Laci Mosley arrived in Hollywood with few liquid assets beyond her flammable club dresses, questionable bartending experience, and a ton of confidence. That didn’t stop the trilingual podcast villain from chasing the whole lot the City of Angels had to offer in English, Spanish, and the language of fraud.

She went from being an awards-season party no-show to a sitcom regular. Along the way in which, she was scammed by shady employers, shady photographers, shady acting coaches, and weird potential roommates. Instead of feeling ashamed, she thrived. “I decided I was going to continue living the life I wanted, no matter what,” Mosley tells ESSENCE.

She began a podcast about “scams, frauds, thefts and swindles.” It was soon adapted into TV series and a combination memoir and handbook titled .

Mosley, who starred in , advises readers to accept the world because it is, not as they would love it to be, and to make their way through it by deceiving. “We have institutionalized deception, so much of our government is a deception; everyone has made things up, nothing is real,” she says.

Her stance is that when the sport is rigged, there isn’t a shame in shortcuts. Tears, lies, deception – all are permitted in an unjust world where school children starve and homelessness is criminalized. When systematically biased means-testing threatened her California dreams, she removed them with great enthusiasm and a little Photoshop.

“The first apartment I got was in Los Angeles. I had pay stubs, but I faked the dates on the pay stubs,” she explains. Anyone who’s been turned down for an $1,800 mortgage while paying $2,700 in rent can understand her motivation. “It’s like, I know I can pay rent to live here, so if you’re going to discriminate against me, let me open Photoshop and Microsoft Paint.”

Deception serves Mosley. In her book, she strategically flaunts her weaknesses to keep off against stereotypes, and she suggests others who’re systemically disadvantaged play along. “I think one of the biggest deceptions that has happened to black women is the cultural deception of power,” Mosley says. “Everybody wants a black woman to save them—shout out to Kamala.”

“It’s something that’s been forced upon us and it’s a fraud, but we can abdicate the responsibility that some of us have felt to show up as the strongest and clean up everyone’s mess while being one of the most discriminated against groups and not getting the care and treatment that we deserve,” she continued. “You see it everywhere. You see it in the medical community.”

She notes that “certain types of deception” are “necessary when you’re born into a body that’s more marginalized.” Mosley invented the lawyer when she was denied pain medication after surgery to remove fibroids. Innate prejudices within the medical field often leaves black patients in severe pain. The threat of legal motion got her the care she needed. “Black women, find yourself a fake lawyer. Google a few law firms in your area,” she recommends.

Scarcity myths disproportionately impact single Black women, leaving them vulnerable to one in all the largest scams: affairs.

Mosley advises people to take it slow and put their very own needs first, describing how she worked to free her heart from her abuser. “Often when you’re short on time, your whole focus is on the other person, what they need, how they’re going to repay you, how they’re going to feel if you don’t. It’s all about them. So I think it’s about stopping and asking yourself what you need. And assessing how desperate you are to get it, because we often make rash decisions out of fear,” she says.

According to the actress, it is not about being mean or dishonest, it’s about self-preservation. In one chapter, she’s forced to meet the emotional needs of somebody who’s trying to deceive her so she will stay in an uncomfortable situation. Unable to take it out on the liar, she manages to deceive herself to get to safety.

“Unfortunately, this is another big scam that black women face; people love to throw rocks and then hide their hands and make us out to be the aggressors. So, to protect myself, sometimes I have to give in to this scam,” she says. “I don’t like it and I hope there’s a change.”

Her goal is to gain power and use it to help herself and others with minimal suffering.

“I want to be one of God’s weakest soldiers when the Lord’s army comes. I want to be in the back, keeping up with the drums, like I’m not trying to be on the front lines,” Mosley says.

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