Elon Musk is one of the more visible billionaires on social media. The Tesla and Twitter CEO is also a known visionary, not having second doubts to invest money in a cause that he believes in.
Unfortunately, some con artists bank on Musk's name and reputation to get money from willing victims, with the latest scamming case reported in Florida when a school principal wrote a check worth $100,000 to a Musk impersonator.
Florida Principal Believes 'Elon Musk' Will Invest in School in Exchange for $100,000
Dr. Jan McGee served as the school principal of Burns Science and Technology Charter School in Oak Hill, Florida since it was first founded in 2011, as reported by Gizmodo. Her record of hard work and dedication to the school was tarnished when she was persuaded by an Internet scammer, who claimed to be the Tesla and Twitter CEO himself, to write him a check worth $100,000.
As per WBALTV, Burns Science and Technology Charter is an elite campus with under 1,000 students and a long list of aspirants wanting to be a part of the school. With McGee's guidance, the school has grown into the institution that it is now, but her decision to trust a scammer endangered its future. According to McGee, the Musk impersonator convinced her that he would give six million dollars as an investment, but the school should send $100,000 first.
"I am a very smart lady. Well-educated. I fell for a scam," McGee told the attendees of the school's board meeting Tuesday. McGee claimed that the Musk impersonator talked her into sending the money for at least four months and she "fell for it."
The school board's chairperson, Albert Amalfitano, said that the scammer "must have been really convincing" that the school principal wrote the check using the school's account. According to Amalfitano, McGee was certain that she was writing the check to Musk's "right-hand man."
The board chair raised that McGee, as the principal, is allowed to write a check out of the school's account but only up to $50,000. Despite not getting board approval to release the huge amount of money, McGee proceeded as planned. The good news is that the Musk impersonator was not able to cash out the check, as the school's business manager, Brent Apply, was able to cancel the check just in time.
Other school administrators expressed their dismay over the scamming incident, saying that they already warned the principal many times that the Musk impersonator was a fraud. They also said that there are other problems at school involving McGee that created a "toxic work environment," and they do not wish to work with her any further. With this, McGee formally submitted her resignation.
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People's Trust in Musk Led to Growing Number of Scamming Incidents Online
According to Forbes, the Internet is plagued by numerous scammers pretending to be Elon Musk. Con artists would use Musk's companies like Tesla and SpaceX to get money from random people online. These scammers are usually posting right under Musk's social media posts, claiming that the billionaire is giving away cryptocurrency tokens in exchange for money.
The modus of the scammers is obvious in some cases, but people's trust in Musk led them to cash out their money anyway. Some scammers were able to convince their victims that Musk created his own cryptocurrencies, namely Mini Tesla and Tesla Token. To note, Musk's only known crypto investments are in Bitcoin and Dogecoin.
