In the past, the weapons bad guys used to steal your money were gun and knives. Now, they use something different…
My husband and I are looking for a small dog. Our fourteen year-old Morkie has lived past his 13-year life expectancy. Suffering from canine dementia, he spends most of his day staring into space or sleeping. Often it seems the lights are on and no one’s home. He also struggles to eat.
Our other dog, a 12 year-old Malchi, follows Simba around and usually copies whatever Simba does. He doesn’t sit and stare blankly, but he now doesn’t want to eat either. When we take them outside, he waits for Simba to use the restroom and then reuses the same spot..
My husband, a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, loves our dogs dearly, and so do I. So we have been desperately searching for a small dog to be our Malchi’s next companion before Simba passes. I’ve looked on petfinder.com, other websites, and on Craigslist also.
Sadly, I have discovered a sad reality. Scammers have discovered Craiglist. They use this website and their own technology devices as robbery weapons.
Their tactics are more effective than guns and knives,
because they hide behind the internet.
Some have tried to convince us to send money before they ship a puppy. That scam didn’t work, but another one did this morning.
I sent an email in response to an ad for 4-month-old Morkie puppy listed on Craigslist. This morning I got an email asking for my phone number, so I happily and foolishly gave the scammer my phone number.
Immediately, someone texted me from 567-331-3442.
The conversation went as follows:
I should have googled his request first,
but my eagerness to get another dog
turned off the caution switch in my brain.
Erroneously, I texted back the code he’d sent me. He suddenly stopped texting me, so I turned on my computer and google-searched the google voice scam, a few minutes too late.
On the internet, I found that criminals do this to hijack phone numbers and also to steal identities.
Again I turned to google, and discovered the only way to fix this problem is to connect my phone number to another google voice account. Unfortunately, the criminal had locked it into his google voice account and made this impossible.
After a few moments of panic and an unsuccessful phone call to my cell provider (Verizon), I leaned back in my chair, breathed deeply, and came up with a way I might overcome my texting error.
I connected my husband’s cell phone to a google voice phone number, and then I added mine as a second number to the same account. And, VOILA! I successfully regained control of my phone number. I had disrupted that darned scammer-criminal-jerk’s access to my information.
I am sharing this to tell the world about this scam,
and inform others how they can correct their mistake.
Weapons are no longer objects that are obviously dangerous. Now technology, cell phones, and computers are weapons of choice.
However, I used the the same tools that were used against to defend myself and correct this problem. First, I found a way to shut off the criminal’s access to my phone. Then I contacted Craigslist and the FBI. Craigslist pulled the scammer’s account immediately and my FBI friend is trying to find the jerk.
DON’T LET THESE CRIMINALS USE THESE WEAPONS TO HURT YOU!
P.S.—Does anyone know of a small dog who needs a new home?
We love and spoil our fur babies rotten and
will welcome another one into our lives with much appreciation.
Let the encouraging words in these bobbiejrae posts help you
soar like an eagle above life’s storms.
Do you watch CNN or Fox News?
Identity theft repair 101 class…
Why so much chaos now?
My big promise…