Okay, here's a hypothetical situation for you: Let's say you get a text message from somebody you don't know. Let's say the text message says this: "Sum1 paid me to kill you. Get spared. 48 hours to pay $5,000. If you inform police or anybody death is promised. Email me now."
Would you: a.) Scream, drop your phone and call 911? b.) Immediately email the mysterious assassin with your credit card info? or c.) Laugh and delete the text?
Probably you chose "c." Am I right? Because obviously a cash-demanding death-threat-by-text is a scam. A scam which is apparently a huge problem right now in Australia, with authorities on high alert. But REALLY?! Who's gonna fall for something like this? I mean, remember the Nigerian prince email thing?!
Oh yeah. Remember the Nigerian prince email thing ...
And all the suckers who actually wired their life savings to someone anonymous person of dubious royal lineage? Who, in spite of presumably receiving the type of education that would come with royalty status, can't spell/type his way out of a paper bag?
Because people really did. (I saw them on Oprah. It was crazy!!) Which was very troubling to me, at the time, and the fact that people are reportedly falling for another, similar scheme troubles me as well. And I'm talking about functional, "normal" people, the type who know how to drive a car and make instant coffee and brush their teeth and yet ... have no grasp on reality.
I don't mean to be cruel or judgmental. We all have our gullible moments. Good thing for criminals, I guess.
Can you imagine ever falling for a scam like this one?
Image via Nate Steiner/Flickr
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Comments 13
I'd be shocked someone would pay $5,000 for my life. As a stay-at-home mom, I wouldn't think it'd be worth it lol.
Are you kidding? I wouldn't take any chances with that! I'd call the police just to be on the safe side.
Nope, I'm not that stupid.
No.
I would report it to police though.
yeah, because in this day and age, with people with no apparent motive slaughtering people at a midnight movie, a death threat is sure something to laugh at, right?! I wouldn't pay it, but I wouldn't LAUGH IT OFF EITHER! Have you seen the news lately?! I'd definitley alert police.
I would call the police as soon as I finished reading it.I am so tired of these lazy bastrads getting rich of innocent people with these scams.Every day I get e-mails from various people telling me how they are dying , usually from cancer and have chosen me to decide which charities to give their monies to.Their families are all greedy and can't be trusted , they have had me checked out ,so they know I am worthy of the trust they are putting in me.They need all my bank info so they can have their money transferred to my account as soon as possible as they don't have much time...This makes me so mad because my father did die from cancer and the people who do this are only trying to wipe out the bank accounts of anyone who is naive enough to fall for the lies they tell.The first time I got one of these stories I called my bank and they had me forward the address that it came from to them,and they do something to try and trace back and catch whoever the original scammer is .Most come from Africa ,some are now coming from China according to what the e-mails say,so now every one I get I report as a spam , some I do call and have the bank follow up on..especially thhe ones claiming to have cancer or other terminal illnesses, to play on someones nerves is sick,and almost everyone has lost a loved one to an illness that has no cure.
And these people also VOTE! I feel the exact same way as you. They must have been out sick the day they handed out COMMON SENSE.