How I almost got scammed
Scams come in all shapes and sizes but the one I came in contact with was directed through Instagram. I was on Instagram one day and saw I had a new follower. When I looked at it, I recognized it as my buddies Instagram account but in the bio, it said, “lost my old account so this is my new one”. I didn’t suspect anything with it because i hadn’t seen the scam before, so I followed it back. Once I followed the page back, I got a text from it saying something along the lines of “hey money has been really tight for me and my family is there any way you could spare me $100”. I knew him and his family were struggling so I still didn’t find anything weird about it. I responded by telling him I can give him some money at school but instead of saying OK and thank you he kept trying to get me to send him the money through PayPal and he wanted it that night. This is when I started to suspect it as a scam because I know my buddy would have been super grateful and accepted the money at school. I then texted him on iMessage to see if it was really him and it turns out he had no idea about the account and told me to report it, so I did. The account later got banned and I have since double checked with my friends every time I see an account that is copying them.
10 Comments
seaton
Great advice!!
ccurra
Always glad to help
Mary Curran
Keep a close eye on those scammers!!
ccurra
Yes, I hope you learned from my experience!
Diane Keating
Thanks for sharing. As a senior I find it easy to get scammed.
ccurra
Well I am glad I could help
Jimmy C
Instagram scammers are thought to spot!! Good advice to follow-up with a text!
ccurra
They are tough to spot!!
Kilian Curran
This was very helpful!
ccurra
Glad I could share my experience!