My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts
Day 149: Another Facebook Scam
Most of us
pride ourselves on cleverness. When a scam is going around, we either know
about it, or we think we’re smart enough not to fall for it. However, scammers
came in all kinds of different forms and when one of those forms is a trusted
friend, the scam is not so easy to recognize.
On Sunday morning I received a text from Steve (not his real
name) starting with a simple “Hey”
Wiping sleep from my eyes I texted a “Hi” back.
“How are you?”
“Good. How are you?”
“Very good and very excited.”
“Oh?”
“I came into some money. $100,000.”
“You’re joking. Did you win that with the lotto?”
“No, through a grant program that is aimed at the unemployed,
elderly, disabled, students, etc.”
“And you qualified?”
“Sure did. UPS delivered the money yesterday.”
“UPS delivered the money?”
“Yes. The online agent asked me if I wanted a cheque or cash and
I said cash.”
“And UPS delivered that?”
“Yes. $100,000. I paid off my bills and took the rest to the
bank.”
“That’s great. Congratulations.”
I found it a little strange that UPS delivers money but okay, if
Steve said so, I wasn’t going to doubt him.
“You can get the same grant,” he went on. “I saw your name on
the list. If you contact the online agent, you can get the grant too.”
It didn’t occur to me that this could be a scam. After all, this
was Steve I was ‘talking’ to and why would he lie to me? The amount of money
was also believable. Talk of millions of dollars would have raised a red flag,
but $100,000 seemed reasonable.
“Contact the agent now,” Steve concluded. “His number is
XXX-XXX-XXXX. Tell him that a friend saw your name on the list.”
“Okay, I will. Thanks.”
Moments later I fired off a text to the number provided and
within minutes I received a text back.
“Your name is indeed on our list of grant receivers. Since we place
high value on security, I will need your personal information so there can be
no duplication of the grant.”
“Okay, I understand.”
“Are you ready to fill in the form now?”
“Yes”
I was mentally doing a dance of joy. $100,000 … could this be
for real? Common sense told me this was too good to be true, but this message
came from Steve and I trusted him.
Moments later I received a set of questions from the online
agent:
Full name:
Address:
Gender:
Date of Birth:
Copy of Driver License or other photo I.D.:
Hm, now I did see a red flag. I’m notoriously hesitant of
sharing my personal information, especially where it comes to government issued
documentation. Before doing that, I wanted to verify with Steve that this grant
program was for real and he had indeed received $100,000.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get hold of Steve, so I tried his
girlfriend next. Doreen (not her real name) told me Steve has stepped outside
for a moment, but he would be back shortly. When I got to talk to Steve, he
sounded a little flat, not at all like a man who had just received a sizeable
amount of money.
“Hi Steve, congratulations on the money.”
“What money?”
“The hundred thousand dollars.”
“What hundred thousand dollars?”
“You didn’t receive hundred thousand dollars from the grant
program?”
He immediately knew what I was referring to.
“It’s a scam. My Facebook account was hacked and several of my
friends were contacted by the scammer.”
“Oh I see.”
"You didn't fall for it, did you?"
"I did, sort of, but I didn't give him any vital information."
"Do you really think that if I won $100,000 I would tell everyone about it?"
That made sense. Mentally I saw $100,000 go out the window.
The scammer didn’t give up easily though. Throughout the day he
send me messages such as
“When can you send me photo I.D.?”
“We have been waiting for you, we have a lot of people attending
to.”
And then his last one … “Should we terminate your grant?”
This, I suppose, was to spur me into action. I took action of a
different kind, I notified the authorities, if for nothing else than to have a
case number in the event of identity theft. I kept Steve’s name out of the
conversation. Not that my call was necessary. Mr. Scammer was known to them and
an investigation was underway. Mr. Scammer’s days were numbered. They knew who
and where he was and his scam would soon be terminated.
