Scammed
NP 3-12-2026
“He felt his inadequacy to the goal he had so recklessly chosen and felt the attraction of the world he had abandoned.”
John Williams, Stoner
I was recently almost scammed. It was more my fault than the scammers; I was lured by my own desperation, for my need to feel needed.
Before I continue, I just want to blatantly remind everyone that hindsight is the only way anyone ever conveys a story, and I am mostly saying that for myself, to check any tales I may spin in one direction or the other. Hindsight is already going to do that for me.
I was searching for a job on Upwork, something I’ve only done minimally when I start feeling particularly worthless or lazy. Being as picky as I am, nothing seems to ever be good enough. I’ve been burned too many times and told too often that I shouldn’t give ‘it’ away; if I ever figure out what ‘it’ is, I will surely write the book (but I will not give it away). Thusly I submitted a proposal for a Virtual Assistant job for a publishing company called WordTech Communications, LLC. I am still unsure whether this company is legitimate; they have a website and claim to specialize in publishing poetry, but also have links to coding and writing code. And Javon Williams seemed like an alright guy(?)
Aside: please hold all red flags till the public shaming portion at the end of the lesson. Thank you.
It took them a day to accept my proposal, but upon accepting they were very excited to get me up to speed and working; I recall at least three instances where one of the parties expressed the need to act quickly as the work was already underway and needed swift attention. A quick (A.I. assisted) cover letter and a couple of attachments later, and I am ready to interview. Of course, I would be dealing with Neome Sanders and she would be willing to work around my schedule. It was all coming together, the dream and reality. Neome (or Christian, as she was now referring to herself) even advocated a raise in my hourly rate, from $30 to $35 per hour. They must have felt my charm and charisma through the ether, onto the internet and just couldn’t help themselves.
Mind you, I did some of my due diligence, digging into whoever this Christian person was, but she kept driving home that she was busy with all the work, so busy in fact that we would need to do a chat interview instead of a regular phone or in person interview. Fine, I was down. A quick survey (5 random questions about times I used my listening skills and attention to detail advantageously, I used an example from coaching my son’s soccer team, good stuff) and a couple messages back and forth, and I was hired. It all took probably 90 minutes, and I was off to the races, already planning to rub in my wife’s face that I would be making more than her at this part time job (if my math mathed right). I even signed an offer letter, having to wait until the next day as our home printer is currently either out of ink or just a home printer that never worked in the first place. But signed and accepted I was, by some stranger on the internet.
Christian (Neome was dead, if she ever existed) and I continued chatting on Teams while she awaited my signature, asking if I was excited about the work, giving the details on how I would procure a laptop, printer, full Microsoft Office Suite, even get a $300 signing bonus; they would send a check that I would deposit into my bank account and send confirmation of, then I would get with the certified vendor to get my stuff. I know you’re screaming at the computer, please bear with me.
Come next morning, I’m on top of the world; signing bonus, raise without having done any actual work, new computer. I certainly needed a win, this was starting to feel like one. And the coup de gras came when I actually tried to deposit a check onto my mobile banking app. Thank god for the robust anti-fraud division at my bank, because they quickly rejected the deposit from “Branch Banking and Trust Co”, but not before I sent the screen shot of my confirmation number which included the last 4 digits of my checking account number.
I’m sure you’re asking, ‘why can’t he see the multiple, massive red flags waving wildly in his face?’ In my defense, my wife did look at everything but the check they sent and didn’t seem overly concerned. My only excuse is my caveman brain heard ‘we need you to start right away’ and saw a check for $4200 and took over. A quick call to my bank (they locked me out of my account) and some rolls at the gym later, I’m fuming on Teams, taking the time to call Christian a ‘fucking coward’ because she wouldn’t take an actual video call from me, which got me temporarily suspended from the platform (I’m reinstated now, don’t worry) and report these fraudsters to Upwork and Teams. While I did act slightly irrationally in the hot blood of embarrassment, I believe I’ve at least helped to get this particular profile booted from Teams as I can’t seem to reach them or search through my chat history. But it still hurt. I will never forget the potent mixture of shame and rage coursing through my body, the childlike fear of feeling so used and manipulated.
That’s probably the best thing to come out of this ordeal, that and what I learned about myself along the way, which is that I am greenhorn at all this remote working, and I can be tempted by all those worldly things that I believe can’t affect me. Hell, maybe it’s just that I’m the sucker born in the last minute, that we’re all vulnerable to attacks at any time.
And my scam wasn’t even AI, that I can prove or am aware of. I’ve recently heard of the strides LLMs are making in replicating individual voices and affectations; I’m a techno-optimist and it kinda terrifies me if I’m being honest. That said, I’m not sure what to believe about myself after falling prey to such an annoying con. I was blinded by my need for a win, to be gainfully employed, to contribute. They knew that I wanted to get into publishing based on my online profiles, possibly based on my search history, and they took advantage of that need, that desperation I felt. Honestly, it’s almost as if my aforementioned primitive brain took advantage of that supposedly more evolved prefrontal cortex, equating job with survival in the heat of the moment.
The real kicker is I don’t know how many times I had to tell my PFC to calm down, that I ought to trust that this job will work out, that my overthinking would yet again keep me from another opportunity. It’s been hard to recover from that part, let alone all the subsequent scammy nonsense (locked bank account, suspended from Teams), and I can’t say last weekend was particularly enjoyable inside my mind.
But I’ve gotten back up. It’s my middle son’s birthday today. He’s a good kid and I can claim some responsibility for that, despite my failings as a parent. And at least he’s real, giving real feedback, good or bad.
If anything, I can rest easy in the fact that I haven’t tried to scam anyone online, and that I narrowly avoided falling victim to one of the oldest cons in the book. And now, feel free to abuse or disabuse me how you see fit in the comments below. I can take it.
Exhibit A:
