Inactivity 2, or How I Nearly Fell into a Trap
No fiction today, either; just real life.
First, the money issue is more or less resolved. We’re not out of hot water yet, but it’s gotten significantly more lukewarm than it was before. For one, I got a credit card that bailed us out of a pinch, and I’m also going to start work on Monday. That said, if you want to help, you’re welcome to donate to my PayPal account (KajiFireson@gmail.com) or buy a commission for a story or other such piece. </shameless promotion>
Second, a story of real life drama. While I was looking around for work, one of the listings on Craigslist was for a secret shopper, and since I’m in a fairly large city, I didn’t really think anything of it. Even after I got an e-mail back that was in all bold text and written in srange diction, I still didn’t have any alarms going off in my head. (Mainly because my typical diction isn’t exactly ordinary.) However, when I got a package in the mail that had two money orders made out for WAY more money than I should have gotten for my job, and my e-mail instructions included “send the excess to Ghana,” I knew it was a scam. Sadly, I had to shred up what would have been a generous sum if it hadn’t been counterfeit.
Ugh…so that’s my day yesterday. I’ll try to write something this weekend before I go into work on Monday. Until then…
June 28, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Man, those damn Ghanaians. I get at least one or two Skype IMs a week from supposed students from Ghana. They start off wanting to be friends and then they ask you to “exchange some diamond bonds” or “cash a few money orders” for them. I love to email them back saying I just reported them to the authorities.
Ha!
Usually the next day the email account has been closed. And I do forward everything on to scambusters.org and my local law enforcement agencies. It may not do much now but in the long run it’ll be worth it.