These fuckers tried to get me again. If you remember my post, Them Scammers got me, then you know the pain that I went through when I got scammed. They almost got me again. Come on now, why is it so hard to go out and make an honest living? Okay, Here is what happened.
I recently placed my wife’s iPad Air 2 in the Facebook Market place. She’d had it for about 3 years but she just did not use it. So, it was in perfect condition and Apple is still supporting it. I figured that someone, or their kid, could get good use out of it. It’s not the first time I’ve posted something out there so I felt pretty comfortable doing so.
The next morning, A few people showed some interest. I responded to each of them, while I was getting ready for work, and waited to see who would message me back. Now, I’m normally in the shower by 5:50. But this morning I took the time to reply to these messages before getting into the shower. Not even 5 minutes after I hopped in the shower, I received a messenger phone call. I jumped out of the shower, slipping and sliding across the floor to stop the ringing because I didn’t want to wake up my wife. I took note of who called then continued to get ready for work.
First off, why are you calling anyone at 6:00 in the morning to buy an iPad? This, should have been my first clue that something was off. Like I said, I’ve sold items in the Facebook market for years. Never, has a phone call been placed so early in the dealing process.
I Messenger called back but I got no response. So, I sent a message to the caller. I thought nothing of this since some people only use messenger while they are logged into Facebook. About 10 minutes later they called back.
The name on the account that called me was Claudia. I assumed a female name. But when they called me back a guy was on the other end of the line.
Caller: This is Claud” he said, there is something wrong with my wife account so I’m calling. Is your iPad still up for sale? (mind you, Claudia is the name on the caller id…Clue number 2)
Me: yes it is
Caller: Good, good. I am willing to pay you $200 if you can overnight it to me. My wife want to give it to my son for his birthday on Thursday.
Me: okay, send me the money, and I’ll put it in the mail today
Caller: ok send me your information right now and I’ll pay you.
Me: I’ll send it when I stop driving.
I continue my commute to work, excited to tell my wife that I sold her iPad for more than I posted it for, which in itself is strange, but I brushed it off and didn’t think much of it. When I stopped driving, I sent him my cash app information and waited for the notification of payment received.
He called me back to ask me if I used Zelle. After confirming I gave him my information and within 10 minutes I received a email notification saying Claudia sent me $200. I sent a message saying I received notification, then I received a second message.
Almost immediately, my phone rang.
Caller: did you get that message, I can send you the extra money, can I trust you to send it back
Me: Bro, I am not comfortable with that. Let me call Zelle, give me 20 minutes I’ll call you back.
Caller: it’s no problem, did you read the message. Read it with me on the phone. Do you understand, I can send you the money. I can’t do anything else because the money left my account. I’ll send you the extra.
Me: I understand the message, I don’t want you to send anything else.
It went back and forth like this for about 5 minutes and I grew more and more suspicious. The longer the conversation went on the more red flags I began to see. When I got off of the phone, I immediately called Zelle as well as my bank. Zelle, Unfortunately, could not help me. But they did take the information to submit to their fraud department.
When I called the bank, it became clear that Claud and Claudia we’re trying to scam me! The bank representative looked over my account to include pending transactions, as well as, outgoing messages. And there was nothing. This made me take a closer look at the email notifications of the payment. See if you can spot what is off here! I read the message several times and scrutinized every line. That’s when I saw it! This message didn’t come from a Zelle email account. It came from a Gmail account.
I love my free gmail account. But, this is the problem with email addresses being free. Anyone can create an account with any name that they choose. Google, and all other companies offer g free email accounts, there needs to be some sort of validation process for choosing an email address for your fr accounts! Like not being able to have any part of an established company name in your address.
After a while “Claud” send me a message saying he can’t get his money back unless I replied to the email. And asked if I can send him the $200 back. Now I was confident of the scam! I hadn’t received his payment in the first place. I simply sent a reply, saying Zelle was interested in finding out what happened, and sent the transaction information to the fraud department. “They will reach out to you about your money” then I waited.
After about an hour of waiting, I hadn’t received a message. I sat for a while shaking my head at the lengths that people will go through to steal from others.
Read my “Them Scammers Got Me” post for tips on how to protect yourself from scammers. Stay alert out there.
Resources
This is a great book about the deceptions and tools that scammer use. I learned a lot from it.
Corey Stokes 