I always felt sorry for people who fell for online con-artists.
However, as much as I had sympathy for them, I always considered them a little naive – until today.
For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to get my hands on some tickets for the Six Nations game between Scotland and Ireland at Murrayfield which takes place this Sunday.
My daughter recently started university in Glasgow and I thought a trip to the game with her college pair would be a nice thing to do.
I’ve put out more lines of inquiry with friends and colleagues than Letterkenny Garda Station would in a year.
But not even Johnny Sexton appeared to be able to get his hands on the much sought-after tickets.
I did go online and see some pairs advertised for the guts of €500 but as much as I love my daughter, that’s a lot of cash to spend even on my middle child.
So when a reporter friend of mine sent me a Whatsapp screenshot of a Facebook post a friend of his had put up last night, I reached out.
The guys lives in Letterkenny and had won the tickets in a competition but couldn’t travel to Edinburgh because of work commitments.
I reached out to him on his Facebook page and noticed that I had messaged him before about another matter and we had chatted.
I told him by background and how I wanted the tickets for my daughter and asked him what price he had put on them.
He told me they were priced at €120 each which I thought was manageable so we agreed a deal.
He then asked me for my email so he could send the tickets to me digitally and even said to ensure I sent him the correct spelling of the email address as he did “want the tickets ending up with the wrong person.”
Delighted I asked him how I could pay him suggesting Revolut which he casually said was fine.
I called my daughter and she was over the moon. I was definitely a contender for dad of the year and couldn’t have been happier.
I don’t use Revolut so I asked my wife to send my new friend the cash.
She did and a couple of minutes later he contacted me by Facebook to say he still hadn’t received the confirmation about the Revolut payment.
I assured him it had been sent but his tone got a little more pressurised and he asked me if I really wanted the tickets as he had other people looking for them.
To cut a long story short I began to feel a little bit suspicious and called my wife and the payment of €240 eventually came back into our account.
It transpired that the local person’s Facebook had been cloned without his knowledge and I was talking to a con artist all along.
Just to get some sense of satisfaction I sent my scammer friend a few choice words which cannot be repeated here.
In hindsight, I looked back on the messages and there were a few tell-tale signs that I should have picked up on.
But, like so many others, in my eagerness to secure my tickets, I put any concerns I had out of my mind.
I initially thought of what a fool I was and cursed myself for being so foolish for falling for such a scam.
But then I thought to myself that these people do this as a living the same way people draw plans for new houses or serve customers in a shop.
They simply have a much lower moral compass than most normal people who simply want to get by and do the best they can for their families.
My message is simply not to beat yourself up if you happen to be conned by these scammers because you are not foolish and you have done nothing wrong.
You are simply another victim of this multi-billion euro criminal industry.
Dust yourself down, thank whoever that you hopefully have your health and friends and get on with your life.
By all means, take pity on these sad and tormented people but do not dwell on it.
In the meantime, my hunt goes on for two rugby tickets.
All genuine only please to info@donegaldaily.com and no scammers please!
SM
