February 21, 2011

Scam or Scammed

The last couple of months we’ve gotten multiple phone calls from a foreigner telling us we had won a contest and we need to collect our winnings. We’ve asked them not to call again, hung up on them and even tried to block their blocked phone number…all to no avail. In last week’s mail we receive a check for $4,885, a portion of our $250,000 winnings. However before we collect the remainder we need to pay applicable government taxes in the amount of $2,985 to any Western Union in any convenience store. Having physical evidence of the scam I took the check, letter and the Canadian stamped envelope to the Police Department. Surprisingly the PD wasn’t too interested in the scam, but rather they wanted to know if I were a victim of the scam. We know that Satan uses temptation, trickery and deceit, but I can now hear God saying, “Yes Gail, but are you a victim?”

2 comments:

Lisa S said...

Maybe the FBI would be more interested.

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----This is a slick scam that catches a lot of people off guard. Sending a payment of taxes sounds reasonable, and the $4,885 check is definitely real. You will see it clear your bank before you write the tax check. But it won’t clear the bank on the other end, a fact you will learn a few weeks later when your bank debits your account at its turning up bad. I have a friend who has been skinned pretty good by these kind of scams. Even though he has been told by many people to leave this kind of stuff alone, and therefore, should know better, it still hurts me to see him get taken to the cleaners.
-----So, does the fact he should have known better make him not a victim? In a way it does. Part of being an individual is being responsible. We develop the conditions in our own lives ourselves. But he is still a victim, along with the rest of us.
-----I don’t know about you, but I am kind of tired of all the stuff made over victims. It isn’t that people are not victimized. It is that everyone is born a victim. We are all born into a world of systemic scam of every kind at every level. We are being emotionally and intellectually scammed all the time. And the greatest scam of all is that we don’t even have the mental capacity to fully realize how full of failure we and this life really are. We will realize that when God perfects us upon entering His kingdom. So trying to make some special point over being a victim is kind of like trying to make some special point over breathing. It is just part of life for now.
-----The only special point about being a victim has already been made. It wasn’t made to assure that some scammer pays you back, or that society in general pays you back. It wasn’t made at all about payback, thank God. He made a point of His mercy in Jesus Christ that our scams be forgiven us, and that we will be removed completely from a system where scams run as naturally as breathing.

Love you all,
Steve Corey