Before I start, let me ask you, how has it been my dear Hivers? I missed you guys! It's been a while since my last post. I have been so busy lately. I'm still trying to establish a stable career in freelancing and teaching ESL online. But I'm not here to talk about it, I have a different story to tell.
On April 1st, unknown numbers called. I could never imagine myself being in a situation like this ever again. Hopefully, it won't ever happen again. It really makes me think why I'm so vulnerable to scammers.
Note: this is not about the seller. The seller was amazing. This is about two people behind the logistics company.
Is it because I'm too trustful of people? Or is it just, I always find the goodness of every person here in the world? I keep hanging on that hope that people will just spread kindness and not hurt each other but what pains me more is to think that it's far from making it a possibility. Not even close, for real. Sad reality.
So here is the story.
Last March 30, 2024, I made a purchase of a secondhand laptop from a store on Facebook. Guys, if you're looking for budget-friendly, secondhand, but great-quality laptops, this shop is for you: https://www.facebook.com/chengslaptopgadgets/.
I ordered an Acer TravelMate P215-52.
I decided to upgrade its RAM to 16 GB so I had to pay an additional 1000 pesos ($20) for it. I was able to ask for a discount and just paid 14,500 all in all. I paid 1,000 pesos for the shipping fee. It was quite expensive because the unit is from Luzon and my location is in Mindanao. Everything was a smooth process. The seller was very attentive and responsive to my queries. He shipped it on the same day and I was surprised because 2 days later, 2 unknown numbers called and texted me informing me that my order was already out for delivery!
I was very surprised because it only took 2 days for it to arrive? After getting that message, an unknown number called me and informed me that he was from LBC Express (a logistics company), and he was out to deliver my unit. However, he told me that their system is under maintenance and they're not allowed to receive cash on delivery payments until April 23. He was so "kind" to instruct me to call my seller and inform me what was going on. The other number called me again. I told her that a guy from LBC called and that I should let her know about the situation.
To cut the long story short, they were calling me back and forth to really lure me and make a payment online. I was about to really send my money to the details that were given to me, as seen above. I took a screenshot of it and sent it to the real seller intending to have it checked or to have it verified if the details were correct. Never in my imagination that the whole situation during that time was a scam.
That's when everything started to make sense to me. You know, it will only take me one click to have my money stolen from these scumbags and I thank the Lord for not making it a reality. The whole situation was so stressful. The scammers really made me feel that it was urgent and I have to do it right away because gadgets are the first ones to be delivered because of how fragile they are.
The seller thought it could be an inside job. It could be that any of those people working in the company are doing this. So sad, right? I mean, why do these people exist? Why don't they just play fair and work with dignity? It's so frustrating. My heart goes to those people who were scammed by these people. They must have worked hard to save that money and just easily get stolen by these bad people.
You know what's more heartbreaking? They've been doing it for quite some time already.** I'm not sure how many customers were scammed because I saw another Facebook page tagging those phone numbers pretending to be the seller and from LBC.
4 days later, an unknown number called me again but this time, it was real. It was the delivery guy from LBC. So I got my unit and here it is!
I can't imagine if things didn't turn out that way. Like, what if I did not send a screenshot to the seller and just sent it right away to the so-called "seller"? It must have been such a dreadful situation for me. That money was my savings. I worked hard to save that amount of money and just easily vanished because of these scumbags.
Anyway, I hope this serves as a lesson to everyone out there. Don't trust people too much especially if money is already involved. Scammers are everywhere. I hope they rot in hell. I will let karma do the work for them.
That's all for today and I'll see you on my next blog. (not sure when exactly but soon).
Thanks for reading!
Keep safe everyone!