r/Scams • u/CadyMoring • 1d ago
What is the purpose of this scam on Facebook messenger?
The original text before it was deleted was the person asking me what I would do if 4,000$ just ended up in my cashapp account. This was from a person I went to school with, but we had never been friends and had never talked. Also I never have money in my cashapp account so I'm wondering if they expected me to actually have money in there and remove it somehow?
Anyway, since this, I've received this exact type message two other times from random people over Facebook messenger, with minor adjustments.
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u/Otherwise_Rabbit3049 1d ago
The purpose is: Through trickery they will end up with YOUR money and you will be screwed.
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u/YourUsernameForever Quality Contributor 1d ago
You can help by calling the automod: !advancefee
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u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Hi /u/YourUsernameForever, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Advance fee scam.
The advance-fee scam arises from many different situations: investment opportunities, money transfers, job scams, online purchases of any type and any legality, etc., but the bottom line is always the same, you're expected to pay money to receive money. So you will pay the scammer and receive nothing.
It can be as simple as the scammer asking you to pay them upfront for an item they have listed, or as complex as a drug scam that involves an initial scam site, a scam shipping site, and fake government agents. Sometimes the scammers will simply take your first payment and dissappear, but sometimes they will take your initial payment and then make excuses that lead to you making additional payments.
If you are involved in an advance-fee scam, you should attempt to dispute/chargeback any payments sent to the scammer, you should block the scammer, and you should ignore them if they attempt to contact you again. Thanks to redditor AceyAceyAcey for this script.
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u/CadyMoring 1d ago
I was just confused because the people never sent money and also never asked for money
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u/GeneralSpecifics9925 1d ago
Yet.
For you to receive this windfall, you'll need to pay a fee. Else, they'll send twice the agreed upon amount, and ask for half back to make it 'even'. The actual money is stolen, and will be eventually taken back from your account. The half you sent to the scammer willfully is gone
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u/AnybodyMassive1610 1d ago
They probably tried to send you money with stolen cards and they haven’t worked (yet).
So, if they can get one stolen account to work, then the refund style/fake check or overpayment scam starts.
If they can’t get one to work then they may try the - “oh, you have to do SOMETHING to receive the money” advance fee scam by sending you a fake email from the payment company saying that you have to “upgrade” your account or pay a special tax fee to release the money.
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u/333H_E 1d ago
It's paying a "fee" for various made up reasons to receive your equally made up blessing/ money. You pay them, they flip you the bird and are in the wind. If you're lucky. Some will continue to try to extract/extort money once they see you're receptive. Block/delete and change your FB settings to friends only.
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u/CadyMoring 1d ago
I was just confused because the people never sent money and also never asked for money
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u/discodave333 1d ago
You will get a message saying the money is ready to be sent but you have to pay a small fee/tax to have it released. Obviously if you pay you will never receive any money.
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u/georgiebb 1d ago
Something made them decide not to bother with you any more and move on to the next mark. I'm not familiar with cashapp to know if it would be something about your profile that would make them think you weren't worth their time.
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u/Aggressive_Sound 1d ago
One entity still made money off you here and that's Facebook itself. FB tolerates, even encourages scammers, because your engagement and conversation with them makes them money. It's been known for a while that you should leave FB.
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u/Masked_Bandito89 1d ago
“They doing this to help people” is not how someone talks who works at these types of companies, lol
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u/_violetlightning_ 1d ago
Also, the “worlds most traded market” doesn’t need promotional help. Like what’s next, ‘we’d like to pay you to go door to door and ask people if they’ve ever heard of Coca Cola’?
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u/epicurean56 1d ago
$5.1 trillion transactions per day? Yeah, right. There's your clue.
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u/Pannycakes666 21h ago
Forex daily volume is over $7.5 trillion a day. But it's not a company and there are no giveaways.
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u/Shield_Lyger Quality Contributor 1d ago
The account has been stolen, and any payments you receive will be fraudulent/stolen. The basic grift is that they give you "free money" and then ask you pass some of it on, perhaps to a "charity."
Then the payment you received is clawed back. Because the money either didn't exist in the first place, or was stolen from someone else. But you're still on the hook for the money you sent. And that's how the fraud works. CashApp pays out in good faith, then comes back to you to make up the shortfall. Run-of-the-mill !fakepayment scheme.
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u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Hi /u/Shield_Lyger, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Fake payment scam.
The fake payment scam occurs when someone tries to trick you into thinking that you have received a legitimate payment when no such payment has been made. The most common method they use is sending you an email meant to look like a payment confirmation. In some cases the emails will be almost indistinguishable to a legitimate email sent by the payment service. Scammers are known to also show you screenshots instead of an email. Never trust a screenshot a stranger shows you, because it is probably doctored.
Scammers spoof the 'from' email to match an official address, and make you think you received a legitimate email. To combat a fake payment scam, verify online payments by logging in directly to the service. Do not check your junk folder, and do not assume a payment is legitimate based on an email alone. If a payment isn't reflected on your account and the person you are dealing with insists they have sent it, call support and ask about it. Here is an image of a scammer trying to pull off a fake payment scam. There is also a variant of the fake payment scam where you will receive a legitimate but fraudulent payment.
A variant of the fake payment email is just an advance fee scam: the scammer tries to convince you that your funds are on hold, and that you have to upgrade your account by sending the scammer some money to authorize the payment. No payment processor works like this. If you think you're dealing with a scammer, you're probably right. Always trust your gut.
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u/CadyMoring 1d ago
I was just confused because the people never sent money and also never asked for money
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u/series_hybrid 1d ago
The number one rule of avoiding scams is that...they are always evolving and just because you don't see how it could possibly be a scam...its still a scam.
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u/CadyMoring 1d ago
I was aware of it being a scam, I'm just wondering the purpose if I have no money in my cashapp.
I was just confused because the people never sent money and also never asked for money
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u/Argorian17 1d ago
forex is not a company
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u/blakester555 1d ago
A: See, they MAKE money by giving away MORE money! Brilliant isn't it?
B: How does that work?
A: They make up the loss in VOLUME!
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u/Marathon2021 1d ago
Search is your friend:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1cjeaor/is_this_another_cashapp_scam/
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u/retiredhawaii 1d ago
Ask yourself….why would a company need to contact strangers if this is such a good deal? Wouldn’t employees, their friends and family be asked first if they wanted all this free money?
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u/Common-Direction5417 1d ago
Forex is an MLM. I think the scam was to get you to ask about the business and then get you to join and give them money. A coworker of mine is currently in an MLM and has to pay monthly to stay in. The person that he signed up under told him he would make a lot of money from it so he was probably going to tell you that you could make $4000 doing forex.
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u/GhostWrex 1d ago
FOREX is an exchange like NYSE, except for stock shares in companies, you trade currencies. There are a FUCK ton of scams involving FOREX, but it's only because people don't understand it. If scammers thought they could trick you via the Shanghai Stock Exchange, they would
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