When it comes to scams, it’s something that almost everyone has suffered at one time or the other. Even before technology got these good, there were already scammers. The evolution of technology only made it more rampant and now, thanks to social media many people don’t even try to hide the fact that they’re fraudsters anymore. They wear the badge with pride and act like they’re the ultimate.
Well, they’re not. It’s alarming how many close calls an average person can have with a fraudster in one day alone. Both via calls, texts, and social media, there are people who are constantly trying to take and take and take from you! Taking what they didn’t give you by preying on your weakness.
When I read through the post, some said only greedy people get scammed but that’s only true to an extent. I’ve been greedy and scammed before. I have a friend who only seems to get bad updates. Any venture that came his way, he would sink his money into it and would end up losing it all because they are scammers. He’s always inviting me to join these things.
The second time I lost my money, I promised myself never to follow his financial advice again. He’s my friend, and I like him a lot. But investments are not really his thing, at least not online. I have another friend who has actually been giving me some good pointers financially which have been helping me.
But then, over the years, I’ve learned that it’s not just greed that gets people scammed. Having a good heart can get the job done as well. That’s how a sweet boy like me almost got scammed, but then, being stingy and staying wicked saved me. For vawulence I stand!!!
Back in Lagos, I had just completed a book for a client, and at the time the pay I received was quite impressive. I worked long and hard to finish it, and by the time I dropped that final fullstop, I already promised myself that I’d use half of my pay to flex myself before anything else.
At the time, it was possible because I was still living with my Mom and eating her food as well. So, when the money came, that very weekend I went to the shopping mall in my area. I have this ritual I do, I see a movie at the cinema and when I’m done, I go get junk food at the supermarket or eat at a restaurant. Either way, my plan was to spend a ton of money.
I saw my movie and decided to eat at the restaurant while doing that, I saw a lady friend of mine. I’ll call her Fanta. We greeted each other and said hi, she complimented me and called me a big boy… you know how the whining goes na… either way, she left soon after and I ate my food in peace.
I returned home later and bought a lot of junk that I would probably pass out from if I ate too much. And as I was relaxing in my room, I got a message on Facebook, it was from Fanta. She told me that she had an emergency and really needed my help. Her mother was in an accident two days prior and she needed at least 100k to save her. She had managed to gather 90k, so she was wondering if I could lend her 10k.
The moment I saw that, I knew she was lying about the emergency. The Fanta I had seen at the restaurant didn’t look like someone whose mother was in the hospital. I could see clearly she was trying to trick me because she saw me spending lavishly at the restaurant. She believed I had a lot of money and wanted to get a bite out of it.
Although I didn’t say any of the mean things that were on my mind, I did mention that she could have told me earlier at the restaurant, I would have been more disposed to give her then because I was in a better mood. Not waiting until I got home.
She told me she couldn’t talk then because she was shy and she didn’t know how I would react. Everything was just off, and the fact that this was coming only after she saw me solidified the fact that she was just doing it for the money. I believed that nothing was wrong with her Mom, and I told her as much. I even told her that if she needed money that badly why didn’t she sell her iPhone 13? She was using it at the time, and I saw it with her.
I got pissed and told her that using her Mom to lie just to get money from me was bad and it was not cool at all. Besides, I knew her mom very well and I knew that if I told her what her daughter was doing, she would not like the reaction. After that, she stopped texting me. Well, good riddance to bad rubbish.
I dodged a bullet, right? Sadly, I’m not built to look the other way. After a while, the conversation I had with Fanta still couldn’t leave my head. I began to wonder if truly her mother was ill, I wondered about the courage it took for her to approach me. Maybe it was just a coincidence that she saw me at the restaurant and realized that I was in a position to help. What if God wanted me to help and I was just being mean?
Guys, it really affected me to the point that I lost my appetite for the junk I bought. They were no longer sweet in my mouth and even the Fox Cookies I enjoy so much tasted like chaff. In the end, I couldn’t stop myself, so I decided to give her the 10k. It wasn’t going to hurt me financially even after the spending spree I did.
But then, I knew I had messed up with the way I spoke to her, so I decided to call her and apologize. Saying those mean things about her and her mom was not something that could be fixed over text. So, I called her and started apologizing for the things I said to her on Facebook, and I was ready to give her the money so her sick Mom could start getting treatments.
The first thing Fanta said to me was “God Forbid!”
Her mother was not in the hospital! She has never been in a car accident and will never be in one! That was when Fanta revealed that her account had been hacked for over a week now and they had been reaching out to all her friends and asking for money. At this, I was shocked to my bone marrow. The coincidence that the fraudster had reached out the very day I saw Fanta was uncanny. Fanta herself wondered how the fraudster knew we met at the restaurant, but by then I already knew how.
I was the one who told them! The only lie they told was that Fanta’s mom was in the hospital. I was the one who revealed that we met at the restaurant, I revealed that Fanta used an iPhone and that I was even close to her mother. And the fraudster just went with it all and made it seem like it was all something they knew.
That’s how they operate, they get you to reveal details and then use these details to build their stories, making them even more believable so they can entrap you more. I was glad that Fanta’s mom was okay and she was not the one I said those things to.
As for the fraudster, I didn’t even bother to reach out to them. I simply blocked the account and deleted the chat.
That experience ruined Facebook for me because it showed that anybody’s account can be hacked. That’s why till tomorrow, anyone who comes to ask me for help on Facebook will most likely not get it because I can’t be sure I’m not talking to a scammer.
These guys are so good that they’ll study your previous chats and use them to tailor the new ones so you don’t even notice the difference. They’ve gotten good, so we have to get better at protecting our interests. That’s the only way that we can really be safe from fraudsters, to an extent.
So, that’s how staying wicked saved me from getting scammed! I have so many stories like this, scammers from different angles and coming up with different tactics. Well, all we can do is to be vigilant. Because the moment you choose to let your guard down, that’ll be the moment they swoop in and take everything from you!
So yeah, maybe greed is not the only thing scammers prey on. A good heart is another thing, and that’s something I have in spades.
At least, I love to think so. Sweet boy like me.
