And then they’ll call you back saying there’s some small snag, just wire a hundred dollars more and it will all get straightened out. After this a Nigerian Prince will call and tell you about the large amounts of cash waiting for you, but in order to repatriate this money you need to send him $1,500.
Actually I think it’s something like that. If you actually send them the money, they know they have you. And you have skin in the game now. The idea will be to keep you sending good money after bad, as they say.
This is probably really targeting old people.
**And then they’ll call you back saying there’s some small snag, just wire a hundred dollars more and it will all get straightened out.**
Yep. My mom used be fooled into things like that, after a small stroke damaged her ability to think clearly. Fortunately I got a $150 money order stopped and returned to her. I went to the Post office, showed the receipt for next day mail, my power of attorney for mom, and it was returned.
The creep told mom that she had won a new car, but had to pay some fees, before delivering. Mom said, “He sounded so nice and honest. And asked about local motels for the driver to stay at if necessary before taking a flight back home”. I had the local police chief confirm to her that such calls are from crooks.
Mom’s ‘habit’ started out small. First it was just a stamp to PCH. Then it was an occasional lottery ticket (always proud of being a law abiding citizen, mom never gambled until Illinois made it legal). Then more sweepstakes scams, and thousands of lottery tickets later, I finally found out from a check out clerk that knew my family, that my mom was an addicted gambler.
She had hid her secret well. It was only when she started buying the tickets closer to home that her secret was exposed. She refused help, constantly denying she had a problem. She’s in a nursing home now and probably doesn’t remember any of her gambling past.
But Illinois politicians said the lotteries, and then the casinos, would help fund the schools. This I’m sure of: they succeeded in turning people into gamblers, that otherwise may have never gotten the addiction.