Don’t Be Fooled! // I thought I was too smart to fall for an online scam By Raizel Scheiner

Parenting With Slovie Jungreis Wolff

I had a phone I didn’t need, and in my quest to have fewer devices cluttering up the house, I listed it on Facebook Marketplace, hoping to get rid of it and make a few dollars at the same time. I wrote: “LG V40 ThinQ phone. Used. Excellent condition. Locked to Sprint. $200. Pick up in Brooklyn.”
Within a few hours, someone expressed interest. As I always do, I clicked on the buyer’s profile to check if the person seemed safe. “Sherri Sillers” had just joined Facebook. The only thing posted was a weird profile photo, and there were several different spellings of her name.
I always trust my gut. I wasn’t going to let this person come to my door. Then I saw that Sherri didn’t want to pick up the phone. She (he?) wanted to pay $20 for me to mail it to Florida. Oh. In that case, I thought, why not? If Sherri would pay me first (which for some reason I couldn’t imagine happening), I would obviously be honest and send her the item. I told her as much. She asked to pay me with Zelle. I gave her my email address, skeptical that this sale would really pan out.
The following day she told me she had paid, and that I should check my email for proof. I was actually surprised when I found an email from Zelle in my inbox

 

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