Scam emails are full of typos, mistakes and unlikely scenarios (like lottery wins and foreign princes) by design: it weeds out savvy respondents and selects gullible and vulnerable marks. Why does the new generation of scammers pretend to be Elon Musk? Perhaps it's because fans of his are gullible and vulnerable marks.
A principal of a charter school in Volusia County resigned after writing a $100,000 check to an internet scammer posing as Elon Musk.
Dr. Jan McGee worked at Burns Science and Technology Charter in Oak Hill since its inception. The school and McGee have always been well thought of. Burns Science and Technology is A-rated with just under 1,000 students and a huge waiting list. The principal who has guided it all these years is a superstar in many circles, but a huge lapse in judgment has cost her her job.
"I am a very smart lady. Well-educated. I fell for a scam," McGee said.
McGee wrote a $100,000 check out of the school's account, but another administrator blocked it, and she had been warned by staff at the school that her Elon was an obvious fraud. It's almost as if her high self-regard created a workplace dynamic that guaranteed both bad decision-making and an awareness that everyone needed to be ready to stop bad things happening.
