I remember many years ago receiving an email from someone that needed a hypnotist to work with a sports team coming from the UK.  In it they said they would send two money orders for $10,000 and to take the amount needed for my services and send them back the rest.  I knew right away this was a scam.  I did receive what appeared to two money orders of $5,000 each.  I kept them both and didn’t send anything else back.  And most people would be able to tell right away that these were fake money orders.

A fellow hypnotist received the same scam and fell for it.  She deposited the money orders into her account and wired back nearly $7,000 to the originators.  Two days later her bank notified her that the money orders were fake.  She did not have the funds to cover the $7K she withdrew and was assessed a penalty.  Her bank account was locked and took her a long time to recover.

More recently, we’ve heard more of these relatives in trouble scams.  The media would report that some seniors became victims of scam artists from a foreign country in which a relative was supposedly in trouble and needed money.  In other cases, it would be a secondary person that posed as an authority that was helping the relative.

This past Tuesday I received an email:

Hello Bob Choat(Urgent)

Hello Bob,
We have to discuss about Alfred Choat.
Jianhua Zeng.

My response was this:

Hi Jianhua,

Tell Alfred he is no longer wanted here. Especially after he ran off with all that money. And ask him where it is. Please, do not send him back. If he is with you, keep him there.

B

I had to respond in a humorous way.  Hahaha!

Just beware of such scams, okay?  They tend to target seniors and people in the helping professions.  I think in both cases that I was a target of, they had no idea that I used to be a Los Angeles Police Officer.  Oh, and I had been taken by psychopathic con artists too.  Experience from both ends.

Now keep that awareness up and have an amazing day!

Bob