I just won One Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars! How did it happen? What are the chances you might be a big winner, too? Well, if you are a friend of mine, your chance should arrive in about one minute! And given past knowledge, if you fall for it, you could be a pauper in record time. Yep, social media scammers at work!
You may have read other posts on this site warning you of various scams perpetrated on vulnerable older folks. But this one has a slightly different twist to scam unsuspecting victims.
There he was, a handsome younger man who wanted to be my friend. Clean-cut profile, wearing a nice suit and evidently attending a very high-priced college/university. I smile when I accept his friendship, although it is not because I’m thrilled this young man wants me as a friend. No, it’s because I already know he’s a social media scammer and I intend to find out what his particular con is all about so that my readers might be so advised.
Here is the conversation as it took place:
HE: I was asked to contact you by the CEO of the Facebook Mr Mark and he ask me to pass you a good news about your profile. (Evidently the colleges/universities are not teaching English.)
ME: Isn’t that a bit unusual?
HE: What do you mean Are you aware of the newly ongoing Facebook promotion going on (Punctuation’s not big on their list either.)
ME: That the CEO of any company would ask you to pass along news about anyone’s profile. Especially out of millions or billions of profiles. Sounds more than a little weird. No, I’m not aware of any promotion.
HE: Are you aware of your winning prize
ME: No, I’m not.
HE: Kindly take your time and go through this and get back to me asap
What followed was a delightful letter from Facebook, signed by someone named Joel J. James, in very shaky handwriting, assuring me I was now a slightly wealthy woman. I was especially impressed with the paragraph that told me the Lottery I won was established to serve as a means of appreciation to Zuckerberg’s customers and also to “help our customers fight off poverty and maintain a good standard of living.” Just never saw good old Zuckerberg as my fairy godfather.
The next paragraph was brilliant, as social media scams go:
This promotion “pogram” (He can’t spell there either) takes place every three years. You are rest assured that this Lottery is real and 100% legitimate. There are some scam artists around the global but thanks to the FBI Police Inter-Pol, 216 of them have been arrested. So that is why we keep contacting our winners this very way and all for some security reasons.
Every time I read that paragraph, I have to stop what I am doing because it’s difficult to roll on the floor laughing and type.
ME: Okay, I’m back.
HE: Have you gone through it?
ME: Yes.
HE: So are you ready to claim your prize?
ME: Sure, what do I do?
HE: I am your claim agent and am here to put your through on how you will get your prize
ME: So, what’s the first step?
HE: Here is the picture of our past and present winners
(Several pictures follow, including one with a woman holding up a hand written note. Not sure why.)
HE: Did you see it
ME: So either you come to the winner’s house or they go to your office, right?
HE: You are to provide us some information so we can know we are dealing with the right winner You are to fill out the below information (Frankly, by now his no punctuation style is really grating on my nerves. Okay, I’m a bit of a nut on spelling, punctuation, etc. I’m a writer and that seems to go with the territory.)
Full name, email address, home address, mobile number, occupation, marital status, age (Why would Facebook need to know my marital status? They would not, but a social media scammer most certainly does. They find that new widows may be easy targets.)
ME: Tell you want, let me think about this a while. You know a woman just can’t be too careful these days. Especially a widow. I do worry about how bad the world has gotten today. (I was seriously trying to sound pitiful, unsure and be a good little victim.)
HE: You don’t have anything to worry about okay
ME: Why, not long ago, a man I was dating said he got tied up with a woman who wanted his bank information and he just about lost everything before the police caught her. So, no, I can’t rush into something like this. Maybe in a day or so, after I check with my son, Marvin. He’s a deputy and smart on computers. Have to ask him about it. Sometimes my nerves get the best of me. I’m pretty sure Marvin would think it’s okay.
Immediately a warning popped up:
NOTE: YOU ARE ADVISED TO KEEP THE NEWS OF YOUR WINNINGS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL. DO NOT TELL ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP OF PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR WINNINGS THE LAW AND POLICY GUIDING THIS LOTTERY SO ADHERE TO IT OR VIOLATION OF THIS POLICY WILL RESULT INTO THE CANDIDATE CANCELLATION OF YOUR WINNINGS.
Now, this is where these social media scammers grab the greedy. Because the truly greedy or maybe the seriously needy, will take that warning to heart and provide anything these folks want. They will tell you they are so anxious to get the money to you, but they need money to pay fees first and, of course, that money comes from you. They will weasel financial information from you, too, and, oh, yes, ask for yet more money and more money. So, please follow my script below, if you are contacted.
HE: It’s for own good and the security reason okay Did you understand? (Finally a touch of punctuation. Yippee).
ME: You’re damned straight I understand. Get this damn social media scam offline. I’ve reported you. This scam is all over the Internet and Facebook, especially, warns against it. I suspect that the real John Scott has no clue he’s been hacked.
HE: ??? (Now he uses punctuation and no words? Hopeless.)
At this point, I unfriended the poor chap and wrapped a few Christmas presents, before returning to write of my morning adventure with a social media scammer.