A man has gone viral after playing the game of an online scammer to trick the fraudster into sending him money before donating it all to charity.
Ross Walsh is a clever student from County Kilkenny, Ireland, who came up with the perfect plan after being approached by an online scammer who asked him to invest in his business.
In an e-mail, the scammer who alleged to be ‘Solomon Gundi’ offered Ross a “business opportunity” like no other – or so he made it seem.
“Hello Friend, Pleased to be with you. I know this email will come to a surprise to you but permit me to desire to go into business with you,” Solomon wrote in his proposal.
“My name is Solomon and I’m big business banker looking to go into business with fellow enthusiastic business man. I want you to invest £1000 in my company for exchange for half business.
“My business is all about trading stocks. Last week I made a small sum of £35,000. You may wonder why I need £1000 when I have £35,000. I want to teach young business people my knowledge which comes at fair price. If you send me paypal transfer of £1000 we can begin immediately and become rich.”
Instantly realizing it was all a complete scam, Ross decided to play along and get the better of the scammer.
In his reply, the student claimed he wanted to pay more for Solomon’s knowledge, a whole £50,000 to be precise. He even went as far as faking a Paypal screenshot to make it look like he already sent over the money.
After Solomon complained he hadn’t received the funds, Ross played out the best part of the scam and told him he needed to pay £25 ($30) in order for his bank to release the funds.
Ecstatic by the idea that he would get the massive sum, Solomon complied and sent Ross £25. After the student got the money, he donated it to the Irish Cancer Society and thanked Solomon for “enabling more cancer patients to access free, confidential support.”
As Ross explained in an interview with BBC, this was the 3rd time he was able to get money from an online scammer.
“I’ll always give it to a good cause to get use out of the money because for all I know, that’s someone else’s money,” he said.
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Replaced!