Aimeé
We’ve covered a lot of scammers on this blog.
Who can forget this classic:
Woman’s Twitter Thread Breaks Down How She Scammed A Scammer Back
Or this bit of righteous comeuppance:
Woman Trolls Scammer So Hard They Ask Her To Stop Texting
Something just so wonderful about watching a plan blow up in a con artist’s face.
Recently, Artist Brittany Everette fell victim to a scammer when her desire for a Playstation 5 outweighed the natural fear of sending money to a stranger on the Internet. It’s happened to many of us.
The PlayStation is desperately wanted all over the place and it’s in short supply. When she was contacted by someone selling the console, it seemed too good to be true, because it was.
“This guy (we’ll call him Henry) reached out to me saying he was selling his PS5 digital edition that his fiancé gifted him because it was the wrong version.
“He was selling it at the regular price too,” Everette tweeted, starting a long thread about how she got back at the man who took her money and sold her nothing but lies.
She does admit she had some hesitation at first, but she eventually agreed to send him half the asking price, then promised the other half upon arrival of the Ps5.
When she checked in with him about the shipment, he asked her to send the other half, because of his daughter’s medical bills.
A lot of people might have bailed then, but Everette is chronically disabled and understood how hospital bills can add up. She does ask for pictures of the shipping receipt, which he sends, but he holds off on the tracking number, promising it the next day.
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352410402253111296
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352410406745235456
But when she follows up, she’s blocked. Everywhere. She tries him on her husband’s phone and Twitter and just gets double-y blocked. Realizing she got scammed, she tries to get the money back via Apple Pay or her bank, but it’s no dice.
So, she tries him again, threatening to report him everywhere she can if he doesn’t send the money back by that night:
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352410433190297600
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352410445517303813
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352410457181716480
This is where Everette’s persistence paid off. She would not give up. She kept messaging him again and again. Then she realized that there were actually some things she could do to find that guy. She had that photo of the shipping receipt.
Using that, she found his name and address and email. And the emails of his family members.
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352410471400407041
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352410476752338946
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352410493433106433
She told him to send the money again, to no avail. So it was time to get his family involved.
She made up a fake law firm and sent every email she had associated with him a letter about the situation, threatening legal action.
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352410506175389697
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352410516459827201
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352426699531681795
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352426715105153027
A few hours later, her phone was blowing up with messages from this man and his fiancée:
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352426719211364359
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352426722650689536
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352426737662095363
The fiancée’s texts say that she is totally disgusted with her man’s behavior, and she is planning to leave him if he doesn’t return the money, because she can’t believe she is with someone who is out there scamming people for hundreds of dollars.
It’s very hard to break a scammer. The man is now texting Everette, trying to get her to “drop the charges.” Unfortunately, he is not putting his money where his mouth is and sending that cash back. He does tell his fiancée that he did, which only leads to more grief for him, because Everette has her contact number.
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352426741504094216
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352426753126522882
And that’s how she got back her $450.
https://twitter.com/_BeeEv/status/1352426764195270656
Everette told Bored Panda that she has reported him wherever she legitimately can, but “surprisingly, the authorities haven’t responded after I reported the scam. The only thing I’ve received are confirmations that my reports/complaints were filed.”
She has gotten a lot of support from her thread, however. Unfortunately, she still hasn’t gotten a Ps5.
