Recently, I spoke to you all about the iPhone 15 Pro Max giveaway scam that is running rampant on social media platforms like Instagram, and X, and that triggered a thought – Why not use this platform to make people of every age group, wary about the various ways scammers are trying to rob people off their money. This way, not only will you stay vigilant, but also be able to help those who are no too tech savvy.
In today’s blog, I am going to talk about the Reddit money lending scam, and trust me, this one is as deadly as the giveaway scam.
I am a regular user of Reddit as it is a treasure trove of information, about absolutely anything and everything under the sun. It is a platform where you can fearlessly voice your opinions about things that are of your interest, or also share ideas with like-minded people through dedicated subreddits. Sometimes, if you have enough content, you can start a subbreddit of your own, and share your niche ideas for other people to interact with, and in such cases, you end up building a community of your own.
When used for the right reasons, Reddit is an amazing platform, but just like every other social platform out there, there exist nefarious characters, who are on the platform, just to scam and rob their way to some quick bucks.
So, the other day, I was browsing through the various communities (subreddits), and came across one titled ‘PayPal Donations’. Now, by the looks of it, the objective of this subreddit was simple – People who are in dire need of money, put forward a post with their money request. Here, one of the most important aspects is that the user is expected to explain in detail, the reason for their request, and whether or not, they will be able to return the amount at a later date.
After browsing through the posts, I found that there were some who absolutely needed money on an urgent basis, and were willing to return the amount once the job was done, while there were some users who just needed a donation, plain and simple. In such cases, the donor must keep in mind that the money will not be returned. It will be more of a charity offering. Both the cases are fair and legal, but the subreddit also has one more requirement – proof.
Yes, everyone who wanted to request for money on the subreddit, needed to put forward some sort of proof of their requirement, and this works really well, as there is a level of trust that the donor will have. But, along with money requests, members of the subreddit also engage in posts that aims at getting reactions or opinions, and this is where the criminals come in with their schemes.
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How the scam works
Ok, so this is how the money lending scam works on Reddit. The scammer will upload an engagement farming post that might sound something like this –
“what would you do if I sent you $1000 right now?”
Now, obviously, there are some users who know this is probably just an engagement farming post, and put in a response if they feel like it. This is where they start falling into the trap.
- Now, to demonstrate this, I decided to reply to one such post and waited.
- Almost a minute later, the person who had posted this, messaged me privately and told me to DM him/her (No clue if the person was a male or female) on a number that was USA registered, and to send my PayPal ID.
- At this point, I pretended to be excited and asked why the user wanted my PayPal ID, and further asked if I was actually going to get the money. To this the person replied “yes”.
To a layman, this may sound like a normal human conversation. I mean, what is the harm, right? The person has asked for harmless information, which can’t really be misused, but trust me, the scam here is not to misuse your information, but to steal your money.
I continued this conversation with the scammer to see how they proceed, and this is what happened –
I saved the number that he had shared with me and noticed that the number did not show up on Whatsapp, or iMessage, which confirmed to me that this was definitely a scam. I then went on to Truecaller and tried to verify the number there, and to my not so surprise, the number was registered under a name and the clever thing is that there are usually no spam reports on this, making it look like a legit business. But the catch is that there is no way of knowing whether this number belongs to the person running the scam.
So, I went back on to Reddit and told the person that I was not able to DM him, and bluntly asked him if there was a catch to all this.
The scammer responded by saying that he would give me the money, and all I had to do was pay him a “fee”, which was basically like a processing fee that the platform took to transfer the amount to me.
At this point, I tried to play along and said that if I had no money to pay the fee. To this, I received a very generic response which did not match the tone of the conversation, prompting me to believe that the scammer was using a chatbot to execute his ruse. At this point, I had what I needed and I quit the conversation. Today, the scammer has changed their username but is still active on the platform.
Spotting a money lending scam
From my experience above, here are quick ways to spot and evade a scam, and things you should remember –
- No money platforms demand a “fee” to perform a transaction. So, if someone wanted to send you $100 on PayPal, they can send it as usual.
- If someone asks you for a “fee” to receive a payment, do not continue the conversation and report the account to either the admins of the page, or the cybercell.
- If you see engagement farming posts like the one I mentioned above, the best thing to do is to ignore it and move on.
Scams like this are being conducted to target older and younger people alike. The aim is to extort you of your hard earned money, and then block you so you cannot take any sort of action against them. Be vigilant, and be safe online. Your mental peace, and financial peace is very important and these days, there is not always a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, there is a scammer waiting to rob you.
