BEWARE OF SCAMMERS!!!

PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE! IT IS ABOUT A SCAM THAT IS GOING AROUND RIGHT NOW AND IT JUST MIGHT END UP SAVING YOU A LOT OF MONEY!  DON’T WANT TO TAKE THE TIME TO READ IT AND YOU MIGHT JUST BE THEIR NEXT VICTIM.

Okay, I know that this blog is supposed be of cell phone pictures, but since I am the creator of this blog I am going to make an exception to the rule and share this story because I feel it is important for everyone to know about it.  To keep true to the pages purpose here is one picture I took on my phone and messed around with a bit.  It is me trying to give the evil eye which I feel is a very fitting picture to go with this post. I call it, 'If  Looks Could Kill!'  LOL!  You should see the original, but I make it a point not to put recognisable pictures of me on this page, so sorry I guess you will never see it.

Scams, we have all heard about them before but most people think that they would recognize a scam if they heard one and wouldn’t be fooled by it .  Well, most of the time you probably wouldn’t, but I am going to tell you a story about a group of scammers who are so despicable and heartless that they will pose as your own family members in trouble to scam you out of your money.  This is my experience with such a scammer.  I woke up the other day to the sound of my grandma’s voice on the phone.  She was talking rather loudly, though she often does, so I didn’t really think much of it.  I just got up and went downstairs to get some breakfast.  She was just finishing up the conversation and upon hanging up the phone she came to me in a panic saying that she needed me to drive her to the bank because my brother was in trouble and needed money fast.  Well, I know my brother and he isn’t the kind of guy to get into trouble, or to ask my grandma for money.  The first thing I said to her when she told me this was, “Well how do you know that it was really him?  They could just be saying that they are him to get your money?  What did he say? What kind of trouble is her in?”  She said She knew that it was him because she knew my brothers voice and was sure it was him.  “Okay,” I said, still skeptical,  “What did he do?  He isn’t really the kind of guy to go around getting into trouble.  What is he in jail and needs you to bail him out?”  I was being sarcastic when I said this.  Because I didn’t think it was him and at that point suspected it was a poser trying to scam her out of her money.  But the story that she told me after I said this was not like any other scam I had ever heard before and after hearing it I didn’t know what to think.  She said that he and a friend had taken a last minute trip to Canada and shortly after leaving the airport in a rental car he had ran a red light and hitting another car. He also told her that in the crash her had suffered a broken nose, two black eyes and a busted tooth so he couldn’t talk very well.  He had been checked out at the hospital after the accident and taken to jail shortly after with charges for reckless driving and had spent the night there.  He asked her not to tell anyone especially my parents because he didn’t want to upset them.  She promised that she wouldn’t, then he handed the phone to a man who was supposed to be his lawyer.  The name he used was Mr. Harper.  No first name and possibly made up.  Harper then proceeded to tell her that he had been negotiating a deal and that the charges against my brother would be dropped if he would pay the damages to the woman’s rental car that he had hit.  Apparently the woman he had hit was from the Dominican Republic and had been on the way to the airport to catch a flight home when my brother hit her.  She had not been hurt in the crash, and was even able to make the flight home, but was requesting that money be sent to her account in the Dominican Republic to cover the damages to the rental car. The amount needed to cover the damages, was $3,850 dollars, which had to be transferred as soon as possible.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!  I think that is enough of the BS for you to get the point of how far these ass faces will go to scam people out of their money.  There was a name he gave her for the account the money was to be sent to, but no account number oddly enough.  I had it written down, but have misplaced it somewhere and don’t remember what it was.  It was something like Mariana Oriano or Olioero…something like that… and it was going to La Vega in the Dominican Republic.  I wish I could remember that name!  If I ever find the paper I will post the real name, but for now that is all I’ve got.  Hopefully it helps. Though he is not likely to use these names again he has probably changed them already.  My grandma was lucky that my sister and I were there and had not been so easily fooled by the story.   My sister also lives with her and was told the story too by this point.  Both of us felt that there was something fishy about it all.  But neither of us had talked to the guy who was supposed to have been my brother, so we didn’t know if it was true or not.  However unlikely it seemed there was at least a slight possibility that it could be true and her really did need help and had both started to worry about my brother’s well being.  I mean, Who would make up a story like that?  Who would dare to call and pose as our brother and how could he have known so much about us?  I don’t think that anybody would ever expect to have someone pull something like this on them to get their money.  We were all baffled and confused by the whole thing and didn’t know quite what to think about it at first.  If it was my brother we wanted to help him and were worried about him, but something didn’t feel right about it.  We tried to inquire further and find out more about the strange conversation my grandma had had with these people and what the “Lawyer” had said she needed to do, but she was so frantic and worried about my brother that all she could think about was getting to the bank and she had to do it fast so she could do what she needed to do and get back before the “lawyer” called back.  He had given her an hour to get $3’850 cash from the bank and take it to a place called Check into Cash where there was a Western Union Bank inside.  That is all she told us until we were in the car on the way to the bank.  I was able to ask her some more questions about the conversation on the way to the bank and the more I knew the more I suspected that something was wrong.  Still I didn’t know what to do, she was positive it was him and was determined to keep her promise to help him and not to tell my parents.  I was able to convince her to at least tell the bankers the story to see what they thought about it.  Lucky for her they suspected something fishy about it too and told her that there were a lot of scams going around right now with people posing as other people’s family members.  They pointed out that the biggest red flag was that they wanted her to send cash and that it was going to the Dominican Republic.  She was still not convinced that it was a scam and insisted that she was sure it had been my brother because she new him and new his voice and that it had sounded just like him.  But with what the bankers told us I had been convinced that it was a definitely a scam and had to find a way to convince her that it was too before it was too late. She is so pigheaded that she would have found a way to do it with or without my help   So I said, “ Okay, say it is him, I know that he asked you not to tell my parents because it would upset them, but you had a some his age once, if it was your son wouldn’t you want to know?”  She said, “Well yes, but this is different.  I promised him that I wouldn’t say anything and you know your mother if she found out she flip out on him and if he has been hurt he doesn’t need that.”  Okay, well you might not think it is a scam but I do and I can’t let you do this without knowing first.  I am going to call my home and ask to talk to him.  If he did taken a trip to Canada he wouldn’t leave without telling anyone.  If they say that he did take a last minute trip to Canada then we will know that it is him and you could take out the money and sent it to him and I won’t tell my parents anything about it.  I will let him do that.  I am not asking your permission, you and her can be mad at me if you want, but I am calling!”  So I made the call.  My mom answered the phone and when I asked her if her was there she said that he was at school, but that she had seen him earlier that morning before he left.  So he didn’t take any overnight trips to Canada with his friend?”  I asked.  Of course, there had been no trip to Canada, he had not been in a wreck, and was not sitting in jail with a banged up face.  The person who had talked to my grandma was a poser and a scam artist. I was able to save my grandma $3,850 and all it took was one quick call to my mom on my cell phone.  But we had come very close to being scammed.  I am glad that she came to me for help because if she had gone if to the bank by herself without saying anything…It makes me to mad to think about it.  I was so freaking pissed!  I couldn’t believe it!  I mean, how can someone do such a thing?  I just don’t get it and I don’t think I ever will.  I called the police to report the scam, but they said that they couldn’t do anything because it was a foreign call and they didn’t deal with foreign issues.  Seriously, nothing… they couldn’t do a damn thing!  More like they wouldn’t!  If they couldn’t do anything couldn’t they have directed us to someone who could do something about it?  We were lucky, we may have been scammed, but at least we hadn’t lost any money over it.  But there are people who have been scammed by these guys.  We weren’t the first people they ever tried to scam and me won’t be the last.  They were professionals.  It was scary how much they knew about us.  Well, the police might not be able to do anything, and the FBI may have better things to do, but I am not a, consider yourself lucky but there really isn’t anything you can do about it kind of girl!  I feel like I have to do something.  Even if all I can do is spread the word.  So I did this for all of those honest, decent, law- abiding people out there who work hard for their money.  PLEASE, help me spread the word.  Forward this note to all of you friends.  Call your grandparents and tell them to tell their friends.  Tell the bum on the street while you are waiting for the bus.  Who knows, he might not have any money but he might know someone who does.  Tell your teachers, your butcher, your hair stylist, chiropractor, coach, the policeman that pulls you over for speeding, the guy who is sitting next to you at the DMV while you await your call to the counter.  The…well, I think you get what I mean.  We have a choice here, we can take the knowledge we have and use it against them to protect ourselves or we can chose to continue living in oblivion thinking that it could never happen to us.  I am telling you know, it can, and it will.  It is only a matter of time before a scammer calls you.  Will you be ready?  A scammer could be talking to your grandma pretending to be you right now.  So call her, tell her that you are okay, that if you ever take a trip to Canada or anywhere else that you will let her know first and that if you do run into trouble you expect her to make you prove that it is you first.  Have a code word that only you and your family know.  Trust that code word with no one.  It could be, sherbet lemons, the tin man, the purple pie man, anything.  It doesn’t even have to be a word it could be a simple tune that you hum for them.  Pick something together that you know you will all remember and if the person calling them posing as you doesn’t know that pass code then they should hang up.  Don’t give any personal information out over the phone.  Don’t sign up for any prepaid lawn care services with those guys going door to door unless you know they are a reputable company and have researched them first.  If you have any suspicions or doubts, about anyone or anything then take some time to check it out first.  Listen to your gut, you can never be too careful.  If this message helps just one person from getting scammed then it will be worth the time I took writing it.  There is not much more to say, just be careful about who you trust.  You may be an honest person yourself, but not everyone is as trust worthy as you.  Thank you for taking the time to read this and spreading the word.