Chance The Rapper’s Name Used In Scam That Conned People Out Of Thousands Of Dollars

Chance The Rapper’s Name Used In Scam That Conned People Out Of Thousands Of Dollars

Aside from being a rapper, singer, and producer, Chance the Rapper is known for his charitable efforts. Unfortunately, a scammer used that to his advantage and conned multiple people out of thousands of dollars.

Two sisters, Ibi and Lulu Cole, who are businesswomen, shared how they were targeted in the scam.

Chance the Rapper

Lulu Cole said she was at a Bank of America in Chicago, Chance the Rapper‘s hometown, when a man called her over to his car. While she was initially “hesitant to engage” with him, she said he ended up baiting her with small talk.

She started to walk away, but then,

“He asked me if I had any bills.”

The man, allegedly using the name Jeffrey Washington, told her he was working with Chance the Rapper and CEDA [the Community and Economic Development Association] to help people in the area with bills and other debts. She recalled:

“He was like we have to use this money before the end of the day. If we don’t spend this money, we lose out on the opportunity to help more people in the coming year. [He also said] they’ll reduce the amount of funds that we’ll get, and that reduces the amount of people that we can help.”

Moved by his apparent commitment to the community, Lulu Cole decided to let him pay her T-Mobile phone bill. When it was done, she called T-Mobile to confirm and was told by the company that it had received a payment.

Excited, she agreed to another payment, this time for $45,000 to pay off a house she owned. It went through, just as her phone bill did.

Lulu Cole said:

“I was completely floored. All I heard from the representative was, ‘Oh my God, congratulations,’ and I’m frozen in shock.”

When she told her sister, Ibi Cole, she was immediately skeptical, saying:

“You got scammed. … Surely in 24 hours the whole thing is gonna fall apart.” 

But when they checked the next day, documentation showed

“the payments had been made and the balances reduced.”

Sold, Ibi Cole agreed to let Jeffrey Washington pay $100,000 toward a mortgage, along with credit card bills and another mortgage. She received payment confirmations for each transaction just like her sister had.

When the debts seemed to be cleared, Jeffrey Washington asked them to pay it forward. The Cole sisters wound up giving him a total of $36,000, only to find out days later that none of the payments were able to be processed. Ibi remembered:

“Suddenly, we’re getting a text message like, ‘Oh, there’s a problem with your payment please contact us.’ And it was right at that moment where I knew it’s over.”

Later, it came out that the man was not at all affiliated with Chance the Rapper or CEDA, and his name is not Jeffrey Washington. He had been allegedly conning people this way since 2014 and had targeted eight other people, yielding as much as $8,600 on one occasion.

He has not been arrested, but the Consumer Federation of America has called for financial institutions to use better language and work on delays in processing payments to help people avoid these kinds of situations.

Arguably the worst part is that the sisters planned to use that money to open a community center. But now, they’re left with nothing.

What are your thoughts on this situation? Let us know in the comments.

[VIA]