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How to Spot a Scam

by Tonja Taylor
2/21/2021 / World Affairs

⁸The [uncompromisingly] righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked gets into it instead. ⁹With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge and superior discernment shall the righteous be delivered. -- Proverbs 11:8,9, AMPC

Scam artists abound, but when we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us--and especially when we stop and ask the LORD to guide us in our daily matters--He is faithful to guide us out of trouble and into the best.

He loves us so much He gave His only perfect Son, the Lamb of God, to die for our sins on that horrid cross! He wants only the best for us.

Often, a scam artist will ask for money. That's pretty easy to spot, and shun.

Recently, however, I was approached by what I now know was a scam artist--who wanted to hire me to use their equipment to supposedly serve as a customer service rep for their medical company that handled prescriptions. They wanted to send me a check for $2400, to pay for a laptop that would have "specialized software installed" and would have to be updated by phone by their specialized vendor.

Things seemed to be legit, but I could not figure out why they wanted me to buy the computer and software. I looked at the website for the supposed company. At first, it looked fine.

I started to get excited, because I had been praying for more ways to bring income into my family, for various reasons. I had placed many resumes on various search engines, and had heard from a few. I was already tutoring online, but felt I needed to earn more to conquer some things and get ahead, and have more to give to Kingdom work.

To sum up, the dear Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of Truth Who leads us into all truth (IF we are listening, and will continue to work with us, even when we're not, praise Him!), kept revealing things that just didn't seem quite right: like the fact that the two people who had emailed me were emailing me from addresses using well-known search engines, instead of a company email.

However, especially with the virus junk and restrictions, many people are working from home, and after researching this, I realized it was a start-up company. Sometimes, start-ups don't have much money. Anyway, another thing was that I noticed that, although the company was supposed to be based in the US, the main person (who could have been a man masquerading as a woman) emailing me with the job offer and details used British spelling. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but people in the US almost always use American spelling.

Another thing that I later realized was suspicious was that the person asked me to meet on an online app for chatting--which I later found out had the option to totally destroy the trace of any conversation (although it's known and used across the globe).

I was a little disturbed, but trusting the LORD. He's always got my back. I also claim Tither's Rights--from the opening of Heaven for major blessings, to the rebuking of the devourer and destroyer, and more.

The LORD can use your spouse to help you, and He did this time. My husband was very uncomfortable with me receiving a check to order computer equipment. The weather had been bad, and I had already told the "company" trying to hire me about that, yet they were so eager to send me the check, even knowing I could not get to the bank till at least Monday, that they sent it by email.

The first time, they even got the spelling of my name wrong!

I was also not comfortable with receiving the check.

As much as I knew the money would help us, there were several things that I did not have peace about, and when my husband expressed he did not have peace, I knew the LORD was confirming to my mind what my spirit already knew: this was a deceitful operation, a scam.

Sure enough, the moment I told them i was not going to deposit the check, and requested instead that they order the computer and have the software loaded themselves, then ship it to me (like another company for which I had recently worked), they deleted their account off the international chat, and did not reply to my emails.

What they DIDN'T know is that, all along, I had made COPIES of every word of the chats over the two-day period, as well as downloading them. So, that night, I contacted the national fraud prevention organization, as well as the state attorney general's department of safety that handled such matters.

I also changed my passwords.

Anyway, I prayed for the LORD to convict them and save their souls, and to protect other Believers from their schemes.

I believe He wanted me to write this, to help anyone who may have suspicious behavior from scam artists posing as legitimate employers and such.

The LORD is good, and He protects us. He is forever faithful!

Tonja and her husband live to exalt God. They lift Him up in books (P.O.W.E.R. Girl!; LEGACY; Visions of the King; Your Holy Health; more); presentations; service in church, community, and the world; and via the "River Rain Creative" (309 videos) and "POWERLight Learning" You Tube channels.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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