I Got Scammed Too

I Got Scammed Too – by Carl Vonderau.

Scammers play with your doubts and use your best intentions. I learned that in a movie written by David Mamet called “House of Games.” In that film a psychiatrist helps a compulsive gambler, and is led into a world of scams.

I was working with a Canadian bank in Mexico in the early 90s. I arrived in Mexico City on a Sunday and was strolling through the city’s busy tourist area. A tall thin man about my age (I was young then) stopped me. He was wearing a white flannel suit jacket and was American. He said he worked for an investment bank and was doing business in Mexico when someone stole all his money. Now he needed $300 to purchase his plane ticket home to New York. I suspected he was scamming me. But it also seemed so unusual that American in Mexico City would do that. I asked him about his business and he threw out some investment terms I wasn’t familiar with. That didn’t help me determine if he was real. I needed more proof. We got in a taxi and he sympathized with the fact that I didn’t know him or what he might be doing. I asked which investment bank and he had the taxi driver go to the office of one of the big ones—I don’t remember which. I believed him then. Or at least enough that I would feel guilty not helping him. perhaps it was more the fear of guilt than a a desire to be charitable that conduced me to help him. We went to my hotel so I could get the money. I debated never returning to the taxi but couldn’t do that. I handed over my money and he gave me a telephone number where he lived in New York. He also took my card and promised to pay me back.

After I got back to my room, I called the number in New York. It went to the voicemail of a man with a completely different name. I never got my money back.

 

 

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