How I almost got scammed Thursday, July 10, 2008

I was probably 13 at the time, selling a lot on eBay. I received an offer from some gentleman, asking me whether I could do him a favour and he’d reward me handsomely. He’d basically wire $2500 over to me through Paypal and I’d do a money order for $1000 back to him.

It seemed pretty easy, and I was even a bit cautious/cynical in the beginning, but even my 13-year-old self almost fell for it, and it wasn’t my brilliance that saved my $1000, but my forgetfulness.

See, everything seemed so legit. The $2500 made it into my Paypal account and was completely cleared, everything looked kosher to me. He had done what he had said he would do, but it was strange that he kept pressuring me to transfer the money RIGHT after the Paypal money had come in. But I figured, hey, the guy’s on a timeline, of course he wants his $1000 back.

Duh, FB!

I had just about taken that $1000 out of my account and I had it in cash, and was almost at the Western Union place to wire it over to the address he gave me, except…………. I left the address at home. (Which some buyers from FB Closet can still attest to) So I figured I’d do it the next day since I didn’t want to make a second trip back.

The next morning I happened to have sold a couple more things, so I checked Paypal to get the addresses, y’know to kill two birds with one stone.

Lo and behold, there was a surprising note from the Paypal authorities, telling me that the $2500 had been frozen until further notice.

I turned completely pale and it all clicked into place. My heart was racing and I realized how close I had come to losing $1000.

Looking back, I was an idiot. I should’ve realized that nothing in life is free, and money never comes to people that easily.

Plus, it didn’t makes sense logically for someone to pay me $1500 just to receive $1000 back, as a favour to him. All I had to do, was think: If I were that person, would I pay someone $2500 to send me only $1000 back? No! Of course not!

But, I was 13, so I can’t really be too hard on myself, but I can certainly say that my forgetfulness was what saved my bacon that day.

Everyone, let this be a lesson to you:

There is never an easy way to earn money. And if there is, it’s a scam.

And from now on, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is because if everyone could make cash that easily in a couple of minutes, we’d all be millionaires.