We’re Living in an Age of Scams

During the past year, I have been so scammed! A check that I sent was stolen in the mail and “washed” – the thief changed the recipient and deposited the check. Microsoft’s alleged employees tried to take control of my computer by saying that he was about to self -destruct. (My husband has almost fallen for that one.) I got many realistic consonance robocals asking donations to charity organizations that probably do not exist. Women with beautiful telephone voices claimed to have discovered my 2009 poems book and told me that their companies could make it a great commercial success. (Good luck with that!) Last week, I received what exactly looked like a Paypal opinion making me notice that I ordered $ 465 in Bitcoin. When I called to say that there was an error, a more polite and sympathetic gentleman tried to take an interest in the purchase of Bitcoin and fortunately explained what it was when I hung up on him.

These scams can have personal consequences. Control washing has taken Citibank months to accelerate. It was necessary to close my account and open a new one, which caused an endless headache, as well as many visits in person at the bank. The worst consequence, however, is more serious: loss of social confidence. I’m now afraid of putting checks by post and trying when I can disguise them as a birthday cards. I never donate by phone. I do not participate in telephone surveys. I used to take advantage of this, but now I just wonder who asks and what harmful patterns they could do. Whenever I do one of these defensive movements, I feel like it becoming a more suspicious person, as if the world was full of dishonest people to get me to catch me. And I really hate feeling it.

True confession: the other day, someone who usurped the identity of an old classmate sent me an email and, saying that his credit card had been refused, asked me to send birthday cadeaux to “Paulette Potter”, her friend with liver cancer. (She was going to reimburse me on Friday.) I ended up sending “Paulette” $ 250 in Doordash cards, even if I thought: Wow, it’s a great birthday gift, and I wonder why my classmate asked me instead of someone she knows better, and why is her e-mail so unusual? (Well, she was in the hospital with a broken femur, so maybe she is a bit common of pain?)

As soon as I clicked on “send”, it was as if a spell had been broken. I noticed that the email address was the one that my classmate had not used for a long time, and when I sent it by e-mail to her most recent, she said that her friends were all targeted by the same person-who quickly wrote to ask for an additional $ 200!

I would say in my own defense that the Internet has made communication if without friction, and send money so easy, that deceiving someone only needs to take a minute. The days of eloquent Nigerian princes are apparently completed. And the crooks are very good to distract their targets: the classmate in the hospital, the friend reaches liver cancer, the urgent need to give right away – it was the birthday of the poor woman! It may not be surprising that empathy has exceeded skepticism for a little long enough to put the details of my credit card. The Internet is so omnipresent and invasive that you can easily be a little confusing. (Not you, of course, dear experienced and tasty reader.)

Of course, I should be more alert. But I do not want to be one of those negative and groaned people who take joy to emphasize all the ways whose assistance is benefited, aggravates things and is a stupid Libtard. I have read many arguments against donations to the homeless, for example, and they all seem to be summed up with “it only encourages them”. I don’t care that some of them really have places to sleep, or more resources than it seems to be their clothes or their condition. For me, it is more logical to assume that someone would not be lying in the street if he had an alternative. Maybe I have been wrong several times, but I think it is better to be scammed from time to time than to retain a person’s help in need. Indeed, a large part of our tatter safety net forces people to jump through so many hoops – unnecessary forms to fill for a place to stay, unnecessary research to get food coupons – that many abandon. Unfortunately, and appalling, this can be the expected result.

In the sermon on the mountain, Jesus said, a little cryptically: “Make your left hand do not know what your right hand does.” He meant that we should give help in secret, not to get praise or attention. During the longest longer, I misunderstood – I thought he meant: don’t keep what you give; Do it and continue. I think my misinterpretation is not such a bad advice either, but it only works when there is confidence. When you start to feel besieged by too many crooks with a talent for handling, when you feel that your good nature is used too easily and too often, you start to want to put this hand in your pocket.

I promise to be more careful – to check the email address before sending the money, not later – and less impulsive. As my very sensible daughter said, “If my credit card did not let me send a gift to my sick friend for her birthday, I would not dream of asking someone to do it for me. I write to him and said that his gift would be a bit late this year. ” Why did I not think about it?

My credit card company erased the charges, but I was so angry that I wanted to sit down and explain to this “Paulette Potter” why her little flight was in fact very important. I wanted to tell him that she destroyed solidarity and the community and confidence between people, and without that, how could we count on each other? How could we continue? Don’t do it, said my husband. The more attention you pay her, the more likely she will be starting to target your friends.

The worst part is that he was probably right.