Mar 14, 2023, 6:57 AM
(My Real Name),, I am reaching out from the Financial Assistance Department, where I have been assigned to assist with your recent application for hardship assistance. I have reviewed your application and am pleased to inform you that you have been pre-approved for up to $37,000 in financial support. Our program is designed to provide unique opportunities to those facing financial difficulties, and I would be honored to assist you in enrolling. To that end, I would like to schedule a call to discuss the details of the program and answer any questions you may have. If you are available, please call me back at: 855-435-5235, to schedule a convenient time for our call. I will be available during normal business hours, 9 AM to 6:00 PM Pacific Time, and will make every effort to accommodate your schedule. I look forward to the opportunity to speak with you soon and help you take advantage of this exciting opportunity. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely, Godiva Disessa - Financial Assistance Department
There are so many many many ways to dissect this, I hardly know where to begin.
There are so many many many ways to dissect this, I hardly know where to begin.
The Financial Assistance Department of what, I wonder?
I haven't made a recent application for hardship assistance. I'm not feeling much hardship right now, not more than anyone else faced with the high cost of gas (forty cents a gallon cheaper at Costco than QuickTrip this morning, but edging closer to $4 for regular once again) and airfare ($2000 for my grandkids and their parents to visit us, using one mileage-paid-for-it ticket) and eggs ($7.99 a dozen yesterday at Albertsons).
I'm thrilled that someone wants me to have $37,000. I just don't know why it's not $38,000 or $29,000. Is there some magic algorithm that indicates I'd be delighted with just that amount? This is a question I would love to investigate more fully, but I don't have the skills or the imagination to know where to start.
What do you suppose the unique opportunities might be? Crypto? Telemarketing? Selling Cutco knives? Inquiring soon-to-be-debtors want to know these things.
Social Security has sent emails and snail mails warning me about scammers preying on the elderly. My younger friends don't seem to receive these solicitations as often as TBG and I.
This email reminded of Daddooooo, who wrote a check to every charity that sent him a set of address labels or a key chain or even just a charming letter pleading their case. He didn't have a lot of extra cash, and he was a sucker for a sob story.
Those small checks he wrote to starving children and medically underserved patients and veterans needing prostheses seemed legitimate, if somewhat of a financial stretch, for a couple on a small fixed income. But the requests were legitimate, even if they were generated by selling lists of donors.
Godiva Disessa, on the other hand, comes straight out of the How to separate desperate people from their money playbook. Were I in dire need of cash, no doubt I'd return her call. She seems pleasant enough. She's willing to meet me when and where I am. She's not shaming me for needing help, she's offering it at my convenience. And what are those opportunities?
Curiosity killed the cat.
I'm deleting the email as soon as I finish typing this post.
The only unique opportunity I see is for them to rake in another idiot - only it won't be you!
ReplyDeleteThere are a plethora of such scams and unscrupulous people...I think Terry has gotten into one of late--an assistant to keep track of all his medical appointments, procedures, medicines, etc and all paid for by Medicare, or so she says. I've told him it's a scam because this administrative assistant has done nothing but call and chat with him. He finally took my advice and quit answering her calls. I was concerned he might be giving her personal information that could lead to more scams.
ReplyDeleteEvery morning my spam bucket in my Yahoo account has somewhere between 5 -15 requests like this one. I don't usually open them, but I have to give credit where credit is due, this one is pretty good for the obvious scam it is. And then there are the weekly calls from the Medicare scammers, don't even get me started on those.....
ReplyDeleteI have received some scam emails that seemed pretty authentic and convincing. After looking them over with due consideration, I have deleted them, then wondered for a bit if my internet or whatever really would be shut off It can be disconcerting.
ReplyDeleteI switched from Yahoo to Gmail to receive less spam and that worked on the email end. Surprisingly I don't get many telemarketer calls or texts on the cell - although recently for the first time I received the "your Amazon account has been locked" text - LOL! We do still have a landline and receive LOTS of calls, but we don't answer any of them. We have VM and if someone knows us they'll leave one - "the unidentified caller" calls are highly annoying but they're all from scammers. Sure wish Congress could do something about these people!
ReplyDeleteI got the exact same email but from a different name. It went directly to spam
ReplyDelete