06/04/2025
Be careful out there especially selling things and accepting payments - this has happened to me twice this week! I received an order from someone who wanted a set of double oven mitts. So I made them and without thinking, I sent them out right away - forgetting to get his credit card info. So I texted him and said that I would accept a credit card, Venmo, or PayPal. He said he had Venmo so I gave him my Venmo info and 5 minutes later I get a text - supposedly from “Venmo” saying because he used a business account, in order to accept payments I also needed to upgrade my account to business. But oh not to worry - in order to “help me” upgrade, he was willing to help me - all I had to do was follow the instructions they were sending me. And the instructions said to call Venmo at this number. So I did and in order to help me he needed to share my computer and he would direct me….thats when the red flag came up, but I decided to see it through. So I gave him permission and he took me first to the Venmo app where I was to do a couple of things, then what I needed to do was go to my bank account where he had already “sent me” $427 which was now in a “pending” status….Since the cost of the oven mitts was $27, I needed to “refund” him the extra $400 which would pay for my upgrade. I’ll attach the first letter I got after he supposedly sent it. He then said this is safe and secure. Don’t worry - I did not send him $400. Instead I went on Google and got Venmo’s number and called them to find out about this. They told me of course, that there is no way they would ever ask you to pay anything to receive an “upgrade” so I sent a nasty gram post to the buyer and he told me that now that his $427 was pending with no way to get it back he would report me to the FBI (that letter is also attached). The “FBI” should really send their assistants to school - youll see the spelling typos and the misnomers in the letter. Please be careful out there and do not fall for this scam!