[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome, listeners. You're listening to the Deeds in the Desert, where real estate investors tune in for the latest news.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Welcome to Deeds in the Desert. We are here for a very interesting episode. We're going to talk about carry imposters, scams, and just everything that we probably need to be talking about a lot more. So I am here, no shock, with Misty, our chief compliance officer. Why?
Because sometimes we have to test these theories.
And when people are, you know, taking advantage of the Carrie Cook name, you tend to find out about it as well.
I've got so many questions. We've got a bunch of stuff to unpack, but first and foremost, we're going to discuss this imposter thing for just a second.
So somebody asked me weeks ago, have you ever googled yourself?
And I thought, no, why would I Google myself? They're like, seriously, I haven't done that. They're like, seriously, you don't do that. I'm like, no. I try to live a very private life outside of this. So this Persona that everybody sees here and this business person and this outgoing personality, I. I give everything I've got while I'm here. When I leave, I crawl into a cave and pretend like, you know, the world doesn't exist.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: That's what you Google yourself. Because while you do that, who's doing it in your name? That's not doing that.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: I don't know. You know how I am on the social media side too?
I'm like, no, no social media.
But recently, for whatever reason, there's been a few phone calls that I've had to filter of individuals.
Actually your team filtered.
So client services gets a call from an individual, pissed off that I have taken bitcoin from them, right?
And I guess this goes on and on and on and on and on. So finally I said to One of your CSRs, I'll call him.
So I picked up the phone and I called him.
And that was the weirdest phone call.
It was super weird.
There was somebody that created a Facebook page under my name, I guess. I don't know, because again, you know how frequently I'm on Facebook and somehow got him to transfer bitcoin to him. And I'm thinking, and I'm talking to this guy, I'm like, really? Does this really happen? But I guess he carried on and carried on with the CSR about it and like, you know, yeah, this. This woman's stealing money from people and all of this stuff. But so can I be honest? I still haven't googled myself.
[00:03:03] Speaker C: We Google, you I Google everybody.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: So what's out there?
How does this happen?
[00:03:11] Speaker C: I mean, anybody can pretend. And the thing is, they go after somebody like a Carrie Cook, right? You've got a profile, whether you recognize it or not, through the company. So your name is well known, and they want to take advantage of that. You have a good reputation. The company has a good reputation. So what better way to get somebody to give them Bitcoin or whatever it is that they're trying to get?
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Well, I'm here to tell you, I will never ask you for money.
[00:03:43] Speaker C: I will Facebook.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: I will never ask you for. To transfer Bitcoin to me. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.
Please. If anybody gets a Carrie Cook email, phone call, request for funds. Well, unless I'm calling. Yes, you're an investor, and I'm calling to tell you you haven't transferred your funds yet. Don't. Don't do it. Like, just please don't do it. So, you know the craziest part about the end of that call? What did I ever tell you about what happened?
[00:04:14] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: So he said to me, he said, you know, you're a very attractive woman. And I was like, oh, no, where is this going? And he said, I'm actually going to be in Las Vegas. And I thought, okay, great. We just went from imposter to stalker.
And so I was like, sir, I can assure you I am not that Carrie Cook. I don't know what you have paid for.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: Right.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: But it is not these services of Carrie Cook here.
This might be Las Vegas, but we're not going to go down that path. Right. So. But, yeah, that was tough. And, you know, he still calls me.
[00:04:49] Speaker C: Oh, boy.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't answer.
[00:04:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't answer.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:04:55] Speaker C: Las Vegas has a reputation, though.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: It does have a reputation. And I was born and raised here. But, you know, I.
[00:05:01] Speaker C: And we offer a lot of services, but that's not one of.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: That's not one of the services we offer. This is so true.
[00:05:06] Speaker C: But it's not just investors or people out there in cyber land. Right. It's our own employees that sometimes fall prey to this.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Yes, I remember that story.
[00:05:18] Speaker C: Yeah. So, you know when the president of the company sends an email to you and says, hey, I need you to do me a favor. What do most employees want to do? Immediately respond, especially if you're newer.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:31] Speaker C: So we had an employee. I had an employee who came to me one morning and said, carrie's asked me to go run an errand for her. And. And I even Thought, well, that's weird, because normally Carrie would come to me and say, I need to borrow your employee for a second. But whatever. We were busy.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:49] Speaker C: Didn't think twice about. Because you were in the office that day. You were in the office. So my assumption was you had walked over and said to this person, yeah, I need you to do this.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:01] Speaker C: Couple hours goes by, and this employee comes back to me and says, I don't think Carrie asked me to do that errand.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: What?
[00:06:09] Speaker C: Wait, she either did or she didn't. What do you mean? And she says, yeah, she asked me to go buy gift cards. And as soon as that she said those words, I immediately knew.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Oh, no, Carrie would not ask me to buy gift cards. Yes.
[00:06:24] Speaker C: Well, did you do that? Yeah. Okay, well, where are they now? Well, I gave the codes to Carrie by text.
I have to say, this person. A lot of times we think that the people that are falling victim to this are older, right?
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Yes. Yes.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: That is not the case. This individual was in, you know, was a young person.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: And still hook, line, and sinker.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:06:49] Speaker C: And. And even I. I've gotten those emails on the weekend. This is Carrie. I don't. I don't have my normal phone. Can you just text me? And at first you're like, oh, oh, wait, no, Carrie would never do that.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: So, yeah, you really have to know the person.
[00:07:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: And that's why I actually remember that story, because I felt so bad. I think she spent like $500 on gift cards and then emailed them the code. And, you know, full disclosure, I did pay the employee back because I felt so bad about what happened.
But that is a lesson that she will carry forward with her for the rest of her life.
[00:07:30] Speaker C: And we carry it because now on day one of a new employee starting, I say to them, if you get an email from Carrie, check with me first. It's probably not Carrie.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:42] Speaker C: So it becomes part of our handbook. Right.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: It really does. Because if you know me, you know I will not ask you to go. I won't ask for favors, I guess is the best way to say it. And if you're an employee and you happen to work for me, I will always go to the manager of that employee if I need something. I would never go directly to the employee and ask for any of that. But, man, these scammers are good.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: They really are.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: They are very convincing in a lot of their strategies and what they do. And even though we have very solid security measures around our email and it's not coming from. See Cook it, ignite funding. It's coming from. Carry something at somewhere, and they almost make it. Ignite funding. And there's an I at the end or something so closely that resembles that.
You know, you just have to be aware of it. You definitely have to be aware of it.
[00:08:41] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: But what are you going to do? I mean, statistically speaking, there's. I did research. Do a little research on that. I think you might have done a little research as well. What did you find out there?
[00:08:54] Speaker C: You know, it was really shocking. We know it happens a lot, but. So in the stats that I was able to pull together, nearly 5 million phishing attacks occurred in 2023. 5 million.
Of that, 94% of organizations have been targeted in some form.
94% of the companies out there have been targeted. That is crazy. But even worse than that, do you know how much this costs globally? Companies?
[00:09:24] Speaker B: I can't imagine.
[00:09:25] Speaker C: 2023, it was almost 3 billion. Billion in cost to companies.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:30] Speaker C: And 10 billion of that was lost by US citizens due to scams.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
It's very convincing.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Crazy.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: I had a phone call. It was a couple weekends ago, and they called my cell phone and they said that I did not show up for a federal grand jury subpoena.
And I mean, this guy was so convincing on the phone. I mean, I knew it was a crop of crap, but have you ever just messed with him?
[00:10:04] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Okay. That is so much.
[00:10:08] Speaker C: It so is. I love those videos that people post of them doing it, too.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: I absolutely love it. So anyway, as I was talking with them on the phone, I probably shouldn't be doing this, but because I'm so used to my name being used in this way, I thought, hmm, all right, Carrie, here's an opportunity to kind of get back a little bit. I said, really? Oh, my gosh, when was I supposed to arrive? And blah, blah, blah. And they're like, well, we have a warrant for your arrest now. And I'm like, oh, gosh, a warrant for my arrest?
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Like, how much do I need to pay? I'm a mother.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: I'm this, I'm that. And they're like, don't worry. Don't worry about it. We can. We can pay a certain fee, and then we can get whatever. I said, okay, what is the fee? And so he tells me, and I'm like, is that it?
And it was like, silence. And I said, do you think I'm gonna pay you a dime?
[00:10:55] Speaker C: Like a rent?
[00:10:57] Speaker B: You know, that sort of thing? But for that moment, I think he thought, well, geez, I should have asked for more.
But it's definitely out there. You know, it even happens to me. I mean, it even happens to me where you're like, I wonder if that is. But you notice now a lot of these companies, their messages that they have when you call, like, even when you call the police department. This is nuts. So after I hung up that call, I thought, you know, I'm going to call the police department just to kind of see, no joke, you know what the message said?
[00:11:28] Speaker C: No.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: If you're being contacted by a scammer about a grand jury summit. And I thought, oh, gosh, this was our local police department here.
[00:11:35] Speaker C: So it's rampant.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: It's rampant. And so if you're ever questioning something.
[00:11:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Tell them you call them back. Yeah, tell them you call them back. Get the phone number to call them back. Do that sort of thing. Just take a minute and just step back.
[00:11:49] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Just step back and say to yourself, you know, this person's asking for something. I'm not really sure why it's coming out of the blue. Get their contact information, their phone number, and tell them you'll call them right back.
[00:12:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: And then either call the company, call the person, do your verification, and maybe it is real.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: And no legitimate company will mind that.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: No.
[00:12:13] Speaker C: You know, sometimes when we are calling leads. Right. People will wonder if we're legitimate.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it's okay.
[00:12:21] Speaker C: Call us back. Do your due diligence. Research us.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:12:25] Speaker C: If. If the company is legitimate, we. They will not mind.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:12:29] Speaker C: We would not mind. But it's funny because I ran a test yesterday, knowing that we were going to be talking about this. And so I sent an email to the staff. I saw this test, and it was very. I didn't have a whole lot of time to put together, so I didn't try and scam anybody, so to speak. But I took out my footer. I made it something that I would never say, like, hey, win a prize with a fishy, you know, link to click. And, you know, we really ran the gamut, right? So we had people who were trying to click to win this prize, and they're like, the link doesn't work.
But then I had, you know, a lot of staff stand up and be like, is this you? Because they. Our doors are open. They know we can ask.
So, yeah, we have a good time.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: Yeah, we have a good time testing our employees because we actually educate about it. Like, don't click on this stuff. And like you said, your new hires, you tell them, if you receive something from Carrie, likely You didn't receive anything from Carrie? Really? Check on it.
[00:13:29] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: I usually don't do this in the middle of a podcast, but our cameraman is sitting over here, and so I'm curious if he clicked on it.
Did you try. Do you remember the email?
[00:13:43] Speaker D: I think I do remember it.
I did not click on it.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: He did not click on it.
[00:13:48] Speaker D: Okay, well, since I'm here, I will say.
Two weeks ago.
Two weeks ago, I got an email of a pay increase with a link. And I was like. I got so excited. I was like, yes, yes. And I saw the link. I'm like, this is not real. And my heart was broken.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:14:13] Speaker D: I went to the other side of the cubicle to my other employee. I was like, jen, did you also get this email about a pay increase? And she was like, yes, most likely fake. And I sat back down.
[00:14:25] Speaker C: It's okay. A lot of us got that email, you know.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: Oh, man, I didn't get that email.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: Well, of course not. You're the one giving them, right?
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Oh, no, that's is absolutely insane.
[00:14:38] Speaker C: But we're getting smarter.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: We are. We are getting smarter about it.
[00:14:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: And hopefully everybody else is as well. So, you know, check your emails. From an Ignite funding standpoint, you know, what are some of the things that we send out just so that people know what. What is legitimate and what is not? Like, what would we not ask for and. And what are our normal courses?
[00:15:01] Speaker C: We're never going to send you a link to pay any money.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:15:04] Speaker C: We are not going to send you really anything to ask you to send in money. We're going to ask you to select a loan to look at loans. We're going to let you know about payoffs, but we're not going to ask you to send money. So when you see that and it has happened.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:21] Speaker C: And the one that I get a lot, that I get reported a lot is people calling us saying they received a flyer in the mail and it says, ignite funding. And it has this phone number. And you know there's a QR code there, right. Do not scan the QR code. Yes, it is not us, because. And I immediately know that because we don't send those out.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: Yeah. We don't send direct mail.
[00:15:42] Speaker C: So I mean, you have to be vigilant in every area. And I mean, you know, you hear the horror stories too, where grandma gets a call, granddaughter's on the phone saying, grandma, I'm in trouble. I need you to send money. It's granddaughter's voice, but it's not really. Granddaughter.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:59] Speaker C: So you know me, you know, I'm very cautious about things.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: You are.
[00:16:05] Speaker C: Me and my family and friends, we have code words. If I call you and say I'm being held hostage, you ask me what my code word is.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:14] Speaker C: And it's, you know, tongue in cheek. Right. Because, like, we don't expect that to happen, but at the same time, it happens. It happens.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: It definitely happens. So here's something I learned. I don't know if I'll ever do it. I need to Google myself.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: You do.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: And just see what's out there.
But what happens if I find something that's not me?
I mean, do you report it? Do you not report it? Like, how do you even handle a situation like that? Somebody in my marketing department said the other day, yeah, it was funny. I was on Facebook and looked you up. There were two of you one day, and they definitely were impersonating you. And then the next day they were down.
[00:16:52] Speaker C: And I'm like, somebody reported them.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: What the heck is going on? And I think sometimes is it better just not to know.
[00:17:02] Speaker C: I mean, you're living fine right now, right?
[00:17:04] Speaker B: I am. I'm doing fine right now.
[00:17:05] Speaker C: So maybe, maybe don't Google.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Let them imposter.
[00:17:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Because if you know me, there's a couple things you know about me.
[00:17:13] Speaker C: Oh, you're going to go after.
Well, do you remember when my I. I was sharing office with you when I had an Instagram account for my dogs that got stolen? Do you know I never could get that back because I couldn't prove I was me to get it back. So finally said, okay, you can have the dog's Instagram account. Right. So unfortunately, it happens a lot, but when it does happen.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:34] Speaker C: You know, as the innocent person, as the honest person, sometimes you're not in a good position.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Yeah. It's so true. Well, is there anything else that we need to know about the carry impostures or the.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: Don't just click. Don't just click.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Don't just click.
[00:17:55] Speaker C: Always just ask. Pick up the phone, you know our numbers. Call and ask us. Did you send that out to us?
[00:18:00] Speaker B: All right, I think we're good. All right, thank you so much. I appreciate you joining us, giving us a couple stats and dealing with my imposters along the way. I know you and your staff have to deal with that, so I do appreciate it. And for all of you out there that are trying to impersonate me, well, good luck with that because my staff is armed now. Investors are armed. The people that are out there realize that, yes, we hear you, we see you, but we're not threatened by you. So hopefully, hopefully we've learned something today. And thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you for the next episode of D3 in the Desert.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us this week on Deeds in the Desert, where short term investments meet long term investors. We hope you enjoyed the content so much that you share it with all your friends. Who doesn't like learning about passive fixed income, right? Still hungry for more education? Visit our
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