How to Identify Today's Smartest Scams
This is a YouTube video titled "How to Identify Today's Smartest Scams" created in January 2023. It features a conversational podcast-style discussion with multiple speakers including Matt Ryder, Patrick Bet-David, and Sam. The participants discuss various topics related to scams, fraud history, crypto scams, and personal anecdotes, blending humor and insight into the nature of scams both past and present.
Hey, guys, what's up? Welcome back to another episode of Coffee is for Closers. We are here for the first time a little bit. How was your New Year's when I was with you? So I know exactly.
My son wanted to stay up till midnight. I agreed. We tried to do that. My wife found us asleep on the couch before 10pm.
We just pretended like there was nothing going on and put the kids to bed like normal.
Yeah.
And then figured out if they got woken up by the fireworks. The pop up.
Yeah.
They didn't.
Yeah.
Perfect. So we went to bed.
Yeah.
Perfect way to spend years.
Beautiful.
Yeah. Yeah.
I actually got a message from a friend of mine. He's like, Finn, family friend. He's like 21.
Yeah.
And he was like, at a big house party and he like sent me this photo of like chicks and he was like, I'll send you the address. You'll come. Like, as much as I love hanging out with you, I couldn't think of anything worse.
Yeah.
I'm at home on the couch watching Emily in Paris.
Yeah. Yeah.
I. I've been anti New Year stuff for a long time. I think that truth is, you know, back when we used to party, like, I couldn't imagine anything worse than going out partying these days. But when I did, I did it all the time. And so what happens on New Year's is a bunch of dangerous people who really aren't going out. Yeah. Aren't used to being drunk and can't handle themselves.
Yeah.
And also think that there's some kind of magic reset. Two stupid things. So it's dangerous.
I don't like going out on you.
I had the bejesus kicked out of me when I was like 15 or 16 on New Year's.
Like, what was her name?
Oh, dude. It was. It was a. It was. It was the first time in my life that I was set upon by a rogue group of children that beat the out of me.
The second. Ex special forces sniper turned entrepreneur. I've scaled numerous businesses to eight figures. My name is Matt Ryder. This is podcast and I'm telling you to put that coffee down.
The second time things went differently. But I too was a child.
Sweeter than punching a 12 year old.
I too was a child the first time around and had the kicked out of me, like all my teeth knocked out. It was a disaster.
Really?
Yeah. Yeah.
Me and Tindle trying to put them back in ambulance, the whole lot. It was a disaster. Over like a case of beers or something. I was. It wasn't even Mine, I was just the wrong. I was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Same as what happened the second guys.
Who look similar to the other guys are friends.
But it went very differently the second time around.
We can tell if we start a Patreon, we can touch.
It turns out as a 15 year old kid being set upon by 30 to 4015 year old kids, I don't do so well. But as a 25 year old man with a couple of combat deployments under my belt being set upon by a group of 15 year old kids, things go very differently.
Yeah, 15 year old, they look big, but they're very, very spindly. You know, they're light like birds. Hollow bones.
That was a wild day.
That is.
All right.
Hey, stuff.
Yeah.
We're talking about scams. Scams, it's one of the favorite things. There's so many around.
I just want to talk about like, because today I think in this day and age, you know, we like, I think the scammers have gone hyper obvious.
Yeah.
Because you can. Because you can just Google.
Yeah.
So they, they want to get rid of all the people that have. Oh, well that sounds a bit odd. So now they just only want to deal with, I don't know, like the.
For sure they've narrowed the funnel. For sure they've narrowed the funnel. They like. I think that the, you know, the, the, what do you call it? The workflow has now determined. Let's put the obvious scammy stuff early.
Yeah.
To weed people out early. So we don't waste any time. You don't want people going like, I.
Think, you know, I think it's turning though.
Really.
Friend of mine called me of the day in the States. His mother got scammed by someone who deep faked his voice. Oh wow. From his podcast.
Oh, wow.
So they took all the audio, put it through an AI generator. Deep faked his voice and caught his mother and tried to like with the exact voice of him, like just from. I just had to call you from friends number. Like, can you send money to my account? Yeah, here's the details.
Wow, bro, that's a good one.
Yeah, I actually ended up. I messaged my parents, my wife, I messaged on the group chat.
Right.
And I said like, hey, this is happening now. So the name of our first pet will be the like the weird word if you think this is odd. And my wife goes, oh, Sally. Are we using Sally? Hey, Internet. Unsecured Internet devices. Anyway, we've changed it.
Yeah.
So as a family now have a full ISO Prep.
Yeah. I mean, like, if, like, there's just.
Kind of have to.
There's so much video of you and me and what, like, out there that you could deep fake anything?
Yeah, yeah.
Easily so.
Yeah. Yeah.
Anything I say that is not correct has been deep faked.
Yeah. Yeah.
If it's controversial causes problems could get me canceled. It wasn't me.
It wasn't me.
Yeah.
Shaggy, The Shaggy defense.
It wasn't me.
Holds up in court.
Yeah. Yeah.
All right, that'll be that. First case will be interesting.
Yeah, yeah.
It wasn't me.
It just wasn't.
Shaggy comes in. It wasn't me.
So scams. They're rife. They're everywhere.
They are.
And turns out that's not new.
No, but I mean, they were so much more beautiful back in the day.
Carry on. Tell us about.
So I was just like. I was just going over. I was like, what is some interesting things? And I was thinking about, like, I never really read into it, but I know there was a guy that sold the Brooklyn brick.
Okay.
He didn't just sell it once.
Okay.
He sold it a few times. So I went to look into him. And his name, name is George C. Parker. And he was like a fully blown grifter back in, like, the. Like the early. Like the late 19th and early 20th century.
Okay.
And so what was happening was there were tons of immigrants coming to New York. New York specifically was called the Golden Doors and, you know, Ellis Island. All that kind of shit coming through. And so there was, like, all these, like, hyper, vulnerable people. But there was also people, like, coming in with tons of money who were looking to, you know, like. Yes. Their claim and invest. And so what this guy would do is he would just sell real estate that he didn't own.
Yep.
Well, I mean, isn't that what everyone was doing in the early days in the U.S. yeah.
Yeah.
Isn't that what early.
Everybody was selling things they didn't own.
Exactly. To be fair, that goes back a long way. But so what he would do is he would just create these elaborate ruses where he would just sell. And then he got really, really bold and he sold the Brooklyn Bridge twice.
Who's buying a bridge? What do you want?
I mean, just. Why not? So I think it was this. I think it was going back, like, from trying to envision the situation. This is what I thought was funny about it was like, how does that sales chat go? And I don't know how you sell the bridge. I assume it was the naming rights.
Okay. Right.
Like, I put A toll on there.
Hey, Patrick.
You've got money.
Yeah.
Let's talk about your problems. What don't you have?
I don't have a bridge named after.
Well, here we are.
Well, let's.
Yeah.
The Pat. The Pat Memorial.
Oh, whoa, whoa.
Yeah.
I'm gonna kill you. Obviously, I'm gonna take your money. I'm gonna kill you, too. Like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I just thought it was an interesting thing because I was, like. It was like selling scams, like, with penny stocks and, you know, pump and dumps and, like, selling, like, scams like that. I can. I can sort of understand. Like, you're just, like, fulfilling a pain point need for money. And those are just so easy and, like, pedestrian. In my opinion, like, a scam is the easiest thing to sell. Like, if you get someone who's crushing it selling a scam, like, you put them on something legit, they'll probably struggle because, like. Like, the golden goose at the end. There is no golden goose. Like, unfortunately. Usually you have to, like, work hard.
Yeah.
That's why passive income, I think, is a kind of funny one, you know?
Yeah.
Like what. What is passive?
Yeah, I think there's degrees to passive. Right. You hear people talk about, like, your Amazon shop or whatever being passive. I think even real estate is not passive. There's work to do, man. Like, you have to manage that property and you can put someone in there.
That.
That is that for sure. But there's still questions to answer. Like, there's not it. I. I don't. I'm always very skeptical of anything that says that it's passive income.
Yeah.
Like, I think the whole, like, in the. In, like, the entirety of crypto is a scam.
But so is money.
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
And that's. That's the thing. It was really funny. Like, I think, actually, Andrew Tate. If I say Andrew Tate enough times, this thing will go viral. Andrew Tate. Andrew Tate. Andrew Tate. If you say him three times in the mirror, then you get canceled. Daddy.
Andrew.
Yeah.
So I was like. He actually, I think, said it best. He was like, crypto is just player versus player.
Mm.
It's not anything but gambling. So it's like you're just across the table from somebody else and you're trying to figure out when you can buy and when you can sell. Because, like, if you're going to sell high, somebody's buying high, and then they're going to get fucked. You see this big Logan Paul scheme happening at the moment?
No. Oh, bro.
So a couple years ago, he and this is like, this is pretty sales, like, because he has such tremendous reach and such trust, which I think is gone now. I think he's legit. Fuck distrust because he's done like five pump and dumps now, but he seems to get away with it every time. But now Coffeezilla did a massive expose, like a three part in depth expose on a thing he did about a year, year and a half ago called Crypto Zoo.
Okay? Right.
And Crypto Zoo is not dissimilar than like this guy is selling the fucking Eiffel Tower or whatever or selling, you know what I mean? Because the guy sold the Eiffel Tower three times, right? Actually twice. He has a really funny story, I'll tell you about it afterwards, but about how he got to sell the Eiffel Tower. It's fucking great. Just the scams, bro, the scams. But so like this guy's scams is basically a crypto scam. It's like a money printing scam, right? So he goes, I'm gonna start a game. And he kept saying, it's a game, it's really fun and you make some money, right? It's great for kids. It's great for kids, Pat. Great for kids. And he never, he would say, like our developers, kids can't stop playing it. They're having a fucking great time. They never even made the fucking game.
Right, right.
And so what they did is they, they made a crypto Zoo token. And if you do a pre sale, the FTC gets involved.
Okay.
The moment you pre sell anything, it's like you're under the SEC guidelines, right, of pre sale laws. Like, like I can't go, hey Pat, I'm doing a pre sale, like, and then like give it to my friends and family. Like, I can't do that. There are regulations around it because that's like insider trading. But if I do a fan, if I do a silent launch, okay, Like I don't tell anybody that I'm launching it and then I just launch a crypto token. Then I can just, you guys can just Google buy it.
Yeah.
So it's a loophole.
Okay, Right.
So it's not a pre sale. It is officially launched, but I can only tell the people that I'm interested in.
Where are you going to find it?
Yeah, yeah.
So they did a priest, they did a, they did a launch, like a, a silent launch and they just bought up, like they only bought up like a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of this token, right? And then from there they did the official launch yeah. Which obviously everybody else comes in and buy and they made $200 million in a day.
Oh my God. Right.
Because everybody else is buying and they're.
Just dumping who's selling. Yeah, right. Like they're selling their stock of it. And then the whole plan was like, there's this game where you can earn these tokens and then you can cash out.
Right.
And it was called Crypto Zoo because what it was is like you got like NFTs, of course, that were like, of an animal, like a gorilla.
Right, right.
And then you get another one of a cat and then you can combine them to make like gorilla kitty.
Oh my God. I.
And the rarer the combination, the more valuable the nft, of course. And then you can sell that and you could become a millionaire.
It does sound fun.
It does sound fun.
Right, right.
Kids love it. You should get them into it.
Right.
And so, and then like, so they did this launch and they just never launched the game. And then they just kind of went.
So people are like, I got my tokens. I can't wait to play this game. Yeah, it's going to be so much fun.
And I can't wait to mint my NFTs and then like trade them for money and. And become a crypto millionaire.
Right.
And this never did it.
Right.
Just never did it. And everyone paid the developers, like as a whole thing and just kind of got swept under the rug. You know, he went and fought Floyd Mayweather. Everyone forgot Happy Days.
I think that is, you know, like part of the role of Internet personalities is controversy. Right. So you. The best way to get out of one controversy is start a new one.
Yeah.
Like, don't look over there. I'm doing something stupid and illegal over here.
Yeah, don't worry.
Don't worry about what?
Hello, guys.
Don't worry about that little guy. Yeah, I'm a go fight Floyd Mayweather. Oh, that's heaps more interesting. And like people just focus their attention somewhere else.
Yeah, just wave your hands.
So how does he get away with this stuff? No one cares.
Is people lost a lot of money.
Yeah. So is someone coming after him individually or is there a government department?
Like, what is like with that one in particular? I don't think anything illegal was done.
Yeah.
Because like they did, they didn't do a pre sale. They didn't. A silent launch. They. They launched the token. They bought that token on the open market. They sold their tokens on the open market. Like, there's nothing illegal about that. It's just shitty.
I just Think that it catches up with you at some point?
Oh, for sure, bro. Someone's gonna kill that guy.
Yeah.
Like, have I ever told you a story about the guy with the dog thing? Tell you about that? How am I going to tell this story online? So I met this guy who was a bikie and a bikie friend of mine introduced. I was at his house and this other guy came over and it was very uncomfortable. It was a tattoo shop thing, right? And they're trying to like, involve me in the conversation. And they're like, this guy, I won't say his name, he's into dogs. You should talk to him about dogs. I'm like, oh, yeah, okay. And he goes, yeah, I got six dogs. I'm like, oh yeah, cool. Kind of dogs are like, they are these badass shepherds. I'm like, oh yeah, mate, they're fucking killers. Blah, blah, blah. I'm like, oh yeah, that's cool. He has no one get into my house. They're dangerous. I'll kill you. I've got them chained out. I'm like, but you get in the house, right? Like you can walk through. And he goes, yeah, yeah, they're on these chains. I said, so, like, it's not really a very good security system because, like.
If you can do it, if there's.
A way, like, I get that It's a deterrent and 90 of security is perceived and it's all about deterrence. But like, as a dog expert, if you're interested in my opinion. And he was like, clearly not. I was like, oh, just get one dog. Just have one and take it everywhere with you. And the thing about dogs kill someone.
Yeah.
And I was like, the thing about dogs are they're really not very difficult to defeat, especially in like a home setting. So, like, a dog will for sure stop a crime of opportunity, right? Because you. If there's a house with a dog and one without, and I'm just going to rob a house, I choose the one without. Why not, right? Seems crazy. But if I'm coming to get you and I'm planning, the dog won't even slow me down, right? Like, he stake over here. He will add 30 seconds to my. My plan. Well, I'd wear botsuit. Like, I would just like if you.
Knew there was a dog.
Yeah, if I'm coming in to get you and I know you have dogs, I'll wear a buttsuit. And like, they're not hard to buy. I can buy them online now. And like, it won't slow me down. At all. I won't even have to injure your dog.
Okay.
I can't buy a bite suit.
I'll wear a bite sleeve.
I bought every bite suit.
I'll wear a bite sleeve, and I'll bring a collar and a leash. I'll let the dog bite the sleeve. I'll put the collar on the dog, and I' hi the leash.
Have a great time.
Yeah. And then I'll say, good boy, and I'll. I'll say, good boy, and I'll walk off. And he's like, man, I told you I have six dogs. I was like, yeah, I get it. And I still think one that can go places with you and likes you and would choose to defend you would choose to do that, I think is probably a better move than six.
He's like, mate, I have six dogs.
And they're chained up at home. You can't take them anywhere.
Right?
Like, where are they now? Anyway, that was on a Sunday. He got shot dead on Tuesday by his Tyler because he didn't pay him. Dude walked straight up to him, shot him in the head in the street.
And should have had a dog.
Well, it shows because he was a proper underworld dude and he probably had plenty of people that he ripped off him, whatever. But it was his Tyler. He backed into a corner. The Tyler was just like, hey, man. Like, I have nothing.
You've. You.
You didn't pay me for the job that I've done.
And he had E or.
It was a huge gig.
Yeah.
It wasn't like he did his bathroom. Like, it was a whole big thing. Go into jail for it. Like, he. He was like, I have nothing left. You've taken everything from me. I have nothing left to lose. And if I'm gonna go to jail and have my three meals a day, because that's the only place I can afford to do it. Yeah, yeah, I'll do it for shooting you. And just walk straight up to him, shot him in the street. And so I always. That's, like, been a formative thing. Whenever I hear of people ripping people off, I'm like, eventually, you rip off that Tyler.
Yeah.
Because he was not a guy in the criminal underworld. He doesn't apparently abide by the rules of that. Whatever.
Yeah.
He was just a dude that got backed into a corner and was like, well, this is like, is it? I'm so. You're as well.
Yeah.
And like, I always think of that whenever I hear of people ripping people off, I always think, oh, like, eventually you rip off one of those People.
I think you said it best. You don't have anxiety opening your emails.
Oh, no way.
The worst. Just make less money.
100.
Yeah, 100.
I had that conversation with tons of people. It's like, I'll just make less money.
Yeah.
Like, you don't need that much stuff.
Yeah.
Like, if it's the difference between having a nice BMW and having a. Like a McLaren.
Yeah.
But like, I'm fully happy.
Yeah.
BMW all the way. I drive is better system anyway.
And it's not like the question is like, you're going to be destitute for weed fix.
It's like, you'll be good or really good.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, you can make tens of millions or 100.
There's an ex client that fucking owes me 20 grand.
Right? Yeah.
Like, let's go get him.
Right.
And he has Lambos and wears nothing but Fendi dripped out head to toe. And whenever he goes live, I go pay me my money on Instagram. I text him all the time, you got to pay my money.
Right.
That you put up a photo, drip it out, Fendi. I was like, drip it out. And Fendi. But you still can't pay my money.
Yeah.
Like, what's happened?
Ever acknowledge anything?
Oh, no, never. He's blocked me for sure. It's gone to nothing. That makes me feel good. And I was hoping I would see him at clickfunnels. And I was like, I was gonna whisper because he would be all the boys. Like, I don't embarrass you. Hey, man, we're gonna go to an ATM and you're gonna give me that. Like, that you owe me $20,000. Which is like, to me, it's not that much money.
Yeah.
But it's enough.
Well, this is the thing. I think that's enough.
I won't get in trouble, but I'll go to him and go, hey, like. Or I can. Give me your watch.
Yeah.
You know, like, yeah, I'm.
Yeah, you need me something worth 20 grand.
Yeah. Yeah. Your shoes.
I would like your shoes. Your shoes are maybe worth two grand. But I Like, emotionally, it's worth. It's worth it. It's worth it to me just to walk away with the shoes.
Me and Ryan had the slap that. You remember that? Yeah, Me, Ryan had the slap. It had to end early, and I was going to win. But I agree that on the terms that we set it, we didn't meet it because he had to deploy and so we couldn't meet the end date.
Yeah. Yeah.
If we went any longer he would have won because he was fatter and he had more to lose. Right. And I was kind of at. Like, I was. I was ready to end it. So I was like, okay, we need a way to acknowledge that I win and that you lose, but it's not the original bet. And he's like, if I gave you all the money in my wallet, would that that help? I was like, yeah, that would do it. He had about 80 bucks.
I would do it.
It's like, you know what?
I'm okay with that.
This.
This.
I.
You are sufficiently hurt.
Yeah, we can carry on.
That's fair enough.
Yeah.
So, yeah. So going back to these. These scam guys. So the guy who sold the Eiffel Tower, right? He started. He was always a scammer, just a grifter. Just kind of like just going around just taking money. It's just a man scamming people. Could you imagine if you went back in time and there's no Internet?
Yeah.
And like, you knew what you knew now.
Yeah.
And you just like. Like. Have you ever read the. Ever seen the movie the Invention of Lying?
Yes.
Ricky Gervais.
Yes.
He's like, oh, I'm the president. Oh, he's the president.
And I like it how he, like, accidentally invents religion.
Yeah, yeah. He's just like, oh. But, yeah, so like, these guys, because there is no, like, Googling, there's no reviews, no nothing. This guy's like, oh, he wears a suit. He's clearly a reputable human being. It's a briefcase.
Yeah.
And there's just no photos either.
Nothing.
So you don't even know what people look like. And to change your appearance, you only have to, like, mildly change your. Put on glasses, whole new person.
Superman.
Superman style.
Have you seen that meme about the movie about Superman that they should make where it's like, I would love to see a movie where the CIA is trying to kill Clark Kent, but not because of Superman, because he's a really good journalist. He can't figure out why they can't kill him.
Yeah.
And it's like. It's like a comedy. Like a buddy cop comedy. Fuck. That'd be good to see.
Yeah.
Have you seen the new super Pets?
Yes.
You know, with Superman's dog, and they're like, the other dog's like, you think I can't recognize you. It's just glasses. You think I'm crazy.
So good. So this guy started off, he print. He did money boxes, right? So he had a. He had a box that could print 100 bills, okay?
Right.
Crisp, authentic. Took about six hours to print a bill.
Wow.
Right.
Okay, so what he did is he went on to, like, gambling steamboats, right? Where all these rich guys were out gambling. And he was like, come here, come here, come on. Yeah. Say right? And did the whole thing. Did a big sales pitch. He's like, cranking this dial. Cranking the style. Cranking the style. And this, like, paper goes in a crisp Hyundai, comes out.
Boom, Boom.
Boom. C note. Drops it down, right. Then boom. Does it again like that, you know, after this whole big production. And so he sells the boxes. Yeah, sells them. And this is in like, the, like the late 1900s for like 50 GS, right?
Because you can print hundreds with it.
50 GS?
Make that back in the day.
It's the equivalent of like 5 million bucks, whatever it is. Right. And then there was two $100 notes in each one.
Right.
The rest is just blank paper. So what he did is he would sell it to all the rich guys on the boat, give them their boxes, and then just fucking jump out.
Yeah.
Like, he was, boom, I'm gone. No one could find him. Then they'd start cranking these things, and it would take hours because of the gear ratio to crank this thing for six hours.
So you had six hours to get out.
Ye. Right.
Six hours.
It's like. It's.
That's awesome. Yeah.
Six hours. I'm on the run.
Yeah. And it's because it's just the gearing. I went. I won't go into it, but I went deep into a Gear YouTube loop a while ago.
Okay.
And this guy made, like, Lego gears, and it was like 4 million years for the last one to turn. It was like. It was like that. And by the time it went through all the gearing, it was like 4 million years. Yeah, yeah, that or it was like there was one of them. There was. It was longer than there is atoms in the universe.
Okay. Right.
So it's not going to happen.
This is rageous. Right.
But.
But yeah.
So like, imagine all the guys on the boat cranking away, looking at each other, like, printing money out. Wow, look at this.
Yeah.
Still going. Six hours later, another one comes out. Twelve hours in.
Yeah.
Just a blank piece of paper. You're like, that's an anomaly.
Yeah.
That can't be.
You would think it.
You go again.
How many times do you think you'd go through it before you were convinced?
You got three.
Three. Three.
I would print out one. That's how punishment works. It's usually three reps. So it would be the same effect. It would be, first you go. That's not right.
Yeah.
Second one, you go, oh, something's definitely off here. Third one you go, I have been scammed.
So.
So with two real ones, three fake ones, he's bought himself 30 hours to get away.
He's gone forever in that days. He might as well have died.
Yeah, yeah.
30 hours. You're a whole new person.
Yeah.
Like this with glasses on.
Yeah.
You'd have time to shave.
You'll never see him again.
Shave, get a haircut. Yeah, you're a whole new guy.
Yeah. He could be your cousin. You wouldn't.
Change of clothes.
People are so stupid back in the day. Yet here we are getting scammed by Nigerian princes constantly. So, yeah, then that guy, then he married some chick. Like he needed tons of money. So, like, he'd been scamming everyone in the States, and he's like, I should probably get the fuck out.
Yeah.
People are figuring out I'm just putting my finger up against my lip.
Right.
And then so he goes off to Paris. Paris. And he's like, oh, man, that Eiffel Tower is pretty nice. So it's someone.
I'd love to buy that.
He sells it. He sells it for 17 grand.
Okay.
The first time.
Yep.
And then he sold it for like 30 grand the second time.
Okay.
And then just bugged out.
So who's he selling anyway?
Then he got. Well, he just sold it to, like, random Americans that were visiting.
Right.
And he sold it because he said he would rename it in their name.
Right. Okay.
So he had, like.
It wasn't like, naming rights.
You're buying the naming rights.
Okay. Right.
And then he got busted because he did it to the wrong guy and went to Alcatraz. Died there.
Bummer. I feel like had a good life, though.
Yeah.
Like, I'm not pro scammer, but I feel like scamming someone out at 30 grand to have the Eiffel Tower named after them. They're probably someone that deserves to have their 30 grand scammed away from them.
Yeah. Right.
You know what I mean? Like, if you're like, yes, I do want it to be called the Patch Stewart Tower. And if they're random Americans in Paris, like, yeah, I want it called the.
The.
What's the John Wayne Tower?
Yeah.
You know what's funny is those bra statues.
Yeah.
Which ones?
All of them.
What about them?
Well, like, they just brought up one of like, I don't know, I'm pretty into basketball. Dirk Nowitzki.
Okay.
The best player for the Dallas Mavericks. They just erected a statue of him, like doing a fade away jumper at the front. He goes to every game.
Yeah, right.
Still because he lives in Dallas and.
Right.
He's like, he's like the goat of the Mavericks.
Yeah.
Although now Luka Doncic is going to destroy every record ever had.
Okay.
Dude scored 50 points in his three. Three out of the last five games, he scored 50 points.
Is that a lot?
That's a lot of points, bro.
I don't know.
He did a triple double, which means he did 60 points. 20 triple double, 60 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists. Something happened like three times in the history NBA.
Wow.
He's shocked.
Bra statue of him.
Yeah, they. They will.
Which begs it, will they melt down Dirks?
I mean, they just put it in storage.
Yeah, but I mean, where did that come from?
Making brass statues? Yeah, well, it's been happening for thousands of years, so I would say, well, not necessarily brass, but they've been making statues for a long time.
You know, I drove past a house that's just being completed in double bay and they use copper downpipes.
Oh, don't get stolen.
I was like fallen out of control.
Copper downpipe.
I was like, yeah, you know. You know what I can really need on my house? Extraordinarily expensive downpipes to take the water from the top of the house to the bottom of the house.
Well, it'll be antibacterial.
It'll patina nicely.
Yeah.
Oh, it'll look beautiful.
Yeah, it will.
It will look beautiful until it gets stolen.
Yeah.
So that's, that's got some of the modern scams here as well.
Let me get into it.
So there's a couple we'll like, we'll. We'll bowl through them quickly because I thought they were quite funny. So there was one which was the. It was called the Billion Dollar Homepage. Okay, right in the. 19. In 2005. Sorry. A college student named Alex Tu created a website called A Billion Dollar Homepage. And his plan was he was selling advertising space for $1. He was going to have a billion businesses of which there isn't. Right. There isn't a billion businesses, I don't think.
Right.
Advertising space for $1. And he like spruced. It was a huge thing where this, this business can worth a billion dollars.
I kind of vaguely remember this.
Yeah.
And it's just like instead of it being worth a billion, he sold a couple thousand of.
Yeah, good enough for a dollar.
Yeah. Yeah.
So you Made a couple grand.
Good enough.
And off he went.
Do you make the page?
Yeah, it's. I don't know if it's still up, but it was Billion dollar Homepage. Let's have a look at it right now. Do you know world.com? you've heard that story? No, it's not a scam, but it was like the. And it was like the world.com was like the first dot com boom. So, like right in like the early 2000s, late 90s or whatever it was.
Right.
Like right in the beginning of the dot com boom. There is a website called world.com and they had nothing, no product.
Whoa.
It's Billion dollar.
Billion dollar homepage redirects to calm.com.
Yeah.
Obviously they know that it's cheap. People Google it. Like you're the story.
Yeah.
Like the app. And if you've just been ripped off for a billion dollars, probably a meditation app is.
Yeah, it's not bad.
Probably going to help.
Yeah.
That redirects the calm.
That's clever.
Yeah, yeah.
It's clearly you're looking for something.
Yeah, yeah.
Billion dollars.
Breathe. But so this guy, this World Dot com. And it was his business, right? And they, like, they had no business. They had nothing. But they like listed on the stock market with zero revenue and sort of zero idea as to what they were going to do. But they managed to get listed on the nasdaq.
Okay.
And instantaneously, the company was worth billions of dollars. And they didn't like, an interview with the guys who owned it, and they were like, had no revenue, therefore they had no money. And so they were worth hundreds of millions of dollars each, but they had no money because they can't sell their stock as well. Like someone was to me a while ago, they're like, oh, would you consider going public? And I was like, no. They're like, why not? You could cash out. I was like, really? I could cash out? How am I going to cash out if I'm the CEO and I just dump half my stock? What do you think is going to happen to the stock? Yeah, it just fucking disintegrates.
Yeah.
So, like, what's the. So, like, I would, like, there are a lot of other people would benefit from me doing it. Like, like minority shareholders would make a ton of money because they could dump half of it. No one's gonna care if they do it. But, like, I would just have all of my money trapped.
Yeah.
You would be handcuffed to it for.
Totally.
Yeah.
It seems like a terrible idea. So these Guys, they're telling the story. They're worth like hundreds of millions of dollars and they're like having these parties and their friends are expecting to pay for anything. They had no money, like zero money. And there was no revenue stream. There was no even thought to what the revenue stream would be. And it was like there was such a frenzy around the URL world.com that it just skyrocketed on the NASDAQ for no reason. And then like they thought they could figure it out and they just didn't. They never produced any money and just collapsed.
What happened to world.com it's just.
I don't know.
Let's find out. Probably redirects to come.
World.com.
Loading.
World Accelerator we love helping entrepreneurs succeed and businesses grow.
Why not?
Yeah, it's something, it's. It doesn't look very exciting, but yeah, it's something new.
Yeah.
Another one which is still going today, which is magic water filters.
Oh, magic water filters.
Magic water filters. So I think in like the, in like the early 90s, that. Then in the 80s and 90s, it was magnets.
I bought those.
Yeah, you bought the water magic. The magic magnets.
I didn't buy them. So what'd you buy? I bought the magnets that go in your shoes.
Did you have a power band?
Everyone on rotation?
One did.
A certain captain who I won't say the day of, who now works in real estate and stuff.
Okay.
Was ripping off everyone on the trip selling these fucking magnets. Right. And he had this routine, but his sales pitch was incredible. He would get you do max push ups and put your head. So there were these liners that go in your boots. Like they were just a sole liner.
Right.
That had magic magnets in it.
Right.
And what he'd do is there was a couple of different tests. He'd do the two, I can remember, he'd get you to do cold max push ups. Then he'd explain to you how the things work and whatever. And then you'd go, max push ups again with your hands on the. The magnets. Of course you can do more when you're warmed up, like because he'd pitched.
You, it was the magnet.
Yeah. So you do cold as many as you can. And like this is all SF guys. So you're talking guys that can do more than 100 push and they're gonna.
Want to beat it anyway.
Exactly. So you get them warmed up so they do like 80 odd push ups first time around.
Right.
And then he pitches. You're recovering. And then you go, max rep second time. Of course you can do more. And like, it's probably 10, 20 more. And then he pitches to like, holy 10 performance increase. You kidding me? The other one was flexibility.
Are you kidding?
Yeah.
The other one's like, I thought you.
Were gonna do like eight max, but ten. Hey, guys.
But we were in Afghanistan, for God's sake. You like 10 better. That's the difference between me being alive and dead. Buy me. I'll give me six pairs. I'll be 60 better.
You'll probably get a VC.
Yeah.
So then his second test was about flexibility. So he'd get you. So he'd stretch your back and go, that's your max. Max range. So he's stretching. You go, that's what you got, man. Now step forward under the things. Oh, well, of course, on the second rep, you go further and we're all. We're just dumb dumbs. We were like, yeah, amazing. How much are they? 80 bucks. Yeah, 80 bucks. I'm making seven grand a month. Oh, what is it? Seven grand a pay or whatever it is. Every two weeks, tax free. Yeah. Sign me up. 80 bucks? Fuck yeah.
Yeah, but he.
He must have made at least $80, so I bought him.
Hey, do you remember the parabens everyone was around for? Yeah, yeah.
The hologram.
I. I didn't fall for that.
I. Neither did I. Yeah.
I mean, I wanted it.
I was like a hologram. I was like, I don't see it doing much.
Did. They had to refund everyone, didn't they? They got like.
I don't know.
Yeah.
That.
That they. If you wanted your money back for the power band, they had to give it to you.
Yeah.
I think you just cop that.
Yeah.
I mean, you should.
Yeah.
Be like, the letter wasn't CEO. It had been like, come on, guys. It was a hologram on your wrist. It wasn't going to do much. You knew you had baseball cards when you were a kid that were just holograms. Did they make you had tons of like that.
Have you ever been scared, like, legit game, not just like not paid, but like, has anybody ever played a long game on you?
I mean, maybe.
Yeah.
I don't even know.
Oh, yeah, that's.
Yeah. You know, I had a up thing happen which was like, I was scammed. Well, not scammed, but it was up. Was. I remember I tried to get a business done. This is years ago. And we were trying to fund one of the gyms and I got denied this. A jet, bad credit. I was like, I have Great credit. Never missed a payment of anything in my whole life. And I've had credit cards and home loans and stuff. Like, I know you have a black mark on your Vita account, which is, you know, the Vita, you know, they, they track all the credit scores and everything. So I was like, okay, where's it from? And they gave me the company. It was like, it was an energy company. I was like, I've never been a customer, it has to be a mistake. I called them up and they go, oh, you've never been a customer. And I go, yeah, I know, but you still put it, you've, you've put like a black mark on my credit account. Can you sort it out? They go, nah, it's company policy. We don't remove those. I was like, but I'm not, I'm not beholden to the policies of your company because I've never been a client of yours. Like, you know. So anyway, I ended up calling the ombudsman, did this whole thing. I found out, and I was on the phone with him and I found out it was power bill unpaid from like two years of power for an apartment that I rented with a guy called Ben Chuck. Ben Chuck was my best friend for years. He was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2010.
And.
They finally give me the information. I go, oh, are you on a computer? And they go, yeah. And I go, I want to Google the name Benjamin Chuck that. And they go, yep. And they're like very silent. And I was like, did you see the very good looking man that was killed in a helicopter crash?
One of the most beautiful beings ever.
They were like, yes. And I was like, okay, that's the person that you're looking for and he's dead. And they were like, ah, yes. And I was like, so why am I copping this bill? Like, oh, you're on the lease. Even though it's all in his name. So we had it. Like, we had our bills, just, you know. Yeah, like, you pay those ones, I'll pay those ones. That's ever work it out, right? Everyone had money. No one gave a shit. And so I was like, okay. They're like, yeah, you gotta pay it. I was like, you're making me pay this? Like, yes. And I had no money at this point. I was just. Pt. I spent all my money where the.
Power bills would be.
Yeah, well, the people who moved in after us just, they kept seeing the bills. Ben Chuck, fuck that guy. He's still paying the bills, right? Hopefully one of them this Is fucking podcast. So anyway, I'm sitting there and I'm in a conundrum. I go, do I call Ben's mum? And I'm like, I don't think I could make that.
Yeah, that's not the play.
I don't think so, anyway. And negotiating with him, they cut it down by, like, half, and I had to pay was pretty rough. That was it. Being scammed. But I don't think I've ever actually been, like, scam scammed. Just because I'm not good at following through with lots of things, I think, like, I've been part way through scams.
Yeah.
And then just kind of given up.
Yeah.
It seems too hard.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's like I've bought a shitty course that spent 10 grand on that. I was like. As soon as I got the content, I was like. Like, this is. But it wasn't a scam.
Yeah, I've done that a few times.
Just. Yeah, like, I. I bought it.
Yeah.
I thought it was gonna be better than it was. Yeah, it was terrible.
Yeah.
So I wouldn't call a guy a scammer. He's a piece of shit, but I wouldn't call him a scammer.
I was. I remember once I did a course and then, like, did another course, and it was the same course exactly, like, word for word. Okay, So I did a course. Oh, fix it. His name, Travis Jones. I don't give a fuck.
Right?
Fuck you, Travis. If you watch this, you're a piece of shit. Right?
So.
And everyone who's everyone will agree. Who's that interactive for them? So anyway, he developed this course that he directly ripped off from somebody else.
Okay, so which one did you buy first?
I bought Travis's first and then I did Thor. He's a sales coach in Australia. Knows his stuff. He's good at what he does. Right. So I did his course, and then I called Thor and I was like, hey, man, you ripped off Travis.
No.
No, I said, no, I figured out what happens, right? And I was like, hey, man, like, I know this isn't your fault, but I've done this course.
Right?
And I was like, I've done the course. I know it's not your fault, but, like, you're the second guy. So I either need a refund or something different. And so we had to. We ended up organizing some other stuff. But it was quite funny because I was. It was like literally word for word.
Yeah. Right.
And it was like a sales and marketing course. It was like, quite basic on both, but like, would have been. It was good information when I had it. It was that very first course that I bought, you know, that taught me. His had more of a fitness bent because it was a fitness one, and then the other one was more like generalized business and sales and stuff like that. But, yeah, it was pretty funny to buy, like, two identical courses delivered by different people within two months of each other.
That's what you get for just binging courses.
Yeah.
And, like, the second one was ten grand. The first one was six grand. So I was like, well, I mean, I paid six grand for this.
Funny. Yeah.
I'm about to do another one.
Another what?
Podcast.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do it.
Okay.
Are we done?
I think so.
Okay.
People don't need a resolution, do they?
No. I mean, fuck them.
You didn't get scammed.
Yeah.
This shit's free, so fuck you, you know? But speaking of not free, you can go to the closing code, $50 a week.
It's not free. It's close to free. It's free adjacent. Yeah, 50 bucks a week is free adjacent. For the level of.
It is. It is. I joined a Patreon recently and they call it the Cult Babies.
Cult Babies.
The Cult Babies.
Yeah.
That's good.
I might steal that.
Yeah, it is.
If you want to, one of the cult babies join in and they take the same way they go, they go three pound a month. But speaking of not free, you can go to the closing code, 50 a week.
It's not free. It's close to free. It's free adjacent. Yeah, 50 bucks a week is free adjacent. For the level of.
It is. It is. I joined a Patreon recently and they call it the Cult Babies.
Cult Babies.
The Cult Babies.
Yeah.
That's good.
I might steal that.
Yeah, it is.
If you want to. One of the cult babies join in and they take the same way they go, they go 3 pound a month, 10p a day. Like, one guy says 3 pound a month, the other guy goes 10p a day. Literally cheaper than chips. They had this whole back and forth. It's pretty good.
All right. Yeah.
If you took this seriously, we should work on it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
That's it.
All right. Bye. Bye.
Put that coffee down.
Sam.
