Scam, bam, thank you ma'am

Task 31, August 8 to August 15

“Who is going to believe a con artist? Everyone if she is good.” Andy Griffith

I had another Task all teed up and ready to print but after reading a story yesterday about an internet scam that involved an old man (he was 65) named Teddy, a young Filipino woman (Maria), and crypto currency, I changed my mind. I won’t belabor you with the details of the ploy visited upon poor Teddy but rest assured it involved partial nudity, a proposal of marriage and “the investment chance of a lifetime…”

Teddy sent nearly $10,000.00 to Maria before his romantic, and generous, stupor wore off. Later told the authorities, as an explanation, that “Maria really cared about me as a person…”

Now, everyone reading this knows that Maria most likely wasn’t a Filipino, nor interested in Teddy, and probably not a woman at all.

We know that intellectually, but a recent study stated that “nearly 2 in 5 (37%) senior citizens surveyed admitted to having fallen for a scam themselves”. That means several of us may get up one morning, look at our bank account, and say ruefully, “what the hell did I just do?”

And it’s not just seniors who fall victim to these thieves. Take Steve for example. He’s just 29. He works for a data processing firm in New Hampshire. A year ago he was contacted on Facebook by a very pretty U.S. servicewoman who said that she was stationed in Afghanistan. After a whirlwind on-line romance, our servicewoman (let’s call her Sheri), told Steve that she needed “help”, money-wise, to come home to see him. Steve sent $2,000.00. But Sheri was delayed on a “special mission” and two weeks later asked for another $5000.00–she’d used the $2000.00 to pay for a minor car accident–and Steve paid it.

But still she didn’t come home and she needed $7000.00 to pay off a lawsuit that had been filed against her by the other driver involved in the minor car accident…

You get the picture but Steve didn’t…he was in love. His family intervened after Sheri said that (get this): she’d purchased some bootlegged gold to bring back to the U.S., but the gold was seized and she was put in jail and pleaded for $8,000 dollars to get out. When Steve balked she said the church would give half the money if he would send $4,000.00.

After an intervention, and realizing that his bank account was cleaned out–Steve reluctantly accepted the fact that he’d been scammed.

Another example: Margaret, 67, is a widower who loves her pugs, Oscar and Meyer. She was contacted by a man purporting to represent the “Dogs are Life” foundation. He sent her to a website that featured pictures of pugs that were mistreated and in peril. Over the next 8 months she forked over $160,000.00 dollars to the bogus organization.

And finally, the scam to end all scams in terms of its outrageous intent and execution involved actor Brad Pitt. A scammer, pretending to be Brad Pitt's mother, contacted the victim (let’s call her Michelle) on Instagram. “Mrs. Pitt” told Michelle that she would be a perfect match for Brad, and Michelle was flattered, and the game was on!

The scammer then presented themselves as Brad Pitt, using AI-generated images and emotionally charged messages to create a sense of intimacy and connection.

The scammer fabricated a crisis, claiming Pitt needed money for a kidney operation due to his ongoing divorce, and requested financial assistance. (Go to Google images and type in Brad Pitt Scam–you’ll simultaneously cringe and laugh incredulously).

Michelle, smitten and alarmed by the visuals and swayed by Brad’s protestations of love, transferred nearly $800,000.00 (money she’d been awarded in a divorce settlement) to the scammer.

It wasn’t until Michelle saw news reports and photos of Pitt with his real life companion, Ines de Ramon, that she realized that she had been scammed and went to authorities. The incident became public and Michelle was mocked unmercifully online and in the media. She was broke, severely depressed and eventually hospitalized.

Could this happen to you? YES. YES. YES. Every week I get at least one text message that reads something like “hey, is this you?” or “are you mad at me?” If you answer that text YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN SCAMMED.

So what to do?

Mike, my podcast partner, would say, in a stern tone: DON’T PICK UP THE PHONE, DON’T ANSWER A TEXT, DON’T CLICK ON AN ATTACHMENT. And that is correct. I don’t answer the phone if I don’t recognize the number, and even then I’m skeptical.

BUT if you did pick up a call or answered a text or clicked on a text, SEVER the relationship as soon as possible. DO NOT ENGAGE, and DO NOT, if asked (which you will be asked) to join the person on a protected communications app like WhatsAPP. It’s a ruse to isolate you.

AND FINALLY, if you do engage with someone and you do believe that it is your nephew in jail, or someone who finds you sexy, or is a Nigerian Prince who wants you to watch over several million dollars, DO NOT SEND MONEY WITHOUT TALKING IT THROUGH WITH A FRIEND, RELATIVE, PARISH PRIEST OR SOMEONE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT.

TASK:

Re-read this treatise and act accordingly.