He told me you buy some bibles, not expensive bibles, but bibles that could be expensive, if you do not look too close. Some bibles with red lettering, because red stands out, and looks more expensive. You follow the obituaries, and try to track down addresses. Once you have the address you put the name of the surviving spouse on the front of the bible in gold leaf. Then you wait until a few days after the funeral.
You show up in the evening when you are sure no other family members are around. That is when the real aloneness is setting in and grief is at a very high level. You knock on the door and when they answer you tell them the story about how their spouse had this very bible on lay away, and they were going to pick it up this week. You continue with how you happen to be reading something by the obituary section of the newspaper, and recognized the name.
You continue, now that you have their grief pouring out, and their need to touch anything that belonged to their beloved passed on spouse, and they had paid you half the money, and there still is a payment for the bible, and are they interested? Of course they are, they are desperate to bring their spouse back to life! You fill in the dead space telling them that the dead spouse was going to have an inscription written on the inside, so the bible would become a family heirloom. No you do not know where or what, only that they had mentioned it in passing, the day they put it on lay away.
Of course the surviving spouse thinking you are an angel in human form, pays you whatever amount you told mentioned was left to pay on the bible. They are overwhelmed with emotion – and you just took advantage of their grief, and took money away from them that you should not have taken. That is a really ugly, some might even say pathetic scam that used to be popular when there was less money flying around than there is today, and people were more trusting.
Today scammers are more suave. They set up internet sites, they send you snail mail, they stand on side walks, at intersections, and beg from the corner. They are making a fortune, and nobody seems to care. The better ones I have heard of are making more than the average income in the United States, and all they have to do is look poor and needy.
I watch them at intersections doing there scams. People, believing they are doing something good can’t dig into their pockets quickly enough. They give change, dollar bills, they give five dollar bills, and the people taking it are making a wonderful living. So good in fact, they work some corners in shifts because the money in their buckets gets too heavy and to obvious.
They also send mail, sometimes with little religious trinkets, and some story about how the mission they represent is helping to feed so many starving orphans somewhere. If you search on the internet they do not exist. If you expect more than one mailing form them, they do not exist. They are a quick, one stop shop. One stop shopping, into your wallet and out again.
No one likes to be seen as cold and uncaring, but everyone can donate responsibly if they only take time to think before they act on impulse. It is not that hard to give money to scammers. It is no harder to think before you do. If you never heard of them before, they probably won’t exist in a few weeks. If they want any amount of money from you right now, they are scamming you.
If you want to donate to a cause, donate through your church, the International Red Cross, or another well known organization. Do not be one of thousands who blindly give money to people who find stealing from you is easier than working for a living, and it pays better. There always will be a great need for charity in the world, but give wisely, not foolishly.
