mortensorchid Posted June 5, 2009 Posted June 5, 2009 This was not something that did not happen to me, but someone I met online a while back. At least, that's what he told me. I started chatting with someone about a year ago or so. I felt sorry for him. He said that he had been cheated in a check cashing scam. Some of you may or may not have been approached by someone like this. He said he felt a connection with someone he had met on line, and they said that she was an art dealer who traveled quite a bit between here and Africa. Somalia, to be exact. Even though he said he didn't know where Somalia was until he looked it up on a map. He didn't give too many details, but he said that he felt a connection with her, then gave this complete stranger who he had never met or even talked on the phone with access to his checking account. He handed over X amount of dollars to her, then the check bounced all over the place, and overnight he was $10,000+ in debt. Whoever it was that he was chatting with said that she was actually a guy at some point. The check continued to bounce, as whoever it was that he gave the information to managed to clean him out. Hearing a story like this makes me think of how lonely and/or uneducated people really must be. I've been approached by people like this online, and I figure at some point the con artist must know that there will be someone out there who will fall for it. Sad.
bean1 Posted June 5, 2009 Posted June 5, 2009 When I do police dispatching, I usually get 1-2 of these calls per week from people who have been swindled by Nigerian scammers I tell them not to be so naive. International law makes it impossible to prosecute and extradite any of these criminals, so if you are that stupid, well... if they are very elderly or mentally-challenged, then I will send someone to talk to them (basically advise their guardian that they need to watch out for their financial matters). People get offended but hey, some people just have to learn life the hard way
Author mortensorchid Posted June 5, 2009 Author Posted June 5, 2009 What's sad is that this guy was not elderly. I think he was in his early 40s. If he was telling the truth about that. Then again, if someone was taken in by one of these scams, why would they lie to anyone about it? I got the impression that he was uneducated. I mentioned to him once in an online chat that I was eating a Chipotle burrito and had just bitten into a pocket of hot salsa. I said I put it out by putting a piece of bread in my mouth to absorb rather than drink water, otherwise the water will just swish it around in my mouth. He said he'd never heard of that. And he'd never eaten Chipotle burritos before, and didn't know what salsa was. Yikes.
bean1 Posted June 5, 2009 Posted June 5, 2009 He probably IS telling the truth, some people seem to live under a rock
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