Reading this was as satisfying as watching taken.
A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents
31–40 of 177 posts
Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents
#32It's the fact that the author paid in bitcoin that made this work. Most other online payment methods can be easily reversed with evidence of fraud. We deal with this sort of stuff all the time running cardforcoin.com. Social evidence is a great fraud deterrent. Edit: My mistake, I reversed the payment direction. All the author needed to do was call Apple to have the cards cleared and replaced.
Who did the author pay in bitcoin? The author received bitcoin from the scammer only after threatening to out the scammer to his parents. Your half-assed attempt at self-promotion is not contributing to HN
My mistake, I reversed the payment direction. I'm obviously a scum-of-the-earth shill and not someone who's deeply interested in the space commenting lazily.
Go through my profile and tell me I'm not a contributor.
Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
The assumption is that the scammers parents would react in a way that would make a meaningful difference and the very fact that the scammer is a scammer to me calls this into question. Best way to express your opinion about something with someone is directly, not by asking their parents to do so for you.
Do you have kids? My experience of kids is that they are greatly influenced by how their parents see their behaviour. Unless of course the parents have not built good relationship with their children, in which case the kids might not care a hoot what the parents think.
>> "My experience of kids is that they are greatly influenced by how their parents see their behavior."
Exactly, which is why it's very possible that the scammer behavior was learned from by the kid from their parents.
I actively engage people around me. I've tried the whole talking to parents way, and if you don't know them it's not uncommon for the response to be to mind your own business or worse, "Fuck you, I know how to raise my kids."
Beyond that, I've found that a number of parents with "good relationships" over estimate that the relationship is based on authority, not respect. This becomes obvious when the parent no longer has any authority over their children.
Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents
#34So he had no money, but he had an apple card for $477 and your $250 card with the balance? Sounds like evidence that he's scammed other people with this scam. Sounds like there are already other victims out there, sans justice.
Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents
#35Very good explanation of good opsec by you and bad opsec by the target!
Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have kids? My experience of kids is that they are greatly influenced by how their parents see their behaviour. Unless of course the parents have not built good relationship with their children, in which case the kids might not care a hoot what the parents think.
>> "My experience of kids is that they are greatly influenced by how their parents see their behavior." Exactly, which is why it's very possible that the scammer behavior was learned from by the kid from their parents. I actively engage people around me. I've tried the whole talking to parents way, and if you don't know them it's not uncommon for the response to be to mind your own business or worse, "Fuck you, I kno…
Assuming that the parent doesn't care helps nobody, though. At least allow the parent to fail.
Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents
#37Great detective work, well done! Like some others say I would have told the parents too. I've met scammers and some of these people will say anything to get away but then be scamming someone else the next day with a new account.
Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents
#38Tell his parents is precisely what you should do. That's what would lead to possible behavior change. Letting him get away with it validates the behavior and teaches that it's OK and he will be able to talk his way out of such things again. It does everyone a disservice to not tell his parents. The author got manipulated twice. First convinced to hand over his money and then convinced not to tell the parents. The sca…
The assumption is that the scammers parents would react in a way that would make a meaningful difference and the very fact that the scammer is a scammer to me calls this into question. Best way to express your opinion about something with someone is directly, not by asking their parents to do so for you.
The very fact that he asked for his parents not to be told probably means telling them would make a difference.
Unless that was more scammer bait to distract from the original intent to tell the police.
Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents
#39Tell his parents is precisely what you should do. That's what would lead to possible behavior change. Letting him get away with it validates the behavior and teaches that it's OK and he will be able to talk his way out of such things again. It does everyone a disservice to not tell his parents. The author got manipulated twice. First convinced to hand over his money and then convinced not to tell the parents. The sca…
The assumption is that the scammers parents would react in a way that would make a meaningful difference and the very fact that the scammer is a scammer to me calls this into question. Best way to express your opinion about something with someone is directly, not by asking their parents to do so for you.
If the kid acted in that way in response to his interactions with his peer group, then his parents could most definitely have an effect .
Re: A scammer stole $500 from me and in the end begged me not to tell his parents
#40Tell his parents is precisely what you should do. That's what would lead to possible behavior change. Letting him get away with it validates the behavior and teaches that it's OK and he will be able to talk his way out of such things again. It does everyone a disservice to not tell his parents. The author got manipulated twice. First convinced to hand over his money and then convinced not to tell the parents. The sca…
The message he sent to his brother was also sent to his mother, she just hadn't read it yet when the blog post was made.
The author wasn't manipulated twice, he didn't let the scammer get away with it. Although he should probably call the police.