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Friendship…

Cyranny

facebook-friend

 

Not so long ago, I got a friend request on Facebook. Martin Allaway  wished to be friends with me, and I must say, I felt quite honored.

Mr Allaway was an 82 years old Scottish man, and need I say, a man of God. He was severely sick with a terrible case of lung cancer, and desperately needed me to spread his hardly earned wealth to different charities.

Wow! I accepted his friendship gladly, and we started exchanging messages right away. He was very eager to share banking information, because of his short life expectancy… But I kind of disagreed. I prefered to get to know each other a little better first. I wrote long messages about my hopes and dreams, and my exciting job, and he insisted that he had tons of money to give to the poor, and needed me to stop the chit chat and get to business.

Some friends of mine had doubts about Martin. I was a bit disappointed in them, but I did search Mr Allaway’s profile just to prove them wrong. Ok, he only had one picture, but he wasn’t from the selfie generation! Not many friends? He was 82! Most of his friends and family were probably dead… To say the truth, it didn’t take me too long to check his information, because there was very little to verify.

Martin wrote to me everyday, long messages about the inheritage he wanted to leave to the sick and the needy. I eluded the subject for a while, trying to convince him to come visit me in Montréal… But it seemed that his health issues didn’t allow him to travel this far. I suggested that I could come and see him. That way, we could really bond, and then I’d feel more comfortable taking care of his money! I could just imagine going to Loch Ness together, and giggling, taking pictures wearing matching kilts…

But it always came back to the money, and I must say I felt a little uncomfortable. It seemed to me that Martin didn’t know me enough to give me such responsabilities… What if I wasn’t good with money and the like?? He couldn’t tell so fast if I was worthy of his full trust! I sure didn’t feel that trustworthy! What if I was tempted to run away with his fortune, after having him transfer all of it into my French Canadian girl’s bank account??

The old man kept telling me that he knew that I was a child of God and that I would handle the task just as he had planned it. That’s when it hit me.

“How have you found me, Martin?” I asked my good friend one evening. So glad to share the good times with my Scottish pal, I had forgotten to check why he wanted to be my friend. We had no mutual friend, and nothing in common…

Martin tried the “God guided me to you…” reply a couple of times. But I doubted that. God knows I am not the best fit for that kind of “take my wealth and spread it to the poor” quest. I for one, would have chosen a banker, or a lawyer, or someone with a tie! And I am pretty sure God is better than me at taking decisions…

And suddenly, the messages stopped! Just like he had popped into my life, Martin disappeared.

I was devastated.

I did a little research. I found some information about a Martin Allaway trying to cyber-scam people in Pittsburgh. It was totally him!! 82, soon dying of lung cancer and claiming to have lots of cash to give to the poor! It was my Martin!!

I understood…

What a shame… Losing a friend over such a detail. It was kind of my fault too, I had expressed such excitment, knowing he was from Scotland. Martin probably felt terribly guilty for not telling me he was in fact in Pennsylvania…

Geez, I miss Martin.

 

 

Penguin Prompt: Week 7 – Friendship

 

50 thoughts on “Friendship…”

  1. I think his cousin tried to hire me for a contract to build a website… only his graphic designer couldn’t accept credit cards so he was gonna pay me 10 times my fee so I could then in turn pay the graphic designer in cash… seemed about as legit as could be to me but my friends advised against working with him. Poor Martin and his whole family!

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  2. I think I know Martin’s great nephew once removed! He’s a Pennsylvanian living in Scotland and has all these funds to disburse to “good people’ who will do God’s work and share the wealth! We’ve been talking for a while now, and I am concerned about him…he’s called Marvin..very close to Martin that’s why I think he may be related. Poor boy has a canker..I think he means cancer, but his spelling is awful! It could be a result of his brain surgery on his gluteus maximus! He just had the surgery last year you know.

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    1. LOL I’ll take this as a compliment, sweet Giant! you really believed my story?

      Well in fact, I did talk for a while with a scammer like that, and pretty much all the story is true, except that I knew all along about the scam, and just kept him on the hook because during the time he wrote to me, he wasn’t bothering someone gullible 😉

      PLUS, it was quite entertaining…. 😉

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    2. Now Colin…the way you just asked Cry that question makes me feel as if you are trying to keep Cry from getting the money she so richly deserves! I bet you KNOW where Marvin lives, don’t ya?

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    1. It would have… Except the man was a fraud, and he ignored me just because I made it clear that I was aware of the scam he was trying to pull on me 😉

      In other circumstances, distance would have been a sad reason for losing a friend, though…

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      1. I did get that…I was trying to be funny. LOL I don’t think that came across. oops! Fail. 😉 😉 😉 😉 I had a prince follow me on instagram. He has fancy photoshopped pictures of himself with exotic animals. I’m more offended that he thinks pictures of himself with wild animals is anything less than cruel and would impress me than I am with the fact that he is clearly a fraud. I mean come on Prince…know your audience!) ❤

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    1. Hehehehe Thank you 🙂

      Yeah, I joke about it, but a lot of people do fall for the incredibly weird stories these scammers pull out. Manipulation is an art, and some people have no shame in using it to do harm to others…

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  16. So a few days ago, I got an email from a woman who claimed that she found me on LinkedIn. I thought she wanted to talk about some professional thing, so I replied back asking how I could help her. She replied with this totally cheesy mail giving me random details about her life. She said that she was from the US and worked in the army and was in Afghanistan for some mission. (Being from US, her english wasn’t that good, it clicked me something was wrong). In that mail, she attached two photos of herself. (I did a LinkedIn search for her name trying to match with the photos she sent. but didn’t find her). She asked about me and I gave some details about myself in another mail.

    Then came a third mail from this lady which made me feel that she was a lesbian and was somehow attracted to me (Ok I get weirdo thoughts). However, one thing in that mail clicked me. She said that she doesn’t use social media. It struck me hard that she had not even replied to the questions I had asked her. She was all blabbering about how she wanted to be friends with me. I also ignored everything and asked if you aren’t using social media, then how come you found me on linkedin.

    Then came the revelation– she claimed to have some thousands of dollars and wanted me to help her transfer all of it to my country. She sought all bank details, and various proofs. And I just decided to leave it there.

    I am very suspicious of random ppl sending msgs and mails and getting over friendly.

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