Indecent Proposal ~ My Rendezvous With A Local Scammer

This world in which we live in such a beautiful place despite where we are located geographically. I live on a beautiful island with equally beautiful people and once I don’t open the newspapers or watch the news, I really do feel like I live in paradise. I don’t even have to look very far, all I need to do is just open my door or look out a window. I am usually greeted with a breathtaking view of lush mountains, depending on what time of year it is, as sometimes it can be very dry, and even then it is still pretty awesome.

Unfortunately, though we are always surrounded by beauty, good music, and the joy of smiling faces, it can sometimes feel like we live in a jungle. And every now and then we can encounter a beast. Some are unfortunate to have face to face encounters that sometimes don’t end well. The one thing I am grateful for is that I have the wisdom to choose to be an optimist despite all the negatives. I believe for every one soul that chooses to embrace their evil side, there are a few thousand that are super amazing and do make positive contributions to making the world a better place. I also believe that we can attract our experience by the thoughts we give the most energy to; hence I always ask for guidance and pray that only that which is for my highest good be allowed to enter into my conscious physical reality.

I used to ask this question a lot, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” I can get into details re what I came up with thus far, but that is whole other discussion. My one big in-a-nutshell conclusion is, as Empaths, we tend to always see the good in every person no matter how evil they may be. But over the years I had to learn to see and accept people for the way they presented themself and equally make the necessary adjustments to protect myself from getting hurt or being in harm’s way. Today I no longer ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Whenever I come face to face with a negative encounter that may or may not have the capacity to devastate; my approach now is, “Ok God! What are you trying to teach me? What is my lesson? What is my role in this experience? Give me the guidance I need to navigate this experience”.

So here’s the juice on my interesting encounter. One Sunday evening I am at home, completely chilled and very much engaged, in a nice delicious conversation with a long time friend. We hadn’t caught up with each other in like forever moons. Our connection has about 30 years so it is definitely now in the category of a lifetime friendship and I am sure you know how it goes when old friends catch up (smiles). It was about 10:00.p.m when I looked at my iPad and saw an IG message from someone I also know very well, I recognized her photo and opened the message. It said, “My phone crashed, lost all my contacts, here is my number message me on Whatsapp”. I didn’t hesitate to drop my number in the message with a note that said, “I will message you in the new day”.

The next thing I knew I got a message immediately on Whatsapp, “Oye, it’s me Joan” (name changed to protect the privacy of the person) that was followed by a video call that looked like the person I know, the call lasted about 27 seconds and the face really looked like that of my friend, the person was butt ass naked. At the moment I was completely horrified by what I saw and briefly thought, Oh WOW! Our friendship just went to a whole other level. I honestly was not paying attention, even when the content of the chat became bizarre, to say the least. Over the years, I have developed very good open relationships with persons I know because I am generally not a  judgmental person, however, I am very curious by nature and sometimes a little naughty. (Come on now, don’t be pretentious, don’t judge, all of us have that 1/2/3 friend(s) that we can be super open, scandalous and transparent with, no judgment.) I politely engaged her as I was curious to know where the conversation was leading. She told me she was introduced to a very wealthy man by a friend of hers who is a police officer and this man supposedly on a giveaway money spree. He was paying $160,000.00 to women to get naked with him on a video call, ” All you have to do is, play with yuhself, pretend to be turned on, make noises, and make him jock off at least 5 times.” To which my response was, “Wtf!” She went on to reassure me that it was safe, her female police officer friend already checked out the person so it is a legit transaction, she said, “You know I don’t be on shit”. To which I rolled my eyes. I related what was happening with my friend who I was still chatting with and we had a good laugh at how ridiculous the indecent proposal was. I promptly texted, “Girl I am not interested, no thank you and good night”.

The next day my friend messaged me again, I was very busy at the time, so I responded in between my chores.  I inquired what’s up, to which she responded, “Here watching the man jock”. I facetiously asked, “Is he paying you more money?” The response was “Yes girl”. By then I was silently amused and responded with, “When you are finished having your fun call me.” To which the reply was, “I told the man about you, he wants me to introduce him to my friends and he’s willing to pay you double”. At this point, I really did engage in a hearty lol. My response was a very firm, “No thank you, not interested”.

Throughout the day the scenario plagued my mind, I wondered in and out of thought as to what was really going on with my friend and why did she appear so eager to engage me in something that was so ridiculously bizarre. At the moment I really didn’t give any of it my energy as I was engaged in a more realistic life-changing activity.  I became more suspicious when my friend at the other end of the chat continued to be very persistent trying to convince me how safe the entire transaction was. Because of her experience, she claimed she got paid the same day she engaged with “the man” and even sent in the chat, an ATM receipt, which reflected a balance of $162,390.64 after the withdrawal of a $100.00, this was her so-call proof that “the man” was really paying. But to me, that was not proof of funds transferred. I smiled to myself and continued to do what I was doing. Again I said, “NO THANK YOU, call when you are done having your fun, I need to know how much money you made thus far”. No response came in. And I went about my day.

My friend never called as requested, and I noticed some other weird patterns, the first was how the person greeted me “Oye”. I went back into my memory history and I didn’t have any recollection of my friend ever greeting me like that, (we actually rarely ever text chat and she never called me after a certain time). The more I thought of the content of the chat, the more uncomfortable I felt. My inner voice got louder at that point giving me specific instructions, so I decided to call my friend on the number I had previously saved for her, not the one that was being used to text me.

To my dismay, based on what she said she did on the weekend I knew I was never chatting with her. She was as dumbfounded as I was when I told her what had happened. I shared screenshots of the chat and even told her of the video call of the person’s face who really looked like her. In hindsight her body is different, she has small boobs and the person from the video call boobies was much bigger. Had I not seen the video image, the conversation would have been an entirely different one. Later that same night a client/friend, who is not connected to my friend, messaged me to ask if I had called her, I confirmed that I did not. I instinctively asked her to share the number with me, to my disbelief it was the same number that had been texting me for two days pretending to be my friend Joan.  She shared screenshots of the attempted chat, I was horrified when I saw the proof of the stinker who used a photograph of me to convince her she was chatting with me. I was not scared, I was pissed off and furious.

The next day I was able to gather some information re who the phone number was registered to and went to work channeling my Nancy Drew/Jessica Fletcher energy. Remember nosy Jessica from Murder She Wrote? I loved that show. Lol. Anyways, I did my own investigation and by the time I was done I knew from his own lips; where the fool lived, (next to Bull Bull Bar in Valencia) his date of birth, what he did for a living, (drives a taxi, scary) what his dreams were, apparently he fantasizes about being a soca artist, I know this so-call DJ/Artist name Super Pink. There was enough evidence on his FB page to link him to what he was trying to do to my friends and me, and other innocent law-abiding souls, which I picked up from reading the comments from his live FB rantings. My two other clues were, a number he had advertising face masks was mysteriously in our chat and the second one, the fool Whatsapp from another number pretending to be a LaToya, “Hairdresser, Jamaica”, I asked, “Where did we meet?” The chat went silent, it came from 868-292-7007. I always look at the profile before responding to a message and I saw a photo of a male, who is the same person who the phone number is registered to, whose FB profile I had/have full access to. I put together my report which included copies of the screenshot messages to the Police Station presented my case and made a report. I was really furious, furious for the inconvenience this fool was causing. I also felt really badly for the man he is impersonating who probably has no clue that some jerk was out there tarnishing his repetition. Then I remember to ask Spirit, what is my lesson and to guide me through the experience. What do they say, when life gives you lemons… This my serving of lemonade.

 

Here’s what I will share with you so you never get caught in the jaws of a predator/scammer or anyone who feels it is their right and privilege to make us law-abiding citizens uncomfortable.

1.  Know your power never succumb to fear, fear has a crippling effect, fear is the thing that will make you not speak out. And these types of things when they occur should be shared openly. You would be amazed, as I was, how many other women this jackass is harassing.
2. DO NOT give out your phone or any personal information to anyone on any social media sites unless you have an established communication feed going on. What happened to me I was caught off-guard, and my friend has a history of creating a new account if she lost her password. So on Facebook, I have about 5 different profiles of her. (Not by any means blaming her) If the message came from a new account DO NOT share your personal information. Use the old information to contact the person directly to verify whether or not the request came from a genuine source.
3. Block and Report the numbers immediately, but before you do ensure you save all the chat messages, in case you need proof when you are making your police report. The person has since been calling, which shows up as ‘No Caller ID’. And I understand from my other friends he used the 292 number to call pretending to be a Police Officer investigating a case of them receiving inappropriate text messages. I also received that call but I chose to block the number which I know all of them by heart. Rest assured only persons that are up to no goodwill block their number when making a call to you, as much as you may be tempted to answer, don’t, there is also a way to block calls that shows up with ‘No Caller ID’. 
4. If someone offers a ridiculous amount of money for you to perform sexual acts online tell them to FACK-OFF. No man will pay $160,000.00 to see a woman on the other side of a screen naked no matter how wealthy he is, especially when according to a male source, he can spend $1000 or less for an escort. Here are a few other problems that you will encounter with receiving a large sum of money being transferred to your account. You will have to provide proof of income to the bank. What would your explanation be for someone depositing that large sum of money? There will also be problems encountered for the person who is transferring that kind of money. Money laundering is a serious offense that can result in jail time. Don’t be fooled by the sound of large sums of money. I am this detailed because during my research I learned there were a few females who were caught in the jaws of this asshole. I am not going to judge those women. Money excites everyone, be smart if it sounds too good to be true, it ain’t no good, trust me.
5.  Be vigilant, I am a public figure and my social media accounts are all open to the public, as a way to promote my business. But I can still see who is hitting that follow or like button, if an account looks suspicious or the information on the profile is sketchy don’t hesitate to hit that block/report button. I have since gone through my followers and removed every private account, the ones that had no face and no posts. It was a tedious exercise, but it’s the price we have to pay. Numbers don’t matter to me if the person is not real.
6.  DO NOT send money to anyone especially if it’s someone you know well unless you can have a conversation with or can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person you are communicating with that is asking you for money because they are stranded wherever is the person you know. Unfortunately, the photos we post on our social media profiles are so easy to copy. I once received a gift from an ex I was no longer interested in, the package contained nicely framed, photos of myself and family members, none of which I personally shared with the person; when I query how he had my photos, he said, he saved them from my Whatsapp profile. Fortunately for me, the only persons who have access to my Whatsapp profile photos are my saved contacts, and I believe that has since been changed by Whatsapp, photos can no longer be saved, but screenshots are still an option. Adjust your settings so your profile photos can only be seen by your saved contacts. And be very vigilant. It pisses me off that the innocent always have to be the ones to adjust our lifestyle so we don’t fall prey to these idle ill-willed fools, while they freely do whatever the hell they want. It should be the dam opposite they should be afraid of us.
7. Pay Attention! This is not me trying to make any excuses for what happened, for all I know Spirit allowed this experience into my conscious reality so I can make you aware. One thing I am very sure of now is, it doesn’t matter how super aware or intuitive we are, we all have that one unguarded moment. Had I not been emotionally engaged and giving all my attention elsewhere, I am positive the person would have never had access to my number to contact me. I definitely would have scrutinized the profile beyond just looking at her photo and settling for the fact that ok, it’s her pic, so it must be her.
8. I would leave you with this, should you ever have this encounter, please DO use your social media platforms to expose the ills that some members of society try to impose on others, there is nothing to be ashamed or afraid of. DO make a report at the closest Police Station. Use the power of social media to share and help others to be aware of. I noted that silly videos will quickly go viral over something that is intended to and could bring about awareness to help/inform others. From the time I shared my story on my FB and IG profiles I was shocked at how many other persons came into contact with the same fool. 
9. Lastly, whatever you do, DO NOT take off your clothes for someone you don’t know or never even shared an intimate relationship with. Even if you are in a relationship, one should always exercise caution, some people can’t be trusted. There were comments on his posts accusing him of “releasing porn videos of females”  If you have not had a voice conversation with the chatter on the other end, there is no way to tell the other person at the other end of the line is who they say they are. Use wisdom. Make a phone call and if they refused to answer discontinue the chat immediately, don’t accept any of their lame excuses.

Quick story of another situation that occurred some years ago. I had a breather who used to call my phone, one night I was watching an action movie, unfortunately for him, he called the very moment the gunshot scene was on, I immediately placed the phone next to the speaker and turned it up. That was the last time I ever had anyone harassing me on my phone. Lol. Jackass!

Remember to be safe at all times, there is always that one unguarded moment, but I trust and pray that Divine Guidance and Wisdom will give you the knowledge you need to navigate something like this if it ever happens to you. I pray you will always be guided to trust what you feel and it will rise up in you with a burst of energy alerting you always when you have encountered a beast. May The Holy Spirit, Your Archangels, Angel Guides, Your Higher Intelligence whomever you believe in for Divine Guidance, may they always walk before you, making clear and easy your way. Love & Light. Be Safe!