Couple sent to prison for satellite medical scan scam
A Louisiana man and his wife were sentenced prison for scamming their friends and family into giving him over $989,898 with a crazy story about scanning their bodies with a satellites and curing their ailments while they slept.
Stacey Finley, 34, persuaded her targets -- described by federal prosecutors as "solid, middle-class, educated citizens" -- that she was a CIA agent and could use her agency contacts to have medical scans conducted by satellite. Finley said the scans would reveal hidden medical problems, prosecutors said, and that CIA agents would then enter their homes and administer secret medications while they slept. Those treatments would supposedly prevent serious health problems and hereditary diseases.Link (Via Nothing to do with Arbroath)Stacey Finley is not associated with the spy agency, prosecutors said.
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Wow, she must have been very convincing then.
I suspect "solid, middle-class, educated citizens" might be the Feds' attempt at being kind.
And $989898? Were they trying for a pattern? I wonder if there's an underlying level of strangeness that didn't get reported.
HAH! PT Barnum said it best.
I just read about this in "The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things and How to Do Them." Peter Sagal's chapter on liars is interesting because he says, basically, sturdy, college-educated people fall for extraordinary lies because, like Fox Mulder, they *want* to believe. And I believe him. Because he's on the radio.
The modern version of the invisible doctors in One Hundred Years of Solitude?
That's what they want us to believe.
But seriously, I can't imagine how someone who falls for this fairy tale could not be an idiot. Sure, some of the victims might have had above average IQs, but saying that they were 'educated' says as much about the U.S. education system as it says about them. Or maybe I'm just lacking imagination.
I second the notion of the $989898 being a little _too_ odd. (maybe it was someone on the story being clever... they saw it was 989903 or something and thought it would be funny to describe it as 'over $989898'. If so, my hat's off to them)
And... okay, I can _almost_ see people falling for a secret satellite scan. But CIA agents breaking into their homes and secretly medicating them while they slept? I can't understand why anybody would want that. Even if I was foolish enough to believe they _could_ do that, I'd prefer a nice package of pills mailed to me, thanks.
they sould be governor of arkansas.
I second the notion of the $989898 being a little _too_ odd. (maybe it was someone on the story being clever... they saw it was 989903 or something and thought it would be funny to describe it as 'over $989898'. If so, my hat's off to them)
And... okay, I can _almost_ see people falling for a secret satellite scan. But CIA agents breaking into their homes and secretly medicating them while they slept? I can't understand why anybody would want that. Even if I was foolish enough to believe they _could_ do that, I'd prefer a nice package of pills mailed to me, thanks.
"You can't swindle an honest man."
Remember that adage? If you think you can get free, bleeding-edge medical treatment that's not available to your fellow citizens, then you deserve to be taken.
"Psst! No need to wait in that organ donor line! I have a friend at WHO...."
If the doofi who fell for this are "solid, middle-class, educated citizens", then I'm Bruce Wayne.
Proof that it is possible to be well educated and have no common sense. #2 hits it squarely.
I suspect that the poor suckers who fell for this were ill-educated, under-achievers... (the kind of people least able to pay...) Now where can I sign up for these scans?!