Given occupations by scammers

Friday 26 October 2018

In my experience on Instagram if a scammer does not use images of someone in the military they will choose to be either an engineer or a contractor.  Both of these are loose and woolly terms that are really rather generic.  I mean an engineer can work in lots of different fields: civil, structural, marine, mechanical, software, computer to name just a few.  Ask a little about what they do and they will often ignore the question or just give you a generic copied and pasted definition from a dictionary about their job.  The same is true of a contractor.  It is a loose term meaning someone who takes on contracts.  They could be in any field.

There are reasons why they choose these types of occupations.

1.  It  gives them the opportunity to be working away from home for a period of time.  This means that they will be away from their children  and family.  They use this to make you feel sorry for them and their children.  I usually say to them that that is their choice - they can always change career and go and work from home. Often they state they are away from home to earn a decent wage as the children have no mother.  Who would leave their children fatherless as well as motherless in reality? One of the things they may well get wrong about their profession is the amount of time they work away for at any one time.  Usually in the oil industry they wouldn't spend much more than a month at a time on a rig.  They would then get a similar amount of time off.  Similarly seafarers on ships work in various patterns but often month on/month off,  2 weeks on/2  weeks off.  Longer trips are done by those going deep sea on container ships, cruise ships etc but then they get longer periods of leave.

2.  Being away at sea or away abroad working constructing stuff means they can make very good excuses as to why they are not able to communicate with you so easily.  They will say they have no internet access or going on to hangouts/WhatsApp/Kik is easier to access  on the ship or rig.  Why would any of those statements be true?  They are using the internet to message you on Instagram and it is working.  All rigs and ships these days have internet access.  It may be a little patchy at times but they have it.  Why would any of the other messaging apps be easier to access on their ship/rig than it is to message you on Instagram?  They may well give this reason about poor Internet as a reason why they can't voice or video call you.  Rubbish - they can they just don't want you to see or hear the real them.

3.  Being away enables them to ask  you to send them stuff.  Here are some of the reasons they would ask you to send them money or cards:

• they can't access their bank account - banking is international and online so they have access
• they are stuck without access to money and need to fly home/visit you - in an emergency they would contact their employers or their country's embassy for help
• they have broken something at work and you need to buy them the part to fix it so they are not in trouble with their bosses - rubbish.  Their company has contingency plans for this happening and they would pay for any broken items not the individual.
• they need to pay to replace a passport so they can get home from work - they can access their bank from where they work or get in touch with their country's embassy for help
• to buy gifts for their children whilst away or send fees to a boarding school/nanny/family for their upkeep - they can access their own bank accounts and sort it for themselves
• they will ask you to purchase iTunes/Google/Amazon cards for them to update apps, buy books, music, films, TV programmes etc - they can do it themselves they have Apple or Google on android accounts with a bank card linked to it for such purchases.  Cards are not necessary.
• they may ask you to send them money to tide them over because there has been a mistake made in their wages.  No never do this.  They should save money for this as a contingency or ask their employers to sort it out.  It is not up to you to send them money.

Basically any reason they want you to send them money or cards or tech is a lie and shows them to be the scammers that they truly are.

4.  I have had "contractors" asking me to cash cheques for them because they can't bank them themselves.  This is rubbish.  They would generally be paid either in cash or directly into their bank accounts.  This is always a lie.