Yeah...It's A Scam

 This one was interesting. Since I do (or try to do...) a lot of writing, I am on my computer many hours of the day, not including while at my day job. When you're on the computer, if you're like me, you check out social media posts from time to time. I've seen my share of scams, both on social media and almost every e-mail I receive...

So many scams.

Yesterday, I see the above add pop up on my Facebook timeline. I've seen posts like this before..."We're having a moving sale and need to clear everything out," or "We're decluttering and we're sick of all this stuff--come and get it." But this one, was different.

The seller was an author friend. I have literally hundreds of author Facebook friends, many of whom I've never met. This isn't unusual. I think all authors have friended other authors without actually meeting them. So, I started reading and if someone could have crafted the perfect ad for my family at this point in time, this would have been it. Sure, we could use the other stuff, but I have two sons looking for transportation. The youngest...a truck, the other, a reliable car. This ad had both, and for prices that would make a miser cry (namely, me...). Plus, they were selling a tractor for dirt cheap and we just ordered five tons of gravel that needs to be moved.

Still, I was leery. The prices were too good to be true, but you never know unless you ask. I began a text dialogue with my Facebook "friend."

I thought, what the heck...I'll continue, even though the response contained several grammatical errors.

I can forgive errors on a text, as my response includes a misspelled word, but this is supposed to be a writer, and she should know better. Then again, maybe she was just excited to have someone come and take these things off her hands.

I was still thinking this was a scam, and her next response confirmed it--pay a deposit, to me a sure scam sign. I thought I'd give her a test just to make sure.

All of our mutual Facebook friends are writers. I'm involved in a writing conference coming up next month called the Writers Cantina. I thought I'd throw it out to see if she was coming, or at least, say something about it. That's the response I got. "Don't talk about other things, I have stuff to sell."

I thought I'd give her one more chance.

She didn't bite. She returned to the deposit, then surprisingly, asked if I was a bot. That made me laugh. I asked for some specific information from her to see if it was really her, and she blew it off. I told her we weren't interested and wished her with the relocation of "her father."

That's the thing about scams...you want them to be real so badly. If this were real and we bought the two vehicles and the tractor, we'd be saving around $25k, and that's after paying the posted price.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but I go back to the old adage: it's it sounds too good to be true...

It probably is.

I Hate Getting Scammed...But I HATE More Involving Others

 I saw the post and I should have known it wasn't real. Should have followed my gut.

But, alas, I didn't.

When I first joined Facebook, I caught the "friends" bug. I tried to get Facebook friends left and right. I succeeded, too. I've got more Facebook friends than some, much fewer than others. It helped that I became part of several communities, communities that like to add Facebook friends, namely writing communities, and especially theater communities. Every time I did a show, I'd Facebook friend dozens of people.

Fast forward ten or so years and the memory of many of those Facebook friends have faded. And with writer friends, there's many I've never actually met in person. I've also friended several high school acquaintances. Some I've kept kept in touch with, some not so much (and it's my 40th high school reunion next year, so that's a lot of years...). 

I saw a post from a high school friend. She said she had four Yorkie puppies that needed homes. A few months back, we thought our dog needed a friend. Turns out, he's more of a solo act. But, I saw my friend's post and since we weren't looking, I thought I'd share the post for other to see, others who might be looking for a puppy.

It was a scam.

After I shared the post, I got several messages from friends asking for help in contacting my friend. I messaged her and she said she'd contact them. A few hours passed and they'd contact me again saying they hadn't heard from her. Finally, I deleted my shared post. The next day my friend posted that she had been hacked.

What I hate is involving others. If you go to this website: HERE, you'll see these puppies are not cheap. No one is just "giving them away." I'm sorry I shared that post. I'm sorry they got their hopes up. Just crappy all the way around. Should have followed my gut.