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Thursday, February 13, 2025

Internet Scam : I want to give you money?

WARNING: INTERNET SCAM ALERT! 🚨

Are you one of those people who has ever received an offer of $1000 just to check your account details? Does it sound like you’ve won the lottery? However, if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is! Scammers are always coming up with new ways to con people out of their money and this is one of the newest.

My story: Around this holiday season the scam trolls were around social media looking for victims. X (formally Twitter), TikTok, and Instagram, all offered a chance to win money. Congratulations you were the winner! I was curious how the process worked, and I admit, with a small margin of hope that it could be legitimate, I replied with my socials. Here is what I learned through the process, and I was surprised by how relentless the scammers are.

Overall I sent $200, over seven payments in researching this article. If I save just one person from sending money, it is a win.

Here’s what this scam usually looks like and what to look without for:

1️⃣ The Bait: Your too good to be true Offer

“Congratulations!” the Instagram profile wrote in a direct message. “I enjoy helping people, and want to help you too. Look at these video testimonials from people I have already helped this week”.

The scam message begins informing you that you are eligible to receive money, however, there is a small catch. The amount may be different every time, but the process is consistent. To receive your reward they ask you to ‘verify your account’ by making a small payment. Often, this fee seems harmless, typically around $20, and the payment method they request is through PayPal. At this point, the scammer is playing on your hopes that you’ll be able to make a small payment to unlock a much larger sum of money.

In my case, the offer was to send $20 to a PayPal account to receive $1000 in return. However, what was even more appealing was that they had a menu of support programs – $30 for $1500, $50 for $2500, and even $300 for $6000. Sounds tempting doesn’t it? After all, it’s only $20.

2️⃣ The Catch: The Payment Method

Here’s where the real trick begins. Your new friend will ask you to send the initial payment through PayPal’s ‘Friends & Family’ option. This is important because if you are familiar with PayPal then you will know that this option is used to send money to people you know, for example, a friend or a relative.

The key difference with this method is that there is no protection for the buyer. In other words, once you send money through the Friends & Family option, you cannot get your money back. There is no appeal process, the money is go forever. That is another red flag!

A real business, charity, or someone sending you a “gift” would never ask you to pay using an option that leaves you with no ability to dispute a charge.

If anyone insists on using Friends & Family, you should immediately question their motives.

PayPal has the following warnings about friends and family:

What are ‘Friends and Family’ payment scams?

Many scammers now ask for payments to be sent through peer-to-peer (P2P) payment services using the Friends and Family feature.

Purchase scams

If a seller is encouraging you to send a ‘Friends and Family’ payment when you’re buying a good or service, you should refuse. You could be dealing with a scammer who knows that your payment won’t be covered by our Purchase Protection if it’s a ‘Friends and Family’ payment.

3️⃣ The Never-Ending Excuses

The scam is far from over after you make that first $20 payment. The scammer plans to keep you involved and asking for more money.

They will ask for additional money for ‘marketing fees’, to pay charges to ‘release funds’, account chargebacks as the charge didn’t go through, ‘transaction verification’ fees, and even apologize, that their “Manager needs to be bribed”. They will use words like trust, I promise, even suggest that as they are Christian, it is a sin to lie and send you scripture “I’m a good Christian and God fearing person and i know what the bible says about stealing, take a look at this Bible verses Ephesians 4:28, Exodus 20:15 and Romans,I’m not a scammer and i will never be one till i die.. in”. In my case they even sent screen captures of a draft transaction to my PayPal account showing the amount to be deposited.

Scam - Fake proof of sending payment
WARNING: Beware of fake proof of sending payment

These fees will begin small, but they can add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Each time they will tell you that the “next payment will be the last” before you receive your $1000. But of course, the money never arrives. By the time you realize something is amiss, you may already be out of pocket hundreds of dollars. Even worse as you sent the money through “Friends and Family” there isn’t any recourse, and no chance to get a refund from your bank or credit card company.

The money is gone and you will never receive your windfall no matter how many times they swear or promise or ask you to trust them, this will be the last time.

🚨 STOP AND THINK! 🚨

No legitimate business or organization is going to ask you to send money upfront for the promise of some sort of reward, and they shouldn’t ask you to use your Friends & Family option to do so. If anyone asks you to pay this way then something is wrong. Scammers are professionals at making their stories believable, but you don’t have to fall for it.

To help protect yourself:

  • Don’t send money to someone you don’t know.
  • Don’t use payment methods that don’t offer some form of buyer protection, such as sending money through Friends & Family.
  • Trust your gut. Something smells fishy when it feels off.

Protect your finances, stay cautious, and most importantly, share this information with others! The more people that know about these scams the harder it is for scammers to target people in this way. Be cautious, stay safe and always take your time when sending money online.

Prologue

I can not leave this post without including some screen captures of text from my conversations with the scammers. The stories, lies, and lengths these criminals go to attempt to pull the wool over their victims eyes and gain trust was astounding.

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Mark Hanlon

Editor

Mark is an avid photographer, Starbucks addict, motivated cyclist, struggling runner, and rocking single parent living outside of Toronto, Ontario. Living with two chronic ilnesses, Crohn’s Disease and Diabetes, life for this Transportation Planner and Registered Professional Planner (RPP) can be an interesting mix.