We're all human: How I got scammed and how you can avoid it

It's not just naive grandparents getting scammed. It happened to me, and it can happen to you. It's embarrassing to me, but not too embarrassing to share it with you.

After I complained to PayPal on Twitter about an issue with my account, a PayPal representative (or, someone I thought to be a PayPal representative; more on this later) contacted me to help resolve the problem. Many companies are very conscious of their online brand and will take to social media to resolve problems. I've done this dozens of times with other companies so it wasn't at all surprising to me for them to contact me (in fact, just hours after this occurred, the legitimate PayPal help account contacted me for the same reason).

As you can already anticipate, the Twitter user who contacted me was not legitimate. Here's how it went down.

1. The "PayPal" representative asked for the email address associated with my account.

2. The "PayPal" representative "verified" my account by sending a code to my cell phone (you can already see how this is going down, can't you?!). It came from the same number that previous PayPal text messages have come so it must be legit, right? Of course it was legit...

3. I confirmed the code back to him. (Oh, wait. No I didn't. He has my email, he clicked a link to reset my password, and now he has my password reset code!)

Of course, I was suspicious about what happened, especially because he stopped communicating with me, but I hadn't thought the process through entirely. I'm not stupid enough to give someone my password, but I willingly gave away the password reset code because (without realizing it was a password reset code at the time) I felt assured that I was being verified with the code to my phone. So I asked my wife to keep an eye on the account just in case. In hindsight, though, it seems so obvious.

In fact, today we found an unauthorized transaction (fortunately, only one; which is being investigated and will hopefully be reversed). Account details and password have been reset. PayPal is aware of the scammer; his Twitter account has been suspended. 

But many more people will continue to fall victim to these scams. I know some of you are reading this and thinking "I'm smart! That could never happen to me!" If I was reading it, I'd probably think that too. But it can happen to you. It's hard to be vigilant 24/7. We're all human and sometimes we do stupid things. I didn't take the simple step of verifying the "PayPal" account (in hindsight, even I have a difficult time imagining how I simply took this for granted). The best I can do is own up to it so someone else can learn from my mistake.

Oh joy, a Craigslist scammer

Within one hour of posting my Jeep for sale on Craigslist, I got the following email (my comments are in parentheses):

From: "mah90250@sbcglobal.net"
Is it still for sell?.
(Nice grammar)

Me: yes

From: "Rebecca Rebarich"  (note different email address than the original email)
Thank for your mail. Am satisfied with your advert price (who says "advert price"?), as am requesting this transaction should be done via PayPal so the Pay Pal charges is on me. If my offer is accepted, Get back to me with your PayPal email and your name or send me PayPal invoice so i can pay you right away as soon as i conclude with my shipper. I am always busy at work and do not have much time around me to make or answer calls. Make sure you get back to me so that we can arrange for pick up as i will like the item to be picked at your residence location. Confirm the sales to me by removing it from the CL post.

My reply: cash only.

Her reply: Try and see reason with me, i don't have access to a post office over here (where is "here"?), i can't send you a check (I didn't ask for a check). I wish i have access to western union money transfer it would have been a very good option (but it's only a very good option for scammers) but am still on the base right now (the base? a military base?) the only access i have is by effecting the payment via my online paypal account. However, paypal is the world leading payment master that protects both buyer/seller interest (nice ad for paypal). You are on a secured transaction with paypal. Above all, it's like instant cash (oh instant cash! I've always wanted that!). Please i need you to visit their web site at www.paypal.com and sign up for your free personal paypal account, they will activate your email address to your paypal account and link it with your bank account so you can transfer and receive money online via you paypal account. Please go and activate yours it will actually cost you no money to do this. Do try and see reasons with me. I will await you update. Thanks.

Me: Please stop wasting my time with your scam.

Not that it will matter, but I flagged the initial reply as a scam.