I will try to be as clear as possible. I still can hardly believe I got fooled but it happened. Partly this is a warning for anyone else that no matter how safe you think you are, it IS possible for them to get you. But I also am struggling to find information on anything I should do now that it's over. Of course I'd love the money back but I'm not really expecting that. Who knows though. Here's the details:
I have been working for a local parish for about half a year. It hasn't been working out, partly due to communication issues among other things. For example, I've never had a direct line of communication with my boss (the pastor) except if I can catch him in person. So I've never had his email address or phone number, although presumably he's had mine in case he ever decided to make use of them.
I was texted from a number that wasn't mine. The area code isn't mine but the parish I work for is actually 50 minutes away so everyone there has different area codes than me so it didn't set off any alarm bells. They had my name and introduced themselves AS the pastor with his full name and title so I didn't think twice about it. Exact text for anyone curious:
[myname] I need a favor from you, please text me back as soon as possible - Fr. John Doe
"He" said that he was visiting some children with cancer at the hospital and wanted to get them Steam (video game) gift cards but wasn't able to. This also made sense to me because I figured either he was just too busy or couldn't find any in his area (the parish is in a very small town and the area isn't well-populated). Anyway, this of course is where the actual scam comes in. I was asked to purchase $300 of gift cards, scratch off the codes and send them along, which I happily did without any verification. We can gloss over how stupid I was but really, I barely thought twice about it. Right after I did that he said "oops I actually need 5 more gift cards ($500 more) and again I did it. And again I feel like an idiot.
The conversation was sprinkled with things a priest would say... God bless you, May the peace of the lord continue to be with you, etc. And of course he said he would reimburse me.
I'm sorry, that's the story (before I eventually figured out it was fake). Here's the most relevant details I can think of:
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This is in the US.
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The gift cards were for Steam.
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I checked and all of them were quite quickly activated so I wasn't able to undo even some of the damage.
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The number is a google voice number (I called it and it identified itself as a google voice number in the automatic response).
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I purchased the gift cards with a Chase Freedom credit card.
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Steam's only recommendation for a situation like this is to contact your local police. No actual policy for doing anything.
Again, I've written off the money in my mind although it's not an entirely insignificant amount to me and I would love it back. I'm just assuming there's nothing I can do about it at this point. But if you know something that I don't, please do share! Aside from that, is it really worth bothering with the local police? Would it be more helpful to send something to the FTC or elsewhere? Or should I just learn my life lesson and move on?
And finally, while I do feel like a complete idiot I do want to warn others as well. I'm tech-savvy and generally aware about your average scams. I think this one got me due to a combination of circumstances: they had enough personal information to tailor it (instead of the typical "we are the IRS"), I was distracted due to being in the middle of work, and my (poor) relationship with my boss made it extra plausible because I didn't have a number for him already saved in my phone. The point being... don't assume that you only need to be on the look-out for the most obvious IRS or Nigerian prince scams. Sometimes they're more sophisticated than that.
Submitted March 12, 2019 at 10:43PM by SocialIssuesAhoy https://ift.tt/2CdPr6o
