How I got scammed $6000.

Heres a fun fact: did you know that in 2019, nearly "45,000 Canadians fell victim to fraud, losing more than $96 million"?

Oh, you knew?

Pft.. I’m sure you didn’t, and neither did I … until it actually happened to me.

Given that this is a uncommon knowledge challenge, I'm hoping that this small piece of information may help some of you out there, because let me tell you in case you didnt realize already, *cough cough* its a SCARY world out here.

I still remember it like it was yesterday. I wake up from a nap and get up to head go take a shower. Moments before i step out of my room i hear my phone ring. I decide to pick up the phone instead of going to take the shower… biggest mistake EVER.

I pick up the unknown number and I was told I had an arrest warrant under my name and that my account was in trouble. Mind you, I also had just woken moments before this call, so I was completely out of it and startled. The person on the phone had a line of other people trying to connect to my call and get me to feel as small and scared as possible. They definitely succeeded in that.

I was so nervous, I kept asking “What did I do? What do I need to do to fix it?" I was connected to many different people at once. It all just made sense and fell into place, and was so fast at the moment; I didn’t even have a second to process what was going on. I just literally felt so guilty and vulnerable- I did everything the people on the phone told me to do.

The told me their numbers, their names and everything, so it didn’t seem suspicious at all.

I was then told that in order to fix and sfeguad my account, I need to transfer all my money from my bank to a “government safeguard wallet”.

It sounded so legitimate.

I just kept saying “okay, okay, yes,yes” because I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t even really know what was going on, and didn’t even bother to ask myself. I just felt so rushed in the moment, and I felt afraid, so I just did what the scammers were telling me to do. Before leaving my room, the scammer asked me if I knew what I had to say once I got to the bank. And they told me to say that I’d like to take out maximum amount of money possible to buy a car”. I didn’t find it weird that I needed an excuse to be taking out that much money. Like I said, I just did what I was told. I was scared. The scammer who later went by the name of “Benjamin” told me that I should never hang up on him until I get to the bank, and that I should let him know before I go into the bank so he can guide me through the process. And so quickly, I got ready to leave.

I don’t have a car, so I remember having to bike 20 minutes all the way to my nearest bank, while having the call on the line like Benjamin told me to.

As I was biking, I still remember feeling so nervous, not knowing what I was going to the bank for; I just knew I had to go there because that’s what I was told to do.

I was just completely frozen and my brain just froze, like when you stay in the same position for a long period of time your body can’t move or feel anything. That’s exactly how I felt- numb.

So, I get to the bank and I anxiously wait in line for my turn at the bank. I get back on the call with Benjamin and he tells me to never mention that I am on the phone with him, and to say that I need to take out money because “I need to buy a car”. I ask the bank teller how much is the maximum I can take out of the account. Thank God, it was only $5000, I mean, yes this is still a lot of money, but honestly, I could’ve definitely lost a LOT more. Then, I went to the atm to take out another 1000$. A total of 6000$ that day.

After going through all that, I was then told to go to the nearest Depanneur to find a bitcoin machine. I did not know what bitcoin was. So I just nodded and went along with it. I got to the destination, and he asked me if I saw any cops or police around. I said no, wondering why he would ask that question. Regardless, I proceeded into the depanneur, on my way to the bitcoin machine.

I received a QR code and deposited the entire 6000$. After that, Benjamin told me that he would give me a call the day after to notify me of my new sin number, and that my account would now be safe. I was relieved but still felt uneasy.

Anyway, after that, I biked all the way back home and sat at my desk looking into plain air.

I just sat there for about 5 minutes, processing what just happened.

Then it hit me.

“Oh, sh*t.” I repeated to myself.

I immedieatly picked up my phone, dialed the number of the RCMP, hands shaking, hoping to be told that it wasnt a scam. But of course, my gut knew what was right.

I felt so stupid and mortified.

That same day, I called the police at around 10pm and they came over and listened to what happened. They told me that there was nothing in their power that they can do to get my money back. And that was that.

That night I couldn’t sleep. Actually, I couldn’t sleep properly for at least 3 weeks from what I remember. I was busy doing my research to find somebody or a way to get my money back. But, no hope.

The day after the incident, I got a call from Benjamin again. Of course, I didn’t pick up. He called me about 5 times and texted me several times to call them back disguising as “Service Canada”.

I immediately contacted my phone company and changed my number.

After this incident, I told my two older sisters and my brother (and no, I didn't tell my asian parents..oh god, they would kill me..! lol)

When I brought this news to their attention, they were shocked and so upset for me. They were in complete awe and disbelief that something like this happened... especially to someone in our family. Who would’ve ever expected that? They sure didn't, and neither did I.

They were telling me that they thought I knew about the ongoing and constant scam calls these days so they didn’t think it was necessary for them to remind or spread awareness of this news. Little did they know, that I had no clue. And so, I was upset with everything and everyone. I kept recalling the experience and thinking how I didn't even for a second, give it another thought before doing all of these crazy things that this scammer was telling me to do. I just wanted to crawl in a hole and cry.

After a month, I decided to turn on my camera and filmed an ASMR video since these usually help me to calm and feel more relaxed. In this case, I was inspired by the situation that I was dealing with and decided to take the courage to create a short video based on my vulnerable experience. Knowing that this experience felt so embarrassing and stupid, I still wanted to at least let people know that this happened to me- so that something like this could be avoided for the future for anybody else. I called it, "[ASMR] brushing away that 2020 dusty energy🧹" inspired by the situation I went through. (Heres a link to my video for those curious):

In the video it may look like I was happy, but I was actually bawling on the inside.

At least for 3 weeks I was in bed mororified and couldnt eat proeely or sleep. Even my own ASMR videos were not enough to put me to sleep. I was anxious, nervous, and broke. My savings just went down the drain just like that.

After filming the video, and after a month of blaming myself, I realized that you can never really assume how much you think you know about someone and how much you think they know. Don’t ever underestimate the power of sharing knowledge; even if it seems like the smallest, most common knowledge. What may be common knowledge for one, may not be so common for another. That’s exactly what I learned after healing from my experience.

Even until now I don’t know why I had to go through that, sometimes I wonder if in my past life I’ve done something bad… I keep finding myself looking for answers in order to validate the situation that happened to me.

But I knew there was nothing I could do, except to accept it and move on.

Definitely with time, I chose to accept the fact that it happened, especially reading many othe peoples stories of a similar case that happened to them. There are just so many instances like this that happen to people everyday- it is very unfortunate.

From this, I knew that I had to share this information with my close ones around. We should always be willing to share the infromation that we know with others and vice-versa. You’ll be surprised that there is alot more thn we don't know than what you think. So, it's important to share any kind of knowledge that could be of help to somebody.

Like my situation. If I had known o been aware, I could've avoided this from happening. However, sad to say, it became common knowledge to me, only after being scammed. When I come to think of it, there were seriously so many red flags, and measures I could've taken to have avoided the scam, but I didn’t bother to stop, think or ask.

Which brings me to my next point:

Please just ASK.

There is no shame in being wrong or making a mistake, but it is if you refuse to learn from it. I regret not asking or questioning anybody before taking on any action at the moment, however, I am thankful now that I was able to do a LOT more research on this afterwards. But, it's always better to ask, than to not.

Im telling you, I’ve never expected something like this to happen to me, so I didn’t expect or know that there was worse to come until the worst actually happened to me.

I hope my experience can inspire and help somebody even a little bit, and thst we can all learn to normalize asking questions, even the ones that seem obvious to some of us. There is no stupid question; whoever says that, is the actual stupid person...

Never be afraid to share what you know and have experienced.

You can never know TOO much.

I'd like to beleive my experience will help somebody out there; and i hope it does.

And so today, whenever I find something interesting to share I always bring it up in my family group chat and they do the same. Its a great way to share what’ may be common knowledge to us but uncommon knowledge to others. It never hurts to ask questions, or to share something that may seem like nothing. You never know when something that seems trivial to share can really go a long way of helping somebody else.

And that's why I hope that whoever is reading this, that this story has helped somebody out there in one way or another.

Im writing this story, because even though this may be of common knowledge for many, it was definitely not for me, only even a couple months ago.

You can never be too smart to learn more. And I surely learnt this the hardway.

I want people to learn from my stupidy so noone has to go through the struggle the same way that I did.

It took much courage for me to share my story and what I went through. But I've learned to embrace the situstion and move on with life. There's no point in greiving about something I have no control over. It's a waste of time for me and and especially a waste of time being concerned and giving anymore attention to the scammer who did this to me. (I beleive in karma, so I hope it gets you back Benjamin if you ever read this!!!)

Now, you may ask me if I still feel stupid about how I handled this situation, and OH YEAH, I've never felt dumber and I just want to crawl in a ball everytime I think about it.

With time, I definitely can say I have healed quite a bit from the situation. Like today, everytime my sister walks by a bitcoin machine, she always gets reminded of me. At least now, it’s something that we can laugh about rather than grieve about.

And also, a way I was able to heal, was to constantly be reminded that money isn’t everything. I could lose everything tomorrow, who knows- so I am trying to stay positive and take it as a learning experience/ and perhaps even a way to help others to avoid something like this in the future. I am lucky enough to have had people supporting me and being there to listen to me when I was going through a tough time- I’d rather lose 6k than lose my close ones.

And yeah, if i could change anything that happened, it would be to have just ASKED somebody rather than suffering this feeling of guilt and disgust all by myself from the beginning... to be honest, I think this entire situation couldve been avoided if I had just gone to take that damn shower (lol)

Regardless, it definitely has been a journey and a HELL of an experience- a BIG learning experience.

Now, if you ask me what you should take from all of this, is that whenever in doubt, listen to your gut.. or in my case should I say- go take that shower, PLEASE! >_<

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I hope that this uncommon knowledge becomes more common knowledge to more people in the future, and I hope my experience will serve as a PSA to spread awareness and hopefully reduce the number of scams that occur everyday!

Thanks for coming to my Tedtalk! <3

-Caroline G. Kim