About a month ago when I returned from the Eugene half marathon, I received a series of instant messages on yahoo instant messenger wishing me congratulations. Initially, I thought it was someone who heard of my unique accomplishment through a person I know (I am disabled in that I lack balance function resulting in a very poor gait and get double vision when exerting myself, so running a half marathon is quite a challenge. Further, it was a unique endeavor as I am a deaf athlete and out of 6000 runners, there was either a small percentage of us or perhaps I was the only one!)
So given my deductive reasoning, I just thought it a sincere and harmless congratulatory sentiment related to my weekend. Therefore, I made the mistake of adding that person to my buddy list online. I then began receiving many messages from that person and they finally caught me while I was online and responded.
It turns out that it was a scam congratulating me for winning thousands of dollars if I would only give out my personal information to meet their "laid down requirements". What the heck is a "laid down requirement" anyway?
Recently, a reader reported the same intrusion happening to her. It is the EXACT same format and very often the SAME wording! Of course she was a little less pushy and the conversation was more civil, whereas mine resulted in threats by the scammer that I was going to go to jail for not believing him/her. LOL
So the scammer is still out there. Please be warned and please be careful! DO NOT give out your email or personal information! That makes you vulnerable and susceptible to identity fraud which is actually a HUGE problem. Keep your info safe! eh?
To read both my experience and Heather's recent scammer attack, click on the words "Scammer Warning Post" to be taken to the original post. Heather has copied and pasted her IM dialogue with the scammer in the "Comments" section at the bottom of the post.
Scammer Warning Post
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