It has been a crazy week. A few hours ago I was in a blue funk. One of those times where nothing makes sense, no one who can help me, and not seeing any thing to make sense of what I am feeling. I can count on one hand how many times, this year, times like this one arose. I am not a sad person and tend to be in a pretty balanced mind-set. Loneliness and depression just do not arise much, in my life. Tonight, though, they really washed over me and there was nothing to do about it, except sit quietly and breath through the anxiety and sadness. There was some anger, too, and a desolate feeling, of a lack of trust, toward fellow humane beings.
It happens to all of us, sometimes. It feels like you are the only one in the world, experiencing withdrawal, and no one is able to re-connect the dots for you. Actually, you don't want anyone around you because you are too fragile, too sad or hurt,. A touch would completly imbalance you, as this is one of those soul searches only you can figure out. It is your lesson.
Life and human actions overwhelmed me, this week, and the reasons for why people are the way they are, at times, caused anger, frustration and a need to withdraw from all interactions.
I lie on my bed, in the dark, looking at the ceiling and say things like, "God, what am I going to do?" or "Why did they do that?".
You all know what I am talking about here. It is a silent scream to the cosmic powers, and another human cannot settle the disturbance in your soul. It has to be done by myself, by yourself, and somehow, if we are bold and brave enough, we get up off the bed and do something, to rid ourselves of the morose, anxiety about what IT all means, and eventually, a resolution or universal truth whispers inside our hearts, and I pray, that the truth won't hurt too much.
For the past 4 or 5 weeks, I was selling some gym equipment on EBay and Craigslist. A woman decided to buy it and, she ended up being part of an international internet and bank fraud scam ring. I spent time with the fraud department of the Southside Bank in Tyler, Tx., since the check, from this ring, was from an account of The Overhead Door Company, at the bank.
The wire transfer number on the check was correct but the bank account number was fraudulent, however, it all appeared so real. Fortunately, if some stranger sends me a check for $2,150.00 more, than what the price of my item is listed for, I am not prone to run off to my bank, cash their check, and have a Western Union Money Order wired back to them, the same day.
I verify the check, first, before I hop in car and run up to my bank. Anyway, not to bore you with the unraveling of the scam process, it did involve a few hours of discussion with the Southside Bank's fraud department, my local sheriff, who came to the house to look at the check and paperwork, the UPS Fraud Department, and an hour's conversation with a friend who needed to hear about the "almost got screwed" event, of the week.
In order for someone to fool you, take advantage of you, a good way to go is to create some type of horrific, life event for themselves, so that there is a sense of empathy created between you. In this way, you tend to become more understanding of why a buyer would, inadvertently, add an additional 2150.00 to a check for a 350.00 item.
In this case, the bank fraud scammer emailed me to say that her mother was just killed in a traffic accident, and she just wasn't thinking. It almost worked, except for the fact, that the note that came with the check, from The Overhead Door Company, was written poorly, had numerous misspelled words, made up words, poor composition, and incorrect verb tenses. I know that is common with a lot of writers, when they are in 2nd grade Composition Class, however, this was supposed to be a Texas business. Nah...it just didn't seem right.
Their big mistake was to demand (their verb, not mine) that I take the check, cash it, and "immediately" send it via Western Union. The thing was, this woman, never mentioned The Overhead Door Company in her emails.
Up until I opened the 1 Day Air UPS envelope, Overhead and myself had never come across one another. Do I want to run a 2500.00 check through my bank without finding out if it is good? No. Especially, since this woman claimed to not have a PayPal account, either.
Southside Bank's fraud dept. said there have been hundreds of checks, using their bank wire number, made by these defrauders, over the past few months. The FBI is involved, as the checks have return labels, from New Hampshire, the gang member wants the shipment sent to San Diego ( which is probably a parking lot), and the UPS 1 Day Air letter had a point of origin in Missouri. The FBI arrested a woman a while back, who had fallen in love with some guy online, and he had asked her if she could print off his business checks, on her printer. How smooth are these thieves?
Anyway, on top of this little adventure with the internet underground, one of my visiting baby deer was killed tonight, on the road, and left there by a cruel, and hopefully, soon-to-be unlucky person. How could they just leave baby deer lying on the side of the road? Her mother has been in the apple orchard all day, lying on the ground or just standing staring into the forest, and I know she is crying in deer-way. She is sleeping next to the apple tree, alongside the office window, now. So sad.
Things have happened this week, which have made me less enthusiastic about humans, on the whole.
I just needed to write about it all. On top of this, finances are tight this month, and if you happen to have an extra couple thousand dollars, lying about, just send it to my PayPal account: codekas. Now, that would be a miracle. True, money does not solve everything, however, I am depressed and you really do not want to read another blog like this one, until maybe, another 6 or 7 months down the road.
God-willing, the fraud ring will be stopped, somehow. The police officer told me a lot of folks are getting scammed by a group who emulates a PayPal email, telling you their payment from EBay to your PayPal account has been deposited. However, if you check closely, the senders' email address is: PayPal International.com. Totally bogus.
I need to balance out now. Time to meditate. Blessings, All.
No comments:
Post a Comment