Something About Nothing by Julie Seedorf

While pondering what scintillating subject I was going to write about this week, a story fell right into my lap. Well, not literally.

Besides this column and my books, I also freelance for newspapers and accept jobs from a freelancers website. Today I received an interesting job invitation. The invitation asked me to apply for a job as a veterans advocate for a congressional office in Colorado. Since it wasn’t a writing job, I logged into the site to turn down the job. I also thought it strange before I checked it out that a job such as this would be posted on this site.

After turning down the job the mystery writer in me decided to investigate further. The person that posted the job was from Nigeria. Well of course, we have all seen the warnings and didn’t Dr. Phil have a couple of shows on this? Others might have closed their browser, dismissed it and went on with their day. I decided to see what would happen if I reported it.

My first step was a live chat with the online company that usually sends me valid jobs.  They checked out my invitation. This person noted that companies and people from other countries often post jobs on this site. I explained I didn’t think a congressman from the United States would hire someone from Nigeria to post a job on this site.

The job posting was very detailed and well written. It looked like something that might have been copied from a valid job posting. After some back and forth conversation, the representative from this company assured me they would report it and investigate.

I decided to take it a little further and found the phone number for the Congressman’s office in Washington, D.C., and called that number. They did not know anything about the job posting I was invited to apply for,  but they were interested in the posting. They gave me the number to call in their local office and had me send the local office in Colorado the listing, the person who listed it, along with the website that I use.

I called the local office in Colorado and they were interested in the information. They were baffled that it had happened and knew the moment I mentioned Nigeria their office was being used in a scam.

I almost didn’t report it. But since it was a congressman’s name I was intrigued and still am, curious to see if they send out a notice or post warning people to be careful. The reason I almost didn’t report it is because I receive scams like this in my email, on my telephone and in the mail, on my blogs and website. It is a common everyday occurrence.

Usually I toss, throw, block, ignore. Since this was a site I trust and use, I didn’t want them to ignore it. I need to still be able to trust that the jobs I get invited to apply for are valid.

There is the word, trust. We are confused as to who and what we can trust anymore in this social media age. Are we Americans seen as gullible? And why do we fall for such scams, such as the women on Dr. Phil’s show that fell in love with someone they had never met and have been willing to send them hundreds of thousands of dollars? Are we so isolated from others in 2015 that we need to find any type of love that is offered to us? Are we so needy we are open to the scammers of the world?

I can understand when some of the elderly people fall for scams from scammers. They grew up in an era of trust. My 90-year-old mother herself fell for a scam. A crew stopped and told her that her basement wall needed fixing and poured black tar on the outside wall. I was out of town at the time and came home to her home having the black tar on a foundation that needed no fixing. They charged her a lot of money for what they did and they were nowhere to be found to take action afterward. The check had been cashed immediately.

The older generation trusts people are honest and for the most part they are. Today in this world scammers take advantage of the trust that the elderly have in the goodness of people.

I must admit this scam threw me for a moment. It wasn’t in a place where I would expect it.

Be vigilant in your trust in your personal life, online and in business but still remember that the majority of people are good. Don’t let those who don’t deserve your trust destroy the trust for the people in your life that are trustworthy and will make your life richer and more colorful.

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net. Her Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/julie.seedorf.author.