U.S. News

Florida Principal Resigns After Writing $100K Check to Scammer Pretending to be Elon Musk

CHECKING OUT

The school leader hoped the scammer would invest millions in the school in exchange for an upfront payment.

SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 13, 2019.
Mike Blake/Reuters

The principal of a school in Florida resigned on Tuesday night after she sent $100,000 of school money to a scammer posing as Elon Musk, according to a report. Jan McGee—who had served as the principal of the Burns Science and Technology charter school in Volusia County since it opened in 2011—wrote the check after speaking to the scammer for months online, WESH reports. McGee hoped the Twitter CEO would invest millions into her school in exchange for the upfront payment. A business manager at the school found out about the $100,000 payment and canceled the check before it could be cashed. At a school board meeting Tuesday, administrators said McGee had been warned multiple times that she was being scammed. McGee resigned and left the school building after the staffers said they could no longer work under her leadership.

Read it at WESH