Do what thou whilt shall be the whole of the law.
I got scammed by social engineering. Long story short someone who I though I had been friends with for months and months but who was apparently just waiting to scam me had me convinced he was sending me money to pay off some of my credit card debt. He submitted a fake check and my account got locked down. There was more to it but honestly it’s too embarrassing to talk about in detail. Now I have to go through a lot of rigamarole to deal with it.
It’s so frustrating. I thought I was smarter than this but nobody is smarter than social engineering, especially when you’re in debt. You’d think with all the trainings work has given me over the years, with how many scam baiting videos I watch, and with how smart I’m supposed to be that I would be better than this but he knew the exact buttons to hit to get me to believe him. We met over mutual interests, not through channels you’d expect for such a thing like shoddy emails or phone calls. If I’m being honest, thinking that I was too smart to get scammed was actually a factor in making me more vulnerable to this particular kind of scam.
The entire way he set it up was nothing like anything you read about or hear about. I almost thought it was a false alarm before they told me that the reason it was marked as fraud was that it was obviously photoshopped. Before then I thought he was telling me the truth. It was a good thing that I was broke so he couldn’t take anything because there was nothing to take. sigh I’m just so frustrated more than anything. The way he framed it is what got me. I genuinely thought he was trying to help me with my finances.
I don’t blame myself. I got taken in by someone really good at scamming in a way I’d never heard of before so didn’t know how to guard against. I just wish I wasn’t like this. I’m tired of being taken advantage of. I’m not sure what hangup I have that makes me so vulnerable, but it’s exasperating. I’m sure some combination of factors is what did it. I think it likely autism played a part. Worst thing is, I don’t know how to protect myself. That’s the scary part.
Love is the law, love under will.
Crushed,
Vanessa