I would like to think throughout my years I have been pretty impregnatable with scammers. At one point I kept a scammer thinking he had me and posted my story online for all to see only to send him big naked black Barry sitting on the bed with his big slong hanging out in the end which the scammer was not happy about. I was always concerned for my parents with scammers as they once bought magic beans off a travelling man but they have not been scammed as of yet. Even with crypto I have not been caught that much. Maybe a couple of memecoins in Solana but that is to be expected. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is a duck unless a token hard forks and gives you free new tokens. That normally saw me well over the last decade.
But alas I am sorry to announce that I have been scammed. Oh I fell for it hook line and sinker and it was aided by a friend of mine unbeknownst to him. So here is what happened and how I fell for it.
I was looking for Coldplay tickets for the upcoming stadium tour in Dublin at the end of August. I have seen Coldplay before and they are excellent. I have been into Coldplay since the beginning Parachutes is still one of my favourite albums. And their albums after their debut one was good too. I know they have gone all poppy in recent years and it is cool not to like them but I still like them and will make no apologies about it. Their last Glasonbury gig was considered the greatest live performance in the history of Glastonbury so they still have it. Plus I am into the shows myself. I love a load of bright coloured balls bouncing all over a stadium and be giving a wrist armband for a light show and that is what Coldplay bring, It's not just the music. Its the whole spectacle. Anyways.
Tickets were like gold dust and sold out in minutes last year so I said I would pick a couple up on the open market for people who had to cancel. So I put out the feelers amongst some people in the music scene and they said they would get two for me easy peezy.
So a few weeks ago one of my friends contacted me saying that a friend of hers on Facebook was selling two tickets. She was a good skin (person for people not from Ireland) and would not screw me on the price. €100 each. €200 euro for two. Perfect I said and I asked for her details. My friend sent me their post on Facebook and I promptly messaged them hoping I was not too late. The girl Mags text me back and said they were still available. Great I thought and I asked her how she would like to take payment.
Revolut she said
Great I said.
But I would like it on the Revolut card and not sent to me by an @magsoshughnassy
Fair enough I said. Now I did not know of another way to transfer to a Revolut card but she sent me the details.
Now if I stop there I should have smelled a rat here but I did not. She asked for my ticketmaster account details to transfer the tickets after I sent the €200. Grand I said and I gave her the details.
A couple of minutes later she said she had a problem transferring the tickets to Ticketmaster because they were charging an admin fee or €30 per ticket to transfer and wanted this amount to transfer. Ok no problem I said and transferred her the €60.
Now if I stop there I should have smelled a rat here but I did not. €260 plus Revolut fees so far.
A few minutes later Mags contacted me saying the €60 still did not go through. If I sent another €60 it would release the 2nd €60,
THIS IS WHEN I SMELLED THE RAT!! It had just dawned on me that I was in the middle of a scam. I text my friend telling me that his friend Mags from Facebook was bleeding me dry. My friend said NO WAY. She's a lovely person with two kids. He rang Mags asking her what the story was and this is when the real Mags said she did not know anything about any Coldplay tickets.
I told fake Mags that I wasn't going sending any more money to her and cut contact. I contacted Revolut but the thing about them is that they cannot chase dodgy payments. The banks can but for some reason you are on your own with them so be careful changing your bank to them fully. If you lose money on your credit card with the bank , it is still their money so they will chase the scammers through the seven seas for the funds and will refund you. With a debit card it is harder because it is your money and not the banks so the banks do not care as much. This is why it is better to bring credit cards on holidays. Revolut basically told me to contact the police and that was it. So I contacted the police and they just gave me a number in case they ever do come across anything and that was that. Down €260. Maybe not the worst scam case but it is the principal of it all. I am gutted that I got caught and my friend is more gutted for giving me a dodgy contact even though it was a fake Facebook account that disappeared soon after.
When I got home the night of the fraud my wife asked me how we are going to get a hotel for Catfish and the Bottlemen on the end of August as the hotels in Dublin were expensive as it was the same weekend Coldplay were playing. FML I thought as my original plan would not have worked anyway as I have unknowningly doublebooked us. I took this as a positive. At least we are not going to bloody Coldplay!!