He Threatened to Kill Me

Hi Scott,

I read your column on scams and wanted to share my story. I got a call a couple of years ago and knew straight away that it was a scam due to the guy’s funny accent, but I decided to play along for fun. I said yes to all of the questions and pretended to be really excited. After about thirty minutes I jokingly offered my credit card details and even the password to my online banking. I wish I hadn’t.

The guy on the other end of the phone was furious at being mocked. Straight away he went from nice to nasty and told me he was going to slit my throat! I was a bit unnerved but chuckled and said “but I thought we were friends now”. He began to threaten me by saying he knew where I lived and that his ‘boys’ would be around shortly. I doubted this but was still crapping my dacks a little.

I said I had to go now and hung up. The bloke proceeded to ring back about ten times in a row. I answered once again and tried to laugh and pretend I wasn’t worried. He told me I was the winner of the ‘Golden Casket’, along with a few more threats of throat slitting. So now when I get these calls I’m not a smart alec and say politely “not interested, thank you”.

Jason

Hi Jason,

Don’t think of them as harmless scammers.

There are reports of Australians who have been murdered in Nigeria trying to get their money back.

The truth is that they’re highly organised crime syndicates that are (collectively) making billions of dollars a year, and they have little patience for being messed about.

In the week after I registered my number with the scam website Bitcoin Profits, I received dozens of phone calls at all hours of the day and night. They’ve even worked out how to make it appear like they’re calling from an Aussie landline. Regardless, each time I politely said: ‘I know this is a scam, please never call me again’ and then I’d hang up. After a week they gave up.

Scott