@KaygOldi In late January of 2019, New Jersey police
found two debit cards, 39 stolen blank checks, and thousands of dollars in cash. The evidence
led them to an unlikely ringleader: social media influencer Kayla Massa.
Massa’s instagram account is now private. But before she was forced to hide her page,
Kayla ran a thriving personal brand. Her page boasted over 300,000 followers, and fed into
her personal YouTube channel.
Kayla posted a few videos with her sister where they made typical vlogger content: they
hosted Q and A’s, tried their hand at various internet challenges, and told stories about
their personal lives. The channel only garnered 100,000 subscribers. However, YouTube wasn’t
Kayla’s main focus. Her Instagram page was most important.
She used her Instagram to post selfies of a wide variety. She even has a fan page dedicated
to reposting them. Their profile features an array of faltering mirror selfies, and
pictures with Kayla’s boyfriend. One features them wearing matching shirts; his reads Clyde,
her’s reads Bonnie.
In a couple other photos, Kayla is seen showing off a new gold watch, and a pair of sparkling
rings on her index and ring fingers. Kayla loved looking posh, successful, and beautiful.
And she was good at it. There are several other fan accounts, as well
as many fake accounts trying to capture Kayla’s success by borrowing her likeness. Many influencers
use this kind of fame to sell lines of products or merchandise like Mr Beast or Jeffery Star.
However, Kayla didn’t create a product for her followers so much as she created a product
for herself. After gaining her 300,000 plus following, Kayla started posting photos of
herself holding wads of cash. The captions asked her followers if they were interested
in making easy money like this, and if they were, they should DM her.
Trust Me The majority of these posts were stories.
Fortunately, some of Kayla’s followers screenshotted the posts. As you can see, the stories send
a clear message: Kayla was making money through some magical virtual wallet. She’d often
pose an ATM receipt or USPS money order slip next to her stacks of cash.
Most people reading phrases like “if you have a bank account” and “want to make
some extra bread” would avoid that girls DMs like the plague. But they weren’t Massas’s
followers. Many of Kayla’s victims were longtime followers who watched her tell stories
on YouTube, and liked Kayla’s intimate photos of her and her boyfriend. They knew Kayla’s
friends and family members whenever they made appearances on her vlog or Instagram.
In other words, many victims felt like they knew Massa. And, as previously mentioned,
Kayla looked successful. She must be doing something right.
Sure enough, Kayla’s DMs were flooded with people interested in making some extra “bread.”
Meet Me Prior to posting the scammy stories, Kayla
created a system for how to respond to interested investors. For example, if you DMed Kayla
about the money opportunity, she typically responded with a poorly-written message saying
quote:
So basically my business partner owns his own business. We deposit a check through Atm,
claiming as if you worked. It takes 1 or 2 days to process. I would need your online
banking and card & pin. We would have to meet up. If you have any questions you can ask
me.
Prosecutors used that very message as evidence against her.
As the message indicates, Kayla claims that she’s using her business partners' other
business to cash in fake checks. These kinds of fake checks usually came from tax write-offs,
but sometimes they just came straight from the company’s payroll. Then, she’d launder
them through her follower’s bank accounts.
It’s a scam within a scam. Kayla then set up meetings with interested followers. Since
they had to hand over extremely personal information, Kayla usually recommended meeting somewhere
discreet.
Her favorite meet up locations were parking lots, which sounded sketchy to a lot of people.
Kayla ensured the victim that their money would be safe and sound. To make sure of this,
Kayla instructed the customer to empty their bank accounts, that way, even with their information,
Kayla couldn’t possibly steal their money.
They believed her more often than not. Logically, it makes sense. However, they’d soon learn
about other ways to steal funds from an empty bank account.
The victim innocently handed Kayla their debit cards, bank information, passwords, PIN numbers,
and account numbers. They even gave her their security questions and answers.
Kayla thanked them and said they were about to make a lot of money. And by “they”
she meant her and the rest of her accomplices. It was all a part of the system.
Massa’s 9 The cast of characters include Kayla’s boyfriend,
Jordan Herrin, who she dated for a year between March 2017 to October 2018. Leire Massa, Kayla’s
little sister, was also involved, alongside her boyfriend Erasmo Feliciano.
Kayla was the ringleader. Her sister's boyfriend Jordan and Feliciano helped Kayla run the
scam. Meanwhile, Leire operated a few accounts of her own.
William Logan, a friend of Kayla’s, operated his own social media accounts—several in
fact— mainly on Instagram. His involvement helped Kayla’s scheme grow to new heights.
Logan knew other social media users and influencers who were interested in the scam.
Logan recruited Alex Haines, a local car dealership employee in New Jersey, who helped the crew
out by setting up more accounts, and stealing blank checks. Logan and Feliciano also brought
in a mutual friend of theirs named Kevin McDaniels. Kevin set up several accounts on both Instagram
and Facebook.
Then, Logan approached his friend Jabreel Martin about the scam. Martin joined the crew
but only operated one Instagram account called @1hunit_mil. Andrew Johnson, a scammer recruited
by Feliciano, had several Santa Clause themed accounts. One account in particular was called
@Savage_santa.
Last but not least, is Dezhon McCrae. It’s unclear how McCrae joined the scam operation,
yet very clear how he helped the cause. McCrae, also a New Jersey native, used an array of
Facebook and Instagram accounts with usernames like ‘Y C Woody’ and ‘realycwoody.’
Most of these individuals weren’t professional hackers or conmen. But they had a clever system
to follow, devised primarily by Kayla, who couldn’t have stolen the 7 figure sum on
her own.
Five Finger Check Fraud Between the nine of them, Kayla’s crew stole
1,238 checks. One of their biggest targets was a Nissan dealership in Turnersville. In
February 2019, Turnersville reported several strange activities on their business accounts
to local investigators.
The dealership showed the investigators screenshots of check transactions they weren’t aware
of, and there were a lot of them. Turnersville counted around 697 checks cashed from their
Bank of America account.
Kayla and her accomplices cashed these checks for a total of $128,000. After getting access
to the victims bank account, the crew stole stacks of blank checks from the Nissan dealership.
From there, they’d forge their victims name onto the check, along with a smaller amount
like $450. Then, they’d deposit the check into the victim’s account.
Nissan Turnersville wasn’t the only company The Massa 9 stole from. Alex stole checks
from the dealership he worked at: Woodsboro Nissan. He happened to work in the payment
processing department, giving direct and exclusive access to Woodsboro’s blank checks.
The crew also stole checks from a mechanic shop, and a couple other dealerships in the
New Jersey area.
USPS The United States Post Office issued a complaint
against Kayla. The complaint is 67 pages long and tells, in great detail how Kayla and her
accomplices scammed over $1.5 million from 45 victims in the North Eastern United States.
The report somewhat resembles the alleged criminal escapades of Frank Abagnale. You
may have heard of the Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio
as Abagnale. In the film, Abagnale scams banks and airlines by cashing bad checks while dressed
up as an airline pilot during the 1960s and 70s.
The only difference between Kayla and Abagnale is Kayla didn’t have to disguise herself.
The report focuses on how she actually stole her victim’s money, and wreaked havoc on
their bank account, which wouldn’t have been possible without Kayla’s social status.
The post office explained the clever methods Kayla used to scam her victims, like money
orders and fake checks.
Unlike Abagnale in Catch Me If You Can,, Kayla simply stole blank checks and forged the necessary
information on to the check. She, of course, couldn’t do all this alone.
Abagnale, and many other conmen of his day, chose the lone wolf lifestyle. By contrast,
Kayla recruited 9 other people into her scam.
Cracked Cards As for the mail money orders, those were much
simpler. You need a debit card to order money through the post office, and Kayla had a lot
of debit cards. Though, there was one setback: the post office only allows orders under $1,000.
So, for Kayla to make the mail orders worth her while, she had to order a lot of them.
Once she got the money order in the mail, Kayla or an accomplice took the money to a
check cashing place and deposited the cash. The process, according to court documents,
took about 2-4 days.
According to data collected by the USPS, Kayla’s order sizes typically ranged from $850 to
$950. She typically used Western Union, one of the largest financial institutions in the
world. They reported to authorities that Kayla and her team cost them $596,000 in fraudulent
money orders.
Many of their victims suffered losses as well. Kayla, after obtaining access to the victim's
bank account and debit card, used the card to buy multiple money orders. One victim,
who chose to go by MD on police reports, gave Kayla their bank account info and debit card.
Kayla then used the information and card to draft 5 money orders from the victim’s TD
bank account.
Then she gave the mail orders over to her boyfriend Jordan, who deposited the cash back
into MD’s account. Kayla and company then used the debit card to spend the cash and
overdraw the account until TD bank halted MD’s account after accruing $3,738 in debt.
It doesn’t matter if you drain your bank account. You can still spend money that doesn’t
exist. They’ll just come looking for it later.
Blocked Many of Kayla’s victims, like MD, tried
contacting her after seeing their accounts were severely overdrawn. But before they could
ask questions or make any demands, Kayla blocked their Instagram account or phone number.
The victims contacted Kayla through social media and phone number correspondence. They
didn’t know their address or any information about her or her accomplices. So, once Kayla
pressed the block button on the other user's profile, that was it. Game over.
In case you are unfamiliar with blocking on social media, the digital action lives up
to its name. If someone blocks you on an app like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat,
WhatsApp, you can’t contact that person using your current account. You also can’t
see their profile, or their posts. It’s as if they no longer exist.
One victim in particular, referred to as CF on police reports, tried contacting Kayla
after seeing their account was overdrawn by nearly $4,000. They tried texting and calling
the number Kayla gave them, but found that their beloved influencer had blocked them.
With no way to contact Kayla or any of the other accomplices, CF was left with a $3,900
of debt to pay off. Another victim had a similar experience. However, they managed to use a
different account and messaged Kayla, saying they would call the cops if she didn’t return
their money. Kayla texted back: do what you gotta do.
Going Private After Kayla was arrested she made her famous
Instagram account private, so no one could see her stories and posts about the money
scam. But most importantly, no one could see how she bragged about all the expensive items
she bought with her stolen money.
Kayla and her accomplices spent thousands of dollars on jewelry, clothes, drugs, and
anything else to make themselves look richer than they were. Apparently, ‘fake it ‘til
you make it’ isn’t always true.
The prosecutors charged Kayla and company with conspiracy to commit fraud and wire fraud.
Those crimes carry a maximum sentence of 20 years.
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And let us know in the comment section who you think is more annoying, scammers who’re
just trying to steal your money or the influencers who try to sell you courses?