In lights of recent events, I have been reflecting on how many scams we have suffered (and some missed!) over the last decade.
A recollection:
Today's entry is The fake dollars scam (the ambush), of which I think I have never told you about
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The fake dollars scam (the ambush)
I was barely using my iPad mini, so I decided to put it up for sale. As usual, my husband took care of it and published it on Facebook and Alamaula (it still existed!). He was getting inquiries on Alamaula, but they all seemed dodgy. Then he got contacted over Facebook by a girl. They moved the conversation over whatsapp. She asked if he would accept dollar bills because she had just arrived from Cuba. Her Spanish was not the local variant, my husband recalled later. She wanted to meet him at the subway stop Palermo, which is very crowded and not a nice area (lots of lowlivers hanging there). My husband offered to meet at the McDonald's across the street. She tried to decline claiming she was a young girl in a new town and wouldn't feel safe going somewhere she didn't know. My husband said that it would have been safer for both to meet in an indoor public place. She reluctantly agreed too meet at the McDonald's.
However, my husband had already noticed some red flags: she wanted to meet on the street in a crowded place, where he had to take out an expensive piece of electronics in exchange for USD bills from a Cuban girl who had just moved to Buenos Aires.
So, last second he changed the meeting place to the Starbucks in Alto Palermo. I suggested that place because I knew there was a security guard by the door. We sat there for a hour waiting for the girl. She never showed up. My husband tried to call her over whatsapp, but it was disconnected.
So we went home. Later that night, she said her battery phone had died while she was out and she wanted to reschedule. At the same time, my husband got contacted over Alamaula by another person who knew the iPad was still available...
I don't know if we missed getting fake bills or a robbery.
That time, I learned that bringing in expensive electronics for resale is a very dumb idea in this country, regardless of the potential markup.
The wrong-amount wire transfer scam
This came up in my feed last night.
A girl from Venezuela who lives in the US has a nice colonial home in her native Venezuela, that she rents out to tourists. She found a prospect tenant and they agreed on a price ($790/month). He sent a wire transfer for $4900 'by mistake'. He said his bank couldn't cancel the transfer, and asked to please help him and to send back the incorrect amount. He got confused with another business expenses - he explained.
The girl saw the $4900 wire transfer, and her balance had gone up of $4900, as well.
She proceeded to wire back $4900. However, she failed to noticed that the transaction was shown as "pending". On the next day, we transaction was gone... but so her $4900.
And the worst hasn't come yet - then she was blackmailed. They wanted her naked picture to return the monye (not gonna happen). She was brave to denounce this.
Asking for help to her bank, they said there wasn't nothing they could do because she did initiate the wire transfer.
On the various comments to the video, someone suggested to contact the FBI and someone else said that this way, they were able to get the scammers arrested and their money returned.
I can't find again the original video, but this girls speaks about the original video and explains in detail how it works.
