Fully aware he was engaging with scammers, Reverend Buddy Larrier wanted to see how far they were prepared to go to get his money.
A willing victim of the “Samsung” scam on WhatsApp, he said he spent $1 000 from July 2024 up to last Friday on Razer cards and iTunes credit to a contact with a 234 Nigeria area code number.
Larrier, 81, said he purchased the cards from a tech store on the South Coast and forwarded the digital credit to the numbers provided. There were also repeated attempts to get him to click on a link they sent via WhatsApp.
“Last July, when I was in England, I received a call from a scammer; someone I consider to be a scammer. You know how you get these calls that you’ve won and I said to him, ‘Look, don’t waste my time. I’m familiar with scamming’,” Larrier said.
“And what they will do is convince you it’s not a scam. That’s what it’s all about. I said, ‘All right, go along with it.’
“From July until today, these scammers will talk to me. I was charged virtually to go with the scammer to see how far down the rabbit hole scammers go.”
Playing along, Larrier said he first paid with the gaming cards, but in England, they demanded £300. He asked for a name to send the money via Western Union and completed the procedure. However, he soon received a call from the scammer that Western Union would not pay the money and asked him to send it by card.
Suspicious
When he went to Western Union, Larrier said they told him they were suspicious of the person who came and did not disburse the cash. He was refunded and did not pay them.
Over time, Larrier intermittently paid US$50 via the game cards, carrying on with his “research”.
“The reason I’m saying I’m not slipping down the rabbit hole is because I am controlling the process,” he said last Saturday at his Christ Church home.
“The $1 000 doesn’t mean anything to me. So let me just tell you, I was put in a mental institution, so you could say that I’m a bit nutty to be doing what I do; anybody would say that.
“Anyone would say I have to be mentally ill to be giving money to the scammers, knowing or believing it’s a scam; got to be mad. Only mad men will do that,” he explained.
Larrier said he made a report to Scotland Yard in England and when they pointed out it was a scam, he told them he was aware, but was conducting research so they could inform the public.
He said he also called Oistins Police Station about the scammers, asking police to contact Interpol, but nothing was done.
A check with police public affairs and communications officer Acting Inspector Ryan Brathwaite revealed there was no official report.
Larrier said the scammers called or messaged every day from two or three different numbers asking for money, and even when he threatened to block them, they told him it was useless because they were working for Samsung.
The latest attempt to extort money came last week when he was told he was the winner of a car and $800 000, and they wanted to come by to take a photograph.
“I said, ‘All right; so what is it you want now?’ He said, ‘Just one more hundred dollars; two more Razer cards.’ I said, ‘No problem’ and I sent it to him.”
However, he soon received a picture with a broken car key and a note from the scammer informing him it happened when he was on the way to deliver the car and needed $150 to fix, but he only had $50.
Larrier said he ended the experiment and has been ignoring the calls and messages, which continue unabated.
“I decided to go with the flow to get to the scamming because the whole system is a scam and we are just victims of that scam.
“And I want people to understand it’s not just the scammers out there, the scammers are here; scamming is all over [the world],” he said. (SAT)
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