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10 Steps to recognize Scammers and what to do next

Nov 12, 2024
 

Scammers doing a great job… but not good enough!

The last couple of months I got a little surprised. Scratch “little”. It was done quite nicely.

It started with a comment which got answered.

Then a curious message about something I posted on a post which was dedicated to a well known rockstar who had passed on.

So far so good. No out of the blue or out of place comments/messages. They all seemed to make sense. I casually mentioned it would be nice to do an interview. So this was the response in two parts:

“This is amazing! It truly pleases me to know that I still inspire people out there. I love who I am, and I cherish what I do even more when I see others being inspired by me.

Life can be very challenging, but you can’t back down. There’s always something to fight for and something to learn at every step.”

&

“This is a great idea, and I like it. I’ll make time for it. However, I’ve been very busy, which is why I haven’t responded over the past few weeks. I receive tons of messages here and don’t open most of them. I’m not always active on this platform, but I’ll share my private contact with you so I can respond to your messages more quickly.

Also, please let me know how and where you’d like the interview to take place, so I can plan accordingly. Thank you!”

Since I do interviews more often, this seemed really cool. It wasn’t like there was a daily response, so it seemed kinda normal.

First 3 very obvious signs

Sign 1 - Out of nowhere it pops up
Sign 2 - Bad & rushed spelling
Sign 3 - Exaggerated words

If I compare it with scammers who pretend to be a certain actor from CPD, this made way more sense. The fake CPD accounts keep popping up out of nowhere, sometimes multiple ones at the same time and they use phrases like:

“Hi, prettyface, i know this is like a dream to you.Thank you for being a fan”..

Now that’s suspicious from the get-go. Bad spelling and then words like “a dream”.

Sign 4 - Asking for money

Of course I got excited about the idea of driving over there and doing an interview, until there was a request for money. It was mentioned very subtle, but it was a red flag.

I reached out to other friends who are musicians and I asked them if they ever asked to be paid for an interview. The answer was “no”.

Signs 5-7 related to trust and seeming too good to be true

Sign 5 - Promises which are too good to be true
Sign 6 - Change of words
Sign 7 - Trust me

There’s this line that started to pop up in my mind “If it’s too good to be true, it usually is”.

This scammer had managed to come across as trustworthy and interested until things got turned around. The interview got changed into a Meet ‘n Greet and that didn’t sit well with me. Why would someone do so? Of course the famous start of a line “Trust me”, followed by “this will make things so much easier for you”. Was another one of those red flags.

Sign 8 - Sudden change of tone

I was charmed by the idea, until another “red flag” showed up. When I mentioned what I’d written to the management team which was supposed to give me the details, there was impatience. Like it was annoying I didn’t grab the opportunity with both hands right away. I actually felt being send into the corner for being cautious.

It took me a while to respond. In fact I recorded a video which showed my struggle between being annoyed to be told off like a kid and wondering if this wasn’t the result of someone demanding respect, being busy and all. It came across as a person who put himself above me and again, that didn’t sit well with me.

With the possibility in mind that just maybe he was who he pretended to be, I also wanted to be respectful. This was someone over 20 years older than I was. And well…if this was true I didn’t want to get across as ungrateful.

So this was part of my response:

“You had me wondering here for a while on how to respond. I even recorded a video about the topic of what to say when you want to say all these things, but not being sure what’s the smart thing to do. It usually helps me to get clarity.

Anyway… I appreciate you explaining all of this. Any reluctance you may have observed was the result of me being cautious about/around people asking for money when I’m not sure if they actually are who I think they are. With the net you never know….”

The response seemed reassuring enough: “It’s alright, I understand. Keep me updated along the line as well. Have a good night sleep.”

It was the opposite of the other response, until… again there was another outburst ending by “All the best.”

Sign 9 - Stopping the conversation making it your fault

Before it was: “Frankly, it would have been more appropriate to go through my management instead of reaching out to me directly.” That was weird because I hadn’t done so. He did. It got followed by “But if you’re now second-guessing things, feel free to hold on to your money, and let’s both pretend this conversation never happened.”

Now this is a typical scammer action, making you feel guilty. Red flag all over.

Sign 10 - Refusal to give proof even when asking for you ID

The thing was that part of me felt like if this was actually true, I had some serious apologizing to do. So, I shared all of this again with my friends and I decided this ask for some proof. If someone is really entertaining the idea of doing an interview with me, then record a video for me (AI is easily recognized) and list my name when doing so.

What followed was a long rant, which reminded me of someone else in the past who had been annoyed with me, instead of just solving this on the spot. That’s weird at best.

What can and should you always do?

Advice 1 - Check for the right people to run this by
Advice 2 - Check Google

The best way seemed to reach out to management as listed on the official website. The other step was googling about potential scams and there it was on Facebook: “DANGER! FAKE ACCOUNTS IN CIRCULATION!”.

Also a friend of mine had reached out to someone closer to this musician and my friend came back with “I got bad news”. For me the acknowledgment that this was mostly a scam was actually the good news. The bad news would have been if I had been wrong all this time.

After the research and especially writing the legal department I know this is a scam. For a while though it was a good dream, worthwhile of manifesting some more. After all it’s about getting the message out there, inspiring people to enjoy life the best you can, since you never know what might happen.

Keep in mind who you have |not) been talking to

It can be hard to let go of the emotional attachment you might have build. Even when you know you have been talking to a scammer, separating the two images can take a while. This is where my last pieces of advice come in:

Advice 3 - Don’t get upset with the person you thought you were talking to
Advice 4 - Stop the conversation with the scammer

As hard as it may seem, make sure that when you see the original person you thought you were talking to, you keep reminding yourself that this person has not been talking to you. Any thoughts you might have had because of the scammer are not made by that person. Most of all don’t get too disappointed with the one you obviously were following for some reason.

In addition you might have been charmed with the attention you did get all this time. Before you even consider continuing, these people lie for a job. Even if they were to confess, they might stil have a sob story about why they need money. Don’t fall for it.

Even when they don’t ask for money, they are surrounded by others who still are scamming for a living. Get away from them. You deserve better than “friends” like that.

Get support from someone who can snap you out of the situation

Make sure you get someone to snap you out of the situation. Personally I have helped a number of people to de-attach and rebuild their self esteem. If you think you can use some support, please let me know.

 

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