There is fraud everywhere, but I strongly believe that fraudulent activities are more prevalent in Web 2 than in Web 3. It's very easy to hack a Facebook account compared to something like a Hive account. On Facebook, for example, someone can even guess random passwords for that activity and succeed with the fraud mission. This is why you hear cases of scammers every now and then in Web 2, and unfortunately, I have been a victim of this cyber attack in the past.
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It's never a sweet experience with a fraudster, and losing money in the process is the height of it; this was my case, but the good thing is that the experience taught me a great lesson to date. I have been wondering how these scammers generate some tactics that make people fall into their traps. They happen to be smart in their dealings, but we need to be smarter than them to avoid losing funds to these fraudsters.
The Experience
I only wanted to be nice to a friend by lending her $15 as requested urgently without knowing that her Facebook account was hacked, and I was actually chatting with the fraudster who hacked my friend's account. It seems like the guy read the previous conversation between me and my friend in Facebook Messenger and continued from where we stopped, thus succeeding in scamming me. It happened that this friend of mine is into business and has never asked me for money in the past. Receiving the text from this scammer requesting urgent money to complete the goods she bought in the market appeared so real. The scammer even mentioned the particular good my friend sells, and it was so convincing. She added that she forgot her ATM card at home, went to the market with cash that got exhausted, and so cannot help the situation. I believed!
Because I thought I was chatting with my friend, I didn't bother to ask about doing a transfer to complete her transactions. I felt I should just save her the stress by sending her the money while she pays me back once she returns home as promised. I requested her account number, and I received an account bearing someone else's name other than my friend. Then I asked her, and she said that the account is the seller's account and that I should pay directly to the account instead of sending it to her own account. At this point, I would have been sensitive enough but got carried away. I just wanted to assist my old friend without knowing that I actually paid directly to the fraudster's account. Not up to 5 minutes after I made those transactions,I received another text from the scammer requesting more money with promises that she would send me everything back at once. I was still thinking that it's my friend, and I went ahead and told her that my son is sick and I am heading to the pharmacy to get some drugs with the remaining fiat in my account, but she insisted that I should still send the money and wait for her to return home and send me back the money so I can get the drugs in the evening. At this point, I said to myself...,
THIS IS FRAUD!
How can someone I call a friend not be reasonable enough to understand that my son is sick but keep pressing me to send more money while the drugs wait? Like seriously? With every anger in me, I said this one has passed chatting. I quickly called my friend and started telling her how unreasonable she can be and that it doesn't sound good of her. She became confused and pleaded with me to be calm and explain things better for her. I was cold! I called her by her name and asked if she wasn't the one I have been chatting with concerning borrowing her money to complete payment of her goods. Hmmmm, she screamed and told me that it wasn't her and that her Facebook account was hacked some days ago! I felt so bad!. She blamed me for not calling her over the phone to confirm she was there before sending the money. She was right after all; I should have called, but no, I wasn't careful enough, but I have learned my lesson!
The Effect of This Experience on Me
I have remained alert since that day to date. I double-check any message coming to my DM, and I place a call to confirm that it's not a fraudster. It will be a shame to witness the same ugly experience a second time.
Just last week, I received this message from a friend...
I immediately called her on the phone to confirm it's truly her and not a scammer again 😀 before attending to her request.
Truly, experience is the best teacher, and as much as I would love to help others whenever I could, I have learned to stay alert!
Thanks for reading through.
This post was inspired by the hive learner community on the topic titled; This Is Fraud.
