Met a guy through r/Money after posting about my finances. He reached out in the comments, offered financial and career advice unprompted. Said he works as a Senior Account Executive at a FAANG company, noticed I was a CS student, and genuinely seemed interested in helping.
Here's how it escalated:
He connected with me on LinkedIn first — verified profile with years of activity history, 1,000+ connections, legitimate career progression across well-known tech companies. Then gave me his personal number through LinkedIn. We texted, talked career advice, he offered to refer me to colleagues and said he'd tweak my resume. Felt like a genuine mentor relationship forming.
Then he mentioned a side business — bulk sports card operation through a major manufacturer with established buyers who do card breaks online. Drop shipped directly from manufacturer to buyers, paid through escrow, 2-3 week cycles. Showed PayPal receipts in the thousands as proof. Said he has more demand than supply and wants to scale. Offered me 15% fixed return on a $5,000 loan as a way to partner.
Here's what I verified before agreeing:
- LinkedIn activity and career history confirmed legitimate
- Phone number lookup matched his name
- Live FaceTime, saw his face, talked 15 minutes about the job market and my career
- Live remote notary session through Proof.com with a licensed Notary Public, both parties signed on video, legally binding document
Contract terms: $5,750 repayment due within 3 weeks, 10% weekly late penalty, governing law specified, legally binding notarized document.
Then at midnight when it came time to send — Apple Wallet failed, card transfers didn't work, crypto was suggested, wire transfer kept getting deflected. Every failed method pushed toward irreversible untraceable rails while avoiding wire transfer which would require him to expose real banking information.
I didn't send anything.
Would I be dumb if I sent the loan payment? The one reason I even thought about doing this is because of the checks and balances.