this is the best take i’ve seen so far about the personal finance columnist for NY Mag who gave the "CIA" guy $50,000 in a shoebox

The name Ripley doesn’t deserve this.

Inject it right into my veins

that 50k was just walking around money. the kind of money you use to buy a few bananas at the corner store

That is a great take. My mom fell for one of these "send us money" scams a few years ago, and fell HARD, despite bank staff trying (I have seen the video) to walk her back from it. Did a bank teller in NYC really just shrug and hand over $50k?

I am begging the NYC media apparatus to hire anyone from a state school

Where is the evidence that she's related to the Roosevelts or lives in a $4 million house? Maybe those things are true, but let's not just accept everything we read in the comments!

Nailed it.

It looks ridiculous because we don't share this person's privileged ignorance. But it's best to assume there's a scam out there for each of us. A professional con artist who matches up the right story with the right victim at the right time *will* be able to trick a LOT of folks.

Please, Mr. Piss is my father. Call me Steve.

This take is mean but correct, I must admit. No one saves $50K as a free lance writer.