Way Too Good to Be True

I think I saw her blood pressure raise about 75 points right in front of my eyes when the sports channel announed Brett Favre's return to Minnesota today. Man, that guy just gets her goat. Ol' Number Four has returned to torture her for yet another year. "Selfish! Diva! Prima Donna!" she laments. He is truly a disloyal asswipe in her world, to be sure.

Some of you may remember I fell prey to "Toner Pirates" many a month ago, so there is absolutely no judgment here. I purchased a $500 canister of toner, so I know how good the scammers really are at their game.

The wife has been looking for Packer tickets. She has been searching all corners of the world, including popular web sites. Being the frugal consumer that she is, much time has been spent comparison shopping. Last night, she started to tell me about one particular opportunity, of which I did not listen to. It was via List de la Craig. Ignoring my indifference (what do I care about Packer tickets?), she sent an inquiry email to the seller in hopes of learning more about the too-good-to-be-true Packer ticket prices offered.

People! Whenever you think it's too good to be true, trust your gut. It IS too good to be true.

So, the wife gets a reply from some guy...who reportedly just moved to London. That's why he's selling the tickets. Since the name of the guy is a famous soccer player, that sure seemed suspect....but, she kept reading. She readily admits that she started to get sucked in--great prices, flexibility in purchasing of tickets, promise of buyer protection.....

I get home and she hands me an email regarding the tickets. I couldn't even get through the first two sentences. I kept saying, "this doesn't make sense," and she kept demanding, "keep reading!" I tried to get through it but couldn't follow the message--there was something in the grammar department that wasn't registering. Every time I would try to quit reading, she would direct me back to the email.

I put the email down and gave up. "I don't know, this sounds funny." Inside, I was thinking, "Please tell me you didn't buy these tickets!"

The wife then proudly announced it is indeed a scam. I was then educated on all the "red flags" included in the email: poor grammar, fake names, use of a third party, guaranteed buyer protection plans, ridiculous offers, stories of being out of the country for this or that reason, use of an escrow service....all signs that you should run quickly away. The wife, being the professor that she is, did a complete and thorough googling and learned that she almost became the next victim of on-line shenanigans. No out-of-the-country naughty tidbit is going to toner pirate her. She thankfully identified the situation for what it was and kept her money safely tucked in the bank.

As I love all of you beloved Addiverse participants, I want YOU to be educated, too. If you are buying things like tickets on-line, let the buyer beware. (You know, I was really miffed at the lady who was buying my billion-dollar Madonna tickets I was selling on eBay--she kept asking questions, didn't seem to believe me, wanted to see the tickets, was quite the nervous Nelly....now, I totally understand why.) It's a huge, huge, huge business to screw people out of their money. Fake web sites, fake third party arrangements, fake tickets, fake everything......

....the only thing that is real is your money.

Buyer do be aware! Trust your gut. Check the Better Business Bureau. Read about scams. List de la Craig does a nice job of explaining potential scams. Don't assume you think you are on a particular website--always look up into the address bar! Don't assume that if they aren't talking about Nigeria, it's not a scam. Don't get sucked into the moment.....if it is too good to be true, it most certainly is too good to be true. Run, don't walk, away from these offers. Adoringly, I say to you:

The money you save will be your own.

(Which, by the way, leaves you with lots more money to take the wife to a Packer game.)
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