At least you didn't have someone named Al Shaar from Shefaram who, it seems, has a grocery store get your credit card info (still don't know which internet purchase iis the source) and charge 6000 NIS worth of food over three months to Makolet (grocery) Al Shaar. Yes, the credit card company is insured and yes, they believed that an 80 year old woman without a car anymore would not do her grocery shopping in a Galilee Arab town at least three hours from her Jerusalem home. But the time, the time!. List the amounts and dates, follow through, order and await a new card, tell all monthly payments that the number is changed etc.etc.etc. We are digital prisoners.
What's interesting to me is that you (relatively early, i.e. before losing real greenback dollars to the scammers) you smelled something not right. It may be that we can sense a scam but we override our intuitive awareness, letting some unacknowledged, unspoken — but easily imagined — wish override our accurate underlying suspicions.
It’s a wicked world. But being targeted by scammer is one sign of success (in the wicked world). And it’s a mitzvah to alert others, as here you have done.
I don’t want to say mazel tov, but it does go with your finely achieved territory! You’ve been deemed worth scamming!
These things are popping up in my inbox with increasing frequency. Imagine coming up with a scam to target writers, of all people! As if that's where the money is!!!!
These scams are playing on the fact that all us writers like to hear nice things said about our work. Be very wary of book clubs who offer to get your work out into the public. I have received one of these and a couple if Spinifex authors have too.
Yes, even I with decades of online experience has probably been scammed. The key to discovering the ploy was to be suspicious the moment the person contacting me used a @gmail.com address instead of a business address. Every other aspect of the scammer's cover story (legend) was perfect. She evidently "stole" the identity of a woman who actually did work for a prestigious international firm. Luckily I did not pay them any money. Conclusion: Never trust a 'generic' email address, no matter how credible the legend!!
No reason to have egg on your face. You weren’t scammed if you didn’t send them money. I’d say, keep doing what you did. Answer but stay skeptical, check out the claims, and don’t send money.
From email:
At least you didn't have someone named Al Shaar from Shefaram who, it seems, has a grocery store get your credit card info (still don't know which internet purchase iis the source) and charge 6000 NIS worth of food over three months to Makolet (grocery) Al Shaar. Yes, the credit card company is insured and yes, they believed that an 80 year old woman without a car anymore would not do her grocery shopping in a Galilee Arab town at least three hours from her Jerusalem home. But the time, the time!. List the amounts and dates, follow through, order and await a new card, tell all monthly payments that the number is changed etc.etc.etc. We are digital prisoners.
From email:
Very dear Phyllis,
What's interesting to me is that you (relatively early, i.e. before losing real greenback dollars to the scammers) you smelled something not right. It may be that we can sense a scam but we override our intuitive awareness, letting some unacknowledged, unspoken — but easily imagined — wish override our accurate underlying suspicions.
It’s a wicked world. But being targeted by scammer is one sign of success (in the wicked world). And it’s a mitzvah to alert others, as here you have done.
I don’t want to say mazel tov, but it does go with your finely achieved territory! You’ve been deemed worth scamming!
Cheers — at least for that part of it --
From email:
as we say in French
oy vey
From email:
These things are popping up in my inbox with increasing frequency. Imagine coming up with a scam to target writers, of all people! As if that's where the money is!!!!
From email:
These scams are playing on the fact that all us writers like to hear nice things said about our work. Be very wary of book clubs who offer to get your work out into the public. I have received one of these and a couple if Spinifex authors have too.
Sorry it happened to you
From email:
Bless you
From email:
I don’t know what you can do except always be skeptical and not take the bait.
I’ve gotten one offer to help publicize my work, with so many details it sounded like he really knew my work. But I didn’t respond.
Yes, even I with decades of online experience has probably been scammed. The key to discovering the ploy was to be suspicious the moment the person contacting me used a @gmail.com address instead of a business address. Every other aspect of the scammer's cover story (legend) was perfect. She evidently "stole" the identity of a woman who actually did work for a prestigious international firm. Luckily I did not pay them any money. Conclusion: Never trust a 'generic' email address, no matter how credible the legend!!
No reason to have egg on your face. You weren’t scammed if you didn’t send them money. I’d say, keep doing what you did. Answer but stay skeptical, check out the claims, and don’t send money.