Replay* You Have a Fraud Alert

That's what's up.

Family. It's your girl Tamika D.

Mallory and it's your boy Mike Son, a general, and we are.

Your hosts of street politicians.

The place place where the streets and politics meet.

What's going on?

Happy New Year, my son, Happy New Year, twenty twenty two is upon us.

I'm feeling great.

I've already spoke this best number one podcast into existence. We're gonna have so much money. We're gonna have so much wealth. We're gonna have so much success, so much justice. We're gonna get justice. We're gonna get everything we're looking for in twenty twenty two.

You know, we ended last year twenty twenty one with significant.

A criminal justice wins. Right, that's not wins for our community. You know, you got to cut the trolls.

Can't wait what wins wins means they'll stop killing us.

That's what we're fighting for. We ultimately want not to be killed. But when we think about the steps that it will take to get us to a place where people know, if I shoot harm, violate the civil rights, the human rights of a black, brown or any other person,

And I think that, you know, that's a good sign for how we enter twenty twenty two. That we continue to fight in the courts, but even outside of the courts, there's a cultural fight that's ahead of us, and I think we have a responsibility to stay.

On the ground.

In every one of the cases that we have one, so to speak, there were movements that existed on the ground. There were people involved, there were protests, there was awareness, there was communities speaking out parents that work very closely with some of our stellar civil rights attorneys so that they could go and help to inform the district attorneys, right because you know, it's always important for us to

It's right, you know, that's that's the always the goal.

Like you said, it's not justice and totality, you know, but there is periods and there are pieces of justice that we need to add to the puzzle, you know, And a lot of people want to.

Discredit the work that's.

Being done because they don't understand the full process, or because they just want to have something to say.

But you know, being on the front lines in this movement.

And actually seeing what it takes to get even those small pieces of justice, man, and just understand what it's gonna take for us to act actually get the level of justice and equity that we deserve and you are entitled to in this country. We understand the work, the work that we're gonna need to do. We're not even going to see it in our lifetime, but we're just going to contribute to it and continue to fight.

Man.

So I want to say thank you to everybody who's been a part of it, those small grassroots organizations, those who made phone calls, those who donated to organizations, those who set in front of these courthouses, those who family members who despite all the trauma and pain they went through, they got up every day and they fought on behalf

And you know that we will continue to do our part.

And I'm not sure that George Floyd's family, Dante Right, Ahmad Aubrey, and even Julius Jones, which was different because Julius Jones needs to be at home with his family, but he was removed from death row and his life was spared with hours left.

Before his before they would have executed him. And that was because of a grass room's movement. And to your point, Terrence Crutcher, who was also killed by the police, his sister Tiffany Crutcher, was out there while holding her own pain, she was out there as one of the leaders fighting for Julius Jones' life. And there are so.

Many people who have gone from advocate who from survivors if you will, you know, some of us say victims, but they are they're really truly survivors and have turned that into becoming warriors within this movement. And I'm not sure that they would say it's minute. I think we have conditioned ourselves because we understand the larger context of the movement, right, and so since we know that justice is so much bigger, we condition ourselves to.

Minimize it so that.

We don't have to fight with folks who want to say, oh, y'all didn't do anything, because he should have got fifty years, and now you know you didn't do anything, because all of them should be guilty but it's not minute because the work that went into standing with Wanda Cooper and Lee Merit, and also the work that Sean King did you know for Ahmad Rby and the protests that we went out for, and the people like you said, Queenya Nostah in Atlanta, Gerald Griggs, the local NAACP there in

Yeah, totally, you know. And by the way, Dante Wright's situation moved fast from the day that he was killed until there was a conviction. It was very clear in the state of Minnesota that people were not going to sit back and allow them to slip back with justice because there was all ready a conviction on George Floyd. And I think what some folks may not understand, they may not be aware of how much work went into electing Keith Ellison, who is the attorney general. They're in Minnesota.

True justice in that state. There is so much more work to be done, but it's not minute. You think about Brionna Taylor. Yeah, the trying to get actual convictions and to get people arrested in charged. It's an uphill battle. We hope that the FEDS will come in and file federal charges against the officers, particularly the four officers, but even more folks than that were involved in murdering Breonna Taylor. But yet those officers have been removed from the force.

You're right, you know, I apologize, do you know it's to apologize?

It's no when I get it, it's not.

Because it's not just our work, right, it's other people who are out there working, and as I applaud them, you know, I don't want to minimize, you know, the losses of people who actually were invested in this work, because a lot of people lost sleep, they gained trauma, they lost money, they lost family, they lost so many different things in this fight for justice. So it's beneath me to even try to minimize with people lost in this. But I do want us to understand that there's so much to go.

We still have a lot to fight for.

But those victories that we did get, they weren't they're not minute, they're definitely major victories, you know, So continue to fight with that and knowing that you have gained victories when we still got a lot to go.

And so that brings me to my thought of the day. Now. You know, I've been really on vacation.

I literally have done absolutely nothing and for you and other people who called me.

I've been sitting in a dark room relaxing for the entire holiday, with the exception of moving around a little bit here and there. Number One, I ain't trying to get the COVID. Number two, I just needed a break and I really needed to get focused. So, you know, TV was a thing, like I was watching shows. First of all, we start the holiday with Insecure going off

I was really excited about Blackish and I learned that it was their last episode as well. I'm just trying to figure out, what in the heck is happening. Is it the ratings? Are we not watching the shows?

You know? What is the issue? Is it advertising? What are we going to do to keep content on TV that helps to show us in not just a positive light, but in our true form. I have no issue with.

Fifty cent and his uh, you know, his portfolio, because we all like a little crime and Hustler's TV every every if you say entertainment, whatever, right, we all we all like that.

By the way, it's every other.

Culture has the same, So we're not gonna see him act like that. White folks are not killing each other and shooting up and everything on TV.

The Asian community there and everybody has entertainment. To your point, that's criminal through a criminal lens. Lets me say it's like that.

But the fundamentals of their every day for their children is not just focusing on power and BMF and things like that. They also have Grays and Gnat, they have I don't know you name the shows right they I don't even know them, but I know that they have a bunch of shows that shows sort of a myriad if.

You will, of images to their young people. You turn on the TV for us and we're losing everything. And Blackish was such an important show since we had the Cosby Show, then you have Blackish. I don't know, maybe there was something in between, but to lose Blackish and I'm gonna literally call both Tracy Ellis and Anthony Anderson and ask why is it that they were ready to move on with their careers? Like I just don't get it.

I mean, we got to continue to create it. Man, we have lean away. If we have so many different black producers and you know that understand the need, you know, maybe maybe I think what happens it becomes hard to create content right after a certain amount of seasons, or maybe the ratings.

I don't know.

I can't really imagine that black Ish not having good ratings, but TV in itself, the ratings for TV and itself has been going low. But I do believe that Blackish was definitely something that was needed in our community. Was something that you look to. You know, it showed us in a very positive light. It showed us in so many different real life situations that happened in black homes right in right, whether it's just black homes that come

And now I think we have grown Ish and which i'm Yaa Shahiti is. I think she's one of the executive producers and she's also on the show. We have to support these folks like we have to. I know, we think people are watching, they must have good ratings, but actually they don't. They don't have the type of ratings that's necessary to generate consistent advertising dollars. And that's

What do you call it? Plus size?

Other people like It's so many different things that when you're sitting there watching these shows. I remember when I used to watch a Different World, the Cosy showing other things I saw like, okay, I could do that and take a little bit of this.

I like them, little bit of whit Lee, I like a little bit of you know this person that like what in the hell we like? You said, there has to be a consistent pipeline because while we love Tyler Perry, while we love fifty cent and all of these shows, that's not exactly what we're talking about those things are entertainment, but though just a regular family and or people who are existing every day working through life and they're not so much stereotypical. We need that. We need that. So

It's definitely a good thought. Man.

We need y'all producers, Black producers get out there and make us these shows that show us in highlight and give us that energy, to give us that will to you know, to aspire to be more. We're looking forward to that, man, make sure y'all do it. So usually at this time we would have our resident brand expert, LaToya Baun with our small Business of the Week, but

That's how we all need.

So the term knowing your status has generally been used to talk about your status for your health, to talk about whether or not you know if you're HIV positive or carrying some other type of disease. And of course, now that we're in the time of COVID, knowing your status has a lot to do with being tested to

Front of our faces.

We don't want to deal with it, we don't want the stress, and we certainly don't want to have to do the work of repairing the credit that we may have ruined from when we were younger. But you know, fraud is a thing, and we're actually doing a show here. We are the first week coming back from the holidays, where so many people have spent money. Maybe you haven't checked your bank account. Maybe you haven't checked your credit card statements, but fraud was a real thing going into

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you, my son, thank you everyone. I'm excited this episode is. It means a lot to me because you know my background, where I came from. Financial freedom, like financial literacy, we did not know about, you know, growing up, I did not know anything about

Know, and that's where it stopped.

Well, that's all I knew was going into the store using somebody else's credit card, but I did not know how it.

Affected that person and the people cards I was using. I was just using it. They weren't. They didn't even notice. They didn't realize that I was using their card, you know what I mean.

So it's like, now that I know better, I'm like, Wow, it's a lot of people out here who really don't check their credit, who don't even utilize their credit, who don't really know anything about credit. And now that I do credit card credit credit repair, it's like I speak to a lot of people and I try to, you know, educate them on how important credit is. You know, what you can do with your credit. But if you don't know growing up, it's hard.

So how you doing?

You want a nice how you doing so, you know, just being formally incarcerated, you know, as well as understanding what was howl you introduced to credit, like to credit cards, Like what was the process?

You know, a lot of people don't know it, so.

We got to give them a little education so they can understand, like what to look out for, you know, how you pay attention to see if these things are.

Happening to you.

So okay, so how I was introduced and I'm gonna bring it from before into now. So do you know right now, like when you get those alerts that say your password has been compromised on the dark web or change your password immediately because it has been the detected in certain websites, that's a real thing.

Like it's real because before, you.

Know, prior to my incarseration, I was basically paying a hacker to hack into the bank systems or hacking to let's just say American Express, and they will basically get your account password, email password, and they would try out pay for that information. And now like I even get it on my email, it's like change your password because that means that your email and your passport is out there.

So now it's compromised.

So now the hackers can go in and actually take that information and sell it on the dark web. And that's where I came in. Prior, I was going in on a dark web and purchasing that information and then now I'm able to go into the store and use that person's identity.

Now, but were you making because I know a guy who went to jail for actually making the credit card with the numbers on it and the strip, and at some point it got to the point that they were actually able to make the credit card work. It started out where they used the credit card and it wasn't live. It just had the numbers on it. It looked real. But then they got it.

To the point where the card was actually working with the swipe in the store.

Is where as Yeah, So basically, yeah, the same exact thing. So basically I will contact a hacker. A hacker will sell me information. It's called the track. The track has your sixteen digit card number, your exploration date, your name, all of your information. It's like it's like an it's like encoded into like these colds. So what I would do is there's a machine that you have, you connect it to your computer and you basically transfer that information into the credit card.

You have.

Any card that has a strip on it could be transferre It could be a hotel key, as long does it have like a black magnetic strip on the back.

Of it, it could be transferred.

That information could be transferred into the card and you can basically use it anywhere.

Wow.

Wow to me is very I used to always ask her that she'll go to a hotel and she'll make sure that everybody throws.

The keys away.

She will not leave a hotel key anywhere because she says, people can get your information, and I never will it.

Yeah, you know, and what they do too.

What they'll do is, let's just say, if you gonna make a purchase, and they will take your car, swipe it and you know, the machine at the store, and then also swipe it in a little device. It's like as small as are like.

A uh, the little thing.

Yeah, it's that small, Like they'll swipe it on that and then now they have all your information. So that just eliminates them being able to They don't have to contact a hacker. They have your information right there, you know, and they're doing that to everyone who come and purchase.

So so tell us. So okay, so you got into that first. It couldn't have just started there though, Like that's high level.

So you had to start somewhere a little bit before that stage. Was it that you just found out it was easy? Did somebody tell you to get involved? So it's crazy, but I never said this anywhere else. So when I was younger, I was you know my aunt. She's She's from Maryland. She had a bunch of salons. She was like that aunt that was like flying, you know. And I'm like, damn, she got a bunch of salons. She got all this money, and I knew that. She went to prison for a credit card fraud. Right.

She wrote a book called Charge It to the Game. Right, I've read the book. I never said this anywhere else. She don't even know this. I've read the book and I was like, wow, this is crazy. Like she was given detail, but not too much detail. So I went on the dark Web and I started researching. I found out all the information I needed, and I found the person who basically I could buy the tracks from.

Wow, wow, how.

Some tracks costs the tracks are about At that time, they were fifty dollars. So now you're talking about something that costs fifty dollars that I can get about twenty thousand dollars from.

That's that that that's a no brainer right there. Mm hmmm, so u huh no, no, glad, what you said.

I was saying.

So I'm purchasing these tracks and all I have to do is basically get a bunch of blank credit cards. At that time, I was going into like CBS Walgreen and taking the gift cards. They're free, just going in and take them. You know, they have a black magnetic strip on it. So I was using the tracks, putting it on the black on the card and just going into the store.

And usually so how did you get caught?

Like?

What, what's the thing?

So I got caught?

Now the reason why I got caught was because the person who I was purchasing the tracks from, he's he's in China.

He's in China. I never I don't know who he is. I never met him. We only spoke online.

So he was shipping cards to Africa to me and Brookes when to all over and he started to get hot and they started watching him. So what he did was he told me, he's like, listen, I can ship you some cards. You don't have to you know, they'll be real cards, you know, with your name. You don't have to use the cards that's from CBS, so you know if this card will be actually with your name on it. So it was better for me because sometime I would go into the store and they'll be like, oh, well,

So I needed that connect at that time. So for about a year, he was just shipping me cards, shipping me cards. Everything was cool.

He started to get hot because someone in Nigeria got in trouble. So customs basically stopped the package that was coming to me. And when they stopped the package, they opened it and they seen what was in it, they sealed it back and sent it to me. So when they sent it to me, I didn't know it got stopped and they just started following me from there. They was following me for six months.

Wow, while you was using the car, So they had a full case of course when they finally And I think that's the whole point is like it feels good right, like while it's happening, you're looking bad and doing your thing.

But at some point, I don't know anyone, I really literally don't know anyone that has been able to accomplish like longevity and then never get caught doing these things.

I just I don't know anyone. Everybody I know at some point they brought up with them. No, it's true.

And then at that time I was so young, like I went to federal prison when I was nineteen years old. Wow, and I was doing that from seventeen. I went to prison at nineteen, came home, didn't know anything else. At the same thing, over thought, I got smart and bought all the machines, got caught another two years later and had to do two and a half years, you know what I mean. So I didn't really know another way.

And you know it it was it was crazy.

You know, because you get so addicted to like the material stuff, because you walking into the store and you're getting these things for free basically, you know, like I'm spending one hundred dollars per card and I'm getting ten, fifteen, twenty thousand dollars per card, you know, So it becomes like addiction, right, you know, to like it's crazy.

So you did you So, how much time did you do in prison? You said you went to jail the first time, came home and did it again, and didn't have five years all together?

You did five mins.

So you went home, You went there for three came home, did something, and then went for two more year. Yeah, and then so what made you say, Okay, I gotta I gotta do something differently? What was it when you came home did you immediately say I'm not going back to jail? Or when you was in jail, did you say, look, I gotta do something different?

Like what made your mind flip.

The first time? I didn't think like that the first time.

I say, you know what, I got caught because not something that I did. I got caught because he was doing something and I got, you know, wrapped up in it. So that's how my mom was, honestly. The first time, nineteen years old, spent two years in there, came home, I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna do it smarter. I bought all the machines. I didn't need a middle man. I didn't need him. I didn't need anyone. I was

I had to tell us to give us the stupidest thing because people need to hear it.

So so.

I'm in a restaurant, right, I'm in a restaurant, and the people who I was with, these are the people that I used to hang out with before, who were still in the gate, who were still doing fraud. They basically used a credit card to pay for a dinner party.

The dinner party was like nine thousand dollars.

They had bottles, they had a bunch of stuff, right, nine thousand dollars for this dinner party. And what they did now, I booked the I booked the reservation right under my name, my phone number. I didn't I thought everybody was gonna pay. I didn't think we were gonna like use a credit card for that. So I booked everything. And basically they in this they had a fight in the restaurant, so they like kind of messed up the restaurant.

So they basically violated me. They gave me sixteen months in the state.

They ran a concurrent, and I just had to do the two and a half years in the facts and I was They terminated my probation after So.

When you came home, you said I ain't doing this though, So while I.

Was inside, I was like, you know what this is.

I can't live my life like this, Like I don't where am I going to be five years from now, Like when I go home, what am I going to do? Go back into doing credit cards for it and be back in jail? Like this is just gonna be like consistent, this is gonna be my life. I cannot live like this like this is not me, Like I see so much more for myself you know, and I had to

I didn't have that.

So going to prison, I met some really really great women, you know, who saw more in me than I even seen it myself, you know, just from conversations, just from you being with this person every single day.

You know, like.

I used to hole, you know, Jamilla T. Davis like me being around them. They basically helped me. They like, listen, I see so much more on you, Like this is not your life.

You know.

I wanted to write a book. I used to push me. She was like, write it, write it every day.

I'm like, okay, I'm gonna write it.

She was like, listen, just write down some notes, give me a bunch of pages, and I'm gonna help you write it. So that was like the start of it, you know, And I basically wrote out a five year plan. I said, I'm not going home until this plan is completed, and I'm gonna follow it. And whoever comes in between, whoever comes in between that plan, like, they just gotta go, They gotta go. I gotta dismiss them from my life.

It's no other way.

And the association with people, that's the first thing that would get you wrapped back up, you know. So I just had to disconnect myself. So when I came home, I basically just was around my prisons this. You know, people who've gone through the same thing, People who don't want to go through that, go back to pray, who haven't experienced prison. They don't have anything to they just living at that moment. They haven't gone to prison, so

I didn't let nothing come in between that. No mind, I don't care if I had to live in a shoe box like you, was gonna stay on the right track. So how did credit repair?

I mean, obviously it's natural for you to go from because you understand, you know the issues, But how did credit repair become the transition?

And then also have you when you went to court the.

First time, did you ever have to face any of the individuals that you had frauded?

No?

Okay, it was so many, but no, I'm so happy I haven't because, you know, after knowing what this this is an issue that happened to me when I was in prison. I called home to my grandmother and she was about seventy at this time.

Now she's like, baby, I'm you know, I'm so sad.

Someone used my credit card and I've been fighting with the bank for the past six months.

And right now I have no money. You know, I don't have anything.

You know, they took seventeen thousand dollars from me, and you know, I don't have no money. The bank has given me a hard time returning the money. I'm like, real, yo, So that hit home. I was like, oh my god, Like they are real people, real yeah, yeah.

Yeah, these are real people.

Like I don't know what the issue was, what the circumstances were in their life. I could have just you know, mess something up like and then that was basically when she spoke to me and told me. I was like, Wow, this came at the right time. This actually came during the time. I said I need to do this five year plan because this is what I'm a follow and I got that. I called home and that's the that was the conversation, Like that was confirmation for me.

You know. I was like, wow, I can't come back here. So you've got into credit repaired. Yes.

So when I came home, the transition wasn't easy, you know it was. It was hard, especially coming from having so much, you know, at so young, and then you coming home and you have to like.

Rely on people.

Even though I had my daughter's father, he was there for me tremendously. But I'm very independent, you know what I mean, And I like to do things on my own.

I like to help I'm the giver, like I like to give people, you know, people around me, and you.

Know, so coming home, I was like, the first thing I need to do is fix my credit.

I learned about credit while.

I was in prison. I didn't know anything about credit, you know. I learned how important credit was. I got a bunch of credit for dummy books. But at that time, it wasn't for me to fix people credit. It was for me to work on my credit. Because I said, what I'll do is, you know, work on my credit and use that to start my hair company or use that to start whatever company it is that I want to do. So when I came home, I did that, work on my credit, got a bunch of credit cards.

I'm like, I know, but you don't.

Have it, Like you got to get yourself together first and then you could give you know, because you're taken from yourself. And she's like, I know, but I promised them. I'm like, so listen, you taught me how to fix She taught me how to fix my credit. Actually, when I came home, I'm like, you taught me how to fix my credit. Why don't we teach fix the girl's credit that's coming home. Because these girls are about to come home. It was like six of them, they're about

But my credit is really wouldn't help me.

Because I got that first credit card for ten thousand, I was able to use that and flip it, you know what I mean.

Maybe they could do the same thing.

So this thirty dollars is cool for now, but let's give them something that's long jeopardy, you know. So we fixed their credit. With six of them, we fixed their credit. We sent them their credit report. They was so happy. One of the girls actually came home opened up a whole spar like she's.

Doing really well.

Other ones do lashes and the other one has a real estate company. So they thank us even to this day because we helped them while they were in prison. But I knew how hard it was for me coming home, so I wanted to do anything to help somebody because I wish I had that, you know what I mean. So the girls told their husbands, told their sisters, brothers, cousins, so anybody just started calling us. This is before we even had a credit pair company. We didn't even think

You know, I just want to say, I want to commend y'all man shout out to how you shud shout out to Jamila. Just just watching you y'all motivate me. You know, sometimes I go on Instagram or I see y'all shows. I'd be watching y'all and I understand your struggle when coming from prison, not having nothing, and to see y'all.

Just come home with this energy, you know, just.

Seeing y'all together, moving together, consistent, persistent, and just growing every day. I just want to say commend you because a lot of people don't believe that a lot of people because you're incarcerated, you formally incarcerated, that your life is over. You're not supposed to do nothing, You're not gonna do nothing, and you women defy that every day.

So just I just want to say.

Thank you for doing it, because it's motivational to more people than you actually even know.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

And it's like coming home from prison, you know, you look at what other people have, you know, and you're like, you're so used to having that, and it's really really hard to stay on track.

You know. You gotta be really strong minded.

And I think that's what helped me because I was determined to do the right thing. I didn't want to look over my shoulders anymore. Like that life became like crazy, like I'm driving and I'm looking back, like to make sure nobody's behind me and nobody's following me. Like I don't want to live like that my whole life. You know, it gets like when do you really say enough is enough? You know, like it's really especially when you keep surrounding

It was no other way. Oh, I would have.

Been right back up in that same thing because they're doing the same exact thing.

You know, I want to join.

I want to join my son and saying that it's very inspirational.

Listen to your story.

You know, all of us, as not all of us, but most of us who were black folks that or people in general who live in the world know somebody who got caught up right, But oftentimes we don't find people who were able to turn their lives around and be as progressive, as beautiful, you know, as inspirational as you are. And so I'm really happy to hear it at a story that could have gone in a total different direction, win in the right direction, and that you

Got on our nerves. You know, don't go out and you know and do something that could ruin our lives.

And so just make that encouragement for you before you go. Tell us what people need to be looking for. We just came out the holiday season, and I know, even with me, I have to force myself. You know, there was a point in my life where I didn't really have anything.

So I knew if two dollars was missing off the bat, because you know, it was nothing in there you had for dollars. All of a sudden, I'm trying to spend thirteen and it says that it's declined. I'm like, Yo, what happened? I know this is what we have. But now that you know I.

Have more resources, I have to always check every line of my statement to see where my money is going and coming. And another thing that I found, I'm gonna send things back person, so I order it because I really like to shop in the store, but clearly they've taken all the good stuff out the stores and everything online. So when you send things back, you have to monitor whether or not that money came back into your account from.

The rest because it doesn't just show up. You have to actually know your money in order to be true out. So these are things that.

As I'm getting older, I'm trying to actually pay attention to. So tell us what are things we need to be you know, looking for.

So you definitely have to have.

There's something you can put on each credit card basically, you know, when you call up your credit card company, you can tell them that you want to.

Put alerts on and what those alerts.

What it does is like it basically it knows how you use that card, and if it's something out of the ordinary, it will alert you or send you a text and say, hey, is this you using your card? Yes or no? Like that's extremely important to have. Two when you receive those emails, that says that your email address, your password has been compromised. To change it immediately, because a lot of times what the hack is what they do is.

They'll take your information and they won't use it right then and there. They'll hold on to it. You know, they'll wait a couple of months.

Down the line where you're not thinking about it, and then they'll that's when they'll go in and use it. You know, check your credit report. You can get one free credit report a year.

Check it. It's important. Credit comment is free. You know, look at these would you also pay? Like, would you suggest because you know, we love free, but sometimes free is not going to be like the end door be all and we should actually be paying at nineteen ninety nine or whatever a month to get the credit report, like fourteen ninety nine for your Netflix and all those other things.

Right, I was, yep, I was definitely gonna say that. Identity IQ is a really good one. You know, it's twenty seven or twenty five ninety nine, But it's important because not only do they send you alerts, they monitor everything and they'll send you twenty five emails a day telling you about your credit like you know, this is out of the ordinary. Your email was compromised, Like it gives you all of the alerts and that you have to pay attention to because it's so easy right now

Don't do that.

Don't use the same password for every card or for your cell phone, like, because once they have that one a hacker, they're gonna check and see if you know the rest of your information is with that same password. And I know I'm guilty of that. You know, I'm guilty of using one password. But now that I know how they do it, I switch it up. You know, even if you add a money sign or corenescy, anything, just anything, just switch it up.

That's important.

So you have a credit company and you do credit repair. What is your company's name? How can we find you? We need everybody to reach out to you so we can get you some customers so we can be credit literate.

You have our credit fixed?

Yes?

So my name on Instagram is Wanna god Class at Wanna Got Class. The name of my company is called the Real Credit Pro. That's on Instagram. You can also go to the real credit Pro dot com. You can also find me on Shwana King dot com.

You know, you can hit me up anything that you need credit related. I got you. We are extremely affordable five people, you know, and four ninety nine.

Basically, we'll remove all of the derogatory accounts off your credit. Anything that's negati for your credit, we'll get it off.

Okay, listen, you know it's all about.

The second chance. Your credit.

You can fix it, you know, and you have a second chance, like I just I'm a strong believer in second chances.

Definitely, we need you know.

That was one of the things when I came home. I didn't even understand credit. I didn't know none of that, and I got somebody that got me in tune with it and realized how you can't even live without credit right now. You know, it's pretty much you can't do nothing. So this is definitely a service that's needed, especially for returning citizens. You know, they're coming back trying to be productive and evolve. Man, So thank you for your work.

Thank you go out you.

Should all of y'all. Man, just keep being dope.

Man so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Yeah, we'll have you back again. Thank you so much. Guys, thank you to me, the thank you my son happy thank you YouTube.

I mean, really really important information and to hear it wrapped in a real story like she's trying, you know, because sometimes we as black folks, we'd be like, oh, nobody got time for that. I don't have no money. But she's trying to tell you that you can actually the credit you don't think you can get. She could have been able to increase the limit, get more money on your card, use it in a way that you don't even know how.

Because these people are actual professionals.

There's somebody sitting in another country working on increasing your limit right now, making sure like somebody try to call me the other day, they were actually trying to get into my Verizon account and having Verizon send me the alert that if I would have clicked it, it would have allowed them to get in. They probably would have ordered cell phones, worked out.

A deal, all kinds of things that they know how to do, and so we have to actually pay attention I right now. The thing that that I just don't understand is why if somebody sends you a DM on cash app and tells you to send me five hundred dollars one thousand dollars and you know the person has your telephone number. Why do people do that?

Because sometimes you just be comfortable.

Somebody got me for like fifty dollars one time because it was somebody that I don't normally talk to that I might just see you on Instagram a lot. That's cool with me, and was like, hey, I need a favor? Can you leave me fifty dollars?

Now? Fifty dollars? You're not even thinking about it.

You're like, okay, if they seeing you a DM fifty, But if you ask me for five hundred dollars and you got my phone number and you DM and me, then that's a real issue for me. So I think for me, fifty dollars was like all right, cool, and I wasn't even thinking about it.

And then by the time I figured out I thought about it, I'm like, yo, did you just send me this?

And it's like no, My thing was halfed, So you know it's it's it's a quick scheme.

They got not even fifty dollars? Am I sending you? Not even fifty? Not even five dollars? Will I send to somebody that sends me a DM? You have to ask me for my phone number and then we will speak on the telephone and you could tell me what your problems. I'm just I'm just not going.

To go I mean, listen, I learned the hallway. I agree with you. For now, we'll not even find out you got.

Everything that Shawuana was talking about is so important because it was really technical in terms of what to look for, in terms of how people get in track right and how they get caught up in the system. You know, she's done prison time for this, so she's really truly

But now we're.

Talking to someone who is sort of on the other side of the conversation.

A financial expert. She is an author of two books, Financial Counication and The Four Financial Languages. They call her a mad of Money. Thank you so much for being with us, Tara Jackson.

Lot of money that's now that's the name queen. I appreciate that name. Man, thank you for being here with us today.

My pleasure, my pleasure.

So give us give us some insight on what exactly you do. How did you start on this road to being mat of money? You know, how long you been doing this? For twenty plus years? Like, how did this start?

Yeah, I've been in the financial services game for over twenty years, which completely lies about my age. Yeah, I'm only sixteen for the right eleventh time whatever or twenty eleventh time. I started off in the credit card industry. I was a telemarketer, uh and I sold credit cards very well with eighteen percent and forty dollars annual annual fees, and I was the queen of selling credit cards over

I guess.

So you come from the mind frame that fraud and credit issues it doesn't just impact the one person. I think I read somewhere that you said it feels victimless when people are out, like, you know, swiping cards and harming others. But you're saying that you feel like it or you know that it impacts the entire community, that it hurts all of us when our credit is not up to speed. Can you talk a little bit about that. I know that people.

Are concerned about wealth. They're starting to understand and they're starting to be an awareness around wealth and the wealth gap. You see people talking about it, but I'm not sure that folks have connected how credit is directly impacting our wealth issues or the wealth gap. And then also for me, it's like, if my credit is messed up, what does that have to do with you know, another neighbor of mine?

Okay, well, you know it's back to I teach a class called Young Money to college and high school students, and the first class is cream Credit rules everything around me, and it teaches them about credit, what credit is, and how it affects you. So it not only affects you getting stuff and you know, buying things, but it can affect how you know, if you can get a job. It affects how much you're going to pay for everything.

Wow, that's a lot.

Just listening to you, you can tell that you've really done a lot of homework. What do you think is one of the biggest misconceptions that we, you know, have about credit or money that black people reason why we spend it? So fast, so we don't A lot of us don't really accumulated the way we should. What do you think is one of the biggest problems that contribute to that.

Well, I've wrote a book called the Four Financial Languages, Right, So if you're familiar with love languages, I talk about the financial languages. And a lot of people don't really understand their dominant financial language. And because they don't understand the dominant financial language, it either controls them subconsciously or they don't learn what they need to know or understand to be able to build that wealth. Right. So, my

Right.

But because I understand that, I know how I need to be communicated, about how I communicate and what I need to be able to advance myself financially. So for a spender, if you tell a spender to budget, when

Wow, that's a lot, do you So?

Where do people? Where does one start? Right?

Like, you know, Okay, I'm twenty five years old, I'm out of college, and now you know, I've got my first job.

Of course, I've got my.

Student loans that need to be canceled, but you know, we'll put that in a different show, right, that's a whole other show. Yeah, different show. But you know, I've got my student loans. But other than that, you know, I don't really have any real responsibilities yet. What do I do first? And how do we make it as painless as possible for people to one understand and also

Never able to afford exactly. And so I never tell anybody you need to take all your check and spend and invest it all and everything like that, because then you're going to feel deprived. And deprivation is the beginning of destruction. Right when we feel deprived of eating because of diets, that is our that's the beginning of our demise and destruction is now we're going to overeat because I'm feeling deprived. I can't have my big MACI tell me I can't have my big Mac anymore, and then

That's a that's an amen moment, Right, we're gonna figure it out or we're not gonna figure it out. So based on being a financial you know, expert, and you talked about how many how many more experts, especially we have a lot of black financial experts out there. Do you think that as a whole we're getting better with our.

Finances, that we're doing more.

Are you seeing, you know, more people moving in the right diation with this information? Are you seeing the growth of we're moving towards being more than just two percent of the wealth in America? Do you think that we're going to get past that eventually?

I do believe that we're going to get past that. That's something that we're going to have to start training ourselves to do and start teaching our children how to do so that we can become better at it. Right, so we can't teach what we don't know. The great thing is it's now sexy. You know, we're making black wealth sexy. Black wealth matters is sexy, so people want to learn more about that and building legacy wealth and building wealth. So more people are going to that mantra,

I think that should be a course right now. Like for kids.

I think we should have like wealth classes, like you know, credit and all these things I think we don't need to pass.

I think it actually should be in curriculum.

I've been fighting for that for many years. What I do love about and I keep shouting out, but Janisa tiff me at least you know, she's my sister. She's a really good friend of mine. But she fought to get financial literacy in New Jersey schools and it's it's statewide you know, I'm fighting for it in Delaware because

That definitely needs to happen in it and I feel like it should be a area I guess a portfolio of the civil rights movement of something else that we all fight for to make sure that when we're talking about education, that we're actually fighting not just for financial literacy, but also there are other things that our young people need to be learning about life that is not included in the current curriculum.

And my son not often to debate that.

It is probably why so many of our young people feel totally disconnected from the education that they're receiving, because they don't feel like they're being taught. And by the way, unfortunately, there are young people who are living like real lives every day, like you know, they know what skills they need. They already know that when they go to school and they're learning I don't know, you know, geometry is something, it's cool, But when I get home, I've got to

Fighting for that in those communities. Yeah, I mean they stopped teaching really, they started really stop really teaching with the No Child Left Behind Act when that first came out. Then they started teaching to test because they started holding teachers accountable for passing tests, for students passing tests. And

One, do wealthy white folks or just white people who are doing better than some of us, do they have people that like walk them through every step of this stuff, Like how do they know so much better than us how to deal with credit and to you know, be more are financially literate? That's one question, And then the second question is NFTs. I have two separate threads of text messages and just in my life in general. One side,

And then the NFT new phenomenon. Okay, so the first question I'm gonna ask you this question rhetorically, who built the system? That's right, who built the financial system, who built the credit system? And of course if that person, if it you know, if they are Caucasian or whatever, if they have been a part of the process generations, generations, generations ago of doing that. They've seen wealth in the past, They've seen how their parents, so they have a model

Wow.

So if we don't have something to model the behavior of we can't teach it or we can't model the behavior. Well, we are modeling the behavior, but we're probably modeling the behavior of poverty. Right. Unbeknownst to ourselves. We think that we're teaching about being rich and all that stuff. But are we modeling a wealth behavior, a wealth mindset? You know, law of attraction? Do we really understand it? Do we believe it? You know? Do are we teaching it? So

That's definitely the truth. I want to say, thank you. You've giving us so much information today. You know a lot of what you said about just schooling, especially what you said about who created the system. You know a lot of us we didn't have access to that system. A lot of you know us don't even know. But when we do learn, we're able to capitalize fast. So you know, that's what that I model. I try to do that. I try to get information and bring it back, you know, piece by piece.

The whole NFT thing is still new. We still researching, but it's so many different things.

I'm just glad to see that black people are taking the initiative to figure out. Listen, we've been we haven't had any part of this world for so many like what do we need to do? You know, I'm glad that that is a constant question. Everywhere I look, there are different people who are educating themselves about wealth, about generational wealth, about you know, education about how do we continue to grow and evolve and get a piece of this pot. So thank you for what you do. Thank

I needs.

Awesome. You can definitely go to my website. Mautamoney dot com, or you can follow me on social media, missmount of Money, M S M A d A M M O and e y connect with me, follow me. I'd love to give you some virtual love out there, so thanks for having me too.

I'm following you right now, Miss Madam Money. That's MS Madam Money and I'm.

As m A D A M M O N e y. Some people like to put an E in there, but this M A D A M M O N e Y not money. I'm going to follow you right now. Thank you again for being with us today. Thank you.

Wow man shout out to Tara Jackson Dope dope individual information.

You know we need people like that, man.

It's good that we have so many people now, especially in our black and brown people who are getting so financial. Literally, like before when I was you, it wasn't really a thing. Were talking aboutw We're gonna get money, we want to buy old things. Now you have people like Tarror who's telling you how to keep money, how to make money, how to invest money, how to you know how to build credit, how what credit is?

You know how to utilize things?

So you know our kids are going to be better than us, man, so shout out to Tarror for that information.

Yeah, these kids are working like crypto and they're literally they know how to do online trading. Like I'm online and sometimes I sit up late at night and I go into like the dark web, which is not really dark, but like this, this whole if you will, of just young people who are out here learning how to invest.

They're making money off of crypto technology and whatnot because they're already so much further ahead. And I guess we were further ahead than our parents on different things as well, you know. So that's a good thing.

But the more that we instill it, and the more that we talk about it, the more that we make it a part of our everyday lives in our households and our families, then our young people are going to become more, as you said, financially literate. They're going to become,

That system for the most part. Of course, there's many details to the political system.

That we don't know and we have to learn, but we understand the fundamental basics. And that's because since the beginning of time, not of the beginning of time, of course, but since you know, since we've received our voting rights. This is something that has been a staple of the Black household to talk aboutout voting for president, to talk about, you know, going to the polls, using your right to vote.

People died for us to be able to vote.

So now I think the same It applies to how we have to instill the same type of messaging in our young people and get them in the consciousness and the awareness of what it looks like to use your dollar, and not just your dollar, but your credit for the greater good, not only of yourself, but of your entire community.

She used to make it so many good points.

She was talking about how kids aren't you know, in certain we talk about how kids aren't thriving.

Our kids aren't thriving in the school system.

And I thought about my son telling me the exact same thing.

How you know is test based.

Now it's not about you actually learning and things like that, and our kids just need to be challenged. And I think this new information and just wealth and all these things and things that are challenges that challenges them and gives them more opportunities.

It also brings me to my I don't get it.

You know, being from the inner cities and coming from poverished communities and understand how poverty is violence and just looking at where we are, like we're dealing with so many different things, especially when it comes to violence in our communities.

Gun violence is at.

An all time high, like I mean, it's just out of control.

And I think for me, I don't get how.

Violence, gun violence and all this things has been incentivized to our kids. You know, it's such a new trend. I remember being twelve and thirteen and the quote unquote ogs wanted to keep us away from that lifestyle. You know, whatever they was doing, they tried to make sure that we went to school.

You know, they gave us money to keep us out to school. I mean out of this.

They gave us sports that you know, they threw basketball tournaments, They did so many different things. Whatever they were trying to do or whatever they were engaged in, they definitely.

Wanted to keep us away, you know.

And I just don't get now how these quote unquote ogs are not trying to give the kids the game, but they're trying to run game on the kids. And they're giving the kids the guns, and they're giving them send them out on these dummy missions and incentivizing them to throw their lives away. Like I literally watch on the internet every day where it's either bloggers or other people doing things to incite violence with kids.

These are not grown people.

These are seventeen, sixteen, some thirteen year old kids. And I just don't get how as a grown man that you have it doesn't bother you, it doesn't hurt you, it doesn't make you feel a moral responsibility to protect and shield these kids from that lifestyle instead of.

Leading them to it.

Well, I think it's just on the internet now.

When I was growing up in the housing projects in Harlem called Manhattanville, we used to watch young people working for the drug dealers, you know. We used to watch kids ten eleven, twelve years old carrying out violence for somebody who put them out there to go rob a woman or to go be the shooter.

We saw it.

I mean there are young people or there are people who are grown men in prison today because they listen to somebody when they were young tell them to go and do something crazy that ended up getting them twenty five years, maybe even life.

I don't think it's really new. I think that the.

Same applies to everything that we're watching be glorified on TV. Because the one thing I can on not on TV, but on your cell phone, maybe on TV as well. But the one thing I will say is that there wasn't a market for it, right, and there is a market now, so it's actually profitable.

But it was always happening.

It's just that there's a dollar amount and as you said, and an incentive that has been placed on the lives the murder, the brutality, the trauma of young people, of black people, of brown people, of poor people. And I think that's where we have to focus our attention on.

I don't.

I think well, I mean just I think, for me, let me cut you off.

I think being in the street right, being from the streets right, I think there was a disdain for that.

I don't think that it wasn't happening. Let me change that words.

Not that it wasn't happening. Those people weren't celebrated. The people who were doing that, that were praying on the children, they weren't celebrated. Like you weren't supposedly an og and you had eleven year olds and ten year olds working for you, and the rest of the ogs just like you was cool with them.

That wasn't something that was happening.

Like when I was a young dude and we was outside, they wasn't getting us at eleven and twelve years old.

They just wasn't. They wasn't. It was OG's like, yo, you know what are you doing? Man?

Take your ass. They was trying to keep you off the streets. I mean, that's just I think it were.

I think you grew up in a different type of community with different issues, even in the same city, because where I grew up, it was celebrated. There were older folks older men in particular, who preyed on the women that they were sleeping with or the women who were crackheads living in the building. I don't know if you're supposed to call them crackheads.

It's probably a more politically correct term and more respectable current term. But they were addicted to crack. There were people like that that folks prayed on, and they used.

Their children, they used their children, and it and it was and it wasn't. There was no outrage in our community other than a few parents, of which my parents, my parents were a part of. But it wasn't like everybody in the community was like, hell, no, this is not acceptable.

Yeah, well, I guess, like you said, maybe I was in a different part, but I know that most of the ogs and even the ones that were hustling around us, they didn't They didn't allow you to pray on children and women.

They just didn't. It just wasn't something that was okay, you know.

And you definitely you definitely could not shoot in a park or while people was outside sitting on the bench. That was like, you know, you were exiled from the whole hood if you did that. That's a new thing where you're just shooting in four year olds and five being hurt. We didn't have that, Yeah.

I mean I just for me, I didn't know as many thirteen and fourteen year old shooters that I know today. Like when I was yelling, we was thirteen. We was having fun. We was playing basketball, we was playing football, you know what I'm saying. We was into different things. We had something else that we were doing. There was a couple one or two that were you know, there was like heavily doing shit.

That we was like, what are you doing that for?

But for the most part, at thirteen and fourteen, we still had some level of a childhood, you know. And I'm watching these thirteen and fourteen year olds now they've literally stripped them of a childhood and moved them into del Wood and then adult facilities facing life, you know. So you know, I'm still of the mind state that we got to protect our children, man, and I I maybe it was happening, and maybe I was shielded. Maybe, you know, I was lucky to be around what I

Well.

On that note, one thing I can say that what they say. One thing that's for sure, and two things that's for certain is that you're going to work very hard on trying to end the culture that is unfortunately creeping into our communities. And you know, I'm proud to see you really focus and sort of hone in on what your contribution will be to society. You know, we're all in the fight, but each one of us has

I mean, I don't even want to use the words to describe. But the pain and the trauma that's being caused is very demonic, and I think the only way we can fix it is having individuals like yourself and a host of others coming together constantly wrapping our arms around our young people.

That's right, Boycott Black murder Man.

We're not staying for the detriment of our babies no more.

You're not praying on our kids.

We're not calling you ogs, we're not respecting you, We're not doing anything.

If you're detrimental to our community.

So with that said, we had another dope episode Politicians, our first episode back after the new year twenty twenty two. We look forward to being the number one.

Podcast in the world.

We're speaking into business because words become things, and we want to say thank you for supporting us last year.

We're going to do bigger and greater things this year.

You got anything you want us to talk about anything, make sure that you hit us on Street Politicians, pot on Instagram, dm us, send us information if you have any products. You know, we definitely got to have a real business. Sure you have a real business. We showcase small businesses on this platform. So we just want to continue to grow. Man, thank you. We hope that this year is better than last year. And like we always say,

That's how we all need