Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Mariana van Zeller: Host of National Geographic's “Trafficked” discusses navigating the underworld

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Mariana van Zeller: Host of National Geographic's “Trafficked” discusses navigating the underworld · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
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  Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
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  Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
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  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
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  Speaker 1: hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations. Here
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  Speaker 1: we go. Welcome to Money Making Conversations. I am your host,
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  Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. It is important to understand that everybody travels
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  Speaker 1: a different path to success. That is because your brand
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  Speaker 1: is different, the challenges you face in your life will
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  Speaker 1: be different. So stop reading other people's success stories and
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  Speaker 1: really start writing your own now and you can be
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  Speaker 1: motivated by the success. I'm not denying that because their
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  Speaker 1: stories can offer direction and hype and hope. But remember this,
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  Speaker 1: you can reach your goals, but just through your planning
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  Speaker 1: and your committed effort that will get you there. My
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: next guest is Marianna Benzeller. She's an award winning investigative journalists.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: She's the co founder of Muck Media and host of Executives.
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  Speaker 1: The executive producer of Trafficking with Marianna Vnzella. She wanted
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  Speaker 1: to do part a war for fusion investigation deaf by
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  Speaker 1: Fentonal when she tracted pharmaceutical and clandestine sources of the
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  Speaker 1: daily Deadly Opiard for her report Rape on the Reservation.
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  Speaker 1: She received the prestigious living Stein Award for Young Journalists
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  Speaker 1: and a documentary on prescription job abuse and peel trafficking,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the Oxy Cockton oxy Coaton conton Express. We're honored to
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: have on the show because she was honored by the
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Peaboardy Award. She's on the show to talk about the
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  Speaker 1: show that airs every Wednesday on National Geographic Traffic. It
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: with Marianna Benzella. Please welcome to Morney making conversation. She
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: scares me, but I respect her. Marianna Benzella, how are
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  Speaker 1: you doing there? Grade or so? Thank you so much
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  Speaker 1: for having First of all, let's talk about this show
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: that you know, your background tells the story, your your
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: your investigative reporter. And I'm gonna just tell you my
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: little history about people who are respect like the Christiana
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and Poor of a CNN. I'm a big fan of her.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, my daughter's name comes from her. And so
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  Speaker 1: when I look at investigative reporters, I look at that
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: type of person who goes behind the scenes the story
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: is sometimes bigger than their own safety. Okay, and I
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: look at this like you, how did you get into
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: that and what mindset drives you for a series like that.
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  Speaker 1: There's appears of National Geographic. Absolutely I can tell you
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  Speaker 1: how I Paul started and it started pretty early on
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  Speaker 1: when I was twelve years old. Essentially, I used to
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: watch the night news show with my family growing up
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  Speaker 1: in Portugal, and I've listened to these anchors on Portuguese
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  Speaker 1: television talk about what was happening all around the world
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  Speaker 1: with so much knowledge. I had no idea they were
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: reading from a teleprompter. But that's was when I decided, Okay,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: this is it. I want to be a journalist because
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  Speaker 1: I want to travel around the world and gain all
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: this knowledge about the world. And so it's sort of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: launched me into my quest, which wasn't always easy as
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: coming to the United States, it's and doing journalism here.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Now this series Uh, you know, you have a company.
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  Speaker 1: I mentioned it in the in the title MUCK Media.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: What exactly is MUK Media? Well, Monkey is a much
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Media is a media production company. We do everything from documentaries,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: docuseeries and uh we've you know, produced a couple of
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  Speaker 1: award winning documentaries recently, which I'm really proud of. And
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  Speaker 1: now we have this new series on National Geographic Channel
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  Speaker 1: which I'm not only the host but also the executive producer,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: which cares a lot of weight. I'm very meliar with
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the power of executive producer. You know the bottom line,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: you know, the creative line, and your decision maker. But
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: more importantly, you're the talent, the lead talent. Now you
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: mentioned that you're married, and I'm looking at these titles.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Let's go through some of the storylines. Illegal firearms that
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: sounds dangerous, steroids you can get by with it, lottery's camps,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: cocaine that sounds dangerous, counterfeit currency that sounds dangerous, fentonel
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: that can be dangerous, your trade that sounds dangerous. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: how does he take all this responsibility within himself? And
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  Speaker 1: that's the world that you live in. Did you operate
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  Speaker 1: out of because it is danger though correct, it is.
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  Speaker 1: I've been covering black markets for over fifteen years, almost
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  Speaker 1: my entire career as a journalist, and the reason why
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: mainly is because I realized very early on that we
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  Speaker 1: know so much about the legal economy, the formal economy.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: You know that we have television stations, magazines, organizations devoted
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: to analyzing all the twists and turns and up and downs,
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  Speaker 1: all the ideas, everything that happens in the formal economy.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: And yet this informal economy, these black and gray markets,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: actually make up for half of the global economy, and
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: we know so very little about them. So I saw
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: this sort of opportunity to do a whole show wherein
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: each episode we explore these black markets and we see
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  Speaker 1: who what we can learn from them, and who also
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  Speaker 1: who are the operators? Who are these traffickers and smugglers?
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  Speaker 1: Do you can see yourself courageous. I'm not comfortable with
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: patting myself in the back like this, but I will
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  Speaker 1: tell you one thing. I think in a battle in
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  Speaker 1: my head between fear and curiosity, curiosity tends to win always,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: and sometimes that's not such a good thing, but mostly
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: it's sort of works in my favor. Well, when you
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: say that our readings of extra information about in a
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: different commercials of interviews, you say that sometimes you feel
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: being a female can be an advantage in the type
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  Speaker 1: of stories that you're pursuing. Explain that, Yeah, absolutely, I've
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  Speaker 1: learned that also early on in my career. I think
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  Speaker 1: the women are seen as less threatening, especially in sort
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  Speaker 1: of a male dominated world such as black markets around
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  Speaker 1: the world. Um. I also think that in so many
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  Speaker 1: of the places that I've been, I've been told that
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  Speaker 1: I've been the only woman who ever stepped foot in
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  Speaker 1: those locations such as undisclosed cocaine and uh, you know,
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  Speaker 1: meth labs rug labs around the world. So I think
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  Speaker 1: there's a novelty aspect to that as well that's sort
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  Speaker 1: of disarming for the people that I'm interviewing. And I
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  Speaker 1: also think and I think perhaps this is the most
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  Speaker 1: important reason why I think women tend to be more empathetic.
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  Speaker 1: They turn and tend to sort of uh you know,
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  Speaker 1: relates to the world around them with more empathy and
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: less judgment. And I think that goes a long way
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: in the way that I approach my journalism and the
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  Speaker 1: reason to why I gain access into these worlds because
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  Speaker 1: I make it very clear from the start that even
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  Speaker 1: when I'm talking to people that I you know, that
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  Speaker 1: are part of these cartels or these criminal organizations, that
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  Speaker 1: I am there to listen to their stories, and of
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  Speaker 1: course I do not condone what they do, but ultimately
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: my job is to listen to their stories. So I'm
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: there to listen and not judge. Well, you know, you
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the word cocktail, you know drug dealers, you know a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people don't walk away for those conversations. How
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: do you from a mindset standpoint? Because you use an
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: actual national geographic, you're going under that, so that helps
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you maybe calm them down that you're not coming in
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: there from a ded age, and but they're still suspicious.
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  Speaker 1: You're talking about people who really want to survive and
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: know they have a short term of success. How do
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: you rationalize? Because because you're you're a different person. Understand this,
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  Speaker 1: I'm coming from a person that I would never do
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: what you can do because you're special. You're a unique
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: talent that can be doing an interview in a very
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: violent and potentially dangerous situation and potential life during this
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: situation and remain calm. That's very important because you can't
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: exhibit inequalities. There's something's wrong. If they saw your nervous
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: or saw your sweating, that could signal that this can
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: be something that you're not saying it's gonna happen. It
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: may go differently. How do you break down those different
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: steps securing the story, then proceeding through the process of
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: securing the interview, and then protecting their identity because that's
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: equally important to your survival. Absolutely, so so much happens
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: before we actually hit the road, you know, so much
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: making sure that you know that we're we're the safest,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: that we're minimizing the risk at every turn, um, you know,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: because ultimately no story is worth the life. But once
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: we do get there, and and then there's also so
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: much that happens for it to sort of convince people
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  Speaker 1: to allow us into their worlds and to give us
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  Speaker 1: access into these black markets. And I think you mentioned it,
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  Speaker 1: and it is the biggest fear that almost everybody has
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  Speaker 1: when operating in these markets is the fact that they
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: want to absolutely make sure that we're not law enforcement.
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  Speaker 1: That's always the biggest fear. So there's all these underground
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: what I call these underground first gates, which is these
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: moments where sometimes they want to meet the whole team.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just me but with no cameras, no audio, nothing, uh,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: just to me. Mean to make sure that I am
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: in fact why I say I am, which is a
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: journalism I'm not law enforcement. So that takes Usually there's
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: drinks involved and there's a lot of conversation, just again
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: to make sure we can trust each other. And then
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: actually the most important thing to make sure that I
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: that myself and my team say safe is that we
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: have to be able to trust, to treat people with
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: trust and respect. And if we treat people trust and respect,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: usually they treat us with trust and respect. That so
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: if I were to show up, and if I was
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: nervous and suspicious, and if I showed up with you know,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: a big group of bodyguards and security with with guns
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: or whatnot, or with even with a body flat jack,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: any of that, I'm essentially giving them the message that
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I don't trust them and I don't feel comfortable with
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: them so with them. So I think one of the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: most important things, and really the key is to show
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: them that after all this time that we spent talking
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: before we even bring our cameras that I am here
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: to listen to your stories, and I trust you and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I respect you, and and that goes such a long way. Okay,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: here's something interesting here. I got the fact that you
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: want to get the story. Why do they want to
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: tell you their story. Yeah, it's a great question. Think
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  Speaker 1: it's a combination of factors. I think ego plays along
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  Speaker 1: role in it. You know, these are people that are
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  Speaker 1: some of the best in the business. Is what they do,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: you know, the best cocaine chemists, the best person at
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  Speaker 1: making fake US dollars, the best uh um sentinel rapper,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: whatever it is. And sometimes many times their families don't
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: even know what they do. So we give them an
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: opportunity by dis guy, disguising their faces, changing their identities,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: even changing their voices at times, to be able to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: talk to us and tell us what they love to
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: do and what they're so passionate about or what they're
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: so good at doing. Secondly, I think it's impunity, you know,
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  Speaker 1: and a lot of these parts of the world, they've
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: been able to operate for so long with complete impunity.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: They didn't they don't really see you down a side
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and speaking to National Geographic and then I think lastly,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: it's this very human quality that we all want to
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: be understood. They know full well that as traffickers, as criminals,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: are as outlaws, they are considered to be the bad
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: guys in our society, and a lot of times they
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: go into those businesses because of a lack of opportunity,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and we give them a chance to follows their stories
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: and to perhaps be even fit for just a little
• 11:05
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• 13:02
  Speaker 1: E R dot Ai. Well, you know, when I look
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: at it, when I look at some of the storylines
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: on the subject title illegal firearms, I understand that impact
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: that lottery stamps, you know, people mislay cocaine. Uh, the
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: counterfeit currency that scares me the most, uh because that
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: can that can bring down um an economy. You know,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you don't know this money just being flown out to Fenton.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: All steroids Now, steroids seems to be a drug that
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: somebody wants to take it, unlike cocaine. How does that
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: How does that impact people in general steroid use? Yeah,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: it's incredible, you know it was of all of those,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I think it's the one that I knew on one
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: of the ones that I knew the least amount about it,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and what I hadn't realized and we came to discover it.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: It's reporting in this episode was that it's truly all
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: around us. And I used to think that people doing
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: steroids where either you know, athletes are doing it eagerly
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: or it was being done in gyms, but sort of
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: in the seeking secret locations or bodybuilding competitions. But what
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize is that we spoke to suburban moms
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: we're taking steroids, teenagers still in high school who are
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: taking steroids. It is a it's become sort of a
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: phenomena that is happening all around us. We filmed with
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: a steroids dealer who was going from Jim to jim
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: selling steroids inside locker rooms in the gym. We filmed
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: him also as he went to a parking lot to
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: meet a dad whose kids go to the same school
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: as his kids, and we saw a steroid deal happening
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: right out in the yopen um. You know, they weren't
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: even trying to hide it. So it's it was a
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: lot more widespread than I initially knew it was. Meassue
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: this because you're saying that, So if somebody is dealing
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: in steroids, will they get the same uh police attention
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: as somebody dealing in crack a cocaine they do? You know,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: it's called implicated. Um, it's sort of a little bit
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: of a gray market about how much you can't sell.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: You're not supposed to sell it without prescription. Uh, you're
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: not supposed to require it without prescription um. But it's
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: a lot more of a gray market than it is
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: let's say fen and though you know, which is the
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: most drug in America. So there is a little bit
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: of a grain market. And in fact, one of the
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: main car characters in our film is a guy called
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Tony Huge who not only has sort of a hidden
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: underground lab where he's making a lot of these performance
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: enhancing drugs, he's also administering it on himself out in
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: the open. We didn't have to disguise his identity at all.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: He was very much having the open. We also saw
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: him administer some of the drugs he makes to another
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: to a kid who is entering a bodybuilding competition. And
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: so it's a little bit of a grave market. But
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: but you know, there are have been criminal cases and
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: there are law enforcement agents. He's all around the country
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: looking into these uh you know, steroid illegal stele of
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: steroid networks. Now that the one one of the subject
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: matter that jumped out because during Netflix, uh came to
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the documenters Tiger King you know, just I guess walked
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: us down a lot of like disbelief and uh soap
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: opera mockery but amongst all that was a heavy dose
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: of reality that tigers UH ab used of being traded
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and being sold and being killed when they felt there
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: was no need to keep them alive because they were
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: more costly. It would be much cheaper to kill them
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: than to keep them alive. Talk about the tiger trade
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: uh format that you get Why how did that come about? Yeah,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: So we started filming exactly you're the last November October
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: actually of last year, so it was before Tiger King
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: came out. And I was happy to see when Tiger
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: King came out because although I do think it's focused
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: made me on the wild characters they in this you know,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: tiger world here in the United States, um our documentary
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: is more about the pipe of the tigers worldwide. I
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: do think it's somehow shun light on this very important topic,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: which is the plight of tigers around the world. So
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: what we came to realize when with our documentary, and
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest reasons why we wanted to do
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: this documentary to start with, is that there are so
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: actually more tigers in captivity in the United States than
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: they are in the wild in the entire world. So
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: when we read that we realized immediately, Okay, this is it.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: We have to do. Make that statement. When you make
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: that statement, how do they know how that's a number?
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: There's crazy to mean somebody is more captivity than is
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: in the Wow, that seems like that's a trackable number.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Are they just assuming that No, it's a sort of
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: somewhat trackable. The problem is that there is not a
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: lot of enough rules and regulations in the United States
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: and enough oversight tigers in the United States. But it
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: is estimated that they're around ten thousand, if not more,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: tigers in the US, usually in sort of you know,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: roadside zoos and people's family homes, um, people who own
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: them for whatever reason because they want to own a
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: wild tiger, wildcats. But in the wild there's only thirty
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: five hundreds to four thousand tigers left. And it is
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: there's a very high chance that we spoke to several
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: experts to told us that within our lifetimes we will
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: not be able to see there will not be any
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: more tigers left in the wild. And partly we have
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: part of a responsibility as to why this is happening,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: we as Americans. Wow. So with that being said, when
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: you go through these different processes. I've mentioned several different
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: subject matters that you're pursuing for this series, this own
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: National GIRLD Draft Geographic Unit airs. Everyone is to called
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: traffic It hosted by you an executive deduced by you.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Um which one of them popped off and went, like
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: you said, steriles kind of caught you off guard because,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: like me, I'm just thinking somebody out there popping up.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: And then you mentioned and I know when my daughter
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: had knee surgery, they gave us steriarts, you know, so
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: it is it is that Minister for different use you know,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and things like that when you're recovering. Okay, but when
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: you see the illegal firearms, I get that. But the
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: things that jumped out to me was the lottery scams
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: and the counterfeit currency. Scared me because that money that's
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: flowing around, it's PopEd be valid money. But obviously they
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: figured out a system and they can get away with us.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: So so long would eventually make a call, they may
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: not get caught. So talk walked me through the lottery
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: scam subject matter and then also the counterfeit currency subject matter. Yeah,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of scam was one of the first episodes
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: we filmed. And to me, it was a really important
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: one to make and still one of my favorite ones.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: And I think probably because we have all sort of
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: received those mone calls where somebody says that you've won
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: have you shopped at Walmart recently, Well, you've won a
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: big prize and to you want of Mercedes Benz, for example,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and all you have to do in order to receive
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: that Mercedes Benz is you have to pay two thousand
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: dollars in taxes or five dollars for the transportation fee,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: and or they'll all you want to say that you
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: owe money to view electric company and they're coming and
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: switching off your electricity if you don't pay what you oh,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and a lot of people fall for this um. I
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: had a friend here in Los Angeles who recently fell
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: for this and paid a lot of money to a
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: suppose that the electricity company that was fake. And so
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I really wanted to find out who is it, who
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: are the people on the other side of these phone calls.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: So we traveled to Jamaica, which has sort of become
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the front lines ground zero of scamming around the world
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: for these what are called lottery scams, and it was
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: fascinating to meet the people on the other side of
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the land the line and figure out why they do
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: what they do, how much money they're making, how easy
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: it is or difficult it is for them to scam,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and how they get their money. Their hands on these
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: lead lists with all the names of Americans and phone numbers.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: So that was a fascinating UH journey and one of
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: my favorites for sure. And then on the other side,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: when it comes to counterfeit money, it is actually the
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: second oldest profession in the world. It's UH making fake
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: US dollar or fake dollars, fake money in general. And
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: it turns out that over sixty of the fake dollars
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: that are in circulation all around the world are made
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: in Peru. So when we read that and we realized
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: this is such a good and important story for us
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: to do too, head over to Peru to Lima and
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: meet with There are only a handful of families mostly
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: it's a family network, family business that operate in these
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: very having the open sometimes in these printing shops essentially
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: printing thank US dollars and then finishing each single one
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: by hand to make them look exactly like a real deal. Wow,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: you know, I would go. Let me go back to
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the Louder's game. I I know, I got a call
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: and uh and I'm I'm spoke to the guy been
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: through that done? But been that done? That about our
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: old money to the U. S. Government, And I mean
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: shook me up. And the only thing really helped me.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: I called my accountant and said, hey, call this person.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: This person is saying that old money. Otherwise I could
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: have been a victim if I didn't have those re sources.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Because I'm just on this interview. I just gotta let
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, to be why would somebody to
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: do that? Well, if you get that call, they can
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: sound very authentic. And nobody wants to go to jail,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: want no, especially nobody wants to owe the government. And
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: sometimes you don't know if you don't owe the government.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: So if somebody tells me you can remit a problem,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: if you don't do it, you can go away. If
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: you take care of it right now, You take care
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: of it right now. And so what might be five
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: hunt all, make five hunt all? They may have done
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: a hundred times, so you know that's how they make
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: their money. You know, it might not be a They
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: might have got just five hundred or thousand. Imagine if
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: they got a thousand times, and that's that's what they're
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: working on. That rotation number there, that that allows you
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: to get up there, to be able to build momentum
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to scam people. And so I just want to thank you.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I want I wanted you one of my favorite people.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: I've been waiting all day to interview because I, you know,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: you're courageous, your hero and then, like I said, a
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: lot of people can't do what you do and you
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: accept that, you know and accept that your your special person.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: From that standpoint, I'm just telling you from fact. You know,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I've been in this business a long time and to
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: see your story, I am a fan. You know. I
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: love the work you've done. We talked to much more,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: which was fantastic. When I saw that, I fell in
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: love with you even more because I mean, you can
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: you can tell a story from compassion, you can tell
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: a story from from dangerous situations that even life threatening
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: to you, but throughout all your calm and that's what
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: you're doing is and if you calm your fluent and
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: don't stop, and I hope for hopefull you know in
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: the future I can bring you on my show and
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: talk about other future projects. But every Wednesday on National
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Geographic is your show? Anything else before we wrap up?
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Oh no, I just want to say thank you so
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: much for all those kind words, and I love to
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: be if if this is how are you going to
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: talk about me? I'm gonna tell on this show all
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: the time. I really appreciate now You're fantastic to short
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: fantastic and again I'll do my best to promoted on
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: all different levels of my social media and digital platforms.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: But it more importantly, you know, is the year of
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: the female and you are leading away my friend. Okay,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: associated Sean, thank you so much. I trually appreciate it.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: We talked soon. If you want to hear more Money
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Making Conversation interviews, please go to Money Making Conversation dot
• 24:12
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