Growing Skepticism Over $50,000 Scam Story by Financial Advice Columnist

A lot of people are amazed at the story of New York Magazine financial advice columnist Charlotte Cowles who claims she was scammed out of $50,000 by someone supposedly from Amazon who called her up about unusual activity in her account and then turned her over to an FTC official who finally put her in touch with a CIA guy. Who knew that the CIA is involved in domestic activities down to the level of Amazon account activity. To make a long story short she was convinced by the wild stories concocted by this group to go to her bank, withdraw $50,000 in cash, and later place the money in a shoe box in the back of a car driven by a complete stranger.

She ended up writing this sad story of getting scammed in her column. However, there is now growing skepticism of her hilarious tale of scam woe. Of course, this brings up the question. If Cowles made up her story, what would be the upside of presenting herself to the world as an idiot who totally humiliated herself? Could it be publicity? Are people that desperate for fame that they are willing to embarrass themselves for it? What do you think? True or NOT true? And if the story is NOT true then WHY did she make it up?