I got scammed.
This isn’t a story about how “…once upon a time, I got scammed.” It wasn’t a younger, less experienced, more trusting me.
No. The person who got scammed was the “now-me.” The one who was just a few hours younger than the one who’s writing this blog.
True to the title of this post, it was one of those moments where impulse control (not enough) and desire (too much) conspired to blind me to multiple moments that should have been big flashing caution signs.
I’m writing this because sometimes, showing your scars is the quickest and easiest way to help others avoid making the same mistake. I’m also writing this because it can (and does) happen to everyone. When I filed the police report, the officer said, “I work in this department, and I’ve gotten scammed.”
So point #1 of this blog is: If it’s happened to you, I hope this gives you comfort knowing you’re not alone.
“Get to the point, Leon. What happened?”
I’m starting a new job (which is a story for another day) and got a stipend for home-office improvements. I’ve wanted a Sony ZV-E10 for all the video work I’ve been doing. So, last week, I started scanning the bargain sites just to see if I could find a deal. One of the sites I checked was Craigslist.
Now, before I go further, this isn’t a slam on Craigslist at all. It’s a nice site that has a place in the internet ecosystem that I’ve used to both buy and sell in the past. I’m only mentioning it because it’s NOT the same as eBay or Amazon marketplace or some of the other more sophisticated sites. It’s effectively the local newspaper’s “For Sale/Trade” section. And I’m here to tell you it should ONLY be used when you can meet up IRL. Because as soon as you consider shipping the item, the guardrails are gone, and fraud quickly enters the picture.
#AskMeHowIKnow.
To make a long story short, I found a bargain that was too good to be true; agreed to buy with too little skeptical consideration; and paid too quickly with too few protections. It was only after the money was out of my account and the person on the other side started trying to squeeze me for more cash that I stopped and considered what had happened.
If I’m being brutally honest, it hurt. I broke out in a cold sweat, driven by sheer disbelief. In the moment when it dawned on me that I – a person who’s been terminally online since before “online” was even a thing – had been had, my emotions were no more sophisticated or insightful than a rank novice.
“You don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training.”– Archilochus
While I basically live online, and use sites (including Craigslist) to buy and sell, and know that the risk of scams is ever-present, despite all of that, it became clear that I’d never trained or prepared to ACTUALLY be on the receiving end of one.
If you ignore or forget everything else in this blog, please remember this point: If you don’t spend time thinking through how a scam would realistically play out in your situation – if you don’t work through your potential actions, reactions, and contingencies – then you’ll fall to your most basic reactions. Which are, in most cases (and certainly in my case), neither pretty nor particularly sophisticated.
The thing that I found most insidious and surprising was my own desire to make the scam not happen by willfully ignoring that it had happened. I wanted so very much NOT to be the victim of a scam that I let myself continue the conversation long past the point where I should have blocked and moved on. Thankfully, I didn’t let that desire drive me to throw good money after bad, but I need to be clear with you that if it wasn’t for a few lucky glitches in the payment system – which slowed me down just enough for reason to overtake shame, I might have let the situation continue in the vain hope that it would somehow turn itself around.
With the goal of informing folks who haven’t been through this, here are a few of the warning signs I could have (and should have) paid closer attention to.
- I only communicated with this person via text. Once there was an agreement to buy, I should have called to verify that the number was answered by a human. When I finally DID call the number, it went to a completely different state than the area code indicated, and nobody answered.
- When I asked the person to call me (very late in this process, after I was all but certain I was being scammed), the scammer insisted the call wasn’t going through.
- The scammer sent me screenshots of shipping costs, but I didn’t double-check them from my side. It turns out they were digitally manipulated.
- To pay, I was given an email that was clearly a randomized Hotmail account: gosewischgeel384@hotmail.com
- My initial attempt to pay failed and resulted in my account being locked until I called the provider. That doesn’t happen by accident; I tripped one of their systems that warned of potential fraud. But again, I really wanted that camera, so I willfully ignored it.
- To pay for shipping, I was given a different person, with a different email: bradiganbisconer13021989oet@hotmail.com – this payment failed completely. So they gave me another email to try: maxiedray2186@hotmail.com
By this point, I’d gotten over my initial denial and was certain this was a scam. The correct action at this point is to:
- Document everything
- Contact local law enforcement and file a report.
- File a report with ReportFraud.ftc.gov
Filing those reports is going to feel like pouring salt in a wound (at least I know it did for me). It’s also going to feel pointless because the scammers are more than likely NOT within the same jurisdiction. Hell, they’re probably not in the same country. BUT… you never know if there isn’t an active operation in progress, and your information adds data points. So my advice is to breathe through the discomfort and file those reports.
I’m still mad that this happened to me – that I allowed it to happen and actively participated in it – but I also recognize I was lucky to lose relatively little. While it was an expensive lesson, it’s nevertheless a lesson I won’t forget any time soon. And it’s an experience I’m willing to share in order to help others avoid it.
Finally, as I (somewhat ruefully) joked with the officer who took my report, this isn’t the largest amount I’ve spent while doing research for a blog. So if nothing else, I got a good story out of it for a bargain price.