Learn your lesson, take a bite out of crime…. etc.
So at the risk of having hordes of locusts sent down on me by Geoff’s mom, I’m going to share this story with you that she sent over to me the other for a couple of reasons. The essence of this story is that someone we know was almost scammed, and the way they did it is a bit uncanny for my liking, and at the risk that someone could try it on someone else I love, lets talk about it for a second.
The issue is that in today’s day and age, information is prevelant. It’s out there. Being a techno giz kid, as I am, I have pretty much everything you could possibly want to know about me posted somewhere on the internet. My thought around this is that I have my identity protected, my credit cards are all equipped with fraud protection, meaning if my info was stolen I could get my money back, etc. I feel like I’m covered. My oversight in all this may be illustrated in the story that follows. And honestly, with things like Facebook, Twitter, and blogging, gathering details like where I am, what I do for a living, who my friends are (just cruise pictures and find out who I’m with) even my birthday is relatively easy to get a hold of (the piece of information that thwarted this would be scammer). What I’m saying is that we’re all very open with our information, and in that light we need to be more cautious in how we live our lives.
I remember mom and dad, when we were little, setup a secret pass phrase (something like Camchucket or very near to it) that they would tell us in case someone ever came saying ‘yer mom and dad wanted me to come get you’ ie kidnapping rapists. Boom, just like that, we were covered. Someone asks you to go with them, ask them for the pass coeds. If they don’t give it, run. It’s funny that now that we’re older and more mature, we don’t bother with the simple things.
Moral of the story, take some time and protect yourself. Grandparents, nieces, nephews, etc, send them an email (link to this, don’t forward it for fear of the locusts) and give them a game plan you might use. If anything, take some time to think about what could happen, and spend a few minutes to prevent the worst of it.
Now, the harrowing tale -
Just wanted to alert you to something that happened to Geoff’s grandparents yesterday, apparently by someone who was either very lucky or has picked up enough info about the two of you to try a scam. This is an awful story but has a happy ending, just barely.Yesterday, someone named “Geoff/Jeff” (who knows the spelling) called my dad. He told Dad this was his grandson Jeff calling from Toronto. He told grandpa he had flown over from the UK to visit his friend in Toronto, they had been in a car accident, and he needed $2800 immediately. I don’t remember why — to get the car out of hock, to pay his friend’s hospital bills, not sure, but it was something plausible enough that my dad believed it. “Jeff” told Grandpa he could repay the money as soon as Jeff got back to London. He told Grandpa he needed him to wire the money to him via Western Union. He told him the account to send it to, and that he would call him back to get the pick-up number. (I remember this procedure from when I had to wire money to Geoff in Ukraine.)So, did my high IQ, savvy, well-educated but elderly parents think to call me to verify this story???? To see if I knew if Geoff was in Toronto? To ask why he hadn’t called his Mom first? Nooooooooooooo, I am alarmed to say. Instead they went to the bank, withdrew $2000, went to Western Union and wired it to “Jeff.” (ARGH!!!) When “Jeff” called back to get the pick up number for the money, for some reason Grandpa decided to ask him what his birthday was. “Jeff” didn’t know. “Jeff” said he was in a hurry, couldn’t tell Grandpa his birthday, and for Grandpa to just give him the pick up number. Grandpa said surely Jeff must know his birthday….but Jeff didn’t, so Grandpa hung up. My parents decided something fishy was going on, went to Western Union, got their money back, got the bank to cancel the check, etc. etc. So they barely missed being scammed by whoever this was.Sometime later, a man called my parents, saying he was from the Sacramento Police Department and that they had arrested someone trying to impersonate their grandson Jeff Evans. I’m not quite sure how this part went, but my grandparents think it was someone trying to get them to believe the scammer had been arrested so they wouldn’t report it to the police. Only my Grandpa, now suspicious, said his grandson’s last name wasn’t Evans. The supposed Police Department guy didn’t know the real Geoff’s real last name. When my dad started questioning the guy, he hung up.My parents immediately went to the local Police Department and reported this whole thing. The police department wasn’t the least bit interested because my parents hadn’t actually lost any money. They said they only investigate when a crime has occurred. (Kind of depressing the police had no interest, eh?)Anyway, I am amazed my parents almost fell for this, and so grateful they did not. But then I was thinking about it, and wondered if I might not have fallen for the same thing, at least part-way through. Whoever did this was either was very lucky (randomly called elderly people till they found one who did have a grandson named Jeff, or else getting Grandpa to give out the name, or who knows what, and then guessing Geoff was living in the UK and had a friend in Toronto [something my parents didn't know, but I would have]), or else this person somehow picked up enough knowledge to know Geoff is in the UK, is currently traveling, and has a friend in Toronto. If this person had called me and said he was Geoff in Toronto visiting his friend, I’m sure I would have volunteered Al’s name, kind of a fill in the blank thing. I would have questioned him, and in my confusion, likely provided enough info for him to continue with the story. I am confident I would have stopped short of wiring the money, but it’s all very creepy anyway. I have no idea how what happened took place, but just wanted to alert both of you, since the odds seem likely someone pieced together enough info about you to come up with a plausible scam. Yikes. I don’t know if there are any precautions you need to take at this point, but I did want you to know.I don’t think either of you would do this, but for goodness sake, don’t turn this into one of those chain emails sent around the world to alarm people about stories that happened to their friends. You can tell people about it verbally, but don’t forward the email or I will send plagues of locusts to haunt you.Cheers,