I just fell for a scam

So I just lost 574.00 to a travel agency scam. I feel like shit. I'm currently doing all I can to try and get my money back, but it's looking like nothing will happen. Has anyone else been fooled by a scam? How did you guys recover from it ( emotionally, cause honestly, being scammed feels like shit).

Damn man, that fucking sucks. I can say that I've never been fooled by a scam (hopefully never, fingers crossed) but I did have someone hack into my bank account a couple of years ago. I think I lost around $5000 temporarily during that incident. Ever since that happened I made it a habit to check my bank account everyday. I'm also super cautious about any "deal" I find on the internet that isn't from something I trust.

Luckily I haven't been scammed, I'm interested in hearing how it happened

Sorry duder. D: That sucks.

I haven't fell for a scam, but my Battlenet account was hacked before and that totally ruined my day. I got it back the same day it happened, but the hacker left his dirty mark all over my achievements and blacksmith in Diablo III.

What was the scam?

A few years ago my younger sister got scammed by a 'travel agency' saying she'd won a trip and all she had to do was pay the taxes on the airfare and accomodations, which totalled something like $350 US, luckily we managed to get the card frozen quickly before the transaction actually went through. Is this the crap they pulled on you?

I felt awful when my sister called to say "You'll never guess what just happened, I won a trip!" and I had to tell her to hang up, call her bank asap and tell them she'd been scammed/that her credit card may be compromised.

You dummy.

(That really sucks)

Yeah, I'm curious too, if you don't mind.

No, but my parents fell for the Kangen Water scam and spent $4000 on their water filter... 4k... that could've gone to ME... a college student... those idiots.

Or it could have gone to something useful.

ba-dum-tsss

I haven't, but I know someone who has been caught up in a pyramid scheme. You know, one of those recruit other people to sell a great product, even though no store would stock it. I tried explaining when said individual tried to recruit me, but he thought I was wrong and was under the assumption that it's not a pyramid scheme because an actual product was being sold. I don't know how much money was lost--it really isn't any of my business--but the website magically disappeared along with any other traces of the business and its founders and this individual had bags of this product just taking up space.

@mustachioeugene: That's exactly what happened to me... I had that great: "I JUST WON SOMETHING FOR ONCE!" feeling, but by the end of the call I was basically 600 dollars poorer. Technically I could still go on some 5 night vacation to florida if I pay my flight, food, taxes, expenses, etc. but I'm not going to.

Edit: Except I just realized, what they made me pay was a "registration fee".

@themessibeast: You should probably stop answering the phone if you fell for that. It would also be a good idea to stop checking email as well.

That's the oldest trick in the book m8. You need to work on your scam resistant mentality.

Don't ever move to China, OP, because you'll get fucked in no time. I get on average two to three scam calls every fucking day. That's the average, mind you; the bad days are really fucking bad. It's like those fuckers have a quota to meet whenever extended holidays come around. The fact that telecom companies will sell your info to advertisers, which is an accepted reality, just makes things even worse.

But, hey, you live and learn, right?

Scammers are dirtbags. Here's hoping that you get your cash back.

I dust off the rage and humiliation, and move on wiser.

How did you pay for it? By card? Your card company or bank should have means to respond.

I got scammed by a "friend" some years ago. She convinced me that she needed help paying for Easter for her two daughters after losing her job. I wired her around $200 to take care of everything.

She never paid me back, and it turned out she had used the money for heroin instead of getting anything for her children.

I've had people attempt to scam me on eBay, almost get away with it too. Luckily, eBay and PayPal are pretty good about fixing that sort of thing when it happens, and I got my money back. It was for about the same amount as well, around $500.

If you paid with a CC, I'd call them up and reverse the charges.

You're protected on Credit Card but not Debit Card.

I too, would like to know what the scam was.

Also, just call up your credit card company and do a charge back. If you paid with a debit card, if it was issued by Visa or Master, see if they'll do a chargeback? Otherwise, call the bank.

I believe that depends on the bank. Some banks have protection for such plans depending on what kind of account you have.

I got scammed buying Bravely Default.

If it makes you feel better I lost over 600 dollars last week when a check fell out of my back pocket without me realizing until about 40 minutes later.

Yeah, honestly I was an absolute idiot for falling for it, but there were some strange motivations (I really wanted to take my family on a vacation, like reeeaaaally badly. I wanted to stop being the leech that I am and instead give my family a "magical vacation in Florida"). I even had a terrible moment as I was reading off my credit card info where I literally asked, "umm, why am I giving my card information to you?" and the girl's replied with a rapid-fire response about the registration fee, and the various bonuses I would get for registering right away etc. At the end of it all, I was so lost in it all that I didn't hear her mention the "non refundable" part and the actual cost (I thought the registration fee was 100$, but that still doesn't excuse anything).

Basically, like a lot of you guys have said, I just gotta brush off the shame and sadness and then learn from the dumb shit I did. This was really nice though guys, definitely made a shit day a lot better to hear that I'm not the only one, and to have some dudes to write to about this.

As standard Credit Cards are protected against scams and are required to by law, a standard bank card will have no such protections and you'd need an array of protection alongside and bespoke products from the bank/insurance companies that if you had that kind of cover you'd probably know about it.

If you haven't already (or aren't already on hold), call up your credit card company ASAP and report it as a fraudulent charge. I can only speak from my experience with U.S. Bank, but they are really good about issuing chargebacks.

If it's a credit card call your card issuer and dispute the transaction.

Yeah, I think excitement is the most dangerous part of a scam. If you really want something, logic can go out the window. I also must admit I fell for a scam and still feel stupid about it. Back when the Wii first came out, I fell for the hype, but of course, it was sold out everywhere. I bought it from an "auction" on yahoo, thinking that there can't be scams on yahoo. Yeah, how incredibly wrong I was.

I fell for this scam too.

That's a real bummer. Only use reputable travel agencies like this in the future.

But in all honesty, and without knowing what you're financial situation is like, you'll feel like a dummy for a couple of days but you'll come out being smarter with your money in general. Think of it as a temporary setback, they'll happen for all sorts of reasons. Just gotta bounce back.

In the US & Canada, debit cards with the Visa or Mastercard logo carry the same fraud protection as if they were credit cards.

My uncle was scammed by a travel agency once. It wasn't even a prize or anything; he tried to buy plane tickets for his family and the whole agency disappeared when the money went through. Buyer beware, I guess.

Living in Florida there are a lot of phone scams. I get calls every now and again about how my bank has been compromised and they need my full credit card number and information. Its most assholes out of state targeting old people.

I took a class in high school, and I remember my teacher teaching our class a rule of thumb. If you ever have to pay anything you have "won" its a scam.

I can help you with that. Just give me $200 and I can plan the trip for you.

Man, that's a real shame. It sucks that some people are such scumbags. Just keep on keeping on, I suppose. Good luck with everything. Hopefully you can have some luck disputing the charges.

I know someone who was a victim of a similar scam recently. It sucks having to instinctively not trust humanity, but sometimes that's what you have to do. As long as you learn from the experience, at least you got something out of it. Hope you get your money back as well, though.

I recently read about a scam that I could easily see myself falling for. You check into a hotel, and see that someone has placed a room service menu under your door. You call the hotel using the number on the menu, your food never arrives, and a thief now has your credit card number.

It's a reminder that you should never give information to anyone who calls or e-mails you first, and you should even be careful about where you find contact information in the first place.

That's rough man. I've never paid any of that "You've won X" stuff any attention, but I had a friend who's aunt repeatedly fell for scams. She seemed to just be the type who'd get so caught up in the idea of receiving money and was so naive that she'd keep giving out her credit card details to people.

Were they offering you a "free" vacation or something?

Did they say, "Hey, you'll get a free vacation, just pay us $100 to register. By the way, there are $3,000 in fees. The hotel fee. The airplane fee. The food fee."?

I just booked a Disney vacation. I exchanged emails with the agent for weeks, who is associated with someone I work with. There was a $200 booking fee which was not-refundable, but I was also given a price up front for everything (sans air-fare, since I was handling that.) before giving any money. She never put any pressure on me to buy.

But the moment anyone starts to get pushy about a sale, especially if it sounds too good to be true? I'm out.

Were you able to get a charge back?

Good thing you paid with your credit card. The back will fight tooth and nail to get the money back because in their eyes it is their money that they lost, not yours.