I thought I was pretty smart but the scammers out there are even smarter!
A few years ago I got a call telling me my Verizon bill was overdue and my cell phone service would soon be discontinued.
I thought I’d paid that bill and could easily have checked, or I could have hung up and called Verizon directly – but for some stupid reason I did neither. Apparently the thought of losing my cell phone service was so daunting I inexplicably did what the practiced voice on the phone told me to do – I very stupidly Zelled $1400 (!!!) to a number I was given to supposedly cover what was due on my Verizon account PLUS several months of advanced payment to insure that I wouldn’t fall behind again and risk having my service interrupted.
But as soon as I hit the send button the horrible realization washed over me that I’d been horribly scammed! I called my bank, I called Zelle, and I even called the police all to no avail.
Then I remembered that at the suggestion of our computer tech we’d recently gotten a LifeLock insurance policy. So I called our Lifelock agent. who explained that I was covered for identity theft and other dire contingencies. but not for stupidity.
And so I learned a very valuable altho rather costly lesson, and the next time someone tries to sell me a bridge I‘ll tell them to fuhgeddaboudit!
– Dana Susan Lehrman
Dana Susan LehrmanThis retired librarian loves big city bustle and cozy country weekends, friends and family, good books and theatre, movies and jazz, travel, tennis, Yankee baseball, and writing about life as she sees it on her blog World Thru Brown Eyes!
www.WorldThruBrownEyes.com
Gosh, Dana – that was an expensive lesson!
Yes indeed Betsy, I paid the price of being stupid!
Ouch! Lesson learned. Sobering how much scam is out there and how little we know. We all are now programmed to have suspicious minds.
Yep Khati, sometimes I hanker for those good ole innocent times!
Also—loved the picture of the Bridge! Reminded me of the old country music song “I’ve got some ocean front property in Arizona..if you’ll buy that I’ll throw the Golden Gate in free!”
Ah, the Golden Gate free? Now there’s a good deal!
Chris Christie and his bridge. I’m experiencing trouble with this prompt because I haven’t been scammed. But truthfully, it’s only because of luck. I have a superficial degree of knowledge concerning these things, but it’s dodging all these continuous traps that seems to help the most. Grifting, catfishing, hacking is such a thing today, and the world connections add to it all. Telling your grim story helps all of us.
Yep Patty, tech is a mixed blessing and a reminder of how many bad guys are out there!
I also have nada for this prompt, as a combination of luck and Jersey cynicism has kept me unhacked and unscammed so far. The biggest factor in us getting rid of our land line phone was the fact that damn near 100% of the calls we received, for the last couple of years we had it, were guys with very western first names and thick Indian accents warning us of some dire problem with…something…that they could help us fix if we acted IMMEDIATELY! I’d never even heard of “AnyDesk” before.
I admit I spent some time stringing them along, and then exchanging vile insults when they realized I was on to them. Quite a few, instead of just hanging up on me, would stay on the line, wasting their valuable scamming time to threaten me, say bad stuff about my Mom, etc.
Good Dave, hope that Jersey luck
continues to work for you in the Windy City!
Wow, this was interesting to read and you sparked some truly meaningful responses.
Thanx Dale, hope others will learn from my bad experience!
What a painful lesson! It justifies my suspicion of any calls, texts, or emails I get these days. Never click, never pay.
Yep Laurie, a painful and costly lesson!