Man tricks scammers into giving him money, donates funds to charity
A man in Ireland has managed to trick three con artists into sending him money. Image: INQUIRER.NET Stock Photo
As long as you have had an email or mobile phone, chances are you have gotten a suspicious message asking you for money.
While some people have replied to these messages with the goal of annoying scammers, a man in Ireland has managed to trick three con artists into sending him money. He then sends the sum to a charity.
Ross Walsh, a 22-year-old university student, interacts with scammers who reach him through email. In Walsh’s exchanges with the scammers, he claims to have sent them money and emails a fake money transfer, the Limerick Leader reported on Sept. 28.
He then states that the bank refuses to process the transaction because it seems fraudulent. Walsh tells the scammers to send a small amount to his bank account so that the transaction will be approved.
When he receives the money, he sends them an invoice showing that the cash has been donated to a charity.
His latest success—and the biggest sum he has received—was a £25 (P1,600) transaction in September, BBC reported on Sept. 30.
Walsh received an email from one Solomon Gundi who wanted £1,000 (P63,800) for a stock trading business. In exchange, Gundi promised half of the business.
Walsh pretended that he was a businessman himself and said it was insulting that Gundi only wanted £1,000. He sent him a doctored picture of a money transfer worth £50,000 (P3.1 million).
“I said [the bank doesn’t] want to release the funds unless they see a small sum of money going from his account to my account just to prove this isn’t a scam,” Walsh explained.
The scammer failed to sense that the deal seemed too good to be true and wired in £25. Walsh then forwarded an email from the Irish Cancer Society thanking him for a donation. He said the Solomon Gundi account has since been taken down. Niña V. Guno /ra
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