❗I GOT SCAMMED!! ❗❗❗❗

in scam •  6 years ago 

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Have you ever been scammed? I always thought I was too smart to be scammed. Alas, I experienced a horrible situation at work last week, and to be honest, I am not even mad. I'm so disappointed for falling for this.

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❗Okay. So what happened is the following:

I have a younger colleague who has been with us for about six months now. She is smart and super sharp, and I'm sure that if I was put in her position, I would have fallen for this scam too. So I am absolutely not blaming her.

I was out at a client's house in the morning. My colleague, let's call her Bambi for privacy reasons, had been dealing with a new client via email. Looking back, all the signs were there. This "client" had emailed in for a catalogue of our chandeliers. This is not unusual, but tells us one thing - that the client has not been to the shop in person, as they would know that there is no catalogue (we have about 400 - 600 on show at any time, plus thousands of others being worked on, or in the workshop).

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Our workshop on any given day - orders being packed, lights being restored, the team hanging out - just general chaos

Fine. So Bambi tells the dude that, but sends him a whole array of images of lights, for him to get an idea of what we sell. At this stage (last Tuesday afternoon) I was on my way out for the afternoon, and left the enquiry in Bambi's capable hands.

The next morning, I get to work, and we see the "client" has replied with an option of a light he wanted, asking for an invoice. ❗This is where alarm bells should have been ringing in my head, as normally, almost always, unless the client knows our stock very well, they would make an appointment to come view the light.❗ Now, that light was on reserve for the client who I was visiting that morning, so, I told Bambi to let him know this, and offer another, very similar light for the same price.

I headed out to my site meeting, and returned a few hours later to hear from Bambi that the client was a decorator, and that his client was pushing him to get the light to site ASAP. Our policy is that we do not release the goods without payment, and so he forwarded Bambi a proof of payment note from the bank. Usually, we would wait until the next day to release the goods, once the money had cleared in our account, but he was pushing her, and honestly, the story is very believable, as in our industry, we are always working under immense pressure and rushing to meet crazy deadlines.

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Working under immense pressure 😅

The light is packed at the speed of lightening, and off it goes with our very happy new "client". I'm proud of Bambi as it's been a tough month, and we need every sale we can get. I'm pleased my team could have fit the job in between our hectic schedule. We all go home happy.

The next day (Thursday) the accountant sends us our Debtor's Sheet (we do this every day, where we log the invoices for the day, and she logs the payments coming in against these invoices). Honestly, I didn't look at the sheet, as it's Bambi's job to fill it in and update it every day. This is where she should have noticed that the money hadn't cleared yet, but, she is still new, and these things are easily missed. Not just that, often the payments can take two days to reflect.

The following day (Friday) neither the accountant nor Bambi alerted me to the money not reflecting. This is where they definitely should have noticed. Any way... that afternoon I was running through the Debtor's Sheet, filling in some information and comparing notes etc. I noticed that the money had not cleared, and pulled up the Proof of Payment sheet from the bank to check the date etc. Immediately, I noticed that the zero's looked funny. I phoned Bambi, and we started to stress a little. Not too much, as this is Africa, and thing are slow. We assured each other that the money would be in after the weekend, and the accountant emailed the client to ask them to check in with their bank. You see, we have had this sort of thing before, and it ended up being a bank error.

❗ON MONDAY THE MONEY WAS NOT IN.❗

We pulled up all the paper work. There was a super legit Purchase Order from our wonderful new "client", with a valid address and TAX number. Then we compared the Proof of Payment note with another from the same bank, and immediately noticed a few discrepancies.

❗WE HAD BEEN SCAMMED ❗FUCKERS!!!

I called our "client" under the pretence of introducing myself as the Sales Manager, and wanting to come see his space he was decorating , in order to recommend some more items for him. He was super smooth, and didn't sound worried at all. He just said he would call me back, and I knew then that he had seen the mail from our accountant asking them to check the money with the bank. FUCK!

❗So that, my friends, is how we lost close to USD$3000 this week.

My boss is super angry to say the least. What surprised me is that Mr ScamBam still answered his phone, ie, he didn't throw the phone away, and is probably still using the nr to scam other Bambi's out there. All we have is a gmail email address and an unverified cell nr.

Anyone wanna hack his gmail for me? Surely there is some info we can find from that?

I honestly feel so fucked over, and at the same tine, I am also quite upset for myself, as I am in charge, and should be checking on Bambi more often

Let me know in the comments if you are a hacker/whitehat and are able to help me. PLEASE

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It SUCKS that this happened.

You know, rules are rules, yes, and I understand your boss is super angry, but really, from a broader perspective - do we want to go through life looking at anyone as a potential bad person?

I'm saying this because I hope we don't. People are generally good, and yes there probably were some alarm bells ringing, but hey, you work hard, Bambi works hard, a lot of people in the store work hard, and sometimes you make a call that 'seems' to be for the better good. And one out of a hundred it isn't.

I'm saying we should focus on the 99 times it does all work out.


It sucks you can't do a lot. Maybe let someone look into the meta data of the bank file the scammer sent you, sometimes in that meta data there's a name of a computer or even the owner, which might give you an extra lead.

That's all I can say to and do for you right now. Keep your head high! This person is clearly a hardened and smooth thief, used to scamming and not easily scared. You were not fooled by 'just another' one.

You are so right babe.

I must say that living in Africa, I think both @morkrock and I are waaay more sceptical than the average European or American person. We have so many scammers, thieves and beggars here. Unfortunately, I never give money to any homeless person since I moved to the city here in Cape Town, as I see that most of them are telling lies to get money and, or are on drugs. I used to listen to their stories, cry a little and give them all my money. Not any more :( it's sad actually, as I have been scammed, lied to, stolen from, mugged etc, so much that I just don't fall for anything anymore.

We kinda do view everyone as a bad person until proven differently, and it's not nice. I try to see the best in everyone, and trust my instincts, but you also have to be very careful. I must say that I have learnt to use my intuition well!


I will definitely look at the metadata. that is a fantastic idea!

You are right - he was definitely a smooth criminal.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment. i really appreciate it

But ya’ll have the address of where it shipped to...right? GPS and machete girl!!

noo! His "driver" (probably him) collected it. I wsn't there when all of this happened

Oh man, I hate that you got scammed, but I love your attitude of personal responsibility and supporting a co-worker that made a valid mistake.

You are a class act and your integrity shines through all through this post!

ah, that is such a nice thing to say! Thank you.

I really feel terrible, as I think if I had been more involved, perhaps I would have noticed something fishy. Then again, it could have happened exactly the same to me. This guy is PRO.

xx

This is brutal. There are such absolute crooks out there these days and they will take advantage of whomever they can. It is terrible that this happened. The only thing that can be done is to learn from the experience. No money no product. No exceptions. With any luck, the police can do something but I wouldn't hold my breath

Yup! We have logged a case with the police. Firstly, it's Africa and the police kinda suck. Secondly, the ones who do work well are so busy with the enormous amount of serious crime here, like rape and murder, I kinda feel like this is not going to anywhere.

Very sad, and yes, we can learn, but it is a big blow for poor little Bambi and the bossman is ANGRY!!

Esto da mucha rabia e impotencia, pasa muy seguido, hay mucha gente inteligente que no le gusta trabajar y buscan la manera de robar al que si trabaja, hay un dicho; nadie sabe para quien trabaja, un abrazo @princessmewmew

¡tienes mucha razon! ¡Bastardos perezosos! Definitivamente son muy inteligentes, como debo decir, esto fue muy bien hecho. Gracias por su apoyo, y espero que esto traduzca bien al español, ya que estoy usando Google Translator

Se entiende bien , tambien uso traductor Google, es de mucha ayuda para mi ¡ A desconfiar mas! ! Si son unos bastardos estafadores! Gracias por responder cariños y besos.

xx

People make me sick, why can't they just pay for what they want instead of scamming innocent people... annoying

SO ANNOYING! and you know what is the worst, is that he will probably sell it for a fraction of its worth. fucker!!!!

I hope he gets scammed, can't you involve the police, he needs a bloody good slap

LOL! you're funny. My mom would say something like that. xx We have filed a case of fraud with the coppers. Hopefully something can be found out

He deserves to get the shite kicked out of him. Hate people even think they can this.

This is insane. I am upset on that happened to you. There are some people all around the world who never miss any chance to scam anybody anytime.

I wish you a good luck always as you are doing a very good work with your blogs. And you seem a very hard-working girl.

I got scammed couple of times with electronic products. I had a very bad experience that time. That broke my heart and trust. But my friends told me to just forget it and move on. And do best for the future.

By the way i am a traveler and visited many countries. So i have started my blog and i am sharing my experiences and Informations about Destinations. I hope you will like my blog series. You may follow my blog so that you never miss any Destination experiences and Informations.

Thanks and Good luck for your great future. I want to see you on top.

thank you so much for your support and kind words. It really just sucks, and I feel so defeated as I don't think there is much we can do.

Thank you for your comment, I will def keep my eyes open for your posts xx

Oh I'm so sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately you can't trust almost anyone these days. Hope you get him!

me too, friend, me too!

That is such a bummer and I’m really sorry you had to go through that it’s a lesson and yes and expensive one at that! That’s what like you mentioned you have protocols in place, hopefully you have some sort of insurance against things like this since it is theft/fraud

It’s really sad that people do this for a living! I’ve had clients on upwork not pay me before which I was bummed about but nothing you can really do so I know the feeling

I also went through some shit this week one of my exchange accounts got hacked and the hacked managed to get what was at the time $1231 dollars worth of cryptocurrency! Not sure if I’ll ever see a penny of that back currently waiting for a response from the exchange!

But we’re from Africa and we’re made from that tough stuff! Wishing you all the best

hehe, yes, that is very true. African strength, mate!

That truly is sucky about the exchange - will you tell me which one it was?

It was coindirect! I posted about the hack here

Didn’t want to name and shame just yet until all info and avenues are exhausted I’ll post an update once I know more

Wow...people never cease to surprise (and disappoint) me! I'm sorry you got scammed...hey, karma is a "B"! It'll get him in the end!
On a lighter note...you guys have some awesome chandeliers!

thanks so much @mamajeani. I was shocked too!

We have soo many chandeliers, it is our speciality actually x

Thats sucks so sorry to hear you were scammed, I hope Karma does to him what he deserves

me too! I am still holding onto the hope that I can find out something about him, and save the day! Princess Mew Meew to da rescue!!

good luck with that :)

Thanks for sharing us your scammed experience, I have learn a great deal to be more gentle and patient dealing with my business & I pray that f**ker gets caught

hehe! thanks guy x I definitely learnt to not be so trusting of everyone.

First of all, OH MY GOD.
For a second there I thought the scam you were talking about took place on Steemit, but man oh man that's some story - and much worse!

I love you named the colleague Bambi - is it because of lack of experience or just because it's cute? Either way yeah, it seems paaaartially her fault, but the situation was f*cked anyway as it seems :/

I don't think you'll manage much by hacking the account but then again you never know so you may as well try! Unfortunately I'm not a hacker but maybe post this -again- on our discord tagging everyone? I bet there's someone there who can help!!!

The chandeliers look lovely -even though a bit scary all of them together like this haha!
Oh...and I hate scammers.......... gkrrr....!

I hope you'll sort this out, keep me posted! Lots of love to you and Bambi! :*

yeah, babe, totally. it was hectic! and it sucks cuz theres not much we can do about it.

I call her Bambi, cuz she's a tiny, young little thing with ginormous brown eyes. She's very cute, but tough. Yes, it is her fault partially, but like I said - I am sure it would have happened to me too.

That's our work shop, with all the lights, it is a bit messy for sure!!

thanks for your support babe. xxx

@princessmewmew I am so pity you have to go through this, in a situation like this is normal to feel guilty, uneasy and all kind of feelings, it will pass. . You have too much stress, Steemit, work, family. Come to hawai and forget about the world, life is one, enjoy it. My husband always tell me, If you don´t owe it, don´t be afraid

haha, I would love to go to Hawaii, that would be amazing!! You are right, life is for the living, and I totally do enjoy it x

that sucks! however I am sure karma will happen when the lighting falls onto someones head or something...js

hahaha, i had the same thought, babe, exactly! Karma is a beeeaacch

It blows my mind how much nerve some people have... Sorry they gotcha! THANK YOU for not allowing the evil they started to be recycled by your infusion of anger and such... They way to stop such nasty vibes is to NOT strengthen them with our own anger. Kudos, awesome lady!

thanks babe! you know, I don't allow anything to mess with my outlook or general happiness. I mean sure, I was upset, but it's over now, and doesn't affect me any more.

Sorry to hear that...it's scary the length that people will go to now days.

absolutely hey! People are so driven by money - it is sickening.

That's so sad.
But you shouldn't be too hard on yourself, Mewmew; neither should your colleague be. It is an experience. Remember; what doesn't kill us makes us wiser and stronger

very true, my friend. My boss is of another opinion entirely though :(

i scammed with one ico was ALP they said will provide the one social media as Facebook to give the reward, really thanks for the nice info my friend
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If it's someone you think you may think it is you can try and track the email. You can google tracking the email and pull the headers off copy/paste and can find out an approximate location of where they are, their isp, ip and all that. You could probably do the same thing with the phone, find out the provider then contact the provider and try and get an address. I know that police can ping the phone or email to get locations, just not sure if they are that hip over in SA?

Wow, I will try that!

edit so i did try that! I found his IP address... since the mail belongs to gmail, it gives me a google server's address. But I have emailed a whitehat friend.. maybe we will have some luck!

thanks for you great advice

I am sorry to hear. Scammers seem to be getting more and more creative when it comes to targetting people. But every scam is a learnable moment. Next time you will be prepared to avoid falling for it.

I have to add. You seem to have a lot of really beautiful chandeliers for sale...

Sorry to hear you got scammed, I have got scammed myself and feels terrible, at least you can say "lesson learned"and be more wary afterwards. Be careful thanks for sharing your story with us and making us more aware.

thanks man. it really does suck.

Sorry to hear about your situation @princessmewmew. This is a regular thing here in the United States as well. Scams happen all the time on the internet and in actual stores as well. It is a dilemma that affects the world and isn't coming to an end any time soon. Have a wonderful day.

Oh sorry about that and thanks for sharing just keep call and I pray the scammer get caught

Scammers have some high level of knowledge in psychology and when they succeed that feelings they leave you with is very terrible. I'm very sorry for Bambi
In my country is very common here so we are very careful but recently I got phished on steemit https://steemit.com/phishing/@raskhern/black-hackers-on-steemit-phishing-sbd-gone-missing
thanks for the alert @princessmewmew

Sadly, there seems to be no end to this injustice.

This sucks so much. I hate that sinking feeling of realizing you have been scammed. I'm so sorry, but I also wanted to add that it was quite heartening to see you sticking up for the new employee. You are an awesome person!

ah thank you! shame, she is young, and new to the industry. I don't think she is used to working with such large amounts of money. I feel bad for her :(