Scamming A Scammer

I've encountered scammers on several occasions, both online and offline. In fact, in this part of the world, it's very rare for you to go an entire month without having an encounter with a scammer in one form or another. As we all know, the aim and objective of all scammers is to play on our intelligence and cart away with our assets, valuables, or accounts, but on one of such occasions, when a scammer tried to play smart on me, it was funny how the table took a drastic turn and I ended up being the one scamming him off his cash.

Yes, you read that correctly, I did scam a scammer, so it happened that one day I was stuffing through my Facebook account watching different funny videos to while away the time, and during those minutes I got a message from the Facebook account of a very close friend of mine, although I know longer reside close to this friend, but we're so close to the point where I can decipher when he's the one chatting with me and when he's not, so rather than our usual way of greeting each other, which is how far ode meaning Whatup fool, this scammer sent me good afternoon, buddy.

From that singular message, I knew something was odd, but I didn't immediately realize his account had been hacked; instead, I thought he's trying to act responsible for the first time, and I was about to reply with an abuse in our usual way that fool, who are you speaking big grammar to, but while I was still busy typing that message, another message that popup made me certain that I'm definitely not chatting with my friend but someone else.

The next message he sent was that he's sorry for not being able to attend my wedding ceremony, and now the naming of my child, Now, to a normal person, it would have seemed like he truly is my friend, but then I knew he only got that information from my comments on his last Facebook post before the account was hacked. What the scammer didn't know was that the comments were part of a plan between me and my friend to convince our other friends that I got married in their absence and that, though he was aware, he was unable to grace the wedding because he had an important project given to him to perform at work.

Before those comments, I and my friend whose account was hacked had both talked over the phone to plan how the prank would seem real to our other friends, and this hacker using the last chat in that comment as collateral for me to believe him was what gave him out completely, but rather than tell him point blank that I knew he wasn't my friend, I played along and told him it's not a big deal, that I understood his explanation, and that put the hacker's mind at rest that he had gained my trust, so he started his main objective of scamming me.

He told me he lends someone money from his workplace account. When it's time to pay back, the person isn't forthcoming but rather gives him different excuses. He said his employer at the office had already threatened to lock him up at the police station if he didn't pay back the money before the next day. As he typed all of those messages, I was just laughing, but when it's time to respond to him, I do so as though I am shocked and feel for him. I also acted worried and inquired about how he'll pay back the money, which he said was 100 thousand naira, but he'll appreciate any amount I can use to assist him, which he also promised to refund after some months.

I responded that I really wish I could help, but he has known me as someone who doesn't keep cash and also doesn't use to collect ATM cards from the bank, so I won't have the urge to go withdraw. Seeing those messages, he just obliged that he's aware of that being my nature but that I should help him, so I said the only solution is that I'll have to go to the bank to withdraw the money from the counter, and if that were to be possible, then he'll have to please send me 1000 naira that'll be used as transport fare to the bank.

He started grumbling that he doesn't really have much and he's just trying to gather the debt he's owning, and I told him point blank that I don't have any cash on me, but if he sends the 1000 naira to my neighbor's account, then I can take the money from my neighbor to use as transport fare to the bank. As he heard I'd be giving him ₦50,000 out of the money, he quickly requested the account he'd send the transport fare to, and I sent it to him.

In less than 5 minutes, I received the alert and told him not to worry because I'd soon be on my way to the bank. It was after 2 hours that I later responded to his numerous messages, and I told him to call me so I could explain the situation to him. He kept giving different excuses why he couldn't call. I'm not surprised because I know he doesn't even have my number, and neither will he sound like my friend, so calling will give him out.

To cut a long story short, after 5 hours of different messages, I told him to stop disturbing me. I'm aware he's been a scammer from the onset, but I only played along so I could teach him a lesson from his life. On seeing that message, he was literally annoyed and started seeing me loads of abuse and curses, but I was careless; instead, I kept sending loads of laughing emojis.

It's funny how he wanted to scam me but failed, and now he's angry with me for turning the table around and scamming him instead. I just kept on laughing, and later, when I called my friend who owns the account that was hacked, I related all that happened to him, and we both laughed all over again.

That's about all for now, I hope you enjoyed the read, have a wonderful day.

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