I Was Scammed Today

I feel so stupid. This morning I got up early to do some professional writing. I opened my email and then I opened Facebook. After doing the "fun stuff," I planned to get to work.

A sweet person I know who is in my Facebook account popped up in the chat window. She said she had a financial emergency. She'd been mugged while on vacation in London and needed to borrow money to get back to the U.S.

I told her I had no extra funds, but would do everything I could do to help. I began writing announcements and blog posts announcing her emergency. I even called a person I knew who lived in London who I thought could help her.

It took about 3 hours!

Then I wrote the email address she gave me as contact info (she said her cell phone was stolen and to contact her via email) to let her know of what I'd done to help.

She wrote me in response to that email and told me it WAS A SCAM! She didn't need any money! Someone had broken into her Facebook and email accounts and had contacted all her friends!

I wasted 3 good hours on a Sunday!

I feel very violated. I was talking to a total stranger in a Facebook chat window who was pretending to be someone I knew!

No more live chats for me!