Page 22 - Discover Fall 2020
P. 22
Kate’s Corner CONTINUED
it, but I wouldn’t send $15,000 to my real 5), the guy knew my first name and the
grandson, at least not without involving a name of the grandson he was impersonating.
lawyer, the police, the FBI, and his parents. His opening words were flawless, but in
answering questions off script, an accent
Anyway, the flimflam man on
crept into his voice. He also clearly knew
Messenger soon confessed that, indeed,
nothing more about my family than a couple
he was not Jane but actually a man living
of names. What galls me is that we probably
in South Africa. DAH! What was really
have accepted some of these creeps into our
interesting to me, however, is that he also
colleges... on scholarships.
admitted he had paid a sizable amount of
money for the “program” he was using, The cleverest of the bunch was
which is designed to cheat Americans out one who hacked my daughter-in-law’s email
of their hard earned cash. He needed to at account. He knew that she was traveling
least get his money back, he whined. I could abroad. Using her last name, he targeted
smell fear in his words, so I rubbed it in a each family member in her email contact
little that he, himself, had been swindled - list. The message to all of us was that her
by people in his own country to boot. How passport had been stolen and she, of course,
did it feel? That’s when he switched from needed help financially. “I’m writing this
stealing mode to begging: with tears in my eyes,” is how it began.
“Please send money. I’m very poor,” he Again, after just a couple of
finally wrote. questions, it was obvious that I was not
corresponding with my son’s wife. Either
I asked him why he had turned to a
that, or she didn’t know that she only had
life of crime, and why was he so poor? Was
one daughter. The messages were coming
it because he couldn’t get honest work, or
from South America. All I had to ask was:
because of bad investments like the program
“Are your daughters both with you?”
to con people. He said there were plenty of
jobs; they just didn’t pay enough. He answered “Yes”.
I ended up sending him a Christian I caused as much anxiety and grief
prayer (The Act of Contrition), some for that crook as I could over a three-day
budgeting tips, and warnings of what bad period, including telling him that I had
karma can do to a person, both now and in wired the money to the address he gave me,
the afterlife. I also warned him that he’d and it would be there by late morning the
have trouble sleeping over the next month, following day. The last day of the charade,
because I was putting a curse on him. I I couldn’t resist one final poke in the gut:
guess it came across as a lecture, because “Did you get the money I sent?” I asked in
he told me to stop writing to him. When I an email.
didn’t stop, he refused to answer any more of
A return email came back cursing me.
my messages.
It made my day. Obviously it was a major
Some of these con-men have done inconvenience and disappointment for him
their homework. On two of the Grandma- or her or them when they went to collect a
A ma r y l lis pile of money that never came.
Amaryllis
my-nose-is-broken calls (I’ve received about
20 Discover Smith Mountain Lake FALL 2020
