I would like to think throughout my years I have been pretty impregnatable with scammers. At one point I kept a scammer thinking he had me and posted my story online for all to see only to send him big naked black Barry sitting on the bed with his big slong hanging out in the end which the scammer was not happy about. I was always concerned for my parents with scammers as they once bought magic beans off a travelling man but they have not been scammed as of yet. Even with crypto I have not been caught that much. Maybe a couple of memecoins in Solana but that is to be expected. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is a duck unless a token hard forks and gives you free new tokens. That normally saw me well over the last decade.
But alas I am sorry to announce that I have been scammed. Oh I fell for it hook line and sinker and it was aided by a friend of mine unbeknownst to him. So here is what happened and how I fell for it.
I was looking for Coldplay tickets for the upcoming stadium tour in Dublin at the end of August. I have seen Coldplay before and they are excellent. I have been into Coldplay since the beginning Parachutes is still one of my favourite albums. And their albums after their debut one was good too. I know they have gone all poppy in recent years and it is cool not to like them but I still like them and will make no apologies about it. Their last Glasonbury gig was considered the greatest live performance in the history of Glastonbury so they still have it. Plus I am into the shows myself. I love a load of bright coloured balls bouncing all over a stadium and be giving a wrist armband for a light show and that is what Coldplay bring, It's not just the music. Its the whole spectacle. Anyways.
Tickets were like gold dust and sold out in minutes last year so I said I would pick a couple up on the open market for people who had to cancel. So I put out the feelers amongst some people in the music scene and they said they would get two for me easy peezy.
So a few weeks ago one of my friends contacted me saying that a friend of hers on Facebook was selling two tickets. She was a good skin (person for people not from Ireland) and would not screw me on the price. €100 each. €200 euro for two. Perfect I said and I asked for her details. My friend sent me their post on Facebook and I promptly messaged them hoping I was not too late. The girl Mags text me back and said they were still available. Great I thought and I asked her how she would like to take payment.
Revolut she said
Great I said.
But I would like it on the Revolut card and not sent to me by an @magsoshughnassy
Fair enough I said. Now I did not know of another way to transfer to a Revolut card but she sent me the details.
Now if I stop there I should have smelled a rat here but I did not. She asked for my ticketmaster account details to transfer the tickets after I sent the €200. Grand I said and I gave her the details.
A couple of minutes later she said she had a problem transferring the tickets to Ticketmaster because they were charging an admin fee or €30 per ticket to transfer and wanted this amount to transfer. Ok no problem I said and transferred her the €60.
Now if I stop there I should have smelled a rat here but I did not. €260 plus Revolut fees so far.
A few minutes later Mags contacted me saying the €60 still did not go through. If I sent another €60 it would release the 2nd €60,
THIS IS WHEN I SMELLED THE RAT!! It had just dawned on me that I was in the middle of a scam. I text my friend telling me that his friend Mags from Facebook was bleeding me dry. My friend said NO WAY. She's a lovely person with two kids. He rang Mags asking her what the story was and this is when the real Mags said she did not know anything about any Coldplay tickets.
I told fake Mags that I wasn't going sending any more money to her and cut contact. I contacted Revolut but the thing about them is that they cannot chase dodgy payments. The banks can but for some reason you are on your own with them so be careful changing your bank to them fully. If you lose money on your credit card with the bank , it is still their money so they will chase the scammers through the seven seas for the funds and will refund you. With a debit card it is harder because it is your money and not the banks so the banks do not care as much. This is why it is better to bring credit cards on holidays. Revolut basically told me to contact the police and that was it. So I contacted the police and they just gave me a number in case they ever do come across anything and that was that. Down €260. Maybe not the worst scam case but it is the principal of it all. I am gutted that I got caught and my friend is more gutted for giving me a dodgy contact even though it was a fake Facebook account that disappeared soon after.
When I got home the night of the fraud my wife asked me how we are going to get a hotel for Catfish and the Bottlemen on the end of August as the hotels in Dublin were expensive as it was the same weekend Coldplay were playing. FML I thought as my original plan would not have worked anyway as I have unknowningly doublebooked us. I took this as a positive. At least we are not going to bloody Coldplay!!
Catfish and the Bottlemen? Jaysus, who needs Coldplay!:)
I am not sure whether you are a Catfish and the Bottlemen mega fan or you are being sarcastic. 😆
That's horrible. I am sorry you had to go through that. I don't think you should have to count Solana memecoins as being scammed. Like you said, that's just the way it goes with those things.
Yeah true, The Solana memes are self scamming. haha
Not funny when it happens and your mate must feel like a proper turd. I do get nervous buying match tickets because those are hundreds of pounds now and there is always a risk.
Apparently 8 people in my town alone fell for the scam as well. Anyone trying to sell real Coldplay tickets are gonna find it impossible now to sell them haha
Sorry... but welcome to the club! I guess with enough attempts we all lower our guards at some point.
ughhh this was a sickener because it was a referral from a good friend so I saw no danger.
My mother is targeted by this kind of scammers every once in a while. But I told her to ask me every time someone asks her for her personal data, friend or not. And she listens. She doesn't pay anything online, I do it for her. But I have been scammed with a "trading site" some years ago, for example. Deposited a few hundred, made profit and couldn't withdraw it. They changed the rules to something absurd to withdraw. After a while I discovered others began having the same problem and it became/was a scam.
Oh I heard of those. Easily done. I think these guys are all on Solana now just making memecoins.
Could be, lol!
Ooft, scammy bastards! They are everywhere. That's why it's so easy to get caught out even if you are a suave savvy internet pirate like ourselves!! At least it was only 260!
Surely by now us front minded in dividuals into crypto and all that should have built up a group of hackers that are on Hive to retaliate against these people?? But alas...
Our own anti hack hacker army. Aye, we should have.. Them we we l could buy a volcanic island somewhere and use it as our evil lair!! 😀😀
Buy a couple of white cats. Kinds among men we will be. Scammers think twice scamming us again. Would be worth the millions required to build said lair.
The white cats alone would be worth it. Big plump bastards with grumpy faces. That will show them!
Sorry for your loss.
That´s why Revolut can be so cheap. They just skipped the service part :)
I've been telling everyone to avoid switching at all costs so I'm after costing them a good chunk of potential income. It would have been easier to have just giving me back the funds. Then I would be switching myself.
😂