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I was approached through direct message by a female account on Instagram (which seemed to be catfished) saying that she is a “sugar mummy” willing to pay $300 weekly for a sugar baby. “She” basically said that since covid is so bad right now, all she needs for now is someone to give her a lot of attention (essentially an online relationship).

I was pretty high to be quite honest and I felt like playing along cause it all seemed funny at the time. She asked me a few questions which I answered, and then she said “we can start your payment today”. I asked if she could do etransfer or PayPal but she said she could only send me money by emailing me photos of a cheque. I’m able to deposit cheques on my mobile bank app so I said okay sure.

However, then she said she needed to send money to her friend who isn’t so tech savvy and can only receive online transactions through etransfer, but the sugar momma already mentioned she can’t do etransfer so she needs me to do it...

She said her friend is someone who can buy her some video card thing for her computer which she mentioned earlier today, but the weird thing is, the cheque she sent me was for $600, which means that she was giving me and her friend the exact same amount, which is really weird.

At the time I was like wait this wasn’t a scam this was real, and I impulsively deposited the cheque.

My first guess is that she lied and the person I need to etransfer the $300 to for her is someone like me, “the sugar baby”.

But just now, at 2am, she finally sent me the email to the person she wants me to send the $300 to, and i asked if I could send it the morning because it’s late and I’m gonna sleep now, but then she said: “ Yes i know it’s pretty late dear. But it’s just you could do within a minute. Once you do I’ll be heading to bed also dear.“

It’s pretty late right now and I’m half asleep so if my writing is weird, that’s why.

I don’t know what to do about the situation I am in right now. If anyone has any suggestions about what to do (or what NOT to do) moving forward with my situation.

Screenshot of account: screenshot of a scammers instagram

Freiheit
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Owen
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2 Answers2

9

Let's rephrase the question.

Can I run an advance-fee fraud while shifting all liability to lonely, high, horny, and bored social media users with just two photos from a model?

Yes.

To answer your other question about what to do if you have already been caught up in this, all you have to do is stop messaging them and don't do anything else. There is no glimmer of truth for you to uncover, or worthwhile for you to uncover.

CQM
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-8

You are already in serious trouble - for money laundering.

If that particular ring of scammers is targeted by law enforcement - and make no mistake, that is more and more common now, cops everywhere are far from stupid - you will be hauled up and at the very least, every aspect of your financial life will be probed like an enema. Your credit is done, any job search hopes you have are done, your legal record is done.

If you think you can casually receive stolen funds, as you have done, with no consequences against you, you're in a dreamland.

The plain facts are you've been working with a ring of scammers and accepted cheques - if you picture yourself arguing your way out of it "oh it was just an email image", again, dreamland.

Regarding "what you should do now", there's only one thing you can do - cross your fingers. You're put yourself in hot water. There's no water hotter than money laundering.

Fattie
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