My brother almost got scammed out of $500😵

 

From the very beginning, I was not a fan of Facebook.  For me, there is something nefarious about Facebook that I cannot quite put my finger on and so I pretty much stay away from it. However, my youngest brother and various cousins on both sides of my family love Facebook. My brother is always telling me "Oh, cousin Kathy said this or that on Facebook."

One day, a couple of weeks ago, my brother texts me saying that our cousin, Jackie, had messaged him on Facebook that she knows a way for him to get $10,000 for being a veteran through a federal agency and I was really excited him to get the money.

A few days go by and my brother send me a picture in a text that shows a box. He also says that our cousin, Jackie asked my brother to send her $500 to cover the postage for the paperwork he'd need to fill out for the $10,000.

I IMMEDIATELY KNEW IT WAS A SCAM.  Even if it wasn't a scam, I would tell my cousin to go kick rocks.

My brother then proceeds to tell me that on Facebook, someone had messaged him saying that they were his favorite cousin blah, blah, blah and how he could get $10,000 free from the government and that she'd send him a link to sign up but that the next thing he knew is our cousin want to send him a package for $500.  

The thing is that I could see in the picture with the box that it had my brother's full government name on box along with his address.  

The only reason my brother is not out of $500 is that he decided he needed to run it by me before sending money. Honestly, I am so grateful that he didn't loose any money.

But the reason I am writing this post because late last week there was a viral story about a lady who lost $50,000 to scammers.  As soon as an unknown person on the phone tells me not to call my attorney, regardless, if they say that they're from the police department, FBI or Special Forces, I am hanging up the phone in their face and calling my attorney.  Supposedly they were telling the lady that she was involved in a legal matter...but she can't call her attorney nor husband?

There's an old saying "Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear." and another old favorite saying that I love "If it doesn't sound right then it's not true."

I get scammer that text me and I just block them. The stuff that they say is so ridiculous and implausible that I cannot deal.  Anything that involves money, you have to get a second opinion from someone you trust because you should know that the FBI don't want your $50,000 when the feds can print as much money as they like.

Watch out for the scammers before the scammers get you!