Today I got a phone call from a sweepstakes commission in - from all places - Las Vegas. The man on the phone told me I had won 2.5 MILLION DOLLARS! What's not to like about that? Well, I knew in the first ten seconds that this was a scam but I decided to play along, I thanked him profusely and told him what I would do with my winnings - I would donate a large portion to various charities and worthy organizations and the money would certainly help my mother and brother in the nursing home. I really laid it on thick, thinking he would feel guilty and just hang up. Oh no, not him. He kept explaining about these fees and processing charges as well as needing to report my winnings to the IRS. I just kept repeating - just send the check and we'll figure it our from there. He got frustrated with me and put me on hold and got his supervisor to try to talk me into accepting this wonderful and unexpected windfall.
I told him I was a really honest person and I would be happy to contact an accountant as well as the officer in my local bank to make sure I paid all of the taxes due. And, if there was a processing fee, no problem - I was so grateful to be winning so much money I would pay them double their fee and on top of that, I would give a donation to the charity of their choice and in the name of the person I was dealing with. He didn't go for that. So I approached him from another angle - I suggested that out of the goodness of his heart he could go ahead and send the 2.5 mil and just forget about the $4500 processing fee. It took a while, but he finally agreed to send ME the $4500 and I could turn around and use that to pay the sweepstakes fee. Does he think I was born yesterday? I am sure it would be a fake check that would bounce from here to kingdom come. What a scam. I even asked him what he would want his own mother to do in this kind of situation. He, of course, said he would advise her to pay the fee so she could collect her millions.
I spent more time on the phone with these guys than I should have. I just couldn't resist yanking their chain a bit. What vultures. I think people who pray on the hopes, fears or vulnerability of other people are a special kind of not nice. To spend your days looking to steal money from honest people, whether it's a fake sweepstakes or a "miracle cure" that's no miracle has got to be soul deadening. These two guys thought that if they just kept pounding away at their game, I would finally play along. I played this every way I could think of, and it got to be a game on my part, as well. They didn't like my ideas, but I did. In my humble experience, what sounds too good to be true, probably is. I've been burned a time or two and I've learned my lesson. I don't believe in magical out-of-the-blue financial winnings any more than advertisements for fibro cures. I have a feeling that if someone announced a cure for fibro, I would be skeptical for quite some time. It's hard to keep the faith when false claims of any kind are so prevalent and only about making money off of the needs of others. Like I said, if something looks to good to be true - it probably is.
I told him I was a really honest person and I would be happy to contact an accountant as well as the officer in my local bank to make sure I paid all of the taxes due. And, if there was a processing fee, no problem - I was so grateful to be winning so much money I would pay them double their fee and on top of that, I would give a donation to the charity of their choice and in the name of the person I was dealing with. He didn't go for that. So I approached him from another angle - I suggested that out of the goodness of his heart he could go ahead and send the 2.5 mil and just forget about the $4500 processing fee. It took a while, but he finally agreed to send ME the $4500 and I could turn around and use that to pay the sweepstakes fee. Does he think I was born yesterday? I am sure it would be a fake check that would bounce from here to kingdom come. What a scam. I even asked him what he would want his own mother to do in this kind of situation. He, of course, said he would advise her to pay the fee so she could collect her millions.
I spent more time on the phone with these guys than I should have. I just couldn't resist yanking their chain a bit. What vultures. I think people who pray on the hopes, fears or vulnerability of other people are a special kind of not nice. To spend your days looking to steal money from honest people, whether it's a fake sweepstakes or a "miracle cure" that's no miracle has got to be soul deadening. These two guys thought that if they just kept pounding away at their game, I would finally play along. I played this every way I could think of, and it got to be a game on my part, as well. They didn't like my ideas, but I did. In my humble experience, what sounds too good to be true, probably is. I've been burned a time or two and I've learned my lesson. I don't believe in magical out-of-the-blue financial winnings any more than advertisements for fibro cures. I have a feeling that if someone announced a cure for fibro, I would be skeptical for quite some time. It's hard to keep the faith when false claims of any kind are so prevalent and only about making money off of the needs of others. Like I said, if something looks to good to be true - it probably is.
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