Alternative Payment Scam

Alternative Payment Scam

There are literally hundreds of scam techniques that have already been established, but as long as there are humans who want money and have no moral compass to guide them, there will be new scams.

This scam is yet another variant on the older Western Union scam, using an Online service that Western Union started called Money Gram.

Jimmy wants to buy the product.  He asks for the condition; a normal question on this app.   He sent the seller a question about two different products that the seller had available.

The first clue that Jimmy might not be a legitimate buyer is his poor mastery of the language in the last comment "do i will no what to do".  It's not obvious what he meant by that comment and might just be the translation program that he is using, did not translate into English from whatever language he was using.

The next statement is also somewhat confusing, he says "and how seriousness are you".  If it is not already obvious the word "seriousness" although it is a real word is not used in the correct context here. A skilled speaker of English would have said "And how serious are you?"

Again, Jimmy uses incorrect language when he replies "Sound great". Although the seller could have ignored the comment because he probably knows that smartphone screens make typing difficult.

But the error is in the fact that he requested a form of payment that the seller does not know use.  In this case, the seller states that he does not wish to use Alternative Payment methods outside of the ones that his post has listed.

The seller did not fall for the scam because he referred back to his original post for payment methods.   He apparently knows which services that he can use that are reliable.  The buyer did not continue this conversation after the seller decided against his suggestion.

Final Thoughts

It is important still to discuss what can happen in these situations so that you, the reader can be aware of what can be said to convince you of a lie.  It's not that you should be hyper-skeptical, but to be aware of false pretenses is good to keep you from harm and hardship.  

The more we as a society can keep ourselves from these scams, the less often they will be used and in time they will diminish.