So If you want to hear about how I fell for a scam and felt THE MOST GULLIBLE that I’ve ever felt please keep reading.So about a month ago I got a phone call from a 1-800 number* (*My mom has informed me that 1-800 numbers are legit and it must have been a 1-888 number. The headline can still stand though. lol) I normally don’t answer but for some reason that day I did.
One sec. I should give a little background. So DUN DUN DUN. My student loan repayments have started. They are extremely high. I submitted a request for them to be based off my income and they became not as extremely high BUT still high. I can pay them myself but they fall on my first paycheck and all of my other bills fall on that paycheck. So my mom made the payment and I then paid her back on the second paycheck. (My thoughts will be in parentheses from here on)
Back to the phone call. So I answered and they said that they were with the Department of Education. They took me through a series of websites all legit. Then the guy tells me how he could lower my loan payment even more.
(If they lower my payments then I can actually afford them and my mom won’t have to help me when they are due.)
They are a loan consolidating company. They look at your income and all of your expenses and get your payments down to around $50 a month. (How we got from the Department of Education to this I really can’t remember. But by this point I was innnnn it.) I tell him all of my expenses. He is telling me about my all of my loans, how long it will take to repay them back. (I just knew this was legit by that lol)
Then he tells me all I have to do is pay a application fee. For them to consolidate the loans. (As I am writing this I feel so dumb. But hindsight is 20/20.) So I give him my bank credit card and sign a form online. The first payment was scheduled to happen in a couple weeks.
I thought to myself so many times during the hour we were on the phone. How am I supposed to know this is legit? I even asked him at one point. And I thought to call my mom but I knew she was busy and for once I wanted to adult. I’d finally be able to not need her help.
I call my mom a couple hours later to honestly brag. I’m like yeah mom I got my loan payments down. I won’t need your help anymore. This is awesome yada yada yada. Then my mom goes “How do you know you didn’t get scammed?!” And that’s when my mind went a mile a minute. I tell her the whole story. All the things he told me. We hang up. I then start to have a panic attack. Like what are the chances that the one time I try to do something without my mom I actually screw something up.
So I look up a blog. (because I trust those) And the first line is this company is a scam. I call my mom back. She’s like “yeah Taelor I looked it up too. Get on the phone with the bank and cancel your card now.”
So I cancelled my card. The end.
They got me when I was weak. I had just asked my mom to help me pay the loan payment and I hate doing that. This whole thing did make me realize a few things.
1. I love my mom. She’s wise. And although I would like to not rely on her, I need her.
2. Not everyone is good or has your best interest at heart. Even if they sound like they could be your best friend. (Although, we all know this do we really know this? I obviously didn’t. Reasons why I have trust issues.
3. And don’t ever answer a number you don’t know.
I hope you actually can take something from my crazy experiences, or this story at least made you giggle.
Have you ever been scammed? I want to hear your stories and thoughts. Leave a comment below.
xox T
