
An Elon Musk-worshipping college principal gets schooled, and rapper Afroman turns the tables after armed police raid his house.
All this and much more is discussed in the latest edition of the “Smashing Security” podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault.
Warning: This podcast may contain nuts, adult themes, and rude language.
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Hello, hello, and welcome to Smashing Security, episode 316. My name's Graham Cluley.
Now coming up on today's show, Graham, what do you got?
And it's caused all sorts of difficulties over the years.
And as regular listeners may recall, it was a past Pick of the Week of mine that I eventually solved the problem by investing in Starlink.
Up and down they go to a satellite via a dish in the back garden, and it actually gives me pretty incredible internet access. I mean, I'm really impressed by it.
Someone else who's impressed is my son, because it means he can play video games with his mates online. And we don't take this for granted.
So when we get up in the morning, we never forget what it was like not to have decent internet access. And so we hold a little prayer meeting.
We go, oh, thank you very much, Elon Musk, for everything that you have done for us.
In fact, there's a little bit of video here — I'll put a link in the show notes so we can check it out. Look, check this out.
Now what you're seeing there are people chanting their own versions of Sanskrit mantras, which loosely translate to salutations to Elon Musk, salutations to Twitter, and salutations to evicting feminists from the Twitter platform.
They've previously said that they are intellectually challenged with very less academic grounding than them — they're very ungrateful people who aren't looking after men properly.
And the media have reported on this — they've been filmed doing all their prayers to Elon Musk.
And the thing is, this particular group were banned from Twitter, but then, of course, last year, Elon Musk took over Twitter, which meant he said, "Come on back in, boys."
Now come on in — free speech and all the rest of it." So they're very happy to be back on Twitter. Now, they're not the only Elon Musk fans out there other than me.
There's also a lady called Dr. Jan McGee, and she is the subject of my story today.
She's the big cheese, the head honcho, the fat cat, the big enchilada, the grand poobah, the numero uno — she is the big one.
And she's been working at Byrne Science and Technology since it was founded as a school — she's been there about 12 years, and she's helped make it a huge success.
This school has an A rating, which is obviously the best rating you can have, and there's a long waiting list to get through its doors if you want to become a student at it.
She's really driven it forward, and she's really been interested for years in teaming up with tech companies in the Florida area who might invest in the school, help it grow, etc.
Guess who's top of her list?
He may sometimes make rash decisions — throw a bit of money here, throw a bit of money there. Dr. Jan has made no secret of this — she thinks Elon Musk is amazing.
Dr. Jan gets contacted by Elon Musk. She's been saying for years she wants, she'd like nothing more than to partner up with him to advance the school's fortunes.
Then, bong, up in her email pops Elon Musk. They begin to chit, they begin to chat. There's chitting and chatting and chotting going on. They're having a great time. Jesus Christ.
All this chitchat is with the aim of working out some kind of relationship between Musk's companies and his wealth and the school by Dr. Jan.
Now, there are some who are a little bit sceptical during this 4-month conversation. And by some, what I mean is other people at work at the school, because of course, Dr.
Jan, she comes running into the staff room. Hey, everybody. Allegedly. She comes running in saying, oh my goodness, I've been speaking to Elon Musk. It's all wonderful.
You know, we're going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. She's got her coffee. She's got her patches on her elbows. She's got all that teacher stuff going on.
Before she gets into metaphorical bed with Elon Musk. Maybe he isn't entirely trustworthy. Maybe if it's the real Elon Musk, it's not entirely trustworthy. I don't know.
I haven't said that. Well, I did, but I didn't mean that. Dr. Jan won't have any of it.
And so, despite all the warnings from her colleagues— remember, she's the principal of the school— She writes a cheque. Dr.
Jan McGee writes a cheque, believing that the person she's been speaking to is Musk, and believing that Musk has pledged to match the fund.
So she's going to write him a cheque for $100,000. Whoa! Don't schools have boards?
She just has to make some sort of— I don't know why.
But this high school principal, because she's chatting to Elon Musk, decided to write one for $100,000. So can I just understand something?
Write me a check for 100 grand. And it's curious, isn't it?
Who knows? Something has happened. 'Can you just tide me over? I haven't got enough for the rocket fuel this month.' Who knows what?
But somehow he convinces her to write a check for $100,000, and she believes she's going to get her school millions in return.
But she didn't ask permission from the board, probably because she knew the board included people who'd heard about this Musk plan and were somewhat skeptical as to what was going on.
So, she didn't have permission. She wrote the check. Someone at the school then got wind of that she'd done this. The school's business manager—
He leapt in, a bit like Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston, jumping in the way of a bullet. Bullet being shot by some crazed fan, right? It's a bit like that.
So he jumps in, leaps in, and he managed to stop the cheque before it cleared.
And then, of course, there's all the big post-mortem, because the board get together and the teachers get together, and they say, "What the bloody hell is the head doing here?
Why is she doing this?" There's a big school meeting.
There was a school meeting which has been televised, we might be able to link to it in the show notes, where Dr. Jan apologized to the school board, the workers, the parents.
She admitted she'd fallen for a scam. She said, and she said, I'm a very smart lady. I'm well educated. I fell for a scam.
She said, grooming is when you talk to someone and you believe in them and they get you to trust them that this is really, really real. And so I fell for it.
So she threw herself down at the mercy of these people. Thankfully, the money wasn't lost. She apologized. They weren't very forgiving.
It turns out that some of her co-workers also said at the meeting that they weren't really happy with her being at the helm. Maybe they'd lost some trust in her.
Some of them described a toxic working environment.
I imagine there was a bit of argy-bargy over the months over this Musk deal, and that may have caused some friction between people.
Three administrators threatened to quit, and eventually Dr. Jan offered her resignation. She walked out accompanied by some applause, which I think was rather sardonic.
Her husband, who's also a teacher, he quit at the same time as well. It's all there on the video. People say only morons fall for a scam, right? Some people say that.
Some people think, well, how dumb can you be to fall for a scam like this?
This is the principal of a school who fell for this, even though she was being warned for months and months that it was unlikely to be real.
They may say no to the help. You might be going, look, you need—
Like, what evidence does she have that he would be great, for example? But no, but do you know what I mean? They just—
Surely he is rich enough, just for the lols and the giggles, to actually now come forward and say, 'Actually, it was me.' Oh, it wasn't him?
And maybe they call it the Elon Musk School for Technology and Science.
That's at least what it says on his Wikipedia page.
It's me saying, you know, 'can make toast' or something, or 'bake beans.' You know, I don't say 'bake bean maker.' I don't say—
Okay, Afroman.
And this brought me back because out of all of his— I'm sure there are many and many— there was one song that I remember playing at many parties that I went to in the early noughties, and it's entitled "Because I Got High." Because I got high.
I was going to get up and find the broom, but then I got high. My room is still messed up and I know why. 'Cause I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high.
And that's basically pretty similar. When you hear the original, you'll be, oh, Carole, you did a good job there.
He lives out in Adams, Ohio, and he decides to go to Chicago, leaving his wife at home, doing whatever. And all is fine and tickety-boo until bang, bang, bang!
And they hear, "this is a raid!" And the door gets rammed down.
Seven armed cops— I don't know if they were all armed, but seven cops, some armed with what looks machine guns of some sort, present a warrant to search Afroman's house.
I don't think they have machine guns.
Afroman's wife whips out her phone to record what she can of the raid, catching glimpses of law enforcement officers involved. She wants to get their identity.
And Afroman's house also had some surveillance inside and outside, which captures images of the raid in progress.
Now, I don't know why people have surveillance in their homes, inside their homes.
And they must have had some big lead or something because these were seven cops, and they have a warrant and they show up ready for resistance, with guns and bulletproof vests and the whole nine yards.
But following the raid, Adams County Prosecutor's Office said the officers had found no probative criminal evidence and that Afroman faced absolutely no charges.
And worse, Afroman says that when they finally dropped the charges and his cash, his monies were returned to him from the cop shop post-raid, it was $400 light.
So what do you think Afroman does to make this bitter pill a little bit sweeter?
And one was called "Lemon Pound Cake," referring to a cake that you can see under a cake cloche in the kitchen being eyed by one of the cops during the raid.
And there's actually an Insta post where he intimates that the cop took the cake as part of the raid, saying, quote, congratulations to Police Officer Pound Cake, thank you for getting me 5.4 million hits on TikTok.
I couldn't have done it without you, obviously. As you can see, all my pound cake is gone. Officer Pound Cake confiscated my pound cake.
He said something happened to his body camera on the way to the evidence room. LOL.
It made the sheriff wanna put down his gun and cut him a slice. Lemon Pound Cake, he wanna put down his gun. Lemon Pound Cake, trending on TikTok.
Lemon Pound Cake, under the boardwalk, down by the sea. Yeah, huh? Oh, I quite like Afroman. He's all right. I have to say, these policemen do look like the kind who would eat cake.
I don't think those are machine guns though, Carole. Not in the clip I'm looking at.
Yeah, those look like rifles or something, don't they?
His campaign manager, Jason Savage, cites inflation, the housing market, law enforcement corruption, and unsurprisingly, legalizing marijuana as key issues.
It's a shame we can't run to be president of the United States. No, it's not. I wouldn't want to be.
So, you know, that's the campaign. So anyhow, these videos get a lot of love. And Afroman's also media savvy. So he is going around telling this story.
And of course, this is a media story that people love, you know, the underdog treated unfairly, but he pokes back, you know, in the form of music, right?
And he's happy to go on the air and talk about it. So you know, you'll see him on Rolling Stone, NME, TMZ, I've got all kinds of links in the show notes if you're interested.
And you think the story ends here, but it doesn't because there's a twist.
NME reports that the four deputies, two sergeants and a detective, claimed emotional distress, embarrassment, ridicule, loss of reputation, and humiliation as a result of Afroman's response to the raid.
I can understand that.
It would actually—you can imagine a lot of people not taking them seriously out on the beat if they've been seen in Afroman video. Sure.
We also see people that are not celebrities being, you know, hounded by media all over the place. If this was inside the New York Times, this happened, would they show the videos?
The complaint says, you know, they're seeking profits that Foreman's making by using their images, including revenue from songs, music videos, and concert tickets, on top of the promotion of his Afroman brand and merch proceeds.
On March 22nd, Foreman revealed in an Instagram post that he intends to countersue for the unlawful raid and money being stolen, as well as damage caused to his family, career, and property.
The cop winning this case is interesting to me because I think it sets a really interesting precedent for non-police people being able to say, my face is being used in a deepfake and I want you to do something about that.
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And you join us at our favorite part of the show, the part of the show that we like to call Pick of the Week.
Could be a funny story, a book that they've read, a TV show, a movie, a record, a podcast, a website, or an app. Whatever they wish.
It doesn't have to be security related necessarily. Better not be. Well, my pick of the week this week is not security related. In fact, I am indebted to one of our supporters.
Dave Barker supports us on Patreon. Hey, Dave.
He suggested this pick of the week to me and I checked it out and I thought, this is great. It is a thing called Atlas Obscura. Atlas Obscura is a website.
It's also an app for Android and iOS. And it is a way to find cool places to visit that might not be in the usual tourist guide.
So Dave told me that he was in Leeds and he visited Winifred, which is a giant elephant mural hidden away in a car park. Ooh, interesting.
And he also stumbled— he was also in a field in Northumberland where he encountered a giant spoon sculpture.
And he says it's his go-to whenever he visits a new place to try and to tick more things off. So I thought, well, that sounds fun. I thought maybe I should give this a go.
So I went onto Atlas Obscura and I looked up Oxford. Yes. And yeah, so I thought, well, let's find something.
And one of the things it told me about was a little story, a place I can go and check out called New College, right?
So there's New College in Oxford, founded in 1371, hence it's called New College, one of the new ones. 1371. And it has a great big dining hall with huge oak beams in its roof.
This is what Atlas Obscura told me. And these beams are as large as 2 foot square. They're about 45 feet long. These are hulking, great big oak beams holding up its roof, right?
Mm-hmm.
And about 100 years ago, which was 500 years since the college was founded, someone went up into the roof and they found the beams were riddled with beetles, little bugs and things, and the beams need to be replaced, right?
They're being eaten away by these beetles. But where do you find enormous oak beams? This is the problem New College was trying to answer.
And so what happened was some bright spark at the university said, well, hang on, there might be some suitable oak trees on college land.
So the college, the Oxford University land up and down the country, Yeah, they own a lot of land.
Yeah, and they have these forests, and there are foresters who are looking after this land.
So they called in this forester who hadn't, you know, had any reason to visit the college for many years.
And they said to him, have you got any suitable oak we could use to repair this? And he sort of pulled his forelock and he says, well, sir, we was wondering when you'd be asking.
And it turned out that when the college was founded in 1379, a grove of oaks had been planted to replace the beams in the dining hall when they became all beetly.
Because oak beams always become beetly in the end. And this plan had passed down from one forester to the next for over 500 years, telling them, don't cut down them oaks.
Those ones are for College Hall at New College, Oxford.
So they've been growing these things for hundreds of years, and then someone came knocking, said, "Can we have some oaks, please?" And so they were able to fix it.
And there was a high table and the whole nine yards. La-di-da! Yeah, well, you know, anyway, it's a very cool room as well. And this is a very excellent pick of the week.
Thank you, Dave.
Links in the show notes. Excellent. Carole, what's your pick of the week?
I know there's adjustments and stuff and I played around with them for years and years and years, but I still get noise bleed a little bit.
And I find them quite tight as well on the head. I find I just get headaches, you know, if I wear headphones for a long time. It always gets a bit, you know, you get a bit close.
But I'd find it was happening within an hour, right? So I contacted one of my best pals, Vanja—Vanja, friend of the show—to help me select a new pair.
And with his help, I ended up with these. Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pros. Now they're closed over-the-ear headphones, but they offer exceptional isolation.
You're really impressed with it right away as soon as you put them on.
They have this kind of silver gray velour that makes them super comfortable to wear, but it really soundproofs you in.
And there's a spring steel headband that gives me a secure fit. They're German. I've had them for a few weeks now. I love them. And they're about $150.
I think I paid 90 quid £100 in the UK for them. So about the same price as the MDRs.
I'd even suggest Graham, you take a look at them. I'm not being sponsored by them or anything like that, obviously. But I really them.
So thank you for making a great product, I'm happy. And thanks to Vanja, right? Yeah. And Dave. Dave and Vanja, thank you guys for Pick of the Weeks this week.
Look for Smashing Security or visit smashingsecurity.com/mastodon to find us.
For episode show notes, sponsorship info, guest list, and the entire back catalog of more than 315 episodes, check out smashingsecurity.com.
Hosts:
Graham Cluley:
Carole Theriault:
Episode links:
- These Men’s Rights Activists Literally Worship Elon Musk – Buzzfeed News.
- Florida principal who sent $100K to scammer posing as Elon Musk says she was ‘groomed’ – WESH.
- Florida principal resigns after sending $100K to scammer posing as Elon Musk – NY Post.
- Afroman – Will You Help Me Repair My Door – YouTube.
- Official Music Video for Because I Got High performed by Afroman – YouTube.
- Police sue rapper Afroman for using footage of home raid in his music videos – The Guardian.
- Afroman Complaint – Adams County Court.
- Afroman Got Raided by Cops, So He Put Them in His Music Video – Vice.
- Afroman – Wikipedia.
- Afroman sued by seven officers who raided his home – NME.
- Afroman Isn’t Worried About a Police Lawsuit Over His Music Videos – Rolling Stone.
- Afroman Cops Wrecked My Home In Raid, For Nothing …I Need Ben Crump!!! – TMZ.
- Afroman I’m Missin’ $400 In Cash After Raid… Thinks Cops Swiped It – TMZ.
- Atlas Obscura.
- Oak Beams, New College Oxford – Atlas Obscura.
- BeyerDynamic DT 770 PRO Headphones – BeyerDynamic.
- Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)
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Theme tune: “Vinyl Memories” by Mikael Manvelyan.
Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.


