to appointed like an A frame is a problem, my frame.

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Speaker 1: Your councilman, John Lee.

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Speaker 2: Have you been able to talk to him, because clearly

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Speaker 2: the city is abusing you and carrying out about nonsense

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Speaker 2: and there's there's all kinds of disgusting things going on,

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Speaker 2: not only.

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Speaker 1: In your neighborhood but everywhere. Did have you talked with him?

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Speaker 4: Yes? So I actually called three times and I talked

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Speaker 4: to her one of the assistant her name is, Her

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Speaker 4: name is Katie, and I send her the video and

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Speaker 4: I thought, okay, look this guy cam twice and then

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Speaker 4: I called again. I said, cam four times, and then

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Speaker 4: I called again and I told her, look, he came again.

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Speaker 4: And then he did one one very ridiculous thing. You

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Speaker 4: guys gonna love that. It is a fifth time. But

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Speaker 4: the fifth time it did not actually bother coming. He

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Speaker 4: called me and asked me if I can take a

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Speaker 4: picture to prove where my sign is at. And I thought,

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Speaker 4: I'm not gonna do that. If you want to come,

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Speaker 4: you can come and check it yourself. I'm not gonna

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Speaker 4: say you got pictures so you can market that. You

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Speaker 4: come and inspect another business. And again in the double standards,

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Speaker 4: like the homeless people took over Los Angeles, they don't

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Speaker 4: give anything to society. My business it's called Motor Styles.

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Speaker 4: We are a hobby shop for kids to be able

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Speaker 4: to get in with the parents and get a toy, airplane, car,

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Speaker 4: whatever they want, build it together and do something with

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Speaker 4: the family together. This is what I contribute to the system.

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Speaker 4: And at the same time you have a homeless guy

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Speaker 4: took over the sidewalk because he had problem with drugs

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Speaker 4: that obviously nobody want to address. He don't want to

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Speaker 4: go to work, he don't want to do anything anything.

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Speaker 4: You just live there and the city is okay with it.

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Speaker 4: This is a completely double standard. So they don't pay

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Speaker 4: anything in Texas, They don't contribute to society at all.

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Speaker 4: But they have more rights than I do. So you know,

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Speaker 4: with the years we evolve, our business change from oneing

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Speaker 4: to another. I used to be an air brush company

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Speaker 4: and then all the rules in LA and all the

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Speaker 4: regulation make it that you cannot do this anymore. You

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Speaker 4: cannot do any custom work. So you know, all the

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Speaker 4: major costume companies that you used to walk on the TV,

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Speaker 4: everybody ran away from here, and even the big one,

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Speaker 4: the West Coast Costume, and all those other companies. Everybody

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Speaker 4: was there to shut down or close because the city

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Speaker 4: would not give any permit or keep sending people to

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Speaker 4: give you a ticket. It's going that far that you know.

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Speaker 4: We sell all some motorcycle accessories. So there is those

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Speaker 4: fast gallon jog and someone came and say, oh, we

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Speaker 4: are from the EPA. You're not allowed to sell those containers.

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Speaker 4: And I say, why not they have on them the

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Speaker 4: US roof, and they have on them the green seal

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Speaker 4: and everything you need to say. Oh yeah, you cannot

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Speaker 4: advertise it in a fuel jog. I say, I did

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Speaker 4: not advertise it as a fuel jog, but you guys

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Speaker 4: still come in here.

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Speaker 1: It's it's an empty five gallon container.

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Speaker 4: Yes, it's a plastic container that you can put whatever

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Speaker 4: you want inside. Okay, most people good buy those. It's

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Speaker 4: it's a has met material. It's have on it the

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Speaker 4: O shot sign and everything therefore has met material. So

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Speaker 4: has mat material can be atticant, it can be like oil,

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Speaker 4: and it can do also gasoline. So they decided because

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Speaker 4: it has the very lead u a cup on the

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Speaker 4: top just considered to be like polluting and each time

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Speaker 4: you open it to fill it up, the vapor's gonna

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Speaker 4: kill everybody when it's open. And the guy came and

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Speaker 4: I saw that I got rid of them. So they

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Speaker 4: came and tried to give me tickets and are smart

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Speaker 4: them and told me, yeah, it's an empty container. There

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Speaker 4: is the labels. Leave me alone. Then they called me again.

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Speaker 4: A couple of weeks laid and the guy was trying

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Speaker 4: to to be smart and say Oh, I'm calling about

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Speaker 4: those containers that you have. I wanted to know if

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Speaker 4: if I purchased one, if I can put fuel in it.

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Speaker 4: I told them I cannot recommend to you what to

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Speaker 4: put in it. But next time you call from the

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Speaker 4: E p A, you should hide your telephone number, because

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Speaker 4: your telephone number say EPA on it. And I googled

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Speaker 4: right away the telephone number, and it was amazing because

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Speaker 4: the telephone number that he called form going right away

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Speaker 4: to a website that's showing the tests and telephone number

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Speaker 4: with his picture and his contention at the APA.

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Speaker 2: Is investigating whether you're selling five gallon empty containers?

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Speaker 4: Yes. And then when I called his boss, says, his

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Speaker 4: boss says, like she said, oh yeah, you know, like

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Speaker 4: they came. And then I saw that like we can

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Speaker 4: shut clothes, that this case done. I say, what case?

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Speaker 4: I have like two of those containers at the show

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Speaker 4: for people that want to go through. They can put water,

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Speaker 4: they can put whatever inside. I don't tell them what

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Speaker 4: to put. I'm not responsible they're doing with a plastic container.

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Speaker 4: But again I'm getting disturbed in my daily business on

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Speaker 4: stuff like that. When homeless people go and poor, you know,

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Speaker 4: their r v older sewer going directly to the floor,

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Speaker 4: and this is okay. The pollution. And then now our

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Speaker 4: ocean getting polluted because everything they're pouring into the wash

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Speaker 4: and it's going to the ocean and everything is contaminated.

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Speaker 4: But this is completely okay because they are homeless, so

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Speaker 4: we need to protect them. And and I tell you

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Speaker 4: one more thing. Yeah, I know we're talking about the homeless.

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Speaker 4: They got well, right now, what was it's like one

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Speaker 4: point eight billion dollars for homeless finding the homeless or

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Speaker 4: whatever Karen bes got. If you split the money for

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Speaker 4: the amount of homeless people that like, buy their survey,

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Speaker 4: it's showing about forty six thousand people, and you divide

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Speaker 4: this like one point eight billion dollars, it's about thirty

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Speaker 4: five thousand dollars per person for a year. You want

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Speaker 4: to tell it. For that amount of money, they could

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Speaker 4: not put those people in a nice house with a

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Speaker 4: running sewer and clean them up and put them like

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Speaker 4: to do like something better with society, to go to work.

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Speaker 1: Because they don't want they don't want to help the homeless.

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Speaker 2: That they're all all the all the employees of these

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Speaker 2: homeless agencies are making really good salaries. It's to help themselves,

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Speaker 2: to give themselves.

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Speaker 4: It's always the non profit of telling you that they

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Speaker 4: they will take care of the problem. But at the

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Speaker 4: same time, nobody has investigated them because they busy.

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Speaker 1: We have all right, we understand that we got to go. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we really appreciate you talking to you. Quite a story.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for coming on anytime. That's Eric Air.

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Speaker 3: He owns a business in Granada Hills called Moto Styles

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Speaker 3: and City Code Enforcements. But after him over signage and

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Speaker 3: what barrels and things like that, empty plastic containers. Of course,

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Speaker 3: nothing's being done about homeless encampments every littered everywhere around

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Speaker 3: Johnny kennon KFI AM six.

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Speaker 1: Forty Live Everywhere the iHeartRadio app.

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Speaker 5: You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM six.

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Speaker 2: Forty Live on the radio for one until four and

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Speaker 2: then after four o'clock it's Johnny Ken on demand the podcast,

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Speaker 2: so you can catch up on what you missed.

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Speaker 3: And we have spent a lot of time since the

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Speaker 3: pandemic talking about the ramp and fraud that affected the

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Speaker 3: Employment Development Department, that's California's Unemployment office. Thirty billion plus

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Speaker 3: dollars ripped off from our unemployment system by all sorts

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Speaker 3: of fraudsters, including prisoners and prisoner's friends. We've mentioned this

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Speaker 3: story many times, but now we're going to move to

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Speaker 3: another one that's kind of under the radar, and it

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Speaker 3: comes from a term that has really gotten popular in

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Speaker 3: the last few years. It is the term ghosting. John,

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Speaker 3: you've heard the term ghosting. People say this a lot

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Speaker 3: when with dates or people they know. I got ghosted.

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Speaker 2: H I've heard it with a couple of guys you

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Speaker 2: run restaurants have told me they get ghosted by job applicants.

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Speaker 1: They're hired, but they never show you what's.

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Speaker 3: The loss there, except you feel like you've got the

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Speaker 3: position filled and then you don't.

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Speaker 2: But you're not paying anything like they've been ghosted. It's like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: you start Monday, Monday comes no sign of them.

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Speaker 3: Well, this is about the California community college system and

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Speaker 3: ghost students. You see, colleges are very aggressive and trying

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Speaker 3: to recruit students, and one of the things that's become

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Speaker 3: very popular in the last i don't know, ten years.

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Speaker 3: You see all the commercials you can get your degree online.

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Speaker 3: That's right, you don't have to actually physically come to

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Speaker 3: a classroom, study online, take your tests online, get your

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Speaker 3: diploma online.

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Speaker 2: We have a fake school. We're offering a fake degree online.

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Speaker 3: Well, in this case, they aren't fake schools, they're real

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Speaker 3: community colleges, but the students are fake and it's because

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Speaker 3: the fraudsters are looking for financial aid. The story starts

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Speaker 3: out with a great one manned by the name of

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Speaker 3: Richard Valacenti. He got a check in the mail for

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Speaker 3: fourteen hundred dollars last summer. The US Department of Education

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Speaker 3: notified him the money was a mistake. It was an

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Speaker 3: overpayment of a three thousand dollars PEL grant. He used

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Speaker 3: to attend Saddleback College in Orange County. Well, Valacenti is

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Speaker 3: sixty four years old and he never applied for any

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Speaker 3: pell grants. He's actually a radiation on collegist at UC Davis.

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Speaker 3: He's never even heard of Saddleback College. So they used

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Speaker 3: his personal information to make him a student, a ghost

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Speaker 3: student to apply.

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Speaker 1: For money grant money.

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Speaker 3: That's what the fraudsters are up to, and when you

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Speaker 3: read this story in the San Francisco Chronicle that they

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Speaker 3: get away with this at.

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Speaker 1: An alarmingly high rate.

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Speaker 3: More than four hundred and sixty thousand of the two

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Speaker 3: point three million requests to the California Community College Online

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Speaker 3: Application System since July alone, it's about twenty percent or

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Speaker 3: probably scammers think about that.

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Speaker 1: Those numbers can pile.

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Speaker 2: Up, what's four hundred and sixty thousand times how many dollars?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's a community colleges are required to accept

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Speaker 3: any student in the state with a high school diploma,

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Speaker 3: and a social security number is not required to apply

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Speaker 3: for that.

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Speaker 2: And there you go, because you let in so many

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Speaker 2: illegal aliens, and these stupid progressives say, well, we can't

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Speaker 2: require social security numbers. Not everyone has it's a social

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Speaker 2: security number. That's just not fair. Well, this is what happens,

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Speaker 2: and then they close the schools because of their stupid

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Speaker 2: COVID banic. Look at all the layers of stupid here. Okay, yeah,

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Speaker 2: there's no social security number. COVID shuts down the schools forever, and.

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Speaker 1: Then you're allowed to take.

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Speaker 2: Your course online. Nobody ever has to see your face.

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Speaker 2: You can take your online course. You don't have to

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Speaker 2: have your green on.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, if the fraudsters are human, but they use bots

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Speaker 3: software algorithms to mimic enrolled students. They talked to Kim Rich,

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Speaker 3: a criminal justice instructor at Pierce College near La who

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Speaker 3: says that she's got to ferret out these fake students.

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Speaker 3: She looks for consecutive ID numbers, similar email patterns that

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Speaker 3: don't match student names and birth dates from the sixties

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Speaker 3: and seventies. They indicate that these people are too old

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Speaker 3: for community college. Well, why didn't you make them come

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Speaker 3: in to get their loan? Well, eventually they do. That

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Speaker 3: is that often happens?

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Speaker 1: Yes? Do you think banks do this?

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Speaker 2: You think Bank of America does it for people who

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Speaker 2: want to get a mortgage.

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Speaker 3: The Chancellor's office now requires colleges to send monthly reports

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Speaker 3: of their fake students and administrators. Apparently, in one case

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Speaker 3: at City College in San Francisco, twenty nine bogus students

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Speaker 3: received over twenty two thousand dollars in pelgrants. Administrators just

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Speaker 3: blocked five hundred and five ghost students from this summer's classes,

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Speaker 3: and are more than five forty three hundred suspicious enrollments.

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Speaker 3: More than ten percent were probably a fake.

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Speaker 2: Students, and how many got through? They're only talking about

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Speaker 2: the ones that they that they caught, right, But there's

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Speaker 2: probably hundreds and thousands that that blew through.

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Speaker 3: So this Pierce College story, this woman had two eight

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Speaker 3: week classes that were supposed to begin on April tenth.

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Speaker 3: Each were filled with forty students by early March, so

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Speaker 3: she was asked to teach another. It filled up in

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Speaker 3: a week. She was kind of shocked after she analyzed

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Speaker 3: her three rosters. Enrollment in one class dropped from forty

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Speaker 3: to twenty nine and another down to twenty two, and

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Speaker 3: the last of just two students started out the fame.

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Speaker 1: It was the same bots right.

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Speaker 2: Well, one department eliminated eighty ghost students and another eighty

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Speaker 2: showed up within an hour.

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Speaker 1: Eighty ghosts an hour.

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Speaker 3: Total enrollment at Pearce was at seventy seven hundred before

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Speaker 3: the college's eight week classes began this spring. By the

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Speaker 3: time instructors cleared the ghosts, enrollment was down to just

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Speaker 3: under five thousand.

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Speaker 1: Just like that.

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Speaker 2: So like a third of the enrollment was fake and

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Speaker 2: they were looking for money.

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Speaker 3: Well, you can see how easy this is to do

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Speaker 3: this because you're just doing this all by remote.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, explications, So why did't you end all that?

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Speaker 2: How about you want to enroll and you want money,

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Speaker 2: then you have to show up, and you show up

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Speaker 2: and we want to see ID and we want your fingerprint.

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Speaker 1: Well, some have.

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Speaker 3: Rules you have to show up at least once to

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Speaker 3: the class, because that would defeat the point of recruiting

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Speaker 3: more students who can who can't get to the college

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Speaker 3: because they have jobs or whatever, so they want to

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Speaker 3: work on their own time. We're stealing the idea of

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Speaker 3: people who are sixty five years old.

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Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that's what he did, right, he took this

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Speaker 1: guy's identity.

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Speaker 2: Right, So when you have to show up, then okay,

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Speaker 2: that scam is toast. There's no way around it once

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Speaker 2: you need real bodies to show up in class. That's

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Speaker 2: the whole bureaucracy in California, from top to bottom, is

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Speaker 2: stupid and lazy, and they don't care about all this

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Speaker 2: money that gets blown out.

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Speaker 1: It's just nobody cares start stupid tax money.

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Speaker 3: Well, apparently some of the college people interviewed here, the

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Speaker 3: stressls are trying to define the master.

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Speaker 2: Yes, the professor cares because she has a class scheduled

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Speaker 2: for eighty kids and now there's two or something like that,

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Speaker 2: So yeah, she cares.

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Speaker 1: But the people who.

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Speaker 2: Set up the system, they don't think for five minutes, like, well,

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Speaker 2: what's gonna happen if we never require a human being

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Speaker 2: to engage with us personally, what's gonna happen? You're giving

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Speaker 2: away free money. I mean, it's obvious, especially after the

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Speaker 2: Edd scandal where they blew thirty billion dollars on all

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Speaker 2: the worldwide fraudsters. Of course, this goes on constantly, all day,

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Speaker 2: all night. There are thousands, hundreds of thousands of people

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Speaker 2: around the planet. We're scamming one program or another. All right,

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Speaker 2: we got more coming up.

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Speaker 3: John and Ken KFI A M six forty were live

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Speaker 3: everywhere the iHeartRadio app.

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Speaker 5: You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI AM

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Speaker 5: six forty.

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Speaker 2: AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. And

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Speaker 2: the iHeart app is where you can hear the Johnny

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Speaker 2: kennon demand podcast.

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Speaker 1: And you know, this is kind of a two parter.

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Speaker 3: We did a story that was run in the San

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Speaker 3: Francisco Chronicle entitled how ghost students are applying to colleges

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Speaker 3: to steal financial aid. We talked a lot that during

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Speaker 3: the pandemic people were stealing unemployment money. But what also

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Speaker 3: started and got bigger during the pandemic was stealing community

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Speaker 3: college aid money by what they call using ghost students.

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Speaker 3: That is, they would probably collect the name and some

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Speaker 3: identifying information of real people, but stick them in there

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Speaker 3: as prospective community college students and then apply for financial aid.

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Speaker 1: Which would get diverted to the fraudster.

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Speaker 3: It says here, although the state software has caught more

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Speaker 3: than half of fraudulent mission applications in July, it's still

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Speaker 3: left about two hundred thousand sham applications. The pelgrant is

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Speaker 3: the most common. It's a federal college subsidy for needy students,

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Speaker 3: and fraudsters love to try to steal that money.

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Speaker 1: We're going to talk to somebody reached out to us

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Speaker 1: because she's.

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Speaker 3: Mentioned in the article. Kim Rich is a criminal justice

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Speaker 3: instructor at Pierce College to Community College in Woodland Hills,

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Speaker 3: and she apparently is an expert at identifying these fake

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Speaker 3: students in her online classes. And of course that's the

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Speaker 3: other part of this. If the student is online, they

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Speaker 3: don't necessarily show up in front of you in the classroom.

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Speaker 3: It would be easier for them to be a ghost.

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Speaker 3: Let's get Kim on the show and talk more about this.

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Speaker 1: Kim how are you great? How are you good?

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Speaker 6: Thanks?

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Speaker 2: Thanks for coming on. All right, explain what you've seen

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Speaker 2: from your post at Pierce College.

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Speaker 6: Well, this really started basically a couple of years ago,

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Speaker 6: and the pandemic was really the catalyst for allowing this

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Speaker 6: to happen. Obviously, financial aid fraud has been around forever,

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Speaker 6: but you know, being online really enabled them to take

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Speaker 6: advantage of the situation. And also the free flowing money

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Speaker 6: that our government's been handing out also didn't, you know,

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Speaker 6: really help this cause. And in California you can apply

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Speaker 6: to one or one hundred and sixteen of our California

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Speaker 6: community colleges all through one portal, and so this made

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Speaker 6: it even easier for these criminals to access all of

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Speaker 6: our colleges community colleges and to be able to apply

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Speaker 6: to them and roll in them and then be able

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Speaker 6: to apply for and obtain financial aid.

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Speaker 2: So you could use dozens of names and apply to

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Speaker 2: dozens of colleges and get dozens of grant checks.

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Speaker 6: Yes you can.

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Speaker 3: What does it mean in terms of paying tuition or

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Speaker 3: anything else that they have to do?

438
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:18,000
Speaker 1: I mean, does the money come that quickly to them?

439
00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:23,640
Speaker 6: It says, And basically they've been able to use some

440
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:27,440
Speaker 6: kind of algorithm. I am not tech savvy in that sense,

441
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:32,600
Speaker 6: but they've been able to basically have these spots, you know,

442
00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:38,640
Speaker 6: just constantly applying and are enrolling in these courses. And

443
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,840
Speaker 6: for instance, in my one class that you know has

444
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:45,800
Speaker 6: a cap enrollment of forty, thirty eight of them ended

445
00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 6: up being fake students. So thirty eight enrolled in this class,

446
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:56,040
Speaker 6: and so they were able to if they who knows

447
00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,640
Speaker 6: if they actually ended up getting financial aid or not.

448
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,919
Speaker 6: I don't have access to that data, but they could have.

449
00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:06,280
Speaker 6: Otherwise there's no point of them being enrolled in a class.

450
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 6: They're not there to get an education. They don't even exist.

451
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:13,399
Speaker 6: They're not real people. So they have the opportunity to

452
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:18,200
Speaker 6: receive financial aid if they, you know, have that timeframe

453
00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 6: where they can capture that financial aid and basically get

454
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:22,520
Speaker 6: away with it.

455
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:23,600
Speaker 1: What are they using.

456
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:27,200
Speaker 3: They're using real people's names and some sort of identifying data.

457
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:28,000
Speaker 1: Is that what they use?

458
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:34,919
Speaker 6: Yeah, they're obviously using real people's information. Back when I

459
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:39,960
Speaker 6: first detected this in summer of twenty twenty one, there

460
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:45,800
Speaker 6: were in my course then I had found several instances

461
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 6: of identity stuff where they had been using people's information

462
00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:55,000
Speaker 6: from throughout the country, even using people who were deceased.

463
00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:59,360
Speaker 6: They were using their images and all of their data

464
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 6: that I I was able to find on the internet.

465
00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:06,400
Speaker 3: Is this because you're a criminal justice instructor you really

466
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 3: made a point to try to track these down.

467
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:14,720
Speaker 6: No, I just wanted to basically see how they were

468
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:19,720
Speaker 6: coming upon using these images that were in the online class.

469
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,560
Speaker 6: The images were kind of one of the reasons that

470
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 6: I want these do not look like normal students images

471
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 6: that they would use as an avatar in their class.

472
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:33,160
Speaker 6: They definitely looked like they were something from the internet.

473
00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 3: I was going to ask for your techniques and trying

474
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 3: to ferret out these these fake students.

475
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 1: Is that what do you usually do? What are you

476
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:41,600
Speaker 1: looking for?

477
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,560
Speaker 6: It's not really necessarily a technique, not something that I

478
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:48,920
Speaker 6: would say, hey, you know, this is what you should

479
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:50,160
Speaker 6: do look for ABCD.

480
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:51,760
Speaker 1: It's just a.

481
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:55,399
Speaker 6: Lot of times something that jumps out to me, things

482
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:59,920
Speaker 6: that I see in common that are not normal, or say,

483
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:05,240
Speaker 6: things that are irregular. Now there's kind of becoming more

484
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:09,920
Speaker 6: of a system. You'll see obviously strange things in the names.

485
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:12,960
Speaker 6: You'll see you know, the first name the last name

486
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:17,200
Speaker 6: are similar or they're the same identical first name and

487
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:22,160
Speaker 6: last name on the rosters. Oftentimes you'll see them using

488
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:29,639
Speaker 6: characters or even numbers in their name. Sometimes their names

489
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:35,040
Speaker 6: are actually very interesting. They'll actually have like a little

490
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:39,240
Speaker 6: sentence is actually part of the name. They come up

491
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:43,639
Speaker 6: with all unique things just to get into class, hoping

492
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:47,280
Speaker 6: that people won't catch it. And if they get on

493
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:52,119
Speaker 6: the roster and the class begins, that means many people

494
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 6: before it gets to the instructor have not caught that

495
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 6: because they have been on the roster and rolls in

496
00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 6: a class for quite some time, that somebody should have

497
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 6: caught it and had them.

498
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,560
Speaker 2: Going back to that class where you had forty people enrolled,

499
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 2: thirty eight of them were fake. How did you figure

500
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,199
Speaker 2: this out? Did you have thirty eight bots on the

501
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 2: first day of class staring at you from the screen.

502
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:24,119
Speaker 6: My class is not a live class, so they have

503
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:28,200
Speaker 6: basically a week to complete the work that I assigned

504
00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:33,000
Speaker 6: to them. But there's built in assignments where I can

505
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:38,120
Speaker 6: basically read out if a person is real or not. However,

506
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 6: there are some tail tell signs where I basically determined

507
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:49,199
Speaker 6: that the majority of them were fake. Like nobody except

508
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 6: for a handful of them actually lodged into the class,

509
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:55,920
Speaker 6: So that's kind of.

510
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:57,480
Speaker 1: There's a tip off right there.

511
00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:02,359
Speaker 2: Well, they don't exist, so they're not going to lie, yeah, exactly.

512
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:07,439
Speaker 6: And you know, I was not the only professor at

513
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 6: the college that this happened to. I believe mine was

514
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 6: the lowest enrollment, but there were other faculty who had

515
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:24,320
Speaker 6: numbers below ten, even below five where these classes were

516
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:27,639
Speaker 6: full at one point in time up too close to

517
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:33,119
Speaker 6: a month before the classes began. And this should have

518
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:37,719
Speaker 6: been caught way before the semester began, and they weren't.

519
00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:42,960
Speaker 6: And the enrollment at the college for specifically these late

520
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 6: start classes dropped close to three thousand students just for

521
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 6: these late start online classes. And that's a big drop

522
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,320
Speaker 6: in enrollment just for that time period.

523
00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:00,280
Speaker 3: Where do they is the money paid, if you know,

524
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 3: the grant money. Is it paid by check or direct

525
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 3: deposit or how do these scammers get it sent to them?

526
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 3: They figure out some sort of scheme there.

527
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 6: So in the I guess you would call it the

528
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:15,320
Speaker 6: old days actually really just only pre pandemic. Most of

529
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:17,240
Speaker 6: the time you would go to the business office, show

530
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 6: your ID, you would get a check pay for you know,

531
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:25,760
Speaker 6: obviously your tuition books, and then obviously some of the

532
00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 6: money is used for expenses, living expenses. Now it goes

533
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:34,479
Speaker 6: through basically what you mentioned a direct deposit system, and

534
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 6: there is I guess you could call it maybe a

535
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 6: intermediate program platform. It's called bank Mobile and the contract

536
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 6: where I believe approximately one third of the colleges throughout

537
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:53,440
Speaker 6: the United States. And so once the college receives the

538
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 6: money and takes their portion from what I have researched

539
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:03,200
Speaker 6: and read, it goes into the bank Mobile account and

540
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 6: then the real students or the criminals can access bank

541
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 6: Mobile and request that money be sent to their own

542
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:18,480
Speaker 6: personal account, and then they have access to the funds.

543
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 3: Well, Kim, thank you so much for coming on. We're

544
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:23,880
Speaker 3: glad you heard we were talking about this story and

545
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:25,239
Speaker 3: we enjoyed talking to you.

546
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 1: Appreciate it.

547
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 6: Thank you very much, appreciate your time.

548
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 3: That's Kim Rich, a criminal justice instructor at Los Angeles

549
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:36,000
Speaker 3: is Pierce College. It's in Woodland Hills, and she, among

550
00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 3: many other community college instructors, they have to spend some

551
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:42,000
Speaker 3: of their time looking for ghost students, fake students but

552
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 3: who will apply for financial aid. Didn't want to rip

553
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:49,120
Speaker 3: off the system, Johnny Ken KFIAM six forty Live Everywhere

554
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:50,160
Speaker 3: the iHeartRadio app.

555
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:55,480
Speaker 5: You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM

556
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 5: six forty.

557
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,840
Speaker 3: Well, when I see this story, I can only think

558
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 3: of Deborah Mark. I am going to ask Trouble Coming

559
00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:11,360
Speaker 3: program director Robin Bertle who she took. Please send our

560
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,360
Speaker 3: ace reporter Deborah Mark to Iceland so she can be

561
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:19,120
Speaker 3: part of eight hundred earthquakes case she don't know they

562
00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 3: are on the brink of another volcanic irruption in that country.

563
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:26,040
Speaker 1: And would like to throw you into the volcano.

564
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:28,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd like to hear her live on the air

565
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 3: when it's rattling and rolling and shaking, and then the

566
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 3: volcano goes off and she's running from lava.

567
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 2: Nice, that doesn't work that way. That's just fantasy running

568
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 2: from hot lava.

569
00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 1: What's funny, though, is is if she does go to Iceland,

570
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:48,520
Speaker 1: the volcano probably will erupt. She went to London and

571
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:50,440
Speaker 1: the queen died. She was supposed to go to Israel,

572
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:52,960
Speaker 1: and then war broke out and you killed the queen

573
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: and started a war. And then I went to Maine

574
00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 1: and then we had that.

575
00:31:56,160 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 2: Shoot, a massacre broke out.

576
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:02,600
Speaker 4: I know.

577
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:08,880
Speaker 3: Wow, this is one of the most volcanically unstable places

578
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 3: on Earth, is Iceland. I went there in twenty eighteen,

579
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 3: had a nice visit.

580
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,120
Speaker 1: And you brought me Vegan soapback. I still remember that.

581
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:16,040
Speaker 1: That was very nice of you.

582
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 3: If you like geological sites, it's quite the place to go.

583
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:22,880
Speaker 3: I mean between you know, all the hot springs and

584
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 3: all the volcanoes and everything like that. It's fascinating. They've

585
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 3: filmed many shows and movies there.

586
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:33,320
Speaker 2: All that geological violence makes for beautiful landscapes.

587
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:37,200
Speaker 3: It is violence is a good word for it. They're

588
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:40,920
Speaker 3: particularly concerned about the Grindevic, thirty five miles from the

589
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:46,520
Speaker 3: capital of Raykevic. They've emptied the town and they closed

590
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 3: down the big tourist attraction which I also went to,

591
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 3: the Blue Lagoon hot spring.

592
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:51,760
Speaker 1: Oh, it's like a massive hot tub. John.

593
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,760
Speaker 3: You was just love it. But it's more natural than

594
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:58,720
Speaker 3: But they closed it because it's too close to the

595
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:04,240
Speaker 3: problems in what's what's the probability that it's going to blow?

596
00:33:04,320 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 3: Doesn't say anywhere because very high. Oh it's very high.

597
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:09,440
Speaker 3: So this is not everyone believes it's likely to happen.

598
00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:12,600
Speaker 3: Do you remember This happened in twenty ten and they

599
00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 3: had to divert air traffic from yesp yes, you remember that.

600
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 3: A series of major eruptions. If this is I can't

601
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:24,440
Speaker 3: pronounce these Icelandic. Yeah, there's you got the collision of

602
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:30,280
Speaker 3: too many consonants. Yes it is osily, there's a's in there, but.

603
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:32,600
Speaker 1: They don't really help me. Doesn't help. No.

604
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:36,520
Speaker 2: Well, if there's a big eruption, though, it'll have a

605
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 2: global cooling effect the way Mount Saint Helen's hold the

606
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 2: earth for a couple of years.

607
00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 1: So everybody will stop crying about Yeah.

608
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, Temperatures will go down because the volcanic soot in

609
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 2: the air, the ash will reflect or block the sunlight,

610
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 2: and so things will chill a little bit down below here.

611
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 2: Oh wow, Yeah, so I'm rooting for a big eruption

612
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:00,880
Speaker 2: because this will shut a lot of people up.

613
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:05,400
Speaker 3: Overnight Wednesday, eight hundred earthquakes were measured, most of them

614
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,600
Speaker 3: at what they call a magma dyke. It's something called

615
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:11,719
Speaker 3: something at a depth of three to five kilometers, which

616
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 3: is about three miles. Now, listen, you missed out on

617
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:14,879
Speaker 3: your vacation this year.

618
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:18,160
Speaker 1: You know what Iceland is top on my list? Okay, Canon,

619
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:20,160
Speaker 1: Chilli there right now, I'm going to go.

620
00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:21,759
Speaker 2: Now I didn't ask Ken about this, but I'm going

621
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:23,000
Speaker 2: out and go out and the limb because I think

622
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,840
Speaker 2: he would donate if Canon I paid for the trip.

623
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:29,319
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd go, I would go. I would do. I'd

624
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:32,520
Speaker 1: go in the summer. No, no, no, no, no, no, that's right. Well,

625
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:35,120
Speaker 1: don't get the whole thing here, We'll do.

626
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,440
Speaker 2: Look, we'll do the five star hotel, first class plane,

627
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:39,600
Speaker 2: all meals.

628
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 1: All right, fine, sold. You have to sit there until

629
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:45,360
Speaker 1: the volcano goes. No, I need to I need to

630
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 1: be inside'd be too cold.

631
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:51,520
Speaker 2: I'll go and I'll do my travel and I'll sight

632
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:52,960
Speaker 2: see and then I need to come back in.

633
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: I'm not going to stay outside. That's crazy. So you

634
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 1: have to watch the volcano and then thank you for

635
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,280
Speaker 1: your very generous offer. But I guess I'll have to pass.

636
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 1: You can go to the hotel at night.

637
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:09,319
Speaker 3: This is a very very volcanic active area of the world.

638
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:12,399
Speaker 3: When I visited there, they told us that, and they

639
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 3: talked about that twenty ten volcanic eruption magma comes close

640
00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:21,680
Speaker 3: to the surface in Iceland, the volcanic hotspot. All right,

641
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:25,000
Speaker 3: Johnny kenkf I AM six forty Live everywhere iHeartRadio App.

642
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,320
Speaker 1: Don't say we ever offered you something really nice? Yeah? Oh,

643
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:30,320
Speaker 1: come on the summertime.

644
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:32,879
Speaker 3: Johnny KENKFI AM six forty Live Everywhere iHeartRadio App.

645
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:35,840
Speaker 2: Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast.

646
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:38,400
Speaker 2: You can always hear the show live on KFI AM

647
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,400
Speaker 2: six forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,

648
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,720
Speaker 2: and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app