One born EVERY minute?

 I saw a great story on the news the other night and then followed that up by reading several other articles about this. This is the story of Charlotte Cowles who is a columnist for the New York Times and an online magazine called The Cut. 

Charlotte was on the news sharing her story about how she was conned out of $50,000. It's a long, involved story involving a call from someone claiming to be with Amazon. This was followed by someone who claimed to be with the Federal Trade Commission and then someone who was a CIA agent or operative. There may have been a few others, but I think that was the main cast.

In a television news story about this, Cowles described herself as "highly educated". That's another nail in the coffin for education today. I know lots of highly educated people who don't know the basics of life. They can't pull off little things like putting on a coat when it is cold and not walking in the middle of the street. 

She said that what scared her was how much the scammers knew about her personal life. They knew about her children and the properties that she owned. She said they knew the last four digits of her Social Security number. 

Pardon me Charlotte, but have you heard of this thing called "The Internet"? Half an hour of Internet research would yield almost all of the information that she mentioned. If she had asked Mr. Google about a CIA agent contacting her, she would have found that this is illegal in almost all cases. When the person told her the last four numbers of her Social Security number, why didn't she ask them for the first five numbers? I forgot; she's highly educated.

Beyond that, when does anyone get a call from Amazon? Well, other than the driver calling from your driveway wanting you to come get the dog. I'm seventy years old, I have never had a call from the FTC or the CIA. That would actually mean that those folks are working which I don't believe. 

The story ended after she withdrew $50,000 from her savings account, placed it into a shoebox, and put it into a rear window of a Mercedes SUV in the street in front of her house. She went to her bank and withdrew $50K. Really? I am amazed that no one at the bank questioned this transaction. If I were to walk into my bank and ask for a large amount of cash, someone will want to know why. Bankers are usually familiar with fraud and will warn people. Maybe her bankers are also highly educated? 

This is just a cheap shot, but based on testimony from Fani Willis, if Charlotte was black, she could have just pulled the $50K from the cash hoard in her closet.

This whole thing makes no sense. Is this a Jussie Smollett moment in her life? If she is lying about this to garner attention, she is through as a financial columnist. If she is stupid enough to put $50K in cash in a shoebox and put it in the back window of a passing car, she is through as a financial columnist.

This "highly educated" woman has a BA in English from Columbia University. She can start her financial recovery by filing suit against Columbia to recover that money she squandered on a degree from that school.

There would be an actual use for most college diplomas if they printed them on toilet paper.