A Scammer Tried to Sell Him a Fake Rowing Machine—So He Flipped the Script and Convinced the Swindler to Send Him Cash Instead
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If someone online ever asks you to send them money, don’t ignore the red flags. It’s almost too easy for scammers to try to scam people out of their hard earned money, and it’s good to trust your gut and refuse to do anything that sounds even mildly suspicious.
In this story, one man wanted to buy a rowing machine. He found one on facebook marketplace, and he ignored the first red flag. The next red flag was too obvious to ignore, so he did some research and decided to mess with the scammer.
Keep reading to see how he convinces the scammer to send him money. It’s pretty incredible.
How a scammer tried to recruit me and sent me money
Recently I’ve been more and more into fitness and buying used gym equipment on facebook market.
My next big purchase was going to be a top of the line rowing machine but my wife might have not approuved the price of it!
I finally found a deal on a great machine at the low cost of 750$ instead of 1500$! Maybe my excitement at this deal made me miss a few early red flags but this was too good to miss.
He ignored a red flag.
I start messaging this person and luckily for me the rowing machine was still availlable.
We start planning for a pick up the next morning.
This is where the first red flag appears which i brushed off out of excitement. The person requested a deposit of 250$ since the last person never showed up. And that she would “never scam someone out of their hard earn money”.
But ain’t no way in hell i was giving a deposit for a pick up the next day and also a sell on facebook! So I offered to do a interact transfer to her but i’d only give the password once I arrive in order to accelerate the transaction and the person agreed.
He didn’t ignore the next red flag.
Fast forward a few hours and she sends me a message that she hasnt received the transfer yet… Odd usually takes maybe 15 minutes.
I check my banking app and all looks good so I just tell her to be patient.
About 20 minutes later I get an email from “interact” saying that my transfer failed and to retry with this link.
Scammer bells ringing in my head ss im looking at this fishy email at the very same time the person replies : sometimes interact fails and you need to try again thru an email.
I mean how to make it more obvious you sent the email!
He did some research.
On an iphone you can long press a link to get a preview of it without actually clicking the link. So i did it with the email and it redirected to a fake interact website made with Wix ( wix is like a free to use build your own website tool) . So now im in full on detective mode! And i find way more red flags.
Facebook profile made in 2022
Adress leads to an empty lot on a road.
In the pictures the man hole covers arent from my country.
The person wouldnt understand everyday expressions we use in Quebec.
He had a plan to get revenge.
Now this is where my petty revenge starts.
Because of this scammer i have lost 3.50$ because i had to cancel my interact etransfer.
I had one goal and it was to find out where they lived and waste their time!
So i start creating my own fake etransfers and using grabify i create every link in the email to be a link that sends me their location and just redirects them to the interact main page. I even looked at old emails i had received from other etransfers and use them as templates for my new fake ones.
He found out where she lived.
After many back and forths the person finally clicked on a link and i got their IP and location : Benin , Africa.
I then asked them how the weather was in benin and they stopped answering so I went to bed.
I woke up around 2AM to the sound of my crying baby and as i was putting her back to sleep i look at my phone to find multiple messages.
-Oh you know benin! -have you ever been to benin? -have you ever worked with people of benin?
It’s ridiculous for her to expect him to trust them.
So i start answering back that i had only ever been to morocco, and never had the chance to work with people from benin.
She then asked me if i would be insterested to work with them for a 25% cut of all transactions. aka a money mule where i would receive the money. Take my cut and send them the rest.
I told them i would be interested (with the goal of wasting their time) but since they already tried to scam me, i dont think i can trust them, so i would only consider it if they sent me 50$ as a sign of good faith!
She said that it was not possible and that i shouls trust them.
He got in touch with the boss.
I replied saying that i thought they were a serious business or maybe she just didnt have the decision making power to make it work with me.
I guess this got her because she sent me her boss’s email in order to deal with him!
Once i got in touch with him he said he would only do it if he sends 50$ and i send 25$ back as a trial for the transfering system and that he trusts me.
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I replied “i would never scam someone out of their hard earn money!”
Here’s how it worked out.
So then he sent me 50$ etransfer :O I was so hesitant with this last link because it seemed actually legitimate. I figured if i click on it and it redirects to my banking app it was actually real.
And turns out.. they actually sent me 50$ !!
Then i blocked them from every place they contacted me and paid my wife and I an awesome supper!
Be safe and dont get scammed!
Wow! That’s crazy that he actually got a scammer to send him money!
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person loved the story.
Another person wants to see their reactions.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who finds his parking spot at a hocket game in jeopardy from a rude driver.
This is a good point!
One person jokes about the scammer’s reaction.
There never was a rowing machine. He was smart to research the scammer and get revenge. I probably would’ve just blocked the scammer. I definitely wouldn’t have sent any money ahead of time.
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