December 21, the day the world was supposed to end, I get a phone call from a man who introduces himself as Mark Pryce from American Cash Awards, (1-876-830-2738). He says congratulations you've been selected from a sweepstakes held by Walmart, you've won $250,000. Of course immediately I'm skeptical, I haven't visited a Walmart since my time in the military.
The guy asks me if I want it to be Public or Private information. I say private of course, he then asks which method of delivery, USPS or FedEx, I ask for FedEx, he then states that the amount will be sent to my address in Hawaii. That's where things get familiar and I have to tell him that I have since moved. Now living in Los Angeles, the guy tells me in order to process the delivery fee I need to purchase a Green Dot Money Pak card from the nearest Walmart, CVS Pharmacy or Kmart for $75.
At this time, things get seriously strange, my phone stops working normally; what I mean by that is I could recieve calls, I couldn't make any calls or recieve texts, but the only call I could recieve was from this company, specifically this person.
Anyways, the next day I get the card, and under the false pretenses gave hime the numbers on the back. He calls me back with the security information for the delivery including a check#, security code, briefcase combination code, and a Western Union tracking number. Which makes me really think that this is all legitiment, he constantly tells me not to be skeptical, that he's just doing his job, he's not trying to screw me over, all this stuff that should calm people down over this situation, but I'm still highly agitated.
The next day, Sunday, I get a call from Mark, he tells me there is an additional fee of $150 required to handle transportation. At this point I'm livid, he never said anything about additional fees and I'm not financially secure enough to pay it. He negotiates with me as to how much I can pay, I tell him maybe half, he agrees to pay the other half from his own pocket, nice guy to do that right? I pick up another card and give him the numbers. He calls me back and tells me the delivery will happen tomorrow morning, that I should stay close to my phone and be ready for the delivery.
Christmas Eve, 11am, I get a call from Mark, asking which bank I would prefer the transfer to take place, I say Wells Fargo, he says okay, be by the phone and wait for a call. The whole day goes by, 530pm, I get a call from Mark asking how the transfer is coming along. I rip his head off, What transfer? No-one has called me, you said the delivery was going to happen this morning, you've been scamming me the entire time. He swears that it's all for real, that he is just as confused as I am that no one has contacted me, he even gives me the number to Western Union to check on the money transfer, a lot of good that does with a broken phone, and tells me to keep by the phone he'll call me back in an hour.
That was last night, this morning, I went with a friend and got a new phone and number, I called Western Union and gave them the transfer number I recieved, they just told me that the number exists but that no amount of money was attached to it. I was being scammed.
These people are the lowest forms of human beings I have ever come across, and I've fought terrorists. I'm happy that they didn't get anymore money from me, but still sad that there are people in this world that will do this to good people, around the holidays no less, with no consequences.
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