"438"

I was contacted recently by a guy on one of the dating "apps." He seemed okay, said he was a retired flight attendant a few years older than I, and by the app's GPS only 33 miles away, and I offered him my cell phone number so we could continue our chat in locations where I know the apps just don't carry.

And then, not that far into the conversation, he writes,

"I really shouldn't be asking you this but I kinda am desperate.

"I need to transfer some of my savings to an account for safe keeping and I don't want my family to know about the money. I'll give you 3thousand if you can help me. You'll just keep it for a while untill I setup another account in another name."

Some alarm went off inside me.... this was the beginning of that old Nigerian scam. (Plus I realized that on closer examination, even that little bit of text offered a few clues that this guy's mother tongue was not the American English he had claimed.)

I refused and told him so, and he replied, "well, isn't this heart breaking." And his profile on the dating app disappeared.

Then it dawned on me, I had no idea where that 438 area code originated from. So I started to google it... I got the "438" typed, and Google offered "438 scam" among the options to pursue. Turns out that that Quebec-based area code is associated with a lot of scamming.

438-807-2833. If the owner of this site permits me to run his actual phone number, there it is.

Beware.

And I will be more cautious before I give my cell phone number to someone I have not met again.
By AnonymousBlogger | 09/18/2017 07:05 PM | 3 comments
Comments are disabled for this blog post.
  • Whenever a guy on an app immediately wants to text because "I'm not comfortable chatting here" I get suspicious. But then I am suspicious by nature and after 7 years of attempted scams I can generally spot them right off the bat. When guys claim to be from Cleveland or Dallas and their use of English is obviously not native, it's probably a scam. If they have a local city location but claim to be in Afghanistan, it's probably a scam. If their first missive is long and full of how virtuous they are and claim to have no family cuz they all died of cancer and their lover was killed, died of cancer, it is probably a scam. It is sad that one has to be so on guard but that is the reality today.
    txholdup 09/22/2017 09:29 AM
  • I've been approached with a similar scene. From this site, actually. He claimed to be American military in Afghanistan (back in the years of Bush Jr). He wasn't wanting bank account numbers, tho. Instead, he claimed to have connections to diplomats and wanted to send me hard cash via diplomatic pouch. Claims he just wanted to transfer money and not have it traced.

    As mentioned, we met on this site and exchanged private emails two (?) days later. Five days into email convos, he sprung the diplomatic pouch story on me. I didn't give out my address. But when I checked his profile here after said 5 days, it had been deleted already.

    I guess he balked at the fact that I was wanting confirmation of his story by at least sending me a blank email from a .mil domain instead of just a plain hotmail account?

    I've always wondered what the angle was. He wasn't asking for money in advance.
    OCalig 09/21/2017 01:15 AM
  • If anyone asks for anything involving money, it's a scam. Glad you didn't get hooked.
    BearinFW 09/19/2017 05:39 AM