Wham Bam Thank You Scam

What Happens On Instagram Might Not Stay On Instagram

This may be difficult because I have no proof, as I deleted the communication that I received.

Lots of people follow me on Instagram, and a great deal of those are those who would have plied their trade as “ladies of the night” in the pre-digital age, complete with cards in insalubrious phone boxes in dodgy downtown skid row areas frequented by the likes of Tom Waits and Charles Bukowski.

Hello Scam, Goodbye Scamantha

Anyway, someone followed me, and while they were female, pics were the odd selfie and landscapes, so I followed back. I then received a message, something about a Facebook / Instagram Lottery and certain people, because of their activity, had been chosen to go into a draw, and was I interested? I said fine and thought that would be it.

Do You Want $50,000 For Free?

Next, I got an email saying I had won $50,000 and I had to provide some information, name, address, and state, all publicly available information, so I gave it. Whenever I get things like this, I wait for them to ask for money.

Then next, they asked, ``Do I want it as a check, cash, or a prepaid card?” Oddly no digital payment option. I said a prepaid card would be fine.

Then it happened.

Give Me $200 For Incidentals

We need $200 to send you the money.

$200, that’s rather expensive to send a card, and let’s face it, you could have sent it via PayPal or on some other platform.

They said that’s the way they roll, and they had no problem and a lot of happy winners, cue photoshopped image of a guy holding a big $50,000 cheque.

I told them this sounded like a scam. If you are giving money away, you never ask for money from the winners.

Cue more photoshopped images.

I suggest a perfect solution.

You have the $50,000. Take my $200 delivery fee out of that and send me $49,800

Oh, we can't do that, the money has already been packaged

Money Packaged?

Well, I don’t have $200 to pay you

Pay us $100 now, and then the other $100 when you receive the money

I did wonder how low they would go to get my money, but I said I thought it was a scam, and they weren’t getting my money.

Then silence, and so I deleted the correspondence.

Yes, they know my Instagram account and from that can find my name and a lot more, but I suspect they have moved on to some more gullible punters.

Because I took some of their time up, maybe some more vulnerable people didn’t get scammed.

James Veitch, Joe Lycett, and The Scammers

James Veitch uses this justification for, shall we say, attempting to “occupy” scammers, and he is an extremely funny, intelligent guy who I enjoyed seeing at The Stand in Newcastle pre-Covid. I also believe Joe Lycett does similar things.

In fact, I will share videos below of them doing their thing, and James Veitch’s book “Dot.con” is a great fun read. I first saw him giving a TED talk, and I was laughing as I watched it on a train journey going somewhere down south.

James Veitch: Dealing With Scammers

Joe Lycett Dealing With Scammers

A Conclusion On Scamming

If you have the confidence and inclination to “occupy” the scammers please do it, it keeps them away from more vulnerable people. I did this yesterday but hope you enjoy this short story on spamming, and what to do about it if you can.