Scam!

Someone just tried scamming me!

I was on the computer doing stuff for an upcoming class reunion that I am organizing. I was on Facebook, emailing some of my contacts for their addresses. All of a sudden, my friend Mike started "chatting" with me. For those of you who may not have a Facebook account, when you are on FB you can also see all of your "friends" (or contacts!) that are also online at the same time as you. If you want to, you can click on their name and start a back-and-forth chat with them. Kinda fun, when you have the time.

Anhoosey, Mike logged on with a "Hi, Jill, how are you?". I used to work with Mike's wife Jennica, and that is how I know him. When I responded with, "Good, and you?" I received a "Not good" reply. I then come to find out that he and his wife have just been mugged at gun point in London, UK and all cash, credit cards, and cell phones were taken.

I am a bit skeptical right from the beginning as Mike referred to his wife as "Jenny". Nobody calls her Jenny. So I then just asked simple questions trying to get a little more information, one question being, "Why in the hell are you on Facebook?" and "Why in the hell are you talking to me?" It appears that this scam artist had all the damn answers in the world, as he told me that the only reason he was on Facebook is because the police were letting him use a public computer in the library of a hotel to contact any family or friends they could get ahold of. He said he hadn't been able to reach any of his family and "Would I please help?"

Well THANK GOD I watch Dateline! I responded with, "Please give me your wife's full name, maiden included. His response? "Are you verifying me, Jill? OMG!"
My reply?
"Yes, I am verifying you. I'm not an idiot! Give me her full name and we're good to go.

I waited about 10 minutes. By this time I know this is Bullshit. I'm mad. I get a whole whopping 45 minutes to myself during the day and I'm wasting my time on some A-hole from God knows where trying to get me to wire him money or something.
I then called my friend Jennica's number. GUESS WHAT?!?!? (You're never going to believe this!)
She was HOME! In MINNESOTA!

Apparently, her husband's Facebook and email accounts had been hacked into this week, and what stinks for him is that these jerks had changed all of his password and login information, so he hadn't been able to get into his accounts to change any info. Not quite sure what he is going to do with that....

I did get a response, and they did have Jennica's maiden and last name, which was especially scary. They spelled her last name wrong, so I'm sure they were scrambling. I basically told them in words I refuse to repeat here that they were big mean-head jerks and I hope that they would get caught. But my words were definitely not that nice.

Scary, huh?