Florida Principal Resigned After Fake Elon Musk Scammed Her Into Sending $100k

A scammer posing as Elon Musk has victimized a Florida principal, who was scammed into sending $100,000 in school funds.

Burns Science and Technology Charter School principal Jan McGee said someone claiming to be the Tesla CEO offered to invest millions into the famous STEM school in Oak Hill in Volusia County, Florida, in exchange for an upfront payment, according to New York Post.

The school's business manager eventually learned about it and canceled the transaction before the check cleared. However, the parents and school board insisted that McGee was "inexplicably reckless" with the school funds.

Some of the Florida principal's colleagues warned her that she was being swindled. However, she ignored their advice and insisted on sending out the payment.

At the Volusia County meeting on Tuesday night, the board members noted that they could no longer work under Mcgee and threatened to quit.

The Florida principal then resigned on the spot and left the school building. Mcgee said she loves the school "more than anything else," but she is resigning if it means that the administration will stay.

Florida Principal Swindled by Fake Elon Musk

Jan McGee told a packed audience that she is a very smart and well-educated lady, yet she still fell for a scam.

The Florida principal noted that communication between her and the fake Elon Musk lasted for at least four months. She continued to talk to the scammer despite the staff's warnings that the person was a fraud.

McGee then claimed that the scammer groomed her, CBS News reported. The Florida principal noted that "grooming is when you talk to somebody and you believe in them, and they get you to trust them that this is really real."

Board chair Albert Amalfitano said somehow McGee believed the scammer's scheme, so the scammer must have been "really convincing."

Amalfitano noted that McGee wrote a $100,000 check out of the school's account, convinced she was making the check to Musk's right-hand man.

The board chair went on to say that the scammer promised to give $6 million to the school.

Scams Made by Fake Elon Musk

There were numerous scams surrounding social media using the billionaire's name. Forbes reported that many of those complaints mainly involve Tesla, with issues covering cars, warranties, and financing.

Consumers were also complaining about scams on social media where the con artists were using the Tesla brand and Elon Musk's name to capitalize.

The complaints also involved crypto coins like Ethereum, Bitcoin, and sometimes Dogecoin and Ripple. One complaint read that the scammer said they were running a token pre-sale for Tesla, and the victim was interested.

The complaint said Musk released a new token. However, the one that the victim purchased was not a legit token. Musk has never released his own cryptocurrency token, with most of his investments in crypto like Bitcoin and Dogecoin.

Some complaints also discussed deepfake videos of Musk saying things he never said. The videos have also become common on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Florida Principal Allegedly Wrote $100K Check to 'Elon Musk' in Apparent Scam - From FOX 35 Orlando