She said she was from PCH and I had won $4500 and a new Mercedes. I was excited! After a lot of congratulations, she wanted to know if I wanted media coverage when the car is delivered. I declined. She was very understanding. Such a nice lady.

Next thing I knew I was transferred to an equally nice gentleman. He explained that even though the Mercedes was free, there was a charge for taxes and delivery. I think it was around $7000. The connection was kind of bad so he said he would call back.

While I was waiting I checked the ID # and saw that the area code was from Jamaica. I thought that was a bit strange. So when he called back with a better connection, he asked me what time my bank closed and how long it would take me to get there. He said he couldn't deliver the car until the money was received.

I asked why the amount couldn't just be deducted from my $4500 but he said they were separate transactions. I guess he realized I was hesitating so he told me to hang on while he called his delivery team to see where the car was. After a couple minutes he excitedly informed me that the car was only an hour away from my house but his team can't deliver it until I get to my bank. He was starting to get somewhat pushy.

At this point I asked him why he was calling from Jamaica. He said he was from Jamaica NY and that it was urgent that I leave for the bank and call him from my cell phone as soon as I get there, otherwise he would have to notify his team to stop.

I figured I had wasted enough of his time and mine (although I was having fun acting like I was swallowing his BS and putting on a faltering old man's voice).

So I told him I had to go, that there was a camera crew at my door and a brand new pearl white Mercedes in my driveway. At which point I hung up and blocked his area code.

I wonder how many people actually fall for this.

Too many fall for it.

And because it requires minimal time and effort, even if only one person every blue moon falls for it, it makes it worthwhile for the scammers.

when I was in the grocery business, and elderly retired Doc fell for the IRS scam,

when he got to my store and started buying Green Dot cards, one of my clerks called me and we stopped him,

we were the 3rd store he had been to, at the advise of the 'IRS' folks on the phone,

they continued to call him until his family and police arrived,,

he lost about $30K total, (yes $30,000.00)
we were able to cancel and retrieve a few of the cards he had bought from us and other retailers thru greendot, but most had been cleaned out already

Well crap. Never got a Benz.

But I did win a cruise and they can fix my credit cards!

I was offered $3 million USD cash. All I had to do was cough up $5K to send them for "Processing/shipping" expenses.

I told them to deduct the 5 grand from the 3 mil and send the rest to me.

I thought that was fair, but they hung up on me.

quote:

Originally posted by GWbiker:
I was offered $3 million USD cash. All I had to do was cough up $5K to send them for "Processing/shipping" expenses.

I told them to deduct the 5 grand from the 3 mil and send the rest to me.

I thought that was fair, but they hung up on me.

Tell them "Thanks for handling this for me, and just keep another thousand for yourself, for your trouble." Maybe if you were a bit more generous they wouldn't be so quick to hang up.

Simply pay their fees in Nigerian money. Saves them the time and effort of exchanging currency.

At least you got a Mercedes, all I got was blackmail. Several of these emails. A couple days after these started I got this message from my state's Attorney General's office.

RECENT EXTORTION PHISHING SCAM
The Attorney General has received reports of a recent scam using hacked information threatening to expose the recipient’s alleged viewing of adult videos unless the sender is paid $1,000 in Bitcoin. The email was fraught with misspelled words, grammar errors, and mismatched links. However, the email correctly cited the recipient’s password information for an online account.

I was slightly unnerved by the password cited, an old one that was mis-spelled. I did file a police report as about two years ago my debit card got hacked. The officer said that there were others also that had been receiving these and they felt that they were part of the Home Depot hack.

I got a new one this week. Some talent scout wants to pay me many hundreds of thousands of dollars for the rights to my facebook profile photo!

I think they might need new glasses.

quote:

I told him I had to go, that there was a camera crew at my door and a brand new pearl white Mercedes in my driveway. At which point I hung up and blocked his area code.

I love that. "Woah, dude. Your prize team is already here. The car is in the driveway and the crew is at my door with balloons. Thanks!"

I got a call from the "Sweepstakes Commission" on Thanksgiving Day telling me I had won $3.8 million. I told him I didn't believe it and hung up on him. I checked his phone number and it was listed as number from which fraudulent call originated.

He called me back and said he got that reaction all the time but I could be assured the call and the money were legitimate. I listened to him for a moment longer and said he was a liar. He told me that he didn't appreciate the insinuation that he was dishonest and was removing my name from the list of winners.

When I told him I still thought he was a crook he hung up on me.

In answer to the question, "Does anyone actually believe these guys?". My 88 year old mother bought the story and over the course of about a year sent them $30,000.00. She died completely convinced she had won Irish Sweepstakes and I had cost her the winnings by being rude to the sweepstakes representatives. A year after she passed away the FBI contacted us to get a victim statement. Two of the men involved in scamming my Mom were convicted, sentenced and imprisoned for their part in stealing more than $2,000,000 from people who believed their story.

quote:

Originally posted by Wasabibill:
I got a call from the "Sweepstakes Commission" on Thanksgiving Day telling me I had won $3.8 million. I told him I didn't believe it and hung up on him. I checked his phone number and it was listed as number from which fraudulent call originated.

He called me back and said he got that reaction all the time but I could be assured the call and the money were legitimate. I listened to him for a moment longer and said he was a liar. He told me that he didn't appreciate the insinuation that he was dishonest and was removing my name from the list of winners.

When I told him I still thought he was a crook he hung up on me.

In answer to the question, "Does anyone actually believe these guys?". My 88 year old mother bought the story and over the course of about a year sent them $30,000.00. She died completely convinced she had won Irish Sweepstakes and I had cost her the winnings by being rude to the sweepstakes representatives. A year after she passed away the FBI contacted us to get a victim statement. Two of the men involved in scamming my Mom were convicted, sentenced and imprisoned for their part in stealing more than $2,000,000 from people who believed their story.

Electronic versions of the classic pigeon drop. Terrible.