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would you fall for it?

A Financial Advice Columnist Who Got Scammed Out Of $50,000, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'

Darcy Jimenez
Darcy Jimenez
A Financial Advice Columnist Who Got Scammed Out Of $50,000, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'
Some say being tricked into giving away $50,000 in a shoebox could happen to anyone. Others say it would definitely never happen to them.
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Every day, somebody says or does something that earns them the scorn of the internet. Here at Digg, as part of our mission to curate what the internet is talking about right now, we rounded up the main characters on Twitter from this past week and held them accountable for their actions.



This week, we've got silly AI praise, a cringey pro-Musk tweet, a bad take on salaries and a financial journalist falling for a very far-fetched scam.



Friday

Sam Altman

The character: Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, word generator, wannabe trillionaire

The plot: The man who led the AI revolution we're all currently living/suffering through, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman, recently posted a fun fact about his robotic product.


The repercussion: It was politely pointed out to him that this is a stupid factoid — it's very easy for a computer to generate trillions of meaningless words, and there is no inherent value in just saying a lot of stuff for the sake of it. This then led to a dogpile on the numerous downsides of AI, the investor bubble that surrounds it, the terribly ironic name businessmen gave "AI" considering it has no actual intelligence whatsoever, and so on.

So, if you love people being dunked on over and over again, you're going to have a field day with the OpenAI hate going on right now. Generating junk is worthless!


Jared Russo



Monday

Teslaconomics

The character: Teslaconomics, Elon Musk lover, fanfiction writer

The plot: It goes without saying that fans of billionaire Elon Musk — who has nearly as many poor business decisions on his record as he does children — are cringe, but this week's Main Character entry is embarrassing even by their standards.

X user @Teslaconomics recently shared a photo of Musk and his son at the Super Bowl, along with a lengthy, made-up quote that they were, for some reason, inspired to post after seeing the picture.

"For me, the real joy is being here with you. I want you to remember, no matter what anyone or the media says about me, that your dad loves you more than anything," the post reads. "I hope you grow up knowing the value of this moment over any material thing. You're my real MVP."

Perhaps even more weirdly, Musk himself replied to the post about something he never said with: "True ❤️."


The repercussion: It's straight-up bizarre to post an imaginary conversation between any celebrity and their child — let alone Musk, who's hardly Dad of the Year — and I don't know how this person expected any response besides being made fun of.


Darcy Jimenez


Monday

Jack Forge

The character: Jack Forge, professional technology writer, extremely bad with foresight

The plot: Jack made a post on X about feeling locked into a job because it pays good money, but not quite enough to really set oneself up for financial independence. This, by itself, isn't a terrible point, but the way he decided to start the post was pretty unhinged.

Unsurprisingly, everyone can think of a worse salary than $150,000 a year — 149,999 different worse salaries, to be specific.


The repercussion: Jack eventually followed up with a post agreeing that his wording was pretty wack, but not before getting dunked on heavily. At the very least, we know he can dry his tears with some hundred dollar bills.


Grant Brunner


Thursday

Charlotte Cowles

The character: Charlotte Cowles, financial advice columnist, scam victim

The plot: On February 15, The Cut published an article in which its financial advice columnist, Charlotte Cowles, opened up about having fallen victim to a scam that ended up costing her $50,000.

To summarize: Cowles was cold-called by someone claiming to be a CIA agent, who convinced her to put almost all the money in her bank account into a shoebox and hand it to a stranger on the street.

Much of the essay sees Cowles grappling with how she — being, in her eyes, the total opposite of the typical scam victim — could have been so easily swindled, while also claiming that anybody is vulnerable to falling for the same tricks.


The repercussion: The essay has sparked a lively debate online, with readers quite evenly divided in their opinions. Many sympathize with Cowles and agree that we're more susceptible to scams than we think, while others insist that they would never have believed something so ludicrously far-fetched.

The irony of a financial journalist falling for a scam wasn't lost on people, either.



Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, which included a controversial Lana Del Rey take, a guy who can't handle his CBD, a right-wing poster learning something new and a troubling day-in-the-life entry from a TV personality.


[Image credit: Jenny Ueberberg]

Comments

  1. hazelmayn 2 months ago

    the 50k scam can only happen to someone who doesnt think 50k is a serious amount of money. wealth inequality is so obscene right now

  2. John Doe 2 months ago

    I read the article and I don't know anyone that would fall for that scam.

    TWO live transfers to government officials? I challenge anyone to call ANY government agency, state, local, or federal, and get anyone live on the phone.

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