Outsmarting Scammers: My Encounter with a Scammer

The rate at which scammers are trying every means possible to play on our intelligence and loot us off our coming is getting out of hand, and unfortunately not everyone has the ability to decipher a scammer from normal people, although some are obvious to identify based on what they offer, and in such cases we can easily say it's the greed of the person that was scammed that gave them out. Well, away from all those, today I was contacted by a scammer, and I'll love to tell you all about it.

So this evening I was just having a chat with my hive friends in the city of Neoxian Discord channel when I got a notification from WhatsApp that I had a new message. While strolling down to check who it was, I realized it was a strange number that had messaged me on Friday, and I was wondering who it could be. I actually responded, and when I didn't get any introduction, I just let it be.

But I remember checking the information on the number and realizing we were both members of a particular WhatsApp group, and that's where whoever owns the number got it from. I didn't get any messages from her again until yesterday, when she responded to my greetings, and I just said all was well. It's worth noting that I'm calling the person her because they use a female picture as their display picture.

And who knows, it might just be a cover-up to attract me to do their bidding, since I'm a guy and they might feel a lady sending you a message and then requesting for your help might have you quickly give in without thinking twice. Well, without beating around the bush, the same number messaged me today, requesting my help.

She's saying that she wanted to send money to someone, but it's not going through, and she doesn't know if I can help her send the money from my own account to the person's account. By tomorrow morning, she'll refund me what I sent to the account.

To start with, this is just a dumb excuse or way to scam someone. I mean, how can you have a problem with sending money when the next person you seek help from is a complete stranger whom you know from no where and have never had a meaningful conversation other than greetings? Well, I know some people would have fallen for this, as the beautiful picture of the decent-looking lady might have fooled them, but not me.

I immediately got that message. I had just one mindset, and that's me thinking of how I can teach this scammer a lesson, and the simple way I can do that is scamming him/her while they'll think they're in the process of scamming me, so I got my lines right and began to play along, trying to tell him what he'll love to hear and also intentionally asking some doubtful questions to not make them feel suspicious of what I'm trying to do to them in return.

So firstly Immediately, she asked for the money. I said I wish I could help but don't have a data subscription to access my bank app. I shouldn't have said that but instead asked how much. I was disappointed with my first game plan, but I quickly turned it around and asked how much she needed before she'd respond to the first message.

She said she wanted to send 50 thousand naira to the account and would appreciate it if I could help her out, and then I responded by saying I don't have up to that, because I believe saying fine might be suspicious of me agreeing easily, so she asked for how much I could afford, and immediately I told her, It's fine that she send the account details.

Before she sent it, I just asked some questions to show that I'm just like everyone else. I asked if she would disappoint, as I needed the money for something else by the weekend, and she obliged and sent the account details immediately. Personally, I believe that the account name is the person I'm actually chatting with; that's the scammer. Well, I played along and said alright.

She thanked me, and I can bet that whoever is on the other side is already semi-celebring scamming me. Well, I came back after a few minutes to inform her that unfortunately I couldn't send the money, and I referenced the earlier excuse I gave of not having a data subscription to access the app.

My mindset was that she'd suggest sending me data or airtime so I could subscribe to a data plan and send the money; unfortunately, she didn't, and I'm disappointed. I've actually dealt with some scammers like that, and out of greed and eagerness to scam me, they ended up being the ones that were scammed.

Well, for this particular scammer, while I'll stop the story here, I won't give up completely on teaching her a lesson; I'll just give her a few more minutes before I ask if she has been able to see someone who'll help her send the money, and if she says no, I'll propose her sending me airtime to help her out, since she's not suggesting it herself like most other scammers like her who tried to scam me do.

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Thanks for your time, that's about all for now, I hope you enjoyed the read about my Ordeals with the scammer, do have a wonderful day.

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_{All photos are screenshot from my whatsapp, except the Thumbnail that was designed on canva}

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