Deeper Dives- 6 Months After the Fires. L.A. has never experienced loss on this scale. Measuring progress six months after the fires is hard and painful - Los Angeles Times. Survivors struggling 6 months after Jan. 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. 12 ways the fires reshaped Southern California. Scammers Gonna Scam, 2 Southern California brothers allegedly stole $2.7 million through COVID fraud scheme. Scammers create fake websites of Apple, REI, Omaha Steaks and other retailers. What In the World News. You Can Keep Your Shoes On During Airport Security Screenings Now—Here's What To Know.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Tiffany Hobbs here with you until seven, and then Michael
Monks will come aboard and undoubtedly give us all that
we need to know via his wonderful, wonderful show Michael
Monks Presents. That's from seven to nine. So make sure
you keep it locked right here if you've missed anything
(00:26):
thus far, featured segments under KFIAM six forty dot com
is where you want to go to make sure that
you keep up to date with this show, Michael's show,
all the shows, but definitely this show. We just had
a wonderful interview with our friend Ac Christiansen, Aaron Ac
Christiansen of Animal Advocacy Network, and he's out there. He
(00:48):
left southern California to go out to Texas. Let me
just be clear, because he traveled by caravan to Texas
to help with the animal recovery and rescue efforts, and
he painted a really grim but hopeful picture of what's
going on out there in Texas. Make sure you listen
(01:09):
to that. It was something, it was impactful. We're also
keeping tabs on some really big stories that maybe should
be bigger, and I know we're covering it right here
on KFI. You heard it right there from our KFI
twenty four hour newsroom. There was a body of a
toddler found early this morning in Panorama City in a
(01:29):
parking lot, apparently in a trash bin. They're saying it's
a residence, but that the toddler, approximately three to four
years old, was found in this trash bin. Authorities are,
of course investigating, but we don't have many details. We
don't have a why, a suspect, any causation, anything. And
this story absolutely needs to unfold so we can find
(01:52):
out what the heck happened. President Trump announced the thirty
percent tariff on Mexico and the European Union. It's going
to take effect August first. Prices will shoot up if
this tariff situation goes through. I know we're the tariffs
are kind of threatened and then they pull back, but
this one could very well happen on August first. And
(02:14):
of course Vice President jd Vance is in the Southland.
He's at Disneyland today enjoying himself, and we'll see what
else he has in store. On his docket as he's
in southern California. Will he meet with Mayor Bess? Will
he meet with the supervisor and leadership out there in
Orange County?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
What will he do? When will he leave? What will
he eat? What will he wear?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We'll find out as many details as we can share
with you and make sure that we do so we
have a talk back. You guys like our show, Thanks
for listening. Let's hear what you have to say.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
And Tiffany, I hope you're having a good saturday.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Thank you stocking me whenever I light up your woy
comes on the radio. Oh okay, well, thank you, short
and sweet and to the point, I appreciate she ate
that I am having a good Saturday, and I hope
the same for all of you. Kayla's not with us,
but Richie is, so shout out to Richie who is
manning all of the things production and doing a wonderful
(03:13):
job keeping us on track. So I'm having a good
Saturday because I have a great team around me. Raoul's
in there, Nikki's in there, Brigitta's in there, and Richie
of course, and Kayla, we love you, we miss you.
We know she's listening and make sure you get those
talkbacks in because she's listening as well. Now it's the
sixth month, six month anniversary. I think anniversary might be
(03:36):
an inappropriate name, but we know we're commemorating the six
months that have passed since the Palisades and Eaten fires,
and it doesn't feel like six months at all for me.
It feels like this is something These fires are something
that occurred maybe a couple of months ago. Six months
is quite a long time for positive things, and even
(04:00):
longer when it comes to a situation like this where
survivors are saying they are still struggling because La has
never experienced this kind of loss on this kind of scale.
Measuring progress six months after the fires has been hard
and painful, but it's being done, and whether it's considering
(04:24):
the feelings of loss. Thirty people died, thousands of homes gone, countless,
animal life, long term plans derailed, battles with insurance companies,
financial duress, mental anguish, all of that after six months
is still too raw for the people who were directly impacted,
(04:47):
and progress does in fact still seem fleeting for many,
especially those again who were the victims, are continuing in
their healing from this situation. A an audio clip from
KTLA that lays it out very well.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
It's been a long six months for those affected by
the Eden and Palisade wildfires, and while city officials say
eighty percent of residential sites have now been cleared, evidence
like these burnt cars, charred signs, bulldozers, and building remains
smelling of smoke shows how things are nowhere near back
to normal in Altadena or Pacific Palisades. Governor Gavin Newsom
(05:28):
came to town to mark the milestone and highlight the
progress and hear concerns.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
None of us are naive that there are parcels remaining
that need debris removal. They're close to two thousand people
that have chosen their own path to the debris removal,
and there are commercial properties that are independent of this process.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
The Palisades and Eaten fires burned a combined thirty seven
thousand acres, destroyed more than sixteen thousand structures, and killed
thirty people. This group of fire survivors says their community
is still in pain every day and came together to
share about the challenges of rebuilding, losing temporary housing, and
still not getting payments from insurance companies.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
It has been disrespectful, disheartening, and predatory trying to get
through all the paperwork and the insurance and getting things
done on the property and who's coming over to do
what for you?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
We need our insurance payouts now to survive and to rebuild.
Thirty deaths, tens of thousands of acres, scorched, thousands of homes,
multiple thousands of animals as well. Again the situation with insurance,
(06:44):
and if you've been staying up to date on this story,
then you know quite a few people have not received
their insurance payouts or what they received was far below
what they were expecting to be able to hopefully get
them back on track. And then there's the mental anguish,
(07:05):
the mental capacity that's being pushed for people who have
experienced these two fires, which all contributes to the fact
that modern Los Angeles, what we know LA to be,
has never experienced this type of loss. So because we've
never experienced this type of loss, there are no easy
(07:29):
road maps to navigate how to best respond to these
situations in the time since it has passed these fires
have passed. There are individual challenges, there are collective challenges,
and on the other side. We're going to go through
what those challenges include. They cover cleanup, they cover assessing
(07:53):
financial loss, they cover questions about neighborhood rebuilding, they cover
city and county response. Because we're right here, it's fire
season all year round, but especially in the warmer months
of the year as we are in now. And if
you're that fire app that we all download it during
(08:13):
the fires, I can't think of the name of it
right now, but that fire app that we all became
very accustomed to. If you have that app, then you've
seen it go off a lot over the last couple
of weeks. What does that mean for the future should
something like this happen again. So there are quite a
few things that are being discussed in the six months
since the Palisades and Eaten fires, and we will get
(08:36):
into reviewing where we are as a region. On the
other side of the break, It's Saturdays with Tiffany right
here on KFI AM six forty Live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand KFI.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Tiffany
Hubbs here with you until seven. It's Saturdays with Tiffany,
as it always is at this time, and we're talking
about the six months since the Palisades and Eaten fires,
and in the last segment, I was struggling to remember
the name of the fire app, that fire watching app
(09:15):
that we all downloaded, because you downloaded it, I downloaded.
It just ballooned back in January as we all were
watching what was happening with the Eaten fire, the Palisades fire,
and the other fires that were popping up around that time,
and my best friend Michelle messaged me and said, watch Duty,
Watch Duty. And I'm sure a lot of you were
(09:35):
screaming at your radio or at your phone as well.
That watch Duty app definitely became a source I think
of anxiety and trauma. And since the six months have passed,
we've kind of been quiet when it comes to fires,
except for i'd say this last week to two weeks
where my watch Duty app, which I still have, which
(09:57):
was more or less dormant for a period of time,
has now been again lighting up like crazy.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Is just you know, notification and alert after alert.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
This fire one acre, five acres and everything is causing
me to pause and basically assess the danger and that
is born of the Palisades and Eaten fires and what
happened six months ago on January seventh, thirty deaths, thousands
of homes gone, thousands of acres scorched, and is undoubtedly
(10:27):
one of the most one of the most dire, one
of the biggest fires in history in California, only I
guess superseded by what just happened about a week ago.
And I think it's still burning out there. But when
it comes to Palisades and Eaten, LA's just never experienced
loss on this scale. So that's what we're talking about.
(10:49):
The progress, if any, in the six months since the fires,
and you can measure it in two ways. You can
measure it individually speaking about the victim of the fire,
people struggling with the deaths of loved ones. Thirty people
again died. This was a deadly fire, determining whether to
(11:09):
rebuild and what that entails, and also assessing the losses financially,
can you rebuild, what does that look like? Do you
know what then has to be navigated so that financially
you can get back on track with your life. Those
are individual concerns and then there are the collective concerns,
(11:32):
and I would say even the vicarious concerns that many
of us are watching as well. Will the neighborhoods that
people lived in or that maybe you enjoyed visiting, will
they ever feel and look like what they did? And
many people six months out are saying no, they're saying
they can't look like what they used to look like
(11:53):
because of the way in which private investors, private companies,
developers are coming into both the Palisades and the Altadena
and Pasadena areas and buying up land.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
I remember when.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
We first recovering the story, we were doing wall to
wall coverage for weeks about the Palisades and eaten fires.
There were whispers about what the recovery process, what the
rebuilding process would look like. And at the time, people
were hopeful that they would be able to get back
into homes, be able to rebuild their neighborhoods. Six months out,
(12:29):
that's looking less and less likely because of the private
development companies that have gone in.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
And then let's say you do want.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
To live back in your area, you want to live
back in the Palisades, you want to live in Alta, Dina,
or in those areas impacted in Pasadena. Can you afford
to even live there? Has your neighborhood changed to the
extent where the cost of living and the rental costs
or the ability to buy a home has that all
(12:58):
skyrocketed outside side of your grasp? If you have the
ability to live there, do you even want to? Do
you want to live back in an area that is
a burned zone, is an active recovery zone. There are
lots of questions, and for all of the uncertainty, there
have been measurable changes since January. For instance, thousands of
(13:23):
lots have been cleared, numerous lawsuits have been filed, there
have been multiple investigations, many of which are still underway,
and dozens of new building permits have been issued. But
many people say that's simply not enough. When it comes
to cleanup. Federal, state, and local officials continue to tout
(13:46):
and kind of brag about the massive cleanup of the
Eton and Palisades fired debris. They often say, and you'll
hear them in press conferences, whether mayor Bess or governor
Newsom or anyone else.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
They'll say, this is the fastest.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Wild life or excuse me, wildfire recovery in modern history.
And a lot of people are saying, okay, but it
doesn't feel like it. And now that things are being recovered,
Now that those nine thousand parcels and thousands of property
or excuse me, thousands of pounds of debris, all of
these things have been cleared away, what does that mean
(14:21):
for us?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
The pace of the.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Cleanup, the federally funded and organized cleanup through the US
Army Corps of Engineers has resulted in two thousand properties
per month being cleared. That's about twice as fast as
the twenty eighteen camp fire. That's the one that decimated
Paradise and has been the subject of a lot of documentaries.
(14:47):
I think Eaten and Palisades will also receive their fair
share of documentaries going forward. At the time, Paradise was
and still remains the most destructive wildfire. Well, the Army
Corps Engineers are saying, we've cleaned up the Palisades and
Eaten areas twice as fast as that two thousand properties
(15:08):
per month, and they're more or less boasting about the speed.
But as workers continue to gather up the debris, clear
the wreckage, there's the issue of toxic ash, contaminated soil,
and other sort of debris that has been moved to
these four local landfills, resulting in a lot of protests,
(15:31):
a lot of animosity, and a lot of question about
how people are going to be impacted by this toxicity
and if you choose to live back in these burn areas,
are you still living amongst toxicity. There's so much at
play and it's going to take a long time to
really parse through. Then you have the city and county response.
(15:55):
Most people are still navigating the process to rebuild. You
have county leaders like Mayor Bess who said that they
were pledging the ability for property owners to get permits
to rebuild. But many property owners are criticizing that pledge,
that streamlined promise, a promise of streamlining the process of
(16:18):
all of this as being too slow. They're saying that
not nearly enough people are being granted the permits. More
than six hundred and fifty applications have been submitted to
LA's Department of Building in Safety, two hundred and twenty
of them about have been approved, but one hundred and
sixty five permits have been issued. That is a far
(16:42):
cry from the number of people who have applied. When
it comes to FEMA and federal funding. What does that
look like. Well, as of this week, more than three
billion dollars in federal funds has been approved for individuals, families,
and businesses impacted by the that's according to FEMA. But
you have a lot of victims who are saying, we
(17:05):
haven't gotten that money, How do we get that money,
where does it come from, where does it funnel down from.
And if they have gotten money, they're saying it's not
enough or it's heavily limited or minimized compared to what
they were expecting.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
And then there's causation. As fire season continues.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
There are lots of questions about the cause of the
Palisades and Eaten fires, and there's no definitive cause from
authorities for either of those fires, but there are certainly theories,
their theories about the utility company, their theories about people
involving themselves in the fire.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
But it leads a lot of it causes a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Of anxiety going forward because if there's no definitive causation,
then there can be no definitive mitigation, which means people
feel that they are sitting ducks for this to happen again.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Legal issues.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
The fires caused a lot of legal issues between the utilities,
between homeowners, between insurance, and again, people are saying that
they are struggling six months after the fires. They're saying
that many of whom have moved back at this point,
that when they walk around the block, they're re traumatized.
(18:25):
They say that it just doesn't look like what they remember.
It feels like a bomb went off, and what made
the area special is gone. Nearly eighty percent of the
destroyed homes in Pacific Palisades are now completely cleared lots,
and the same can be said for the Altadena area.
So when communities are trying to rebuild themselves and they're
(18:47):
looking at six months out since the initial situation, since
the initial fire, they're really wondering will they be able
to come back, And when they do come back, will
they have again that strong and tight knit community that
they once enjoyed. Many are saying no, but six months
out certainly doesn't feel like a long time, and there's
(19:10):
a yet a long time to go. When we come back,
We're going to get into scammers. Gonna Scam one of
our newest segments, one of my favorite segments. I'm gonna
tell you about two stories about people scammers who want
you to separate from your money, and unfortunately there are
victims in this case, people who have gotten gut as
(19:31):
you might say. I'll tell you about the stories and
hopefully you won't fall victim to these newest scams taking
hold around the Southland. Right here on Saturdays with Tiffany
KFI AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Kf I AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Tifmy hobbs here until seven, and then Michael Monks will
be here taking over the big chair for his wonderful show.
As always, thank you so much for listening up until
this point. We have a few more segments to go,
so don't turn away yet, but I do appreciate you
sticking around with us. We're following some big stories, including
(20:14):
Florida lawmakers were allowed to check out that alligator Alcatraz
and they're not mincing words.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
The lawmakers who were inside allowed quote unquote inside have
said that detainees were packed into cages, so they are
being very critical of what they're seeing inside of that
immigration detainment center. Aka Alligator Alcatraz.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
All right.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
As well, that child, unfortunately, who was found in the
parking lot in Panorama City, deceased. There's still no information,
no further information coming out about this ordeal. We do
know that the child was approximately three to four years
of age. We do not know the gender of the child.
(21:07):
We do not know any causation or potential reason or suspects.
But authorities are treating it as a crime scene for sure,
and I believe that's Apropos will continue to follow that story.
And then, of course we have Vice President jd Vance
at Disneyland. He's there at Disneyland with a thirty person entourage.
(21:29):
Can you imagine being behind him in line. I would
be pissed if I had to wait for thirty people
in a group to figure out the seating and they
get to fast track to the front of the line.
But I guess, I guess that's a perk of being
vice president if there are no others. And then lastly,
right now, there's actually a protest going on in Torrance
(21:50):
across from City Hall on Torrance Boulevard. People are up
set that there is a proposal to build housing for
homeless people. I think one of these hotels or apartment
complexes is being converted into homeless housing, and the residents
there are saying, Nope, not in our city. So they
(22:11):
are out there in Torrents protesting en mass and we'll
keep you up to date on what's going on there.
You like your money, I like my money. I don't
like scammers. But as we know, scammers gone a scam,
And we have two new scams for you. Unfortunately that
(22:32):
you may have already fallen victim two. You might be
primed to fall victim two. And I'm hoping to caution
you against falling victim two, starting with our very first one,
which involves those PPP loans. Remember those PPP loans and
Economic Injury disaster loans that were issued to folks during COVID,
(22:54):
Oh yeah, twenty twenty of March right March twenty twenty
through April twenty twenty one, one, that year long period
in which PPP loans were issued to folks who mated them,
some didn't, And we definitely found out that there were
certainly people who took advantage, and then there were people
who all outscammed the system. And the newest suspects in
(23:17):
this scam are local boys. One is from Burbank and
one is from Glendale. We have Noraian Madati, forty years
old from Burbank and vaz Rick Madatti, brothers from Glendale.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
The older brother, vaz Rick.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Madatti, forty four, may or may not have pressured at
the younger brother.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I don't know. I'm just surmising you know that peer pressure.
Who knows?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
But we do know that the two brothers were arrested
for allegedly defrauding the government of get this, two point
seven million dollars through a scheme that targeted COVID relief
funds and small business loans. This is according to the
(24:00):
US Attorney General Office. Now, the alleged crimes took place
from March of twenty twenty, just as COVID was really
becoming publicized through April twenty twenty one, when we were
in the throes of everything unprecedented times. According to the indictment,
no Ryer, the younger brother, was a banker at Wells Fargo,
(24:22):
and he opened fraudulent accounts with the names of fake
companies and stolen or fake identities. Stolen identities that could
have been you. If you experience some sort of major
fraud during that time. Then perhaps you are now happy
to find out, if you didn't already know, that the
(24:44):
suspects in that crime in which your identity was stolen
and used to secure PPP loans and disaster loans have
been caught. The brothers obtained these two point seven million
dollars through the PPP program and the Disaster loan program.
According to prosecutors, they're also accused of submitting loan applications
(25:06):
with fake and stolen identities. They also had false statements
about revenues, operations, and employees. They were very detailed with
their scamming. Two of the stolen ID victims were developmentally
disabled and lived in long term care facilities. That's according
(25:27):
to court documents, so they were preying on everyone indiscriminately,
the developmentally, developmentally able and the developmentally disabled. They were
taken into custody. These two brothers, forty years old and
forty four. What a life right just this three days
ago July ninth. Both were charged with one count of
(25:51):
conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud,
and three counts of money laundering. The younger brother additionally
was charged with one account of aggravated identity theft and
one count of making a false statement to a government agent.
They could face up to twenty years in prison for
(26:13):
each wire fraud related count and up to ten years
for each money laundering account. They were released on twenty
five thousand dollars and fifty thousand dollars bond, respectfully, the
younger getting twenty five thousand dollars bond and the older
being released on fifty thousand dollars bond. We'll see if
they disappear. I don't know if I would have released them.
(26:34):
But they were released and their trial date is scheduled
for September second, so they have about two months until
they have to report and they are out.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
So be forewarned.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
All right, Next and last scam and scammer's gonna scam.
There are lots of websites online, whether through your social media, Google,
whatever it may be. And these websites are not necessarily
credited or accredited legit. They are false shell websites that
may use the insignia, may use the branding of a
(27:09):
brand familiar to you, say Shell gas station or say
o Maha Steaks, or say Apple or Michael Core's Harbor
freight ARII, whatever it may be, but these websites are
completely false.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
They use the name and the.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Labeling, but what they are doing is they are sifting
your information and then funneling or selling that information to
third parties to be able to then separate you from
your money. Everything looks real, the logos, the layout, even
Apple and Google pay are payment options, but by the
(27:48):
time you realize you've been scammed, it's too late. I'm
going to tell you a little bit more about this
scam on the other side of the break, and before
we talk to Michael Monks, we're going to get into
why the t DA is now allowing you to take
your shoes off in the security line at the airport.
But what they want you to know before you just
take or keep your shoes on. I said, take your
(28:09):
shoes off, keep your shoes on. See I'm still getting
used to the rollback. You can keep your shoes on,
but they want you to know some things about what
to do with these shoes on in the security line.
We'll get into all of that more clearly on the
other side of the break. Tiffany Hobbs here with you
at Saturdays with Tiffany Kfi AM six forty Live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand KFI.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio App. Tiffany
Hobbs here with you for one final segment. Then Michael
Monks will be here for Michael Monks Presents from seven
to nine.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
We're talking about scamming, and I'm extending the Scammer's Gonna
Scam segment just a little bit before we get into
the TSA situation with you being allowed to keep your
shoes on. Thank you TSA because the smells the smells
alone in the security line. Yeah, all right, So back
to Scammer's Gonna Scam. I'm telling you about a huge
(29:09):
scam that's not just impacting California, but it's really a
global issue that has to do with these fake websites
that advertised products that look just like.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
The real thing.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
The website itself looks like the real thing. And you
might have seen something for OREI, that really expensive outerwear brand,
or Omaha Steaks talking about steak earlier and cross with Neil.
Omaha Steaks very popular steak Importer, Exporter don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Uh, distributor.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Then there's also other sorts of companies Harbor Freight, Apple,
Michael Cores, and the list goes on and on. And
what's going on is that these sites look legit, they
look real. You go through, you buy everything, you enter
your card information. You know, if you look closely, something
might look a little off, but it's not a red
(30:04):
flag enough for you to stop. You just go through,
You send your payment through. You're expecting that two hundred
dollars you know bike that actually costs fifteen hundred dollars retail,
but this site has it for two hundred dollars or
fifty nine ninety nine or whatever crazy deal it may be.
And we've all gotten tricked by these crazy deals. They
(30:25):
prey on us. They know we're vulnerable. And when you
send all of your payment through, you'll get a tracking number,
and that tracking number leads to nothing. You go back
to the website because you're trying to figure out why
is it now a month since I, you know, did
this order and the shipment said it was only going
to take four to six days. It's been a month,
(30:45):
and you go back to the website. The website's gone
it's completely gone. You have effectively been duped these criminals. Unfortunately,
it's what they are not Unfortunately, we're not going to
show them any grace. They're criminals in every sense of
the word. They are often based overseas, most popularly in Asia,
usually in China. They take your payment, they ghost you.
(31:08):
You don't get the product, you don't get a refund,
there's no customer service to complain to.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
You've been totally faked out and fed up.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
To be honest, you're out of all of your money,
whatever it may be, ten dollars, hundreds of dollars, whatever
it may be. Anecdotally, I remember my mother being so
kind and she's listening I love you, Mom, and she
did something that I asked her to do. I wanted
a Christmas present a good daughter, So I said, you know, mom,
got get this Christmas present. And in twenty twenty one
(31:38):
I think it was, and I said, can you get
me this compact treadmill because gyms weren't really opened back
up at that time, and we weren't really doing the
gym thing during COVID for whatever your beliefs were, just
wasn't comfortable.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
So I said, you know, can I get this, Mommy, please,
can you get me this compact treadmill? Please, please, please please?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
You can combine my birthday and my Christmas gift, my
birthday's gim minor. First, she said, okay, and I think
the compact treadmill cost on this website that I saw
on Facebook or Instagram, it was like eighty nine dollars
or ninety nine. It was something less than one hundred
or write about one hundred dollars. I had seen them
(32:18):
advertised a lot during the COVID lockdown. They were usually
around that price or two hundred, so I was like,
this is a deal, this is great.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
She ordered it.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
She entered her payment information, she got a shipping estimate
tracking number. After about a month, thing never came, had
pictures of it, no actual product never came. You know,
six weeks comes, eight weeks comes. Now We're both like,
this thing isn't coming. We got scammed. So you try
and go on the customer service area of the website.
(32:49):
There's no one to talk to. And luckily for my mom,
she was able to dispute the charges through her bank
because she used an appropriate measure way of payment, whereas
others many others have not been able to recoup their losses.
And the thing about I never got the treadmill, by
the way, and just ended up having to go back
to the gym, which is fine, but even worse that
(33:11):
these scam sites are popping up faster than regulations can
shut them down, faster than hosting companies can take them down,
and even now as we talk, there are many of
these websites that are still absolutely up. I saw one
on Facebook that was mimicking a website for this kind
of bohemian clothing brand, and it looked exactly the same
(33:35):
word for word, color for color, graphic for graphic, except
for the fact that the fake website, unbeknownst to the
many customers there in the comments especially, was advertising the
goods at about seventy five percent off. So people were
going to the fake website that was advertising a huge
summer sale and buying the goods finding out through the
(33:58):
legitimate website who had to them post regularly on social media,
Hey guys, that's a scam. Don't buy with them. We're
trying to get them taken down, but we're having trouble.
But don't buy with them. Hundreds of comments of people
saying they sent any amount of money to the fake
website and that they were unable to get any sort
of refund. So if you suspect that you might be
(34:22):
looking at something that is too good to be true,
it probably is. Here are some other tips to make
sure you don't fall for these scams. Slow down and read.
If there are misspelled words, weird domain names, something that
has an S that shouldn't have an S, probably not real.
Use virtual cards or a credit card, not a debit
(34:45):
card when you're shopping, especially back to schools coming up,
holidays are coming up, try and use a virtual card
or a credit card so that you can have some
sort of fraud protection.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Also, if you like something for Nike, go to Nike
dot org.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Don't click on a URL a website name that advertises
itself as being kind of.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Nike carrying maybe Nike.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Products, because if the deal looks too good and those
nineteen dollars shoes that usually retail at two hundred dollars
or advertise there, then it's probably a scam.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
No, it's not a scam.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
You can keep your shoes on during airports screenings. But
here's what the TSA wants you to know. They say
that they're you know, people are probably going to rush
to keeping their shoes on, but make sure that you aren't,
of course, keeping anything in your shoes that would need
(35:43):
to be removed, whether it's jewelry or definitely don't keep
anything that might set off a huge issue in that
tsa screening, laying no sort of weaponry. All this is
common sense, but they're saying it because people are going
to do it.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
They're going to try and.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Get through their alcohol or get through their weed or
whatever it may be. Make sure that you're not doing
that because very quickly they could reverse this new policy
and have us taking our shoes back off. And I
don't want to smell your long weighted toe funk as
(36:22):
you are waiting to board your fight. Okay, I just
you know, we got to do this right, got to
do this right. Michael Monks is coming up seven to
nine with Michael Monks Presents. He's going to have a
great show. Make sure you listen. Thank you for listening here.
You can still send your talkbacks, just address them to me,
or make sure you address them to Michael Monks. We
get that confused sometimes. And I'll see you right here
(36:42):
next Saturday. From five to seven on Saturdays with Tiffany.
It's been a blast. Have a great weekend. KFI AM
six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Piece KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Tiffany Hobbs here with you until seven, and then Michael
Monks will come aboard and undoubtedly give us all that
we need to know via his wonderful, wonderful show Michael
Monks Presents. That's from seven to nine. So make sure
you keep it locked right here if you've missed anything
(00:26):
thus far, featured segments under KFIAM six forty dot com
is where you want to go to make sure that
you keep up to date with this show, Michael's show,
all the shows, but definitely this show. We just had
a wonderful interview with our friend Ac Christiansen, Aaron Ac
Christiansen of Animal Advocacy Network, and he's out there. He
(00:48):
left southern California to go out to Texas. Let me
just be clear, because he traveled by caravan to Texas
to help with the animal recovery and rescue efforts, and
he painted a really grim but hopeful picture of what's
going on out there in Texas. Make sure you listen
(01:09):
to that. It was something, it was impactful. We're also
keeping tabs on some really big stories that maybe should
be bigger, and I know we're covering it right here
on KFI. You heard it right there from our KFI
twenty four hour newsroom. There was a body of a
toddler found early this morning in Panorama City in a
(01:29):
parking lot, apparently in a trash bin. They're saying it's
a residence, but that the toddler, approximately three to four
years old, was found in this trash bin. Authorities are,
of course investigating, but we don't have many details. We
don't have a why, a suspect, any causation, anything. And
this story absolutely needs to unfold so we can find
(01:52):
out what the heck happened. President Trump announced the thirty
percent tariff on Mexico and the European Union. It's going
to take effect August first. Prices will shoot up if
this tariff situation goes through. I know we're the tariffs
are kind of threatened and then they pull back, but
this one could very well happen on August first. And
(02:14):
of course Vice President jd Vance is in the Southland.
He's at Disneyland today enjoying himself, and we'll see what
else he has in store. On his docket as he's
in southern California. Will he meet with Mayor Bess? Will
he meet with the supervisor and leadership out there in
Orange County?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
What will he do? When will he leave? What will
he eat? What will he wear?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We'll find out as many details as we can share
with you and make sure that we do so we
have a talk back. You guys like our show, Thanks
for listening. Let's hear what you have to say.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
And Tiffany, I hope you're having a good saturday.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Thank you stocking me whenever I light up your woy
comes on the radio. Oh okay, well, thank you, short
and sweet and to the point, I appreciate she ate
that I am having a good Saturday, and I hope
the same for all of you. Kayla's not with us,
but Richie is, so shout out to Richie who is
manning all of the things production and doing a wonderful
(03:13):
job keeping us on track. So I'm having a good
Saturday because I have a great team around me. Raoul's
in there, Nikki's in there, Brigitta's in there, and Richie
of course, and Kayla, we love you, we miss you.
We know she's listening and make sure you get those
talkbacks in because she's listening as well. Now it's the
sixth month, six month anniversary. I think anniversary might be
(03:36):
an inappropriate name, but we know we're commemorating the six
months that have passed since the Palisades and Eaten fires,
and it doesn't feel like six months at all for me.
It feels like this is something These fires are something
that occurred maybe a couple of months ago. Six months
is quite a long time for positive things, and even
(04:00):
longer when it comes to a situation like this where
survivors are saying they are still struggling because La has
never experienced this kind of loss on this kind of scale.
Measuring progress six months after the fires has been hard
and painful, but it's being done, and whether it's considering
(04:24):
the feelings of loss. Thirty people died, thousands of homes gone, countless,
animal life, long term plans derailed, battles with insurance companies,
financial duress, mental anguish, all of that after six months
is still too raw for the people who were directly impacted,
(04:47):
and progress does in fact still seem fleeting for many,
especially those again who were the victims, are continuing in
their healing from this situation. A an audio clip from
KTLA that lays it out very well.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
It's been a long six months for those affected by
the Eden and Palisade wildfires, and while city officials say
eighty percent of residential sites have now been cleared, evidence
like these burnt cars, charred signs, bulldozers, and building remains
smelling of smoke shows how things are nowhere near back
to normal in Altadena or Pacific Palisades. Governor Gavin Newsom
(05:28):
came to town to mark the milestone and highlight the
progress and hear concerns.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
None of us are naive that there are parcels remaining
that need debris removal. They're close to two thousand people
that have chosen their own path to the debris removal,
and there are commercial properties that are independent of this process.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
The Palisades and Eaten fires burned a combined thirty seven
thousand acres, destroyed more than sixteen thousand structures, and killed
thirty people. This group of fire survivors says their community
is still in pain every day and came together to
share about the challenges of rebuilding, losing temporary housing, and
still not getting payments from insurance companies.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
It has been disrespectful, disheartening, and predatory trying to get
through all the paperwork and the insurance and getting things
done on the property and who's coming over to do
what for you?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
We need our insurance payouts now to survive and to rebuild.
Thirty deaths, tens of thousands of acres, scorched, thousands of homes,
multiple thousands of animals as well. Again the situation with insurance,
(06:44):
and if you've been staying up to date on this story,
then you know quite a few people have not received
their insurance payouts or what they received was far below
what they were expecting to be able to hopefully get
them back on track. And then there's the mental anguish,
(07:05):
the mental capacity that's being pushed for people who have
experienced these two fires, which all contributes to the fact
that modern Los Angeles, what we know LA to be,
has never experienced this type of loss. So because we've
never experienced this type of loss, there are no easy
(07:29):
road maps to navigate how to best respond to these
situations in the time since it has passed these fires
have passed. There are individual challenges, there are collective challenges,
and on the other side. We're going to go through
what those challenges include. They cover cleanup, they cover assessing
(07:53):
financial loss, they cover questions about neighborhood rebuilding, they cover
city and county response. Because we're right here, it's fire
season all year round, but especially in the warmer months
of the year as we are in now. And if
you're that fire app that we all download it during
(08:13):
the fires, I can't think of the name of it
right now, but that fire app that we all became
very accustomed to. If you have that app, then you've
seen it go off a lot over the last couple
of weeks. What does that mean for the future should
something like this happen again. So there are quite a
few things that are being discussed in the six months
since the Palisades and Eaten fires, and we will get
(08:36):
into reviewing where we are as a region. On the
other side of the break, It's Saturdays with Tiffany right
here on KFI AM six forty Live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand KFI.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Tiffany
Hubbs here with you until seven. It's Saturdays with Tiffany,
as it always is at this time, and we're talking
about the six months since the Palisades and Eaten fires,
and in the last segment, I was struggling to remember
the name of the fire app, that fire watching app
(09:15):
that we all downloaded, because you downloaded it, I downloaded.
It just ballooned back in January as we all were
watching what was happening with the Eaten fire, the Palisades fire,
and the other fires that were popping up around that time,
and my best friend Michelle messaged me and said, watch Duty,
Watch Duty. And I'm sure a lot of you were
(09:35):
screaming at your radio or at your phone as well.
That watch Duty app definitely became a source I think
of anxiety and trauma. And since the six months have passed,
we've kind of been quiet when it comes to fires,
except for i'd say this last week to two weeks
where my watch Duty app, which I still have, which
(09:57):
was more or less dormant for a period of time,
has now been again lighting up like crazy.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Is just you know, notification and alert after alert.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
This fire one acre, five acres and everything is causing
me to pause and basically assess the danger and that
is born of the Palisades and Eaten fires and what
happened six months ago on January seventh, thirty deaths, thousands
of homes gone, thousands of acres scorched, and is undoubtedly
(10:27):
one of the most one of the most dire, one
of the biggest fires in history in California, only I
guess superseded by what just happened about a week ago.
And I think it's still burning out there. But when
it comes to Palisades and Eaten, LA's just never experienced
loss on this scale. So that's what we're talking about.
(10:49):
The progress, if any, in the six months since the fires,
and you can measure it in two ways. You can
measure it individually speaking about the victim of the fire,
people struggling with the deaths of loved ones. Thirty people
again died. This was a deadly fire, determining whether to
(11:09):
rebuild and what that entails, and also assessing the losses financially,
can you rebuild, what does that look like? Do you
know what then has to be navigated so that financially
you can get back on track with your life. Those
are individual concerns and then there are the collective concerns,
(11:32):
and I would say even the vicarious concerns that many
of us are watching as well. Will the neighborhoods that
people lived in or that maybe you enjoyed visiting, will
they ever feel and look like what they did? And
many people six months out are saying no, they're saying
they can't look like what they used to look like
(11:53):
because of the way in which private investors, private companies,
developers are coming into both the Palisades and the Altadena
and Pasadena areas and buying up land.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
I remember when.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
We first recovering the story, we were doing wall to
wall coverage for weeks about the Palisades and eaten fires.
There were whispers about what the recovery process, what the
rebuilding process would look like. And at the time, people
were hopeful that they would be able to get back
into homes, be able to rebuild their neighborhoods. Six months out,
(12:29):
that's looking less and less likely because of the private
development companies that have gone in.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
And then let's say you do want.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
To live back in your area, you want to live
back in the Palisades, you want to live in Alta, Dina,
or in those areas impacted in Pasadena. Can you afford
to even live there? Has your neighborhood changed to the
extent where the cost of living and the rental costs
or the ability to buy a home has that all
(12:58):
skyrocketed outside side of your grasp? If you have the
ability to live there, do you even want to? Do
you want to live back in an area that is
a burned zone, is an active recovery zone. There are
lots of questions, and for all of the uncertainty, there
have been measurable changes since January. For instance, thousands of
(13:23):
lots have been cleared, numerous lawsuits have been filed, there
have been multiple investigations, many of which are still underway,
and dozens of new building permits have been issued. But
many people say that's simply not enough. When it comes
to cleanup. Federal, state, and local officials continue to tout
(13:46):
and kind of brag about the massive cleanup of the
Eton and Palisades fired debris. They often say, and you'll
hear them in press conferences, whether mayor Bess or governor
Newsom or anyone else.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
They'll say, this is the fastest.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Wild life or excuse me, wildfire recovery in modern history.
And a lot of people are saying, okay, but it
doesn't feel like it. And now that things are being recovered,
Now that those nine thousand parcels and thousands of property
or excuse me, thousands of pounds of debris, all of
these things have been cleared away, what does that mean
(14:21):
for us?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
The pace of the.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Cleanup, the federally funded and organized cleanup through the US
Army Corps of Engineers has resulted in two thousand properties
per month being cleared. That's about twice as fast as
the twenty eighteen camp fire. That's the one that decimated
Paradise and has been the subject of a lot of documentaries.
(14:47):
I think Eaten and Palisades will also receive their fair
share of documentaries going forward. At the time, Paradise was
and still remains the most destructive wildfire. Well, the Army
Corps Engineers are saying, we've cleaned up the Palisades and
Eaten areas twice as fast as that two thousand properties
(15:08):
per month, and they're more or less boasting about the speed.
But as workers continue to gather up the debris, clear
the wreckage, there's the issue of toxic ash, contaminated soil,
and other sort of debris that has been moved to
these four local landfills, resulting in a lot of protests,
(15:31):
a lot of animosity, and a lot of question about
how people are going to be impacted by this toxicity
and if you choose to live back in these burn areas,
are you still living amongst toxicity. There's so much at
play and it's going to take a long time to
really parse through. Then you have the city and county response.
(15:55):
Most people are still navigating the process to rebuild. You
have county leaders like Mayor Bess who said that they
were pledging the ability for property owners to get permits
to rebuild. But many property owners are criticizing that pledge,
that streamlined promise, a promise of streamlining the process of
(16:18):
all of this as being too slow. They're saying that
not nearly enough people are being granted the permits. More
than six hundred and fifty applications have been submitted to
LA's Department of Building in Safety, two hundred and twenty
of them about have been approved, but one hundred and
sixty five permits have been issued. That is a far
(16:42):
cry from the number of people who have applied. When
it comes to FEMA and federal funding. What does that
look like. Well, as of this week, more than three
billion dollars in federal funds has been approved for individuals, families,
and businesses impacted by the that's according to FEMA. But
you have a lot of victims who are saying, we
(17:05):
haven't gotten that money, How do we get that money,
where does it come from, where does it funnel down from.
And if they have gotten money, they're saying it's not
enough or it's heavily limited or minimized compared to what
they were expecting.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
And then there's causation. As fire season continues.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
There are lots of questions about the cause of the
Palisades and Eaten fires, and there's no definitive cause from
authorities for either of those fires, but there are certainly theories,
their theories about the utility company, their theories about people
involving themselves in the fire.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
But it leads a lot of it causes a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Of anxiety going forward because if there's no definitive causation,
then there can be no definitive mitigation, which means people
feel that they are sitting ducks for this to happen again.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Legal issues.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
The fires caused a lot of legal issues between the utilities,
between homeowners, between insurance, and again, people are saying that
they are struggling six months after the fires. They're saying
that many of whom have moved back at this point,
that when they walk around the block, they're re traumatized.
(18:25):
They say that it just doesn't look like what they remember.
It feels like a bomb went off, and what made
the area special is gone. Nearly eighty percent of the
destroyed homes in Pacific Palisades are now completely cleared lots,
and the same can be said for the Altadena area.
So when communities are trying to rebuild themselves and they're
(18:47):
looking at six months out since the initial situation, since
the initial fire, they're really wondering will they be able
to come back, And when they do come back, will
they have again that strong and tight knit community that
they once enjoyed. Many are saying no, but six months
out certainly doesn't feel like a long time, and there's
(19:10):
a yet a long time to go. When we come back,
We're going to get into scammers. Gonna Scam one of
our newest segments, one of my favorite segments. I'm gonna
tell you about two stories about people scammers who want
you to separate from your money, and unfortunately there are
victims in this case, people who have gotten gut as
(19:31):
you might say. I'll tell you about the stories and
hopefully you won't fall victim to these newest scams taking
hold around the Southland. Right here on Saturdays with Tiffany
KFI AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Kf I AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Tifmy hobbs here until seven, and then Michael Monks will
be here taking over the big chair for his wonderful show.
As always, thank you so much for listening up until
this point. We have a few more segments to go,
so don't turn away yet, but I do appreciate you
sticking around with us. We're following some big stories, including
(20:14):
Florida lawmakers were allowed to check out that alligator Alcatraz
and they're not mincing words.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
The lawmakers who were inside allowed quote unquote inside have
said that detainees were packed into cages, so they are
being very critical of what they're seeing inside of that
immigration detainment center. Aka Alligator Alcatraz.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
All right.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
As well, that child, unfortunately, who was found in the
parking lot in Panorama City, deceased. There's still no information,
no further information coming out about this ordeal. We do
know that the child was approximately three to four years
of age. We do not know the gender of the child.
(21:07):
We do not know any causation or potential reason or suspects.
But authorities are treating it as a crime scene for sure,
and I believe that's Apropos will continue to follow that story.
And then, of course we have Vice President jd Vance
at Disneyland. He's there at Disneyland with a thirty person entourage.
(21:29):
Can you imagine being behind him in line. I would
be pissed if I had to wait for thirty people
in a group to figure out the seating and they
get to fast track to the front of the line.
But I guess, I guess that's a perk of being
vice president if there are no others. And then lastly,
right now, there's actually a protest going on in Torrance
(21:50):
across from City Hall on Torrance Boulevard. People are up
set that there is a proposal to build housing for
homeless people. I think one of these hotels or apartment
complexes is being converted into homeless housing, and the residents
there are saying, Nope, not in our city. So they
(22:11):
are out there in Torrents protesting en mass and we'll
keep you up to date on what's going on there.
You like your money, I like my money. I don't
like scammers. But as we know, scammers gone a scam,
And we have two new scams for you. Unfortunately that
(22:32):
you may have already fallen victim two. You might be
primed to fall victim two. And I'm hoping to caution
you against falling victim two, starting with our very first one,
which involves those PPP loans. Remember those PPP loans and
Economic Injury disaster loans that were issued to folks during COVID,
(22:54):
Oh yeah, twenty twenty of March right March twenty twenty
through April twenty twenty one, one, that year long period
in which PPP loans were issued to folks who mated them,
some didn't, And we definitely found out that there were
certainly people who took advantage, and then there were people
who all outscammed the system. And the newest suspects in
(23:17):
this scam are local boys. One is from Burbank and
one is from Glendale. We have Noraian Madati, forty years
old from Burbank and vaz Rick Madatti, brothers from Glendale.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
The older brother, vaz Rick.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Madatti, forty four, may or may not have pressured at
the younger brother.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I don't know. I'm just surmising you know that peer pressure.
Who knows?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
But we do know that the two brothers were arrested
for allegedly defrauding the government of get this, two point
seven million dollars through a scheme that targeted COVID relief
funds and small business loans. This is according to the
(24:00):
US Attorney General Office. Now, the alleged crimes took place
from March of twenty twenty, just as COVID was really
becoming publicized through April twenty twenty one, when we were
in the throes of everything unprecedented times. According to the indictment,
no Ryer, the younger brother, was a banker at Wells Fargo,
(24:22):
and he opened fraudulent accounts with the names of fake
companies and stolen or fake identities. Stolen identities that could
have been you. If you experience some sort of major
fraud during that time. Then perhaps you are now happy
to find out, if you didn't already know, that the
(24:44):
suspects in that crime in which your identity was stolen
and used to secure PPP loans and disaster loans have
been caught. The brothers obtained these two point seven million
dollars through the PPP program and the Disaster loan program.
According to prosecutors, they're also accused of submitting loan applications
(25:06):
with fake and stolen identities. They also had false statements
about revenues, operations, and employees. They were very detailed with
their scamming. Two of the stolen ID victims were developmentally
disabled and lived in long term care facilities. That's according
(25:27):
to court documents, so they were preying on everyone indiscriminately,
the developmentally, developmentally able and the developmentally disabled. They were
taken into custody. These two brothers, forty years old and
forty four. What a life right just this three days
ago July ninth. Both were charged with one count of
(25:51):
conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud,
and three counts of money laundering. The younger brother additionally
was charged with one account of aggravated identity theft and
one count of making a false statement to a government agent.
They could face up to twenty years in prison for
(26:13):
each wire fraud related count and up to ten years
for each money laundering account. They were released on twenty
five thousand dollars and fifty thousand dollars bond, respectfully, the
younger getting twenty five thousand dollars bond and the older
being released on fifty thousand dollars bond. We'll see if
they disappear. I don't know if I would have released them.
(26:34):
But they were released and their trial date is scheduled
for September second, so they have about two months until
they have to report and they are out.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
So be forewarned.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
All right, Next and last scam and scammer's gonna scam.
There are lots of websites online, whether through your social media, Google,
whatever it may be. And these websites are not necessarily
credited or accredited legit. They are false shell websites that
may use the insignia, may use the branding of a
(27:09):
brand familiar to you, say Shell gas station or say
o Maha Steaks, or say Apple or Michael Core's Harbor
freight ARII, whatever it may be, but these websites are
completely false.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
They use the name and the.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Labeling, but what they are doing is they are sifting
your information and then funneling or selling that information to
third parties to be able to then separate you from
your money. Everything looks real, the logos, the layout, even
Apple and Google pay are payment options, but by the
(27:48):
time you realize you've been scammed, it's too late. I'm
going to tell you a little bit more about this
scam on the other side of the break, and before
we talk to Michael Monks, we're going to get into
why the t DA is now allowing you to take
your shoes off in the security line at the airport.
But what they want you to know before you just
take or keep your shoes on. I said, take your
(28:09):
shoes off, keep your shoes on. See I'm still getting
used to the rollback. You can keep your shoes on,
but they want you to know some things about what
to do with these shoes on in the security line.
We'll get into all of that more clearly on the
other side of the break. Tiffany Hobbs here with you
at Saturdays with Tiffany Kfi AM six forty Live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand KFI.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio App. Tiffany
Hobbs here with you for one final segment. Then Michael
Monks will be here for Michael Monks Presents from seven
to nine.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
We're talking about scamming, and I'm extending the Scammer's Gonna
Scam segment just a little bit before we get into
the TSA situation with you being allowed to keep your
shoes on. Thank you TSA because the smells the smells
alone in the security line. Yeah, all right, So back
to Scammer's Gonna Scam. I'm telling you about a huge
(29:09):
scam that's not just impacting California, but it's really a
global issue that has to do with these fake websites
that advertised products that look just like.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
The real thing.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
The website itself looks like the real thing. And you
might have seen something for OREI, that really expensive outerwear brand,
or Omaha Steaks talking about steak earlier and cross with Neil.
Omaha Steaks very popular steak Importer, Exporter don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Uh, distributor.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Then there's also other sorts of companies Harbor Freight, Apple,
Michael Cores, and the list goes on and on. And
what's going on is that these sites look legit, they
look real. You go through, you buy everything, you enter
your card information. You know, if you look closely, something
might look a little off, but it's not a red
(30:04):
flag enough for you to stop. You just go through,
You send your payment through. You're expecting that two hundred
dollars you know bike that actually costs fifteen hundred dollars retail,
but this site has it for two hundred dollars or
fifty nine ninety nine or whatever crazy deal it may be.
And we've all gotten tricked by these crazy deals. They
(30:25):
prey on us. They know we're vulnerable. And when you
send all of your payment through, you'll get a tracking number,
and that tracking number leads to nothing. You go back
to the website because you're trying to figure out why
is it now a month since I, you know, did
this order and the shipment said it was only going
to take four to six days. It's been a month,
(30:45):
and you go back to the website. The website's gone
it's completely gone. You have effectively been duped these criminals. Unfortunately,
it's what they are not Unfortunately, we're not going to
show them any grace. They're criminals in every sense of
the word. They are often based overseas, most popularly in Asia,
usually in China. They take your payment, they ghost you.
(31:08):
You don't get the product, you don't get a refund,
there's no customer service to complain to.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
You've been totally faked out and fed up.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
To be honest, you're out of all of your money,
whatever it may be, ten dollars, hundreds of dollars, whatever
it may be. Anecdotally, I remember my mother being so
kind and she's listening I love you, Mom, and she
did something that I asked her to do. I wanted
a Christmas present a good daughter, So I said, you know, mom,
got get this Christmas present. And in twenty twenty one
(31:38):
I think it was, and I said, can you get
me this compact treadmill because gyms weren't really opened back
up at that time, and we weren't really doing the
gym thing during COVID for whatever your beliefs were, just
wasn't comfortable.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
So I said, you know, can I get this, Mommy, please,
can you get me this compact treadmill? Please, please, please please?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
You can combine my birthday and my Christmas gift, my
birthday's gim minor. First, she said, okay, and I think
the compact treadmill cost on this website that I saw
on Facebook or Instagram, it was like eighty nine dollars
or ninety nine. It was something less than one hundred
or write about one hundred dollars. I had seen them
(32:18):
advertised a lot during the COVID lockdown. They were usually
around that price or two hundred, so I was like,
this is a deal, this is great.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
She ordered it.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
She entered her payment information, she got a shipping estimate
tracking number. After about a month, thing never came, had
pictures of it, no actual product never came. You know,
six weeks comes, eight weeks comes. Now We're both like,
this thing isn't coming. We got scammed. So you try
and go on the customer service area of the website.
(32:49):
There's no one to talk to. And luckily for my mom,
she was able to dispute the charges through her bank
because she used an appropriate measure way of payment, whereas
others many others have not been able to recoup their losses.
And the thing about I never got the treadmill, by
the way, and just ended up having to go back
to the gym, which is fine, but even worse that
(33:11):
these scam sites are popping up faster than regulations can
shut them down, faster than hosting companies can take them down,
and even now as we talk, there are many of
these websites that are still absolutely up. I saw one
on Facebook that was mimicking a website for this kind
of bohemian clothing brand, and it looked exactly the same
(33:35):
word for word, color for color, graphic for graphic, except
for the fact that the fake website, unbeknownst to the
many customers there in the comments especially, was advertising the
goods at about seventy five percent off. So people were
going to the fake website that was advertising a huge
summer sale and buying the goods finding out through the
(33:58):
legitimate website who had to them post regularly on social media,
Hey guys, that's a scam. Don't buy with them. We're
trying to get them taken down, but we're having trouble.
But don't buy with them. Hundreds of comments of people
saying they sent any amount of money to the fake
website and that they were unable to get any sort
of refund. So if you suspect that you might be
(34:22):
looking at something that is too good to be true,
it probably is. Here are some other tips to make
sure you don't fall for these scams. Slow down and read.
If there are misspelled words, weird domain names, something that
has an S that shouldn't have an S, probably not real.
Use virtual cards or a credit card, not a debit
(34:45):
card when you're shopping, especially back to schools coming up,
holidays are coming up, try and use a virtual card
or a credit card so that you can have some
sort of fraud protection.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Also, if you like something for Nike, go to Nike
dot org.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Don't click on a URL a website name that advertises
itself as being kind of.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Nike carrying maybe Nike.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Products, because if the deal looks too good and those
nineteen dollars shoes that usually retail at two hundred dollars
or advertise there, then it's probably a scam.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
No, it's not a scam.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
You can keep your shoes on during airports screenings. But
here's what the TSA wants you to know. They say
that they're you know, people are probably going to rush
to keeping their shoes on, but make sure that you aren't,
of course, keeping anything in your shoes that would need
(35:43):
to be removed, whether it's jewelry or definitely don't keep
anything that might set off a huge issue in that
tsa screening, laying no sort of weaponry. All this is
common sense, but they're saying it because people are going
to do it.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
They're going to try and.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Get through their alcohol or get through their weed or
whatever it may be. Make sure that you're not doing
that because very quickly they could reverse this new policy
and have us taking our shoes back off. And I
don't want to smell your long weighted toe funk as
(36:22):
you are waiting to board your fight. Okay, I just
you know, we got to do this right, got to
do this right. Michael Monks is coming up seven to
nine with Michael Monks Presents. He's going to have a
great show. Make sure you listen. Thank you for listening here.
You can still send your talkbacks, just address them to me,
or make sure you address them to Michael Monks. We
get that confused sometimes. And I'll see you right here
(36:42):
next Saturday. From five to seven on Saturdays with Tiffany.
It's been a blast. Have a great weekend. KFI AM
six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Piece KFI AM six forty on demand
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