not too good to be true

Last week, I got an email in which a mother was looking to find a tutor for her daughter. I get a few of these emails every couple months, so that was nothing new. She wanted to know what I charge per hour; ok, fine. Finding my rates acceptable she wants to know how much it costs for three weeks, three times per week, two hours a day; ok, get a calculator, but ok. It's $495 if I have to make the extra driving I say, and to her and to her husband this is acceptable; we have a deal, she says. She wonders if I can help her by taking $1,950 in leftover funds from the previous tutor who had to quit because his wife died and then for me to take the difference $1,455 and send it via money order to the travel agent for her daughters travel expenses to come into the country from the UK. Well, really I just want to be paid for my bit, I say, and I don't want to be involved in your daughter's travel arrangements, I say. Am I missing something? Isn't there an easier way for this to happen? Why are you trusing me with nearly $1,500 to a total stranger that you don't know?

She says her husband and her trust me, "especially with money", and it would be a big favor because of the hassle to transfer the money into dollars or some such thing. Now, generally, I'm a nice guy, a trusting guy. This is strange, though, and I say so.

Of course, the money order she sends me is fake. When I give it to the bank I don't know any better, and I'm glad the bank is kind enough to see me for the sucker that I am (and not be mad for handing them a fake money order). I'm glad that I have enough sense to find out that they are fake before I write the money order to the "travel agent". I'm sorry that I let it get to this point, but I have to ask: where did I go wrong?

I realize that I've actually heard of this scam before, in NYC. My dad had a fax machine and he would get a one page fax that said, "I'm coming to America from my home in Kenya and I need someone to write a local check to the travel agent. I'm sending you $2,000 and I need you to write a check for $1,400 to the agent and you can keep the extra $600 for your trouble."

Obvioulsy a scam. Later, recently, I find out that a friend of a friend was taken for $2k when she did the same thing for someone who was going to sublet her lease for six months and needed the money for travel expenses. The cleverness of this new twist is of course that the victim really does need someone to cover $4,000 of rent that she is leaving town and she WANTS to find someone to sublet the apartment. She wants it so bad that she believes the scam artist to be true when he sends $5,200 and says he needs the other $1,200 sent to a third party, or even more clever when she gets the $4,000 and a last email saying that the person had an emergency and needs $800 back (out of the $4,000) and that she'll get paid the other $800 later if that is ok.

What I think is important is the artistry of the "crime". The fact that the line between the totally reasonable need for a tutor and the obvious scam is blurred with such finesse. This scam artist even gives a local adress and it seems that you are not getting $500 for free, but in exchange for a service. I think of myself as intelligent, even recently, and I think that this event has been heavily on my mind, hence the need to blog about it. The fact that it was as close as it was creates a lot of discord in my understanding of things. I'm freaking out when people call and when I get an email like, "is your name REALLY john?". I'm trying to realize what has happened so that I can be better prepared for it; I'm trying to assimilate this new, poignant information into my greater understanding of the world. Being nearly the victim and certainly the intended one has tarnished my otherwise "everyone in the world is inherently good" attitude. Which, of course, sucks. I really don't want to be the guy who, after getting the 'can you tutor my daughter' email, is like: I'll need two social security numbers, a certified letter of intent, and your mother's maiden name. Hopefully, in the next couple days I'm sure I can find some kind of balance between my earlier trusfulness and recent suspiciousness.

It used to be that "if it is too good to be true, then it probably isn't". I guess what the new saying is is that: it no longer has to be too good to be true. Just watch out, everyone. Stay alert and keep yourselves safe. Let your conciousness be full of order and your discord come in manageable amounts. Love you all,