Can You Say "Scammer"?

Over the years I've come across a number of situations that involved scammers or potentially a scammer. Below are three areas I have experienced this, but I'm holding one more situation that is the most interesting and questionable situation for a separate blog.

UBER DRIVER: 

For many years Uber has had a problem that scammers are contacting drivers on the driver app and pretending to be Uber Support which almost never calls drivers. (We call Uber Support which is our customer service and the riders too.)  Scammers have been able to convince some drivers to give them personal information and they emptied money from their Uber account that the driver had made.

I have probably gotten this call or text about six times in six years, but I knew it was a scam for two reasons.  I read about it on our Uber Facebook site and the scammers were clearly not as friendly as Uber Support.  

FACEBOOK: 

When I published my book a year ago, I was on many Facebook sites announcing the book and I replied to hundreds of positive comments about the announcement.  I also received a number of friend requests, some with a question about Uber or how they could get me as a driver.  I also got some scammers or people with questionable objectives.

I found that their Facebook site was usually very sparse in content. They frequently would message me in the middle of the night and would say, "How are you?" I did communicate with a few of them and asked who they were and what they wanted, but did not get a reply that made sense.  I also had two people with the same scam-they had just gotten money from a government program and saw my name on a list when they received the money.  I can't believe people fall for that. The second time I got it, I told the person I already had this scam.

PHONE CALLS ABOUT MY BOOK: 

I have probably received a couple dozen calls from so called different companies that want to market for me, represent my book in Germany, Mexico, or Canada, get me into more bookstores, or get a movie contract.  I have talked with them about my book and in almost all cases their deal involved me paying $700 to a few thousand dollars.  The record was from last week, $3,800, but they would take care of most of the costs.

The companies all had websites, but usually the person I was talking to was not convincing and did not understand what my book was about. I was interested in what they were saying and how they did it and I told many of them that they were not believable and I wouldn't be interested.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Anyone who knows me understands that I do not spend money quickly or easily, so I am a very difficult sell.  The important thing is to not give out any account numbers and a minimal amount of information. How many of these people who called me were really scammers? I have no idea, some of them could have been the same people. I did check their websites and some of them probably do marketing and promoting. By talking with some of them, it was easier to spot the red flags and things that may not have been real.