-Avier Wanjou-Brass-

Cousins!

Chicago’s very own Chance The Rapper may be a lot of things, but a “scammer” is not one of them!

Ibi and Lulu Cole, two banking professionals sisters from Chicago, were swindled out of $36,000 by a man who used the rapper’s name as part of his scheme.

According to Hot New Hip Hop, Jeffrey Washington claimed “CEDA [the Community and Economic Development Association], and Chance The Rapper, were working together in a program to pay off mortgages and other financial obligations for residents in the area, including light bill, gas bill, insurance, car insurance, telephone bills and things like that.” 

Reportedly Washington told Lulu he needed to give away $600K in charitable donations. In that instant, Lulu and her sister had Washington pay a bill and the transaction went through. Soon after, Washington had asked Lulu if she had a mortgage. She responded by revealing that she has a mortgage property with an outstanding balance of $45K. 

“[The bank] asked if he had the authorization to interact with the representative for that call only,” Lulu said. “So he knew very specific terms to ask or to say to the representative so that he could gain access to making payments on these accounts.” Her sister Ibi thought it was a scam but the bank claimed the payment from Washington for the mortgage went through.

Then Washington paid for Ibi’s mortgage of 100K, forwarded emails and phone calls to the companies that confirmed the payment as well. However, because of how fast he allegedly executed things, Washington asked the sisters for money. Lulu and Ibi gave Washington “$9K and the other $27K, because to the sisters, this man just saved them hundreds of thousands in bills.”

Sources confirmed that just like that, they both were scammed! Days later, they began to receive phone calls about problems with their payments. According to the police, Washington has been using that alias since at least 2014 and would usually scam people for “$500 to almost $7,000 each time.” 

The sisters were in the process of building a community center. But that dream will have to be put on pause. “We were in the middle of building an afterschool community center and the funds that I had set aside to build that community center. I’m no longer going to be able to build it,” said Ibi.

Cousins, we have to be more careful! It is a dangerous world outside!

((📸: Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images))