Yesterday I received a Facebook message from my friend Dave, who has been back in the USA for several months. I don’t think I’ve we’ve communicated directly since his departure, but I do know he is scheduled to return here in November. So, it was a little surprising to get his message asking me to send his girlfriend (who I also know) $200 and that he would repay me next month. Knowing Dave, I wasn’t worried about him paying me back, and I assumed it must be some emergency, or he wouldn’t have reached out to me. So, I wrote back asking for Jo’s full name as it appears on her ID so I could wire the money via Xoom (the money transfer service I use). Dave sent the name, and I completed the transfer without further delay.
I told Dave the money was available for pick up at any of the usual money exchange locations; all Jo needed was her ID and the claim number. I was a little taken aback when, instead of thanking me, Dave asked if I would send it to Jo’s PayMaya account (it’s one of those e-money things) instead. I told Dave I had no idea how to do that, and he explained I could do it directly to her account through Xoom. Again, I wasn’t sure what this emergency was all about, but maybe Jo wasn’t physically capable of picking up the cash in person. So, being the good friend I am, I logged back into Xoom, canceled the original transfer, and resent the money to the PayMaya account. I advised Dave the money was sent in the manner requested.
Still no thank you, but a few minutes later, Dave told me the money had not yet arrived. I checked my email for the Xoom receipt and instead found a message from Xoom saying the transaction had been canceled for “security reasons.” I assumed that my canceling the original send and then immediately doing the second was the cause for their concern. I responded to the email explaining the circumstances and advised Dave we would need to wait for Xoom to approve the transfer.
In the meantime, I took a look at my Facebook feed and saw a post from Jack saying that if anyone got a message from him asking for money, it wasn’t legit. Yikes! Talk about a light bulb coming on–it was as blinding as my stupidity. I immediately searched for Dave’s name on Facebook and found both his real account and a newly created one–it was the new account I had been chatting with. Yep, the whole thing had been a scam, and I had stupidly fallen for it. If Xoom hadn’t flagged the second transaction, I would have been out two hundred bucks. Jesus.
It also explained why “Dave” didn’t want the standard wire transfer. He didn’t have the required ID with Jo’s name on it to pick up the cash. I guess a fake PayMaya account is just a number that no one can check. I sent my buddy Scott, who is also friends with Jack and Dave, a message giving him a heads-up. Scott was already aware of the scam, saying Dave had received a money request from Jack and had alerted him to what was going on. That scared me, and I’ve been checking Facebook periodically to make sure the scammer hasn’t created another account in MY name. So far, so good.
Oh, and Scott also sent me a message asking for a donation to his PayPal account: asuckerborneveryminute@gmail. Everyone’s a comedian these days. Or a scammer.
Here’s the lesson to be learned:
In other news, my solo Sunday stroll looked like this:
My Sunday evening bar crawl started at It Doesn’t Matter, then Green Room, Hideaway, and finished at Mugshots. No lady drinks at IDM, dinner from Sit-n-Bull at the Green Room, plus a game of pool (I actually won!). I hadn’t planned to do Hideaway since I’d done the feeding the night before, but Joy was hungry, so I brought some roast chicken from Chooks for the girls. Then when I was walking back to my side of town, all the new girls at Mugshots were seated outside, so I joined them for one last beer. No lady drinks, but I tipped the four of them 50 pesos each when I left.
It’s Hash Monday, and Leech My Nuggets is the Hare. That portends a challenging trail. Even harder for me because the trail begins at Barretto High School on Rizal Extension, a good long walk from my house. I’ve decided to throw caution to the wind and get there by going over the mountain instead of around it. That cuts down the distance, but I’m not keen on hiking in the hills alone. If I don’t post here tomorrow, send out a rescue party!
Almost forgot, today’s SOB video, The Queen Victoria team:
I’ve been scammed before, so I feel your pain. I guess this could’ve been worse, though. At least you didn’t lose any money.
Shit gets worse as you get older. After my great aunt died at the age of 87, we were going through her things, and we saw that she had actually been trying to write letters to sweepstakes officials and other people who send out junk mail. Old folks are talky, and they’re sometimes convinced that people on the other end will actually respond. This loneliness makes old people easy to take advantage of. I’m worried that, if I could get suckered as I did years ago, what will life be like when I’m in my 70s? Better to become the crabby, independent old fart with a shotgun always on his lap.
Kev, I like to think I’m reasonably savvy and can sense when something “just ain’t right.”
So, I was shocked and disappointed by my gullibility in this instance. Looking back, there were lots of red flags, and it would have been very easy to determine this was illegitimate. Lesson learned, and yeah, I got off cheap–losing some pride but not any cash. Let’s hope I can maintain some common sense in my golden years.