I've recently started watching a number of YouTube channels that either expose or simply waste scammers' time. For pure entertainment I recommend you take a look at some of the videos by IRLrosie, Trilogy Media, Pleasant Green, and Kitboga among many others.
It got me thinking though... While we all can by sympathetic towards those who fall victims to elaborate scams that prey on people's emotions and fears, why do many still fall for the very basic scams? While some of the scams out there can be simply classified as extortion (take the classic Social Security or arrest warrant scams), why do many still almost willingly become victims of the "too good to be true" scams?
My one suggestion: greed.
Take the case of one of my friends. Perhaps I'm not surprised this was going to happen to him eventually, after all he's the one who introduced me to Bitconnect a couple of years ago. But I genuinely felt sorry for him when he called me one day and told me about what just happened to him.
It begun when one of his friends asked him to buy a bitcoin for him. This friend of his did not want to open an account with an exchange or learn how to protect and transfer bitcoin between wallets, so my friend offered to buy it and hold it for him. My friend was paid a full market value in cash to purchase the bitcoin for his friend.
But instead of doing just that, my friend decided to make extra couple bucks on this deal by purchasing the bitcoin from a person on one of the known P2P exchange sites. He ended up finding someone who offered to sell him a bitcoin for $500 less than its current market value. This right there would have been something most people would not give second thought, but no, not for my friend. This was going to be perfect - he was going to help his friend out and make a quick 500 bucks in the process.
After contacting the seller through SMS my friend requested a meeting to purchase the bitcoin. My friend is not a novice. He knows how wallets and transaction confirmations work, so he was going to make sure the transfer of BTC to his wallet is completed before he hands over the cash. The seller, however, suggested that there is no reason to meet (being that they live on opposite ends of town) and that my friend can simply go down to his local bank branch and transfer the payment to the seller's bank account, after which he would be sent his bitcoin. I think at this point you all know what happened (or didn't happen) next. Yes, my friend sent about $10k to some random person he never met and received back exactly 0 BTC.
This story happened a few months ago. You'd think there would be something that the bank or police could do to help, but for some reason neither were able to reverse the transaction or find the scammer.
I'm not writing about this experience to particularly warn anyone about getting scammed, because part of me things some people will be scammed no matter what. When I watch the YouTube videos I mentioned in the beginning I can't honestly begin to understand what motivates the victims to go down the path they chose. Are they blinded by the prospect of making a quick buck? If everyone in the world has heard of the Nigerian Prince scams, who do people still believe this time it will be different? Don't we all know that if it's too good to be true it rarely is?
Do you have a story to share? Have you fallen a victim to scam? What went wrong?
Below are links to the YouTube channels I mentioned in this article:
IRLrosie: https://www.youtube.com/user/rosieokumura
Trilogy Media: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCca2961Ton2js_f9IDXK9Wg
Pleasant Green: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAPrhJwVweWZA8GEPoClSdw
Kitboga: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm22FAXZMw1BaWeFszZxUKw
