Today, I have read the article of @wrabbiter entitled How Scammers Utilize Social Media To Deal With Their Victims and right away, I remember the day, I became a falling prey of Roaming/Loading SCAM.
THE SCAM SCHEME
This Scam happened to me around 12 years ago. I don't know how many of you have received text like this .
I received a text like this - asking how are we doing, then telling that this is a new roaming number and then asking for some load, because it's hard to find load. I answered, Ate Yeng? ( Ate Yeng is my aunt who is in Taiwan that time, very close to me). Then we have few conversations and the scammer pretended to be Ate Yeng, all along. Thinking that it was Ate Yeng, I gave the scammer a load around Php 100.00 in our fiat money.
That was the beginning of another Scam - the scammer told me that they have problems in loading stations there and she would like to sell prepaid load cards to her friends, I will just send the pin number of the card and then, the card price will be doubled and she will send it right away. (From now on, I will use she for the scammer though I don't know the gender).Then me, being a little business minded person, -oh my money will be doubled, why don't I try- so I use my spare money to buy prepaid cards and send the pin to the scammer. The first was around 5 prepaid cards, amounting to Php 2500.00.
Then the next day, the scammer greeted me again and say she loves me, miss me, and the load cards are now sold, and still many needs it. I did not have spare money already, so I borrowed from my friend, another Php 3,000.00 which I bought again with prepaid load cards. Then another day, asking for cards again, I was about to pawn my laptop for that cause but I just thought that I will not have something to use for my class, so I borrowed again to another friend. Then again, I buy another set of cards and send the pin card.
THE WAKE UP CALL
Then somebody told me "Is it not a scam? " and I even answered him, Oh it's not, it's my aunt. But in my mind, I also think, what if it's not her. The giving of pin number of cards lasted for about a week, of which I almost spent Php 10,000.00/$200.00. Then one day, I observed the way of texting, the scammer just always would like to have the pin number of the card, then I became nervous, right away, I call my aunt's Taiwan number and there, I found out I was Scammed! She is not having any other roaming number.
MY REVENGE
So what I did, the last cards that I sent the scammer I load it all to my phone and my friend's phone, I was able to recover around 3000 worth of load. I sold it to my friends for a cheaper price to recover the loss. Then because of my agitation, I made a revenge, I did not told the scammer that I already know the scam. Since she was always asking for pin numbers, I make up around 10 fake pin numbers, and send it her. Then I received her text messages telling me the pin numbers don't work including the one I load to my phone and others phone. And I told the scammer, You are a Scammer! and then , the number could not be contacted anymore. I communicated with my friend who is working in the PNP if there is a way to trace the scammer, and she told me, there's no way, if there is, it will be a long process. So, it was all charge to experience.
MY REALIZATIONS
Looking back to that day I was scammed, I asked myself why I was able to gave in to that scam. Here are three main points.
Emotion. I am carried away by emotion. I relate to @wrabbiter 's point that scammers will deal with you like they truly care. The scammer seems so nice, asking about family, telling me some caring words. And scams like this, exists right now, people will act as if they care or as if they need something for their need.
Money. The promise of double return is also one of which I think the reason why I became a victim. This scheme is also widespread right now, there are many people in social media who will be telling you that you have this big amount, you just need to send a certain amount for the transaction to be processed.
Not doing my research. I decided about the " Scam Loading Scheme" right away. I did not spend time researching about it, or asking other people. So, if you have receive suspicious messages, have your own verification.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, scammers right now are everywhere, in some websites, in social media and even in noise, I see a few who shared their story that they are scammed. So when you received some messages, don't believe right away, do some research and verification before deciding on something. Don't be carried away by your emotion and whenever double money or easy money is promised, think not just twice or thrice but many times. Don't be a falling prey of these scammers.
How about you? Do you have scam experiences? How did you handle it? i would love to read your comments.
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Ang uso talaga nyan dati. Until now, actually. It was not a nice experience but at least, you learned. And right now, it already served its purpose. You were able to share it here to raise awareness. I hope those people, after 12 years, already changed.