This “McDonald’s Monopoly” Scandal will Blow Your Mind
A USA Business Radio Wrap Up
The story is terrible, or course. The level of deception, amazing. In the end though, the ambition and creativity behind this scam is also impressive.
The Daily Beast reports:
“Inside Hoover’s home, Amy Murray, a loyal McDonald’s spokesperson, encouraged him to tell the camera about the luckiest moment of his life. Nervously clutching his massive check, Hoover said he’d fallen asleep on the beach. When he bent over to wash off the sand, his People magazine fell into the sea. He bought another copy from a grocery store, he said, and inside was an advertising insert with the ‘Instant Win’ game piece. The camera crew listened patiently to his rambling story, silently recognizing the inconsequential details found in stories told by liars. They suspected that Hoover was not a lucky winner, but part of a major criminal conspiracy to defraud the fast food chain of millions of dollars. The two men behind the camera were not from McDonald’s. They were undercover agents from the FBI.
“This was a McSting… (READ MORE)”
From Today I Found Out:
From Axios:
“On August 22, 2001, Jerome Jacobson, director of security for a subcontracting company called Simon Marketing, was arrested along with eight co-conspirators for orchestrating a massive scheme to defraud McDonald’s Monopoly promotion out of more than $24 million, writes Jeff Maysh for The Daily Beast.
“The big picture: Between 1989 and 2001, “Uncle Jerry” used his position as the head of the McDonald’s Monopoly account to steal winning ‘pieces’ worth between $10,000 and $1 million. He proceeded to gift the pieces to family members and a growing network of associates — which included “mobsters, psychics, strip club owners, convicts, drug traffickers, and even a family of Mormons” — in exchange for a cut of the laundered winnings… (READ MORE)
