I wish this was fiction but it is not!

Apparently, a scammer hacked a FB friend’s account and posted several items they were selling for a sister-in-law who was being moved into a care facility. Items included vehicles, trailers, tractor, and household appliances. Vehicle prices were extremely low. (First Red Flag.)

Scammer stated they would be out of town helping with the move and deposits would be required to hold the items. (Second Red Flag.) Deposits would be refunded, though, if buyers opted not to follow through with the purchase.

Since I have two sons living in the town where my friend lives and both of them need a tractor for their properties, I decided to reserve the tractor pending inspection.

I contacted scammer and offered a deposit of $250. They doubled that amount. (Third Red Flag.) Then, after I foolishly paid that via PayPal, they said their SIL told them the deposit would be $1000. (Fourth Red Flag.)

Fortunately, PayPal blocked my stupidity because of fraud suspicion. (Fifth Red Flag.)

Then, the scammer requested Venmo. Fortunately, the account provided by the scammer wouldn’t work. (Sixth Red Flag.)

Then, they requested Bank Wire Transfer. (Seventh Red Flag.) When I noticed their bank info was in Oregon, I finally got suspicious enough to quit being stupid.

So… I lost $500 because of my eagerness to buy something with a price that was too good to be true. I filed an FBI complaint and complaints with Kansas and Oregon consumer protection agencies/state attorney general’s office.

All of this was because I knew the person I was dealing with at first. A Facebook friend that I’ve been acquainted with for a few years and whose mother I’ve known for over forty years. It didn’t occur to me until it was too late that someone might have hacked his account.

I know it’s an old, old adage—but, hey, I’m an old guy! “If it seems too good to be true…” Yep.

You can probably figure out the cautions you should take from this. If you can’t, me making them more plain won’t do you any good. Any time you fly by that many red flags, you’re either going to be in jail or at the bottom of a ravine underneath a collapsed bridge.

Lesson learned. Again. For now…