Scammers are going to scam. This seems to be something that has rung true since the dawn of time and they just get more sophisticated with technology. If you’re on social media platforms like Facebook, then you’ve inevitably seen friend’s and loved ones lose their accounts to hackers or witnessed a scammer try to pretend to be them.
Usually people just alert others and move on from the experience but wouldn’t it be fun to give them a run for their money while they try to take yours? Jeremy Roberts decided to do just that when his mom, Tami’s Facebook profile was recently cloned by scammers. He took the potential scammer on a adventure with more twists and turns than a mystery novel.
The exchange started off innocent enough with the scammer writing, “Hello How are you doing,” in messenger, not realizing that the message was being sent to Tami’s son.
Roberts immediately engages pretending that he has no idea that he’s not talking to the real Tami. By the next question, the scammer was asking for a favor from Roberts but before “Tami” can ask, Roberts asserts that he’s busy with his brother Doug who thinks he’s possessed b a demon. The brothers are supposedly on their way to meet with a priest to check out Doug’s demon possession.
You’d think hearing of a demon possession would make “Tami” pause. Instead the scammer posing as Tami continued right into their spiel about a “program” called Community Trust Foundation, but Roberts doesn’t bite, he sticks to his bit about his brother being possessed. “Tami” sees an opening after Roberts says the priest sent him to the store for a crucifix and Pepto, though priest generally come equipped with their own crucifix.
Instead of being concerned about the potentially possessed brother or why a priest preparing to do an exorcism didn’t have his own crucifix, “Tami” asked Roberts to buy Apple gift cards to upgrade their phone camera since he was in the store anyway. The scammer is persistent if nothing else. Of course Roberts agrees but continues to string the scammer along with the urgency of getting back to his possessed brother.
After so much back and forth, the scammer got comfortable enough to start answering Roberts’ random questions about the best type of medicine for an upset stomach. Eventually Roberts informed “Tami” that a demon was confirmed by the priest and he needed to get back to Doug. The entire time the persistent scammer kept asking about a $200 gift card while simultaneously answering questions about Doug’s presumed possession. Shortly after Roberts posted the interaction, it quickly went viral and commenters can’t get over the elaborate story and the scammer’s persistence.
“That is the best exchange ever. That smoooooth transition for the gift card request,” someone writes.
“Scamming someone and trying to cast out demons. Nope, Satan can’t cast out Satan,” another says.
“My 14 year old and I were screaming laughing “a picture of the demon?” Snort.,” one woman laughs.
The entire exchange is so comical that you’d have to read the entire thing to get the full effect and the ending was definitely a jump scare, not to the reader but probably for the scammer.