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Sounds good, huh? This was yesterday, and I was about to send her my $1,000 deposit and then hook up my gooseneck and head to Tulsa, because my friend Gary vouched for his old high school friend. I called Gary THREE TIMES, desperate to make sure he got in touch with his friend to make sure I got this deal, and it wasn't going to get sold to anyone else.
Except a teeny, tiny, little warning voice in my head kept trying to get my attention.
THIS WAS ALL A SCAM.
Gary's friend Julie had her Facebook account hacked, and once they took over, they posted this "sale" and then - very cleverly - turned off the ability for other people to comment on the post, i.e. warning others.
Since I'm not friends with Julie on Facebook, Gary gave "Julie" my cell number and "she" texted me details on how to send the money.
"The total price is $3000 , you can send 1k or 1500 for the deposit"
Giving me the power of choice over the deposit amount was a very nice touch - it imparts a feeling of control to quiet the warning voice in my head. The first red flag was that in the initial text to me she said her name was Julia, not Julie. Then when I read the posting carefully, red flag #2, - who sends their parents to "aged care"?
To their credit, they were scary good. The text messages were blue, so I knew they were using an iPhone, so I did a FaceTime video call to the number.
What the scammers did was answer the FaceTime call, but they had their camera pointing at monitor that was playing a video from an old post the scammers found on Julie's Facebook page where Julie was commenting on something while driving in her car.
On my end, it looked like she had answered my call, and was looking at her phone while she was driving a car. There was no audio, and then the video call abruptly ended and i got a text that said "I'm driving.. what's going on ?" Very clever.
I FaceTimed a second time immediately after that, and "she" answered, and I saw red flag #3 - the exact same video clip a second time.
Red flag #4 was that it was pitch black outside in Texas when I called, and the video they were showing was filmed in broad daylight.
At this point, I just wanted to find other holes in their story to warn others. The scammers offered PayPal, Zelle, and chime for the deposits, but wanted PayPal. I made up a story that my PayPal account was frozen and needed to use Zelle, because Zelle will tell you when an account was opened before you send the money. They gave me an email address paulae11@icloud.com and when I put that email into Zelle, it said "Paula Evans - NEW ZELLE ID". Not only was it a new account, the name didn't match up.
The real Julie eventually called my friend Gary back and she confirmed that she was hacked. They took her Facebook, Instagram, and email accounts. She is completely locked out and has no ability now to stop any of it. She has a friend who was able to determine that the hackers are in Asia and that (clearly) they are very good at what they do.
Moral of the story - if it's too good to be true, beware. That, plus do not use the same passwords for everything and turn on 2-factor authentication.
Except a teeny, tiny, little warning voice in my head kept trying to get my attention.
THIS WAS ALL A SCAM.
Gary's friend Julie had her Facebook account hacked, and once they took over, they posted this "sale" and then - very cleverly - turned off the ability for other people to comment on the post, i.e. warning others.
Since I'm not friends with Julie on Facebook, Gary gave "Julie" my cell number and "she" texted me details on how to send the money.
"The total price is $3000 , you can send 1k or 1500 for the deposit"
Giving me the power of choice over the deposit amount was a very nice touch - it imparts a feeling of control to quiet the warning voice in my head. The first red flag was that in the initial text to me she said her name was Julia, not Julie. Then when I read the posting carefully, red flag #2, - who sends their parents to "aged care"?
To their credit, they were scary good. The text messages were blue, so I knew they were using an iPhone, so I did a FaceTime video call to the number.
What the scammers did was answer the FaceTime call, but they had their camera pointing at monitor that was playing a video from an old post the scammers found on Julie's Facebook page where Julie was commenting on something while driving in her car.
On my end, it looked like she had answered my call, and was looking at her phone while she was driving a car. There was no audio, and then the video call abruptly ended and i got a text that said "I'm driving.. what's going on ?" Very clever.
I FaceTimed a second time immediately after that, and "she" answered, and I saw red flag #3 - the exact same video clip a second time.
Red flag #4 was that it was pitch black outside in Texas when I called, and the video they were showing was filmed in broad daylight.
At this point, I just wanted to find other holes in their story to warn others. The scammers offered PayPal, Zelle, and chime for the deposits, but wanted PayPal. I made up a story that my PayPal account was frozen and needed to use Zelle, because Zelle will tell you when an account was opened before you send the money. They gave me an email address paulae11@icloud.com and when I put that email into Zelle, it said "Paula Evans - NEW ZELLE ID". Not only was it a new account, the name didn't match up.
The real Julie eventually called my friend Gary back and she confirmed that she was hacked. They took her Facebook, Instagram, and email accounts. She is completely locked out and has no ability now to stop any of it. She has a friend who was able to determine that the hackers are in Asia and that (clearly) they are very good at what they do.
Moral of the story - if it's too good to be true, beware. That, plus do not use the same passwords for everything and turn on 2-factor authentication.
