I saw an interesting interview on a TV talk show this morning bwtween a sympathetic host and a woman who had been scammed. In this case she had "fallen in love" with a scammer through the internet, and before she discovered the scam, had given him over one million dollars. Wouldn't you get a little suspicious after the first few thousand? I'm pretty sure I will never be caught in this kind of scam for one very good reason. I don't have a million dollars and don't know anyone I could borrow it from. Turns out this victim had borrowed several hundred thousand from her parents. I would think someone in this group of people might have become suspicious.
But then, this afternoon I found myself engaged in a series of emails with a man I have never met and I got just a hint of how someone might get sucked in. In my case it wasn't a scam but the result of an accidental email. I was sending some information to my son and typed in his email address incorrectly. Turns out it was the correct email address for someone with the same name as my son. He sent me an email to let me know I had sent my message to the wrong person. This led to an exchange of ten emails about where each of our families was from and might we be related. It was all quite innocent and ended with my promise to let him know if I ever do some genealogical research and find a connection between our families. As I said, it was all quite innocent but fun and I can see how someone could get sucked into a scam.
PS I'll let you know if he writes back asking for money.
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