Have you heard of the Empowerment free grant? Yeah, it is an initiative from the Facebook founder to give some lucky bastard some money. Is this too good to be true? Does anyone want to get a piece of the action? Well, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth I almost got sucked into it while I was on Face Book. I almost fell for it. It started out when I got a message from T.F one of my original friends with a FB page. The actual conversation:

T.F: Hello, how are you doing??
ME: OK how is everything with you
T.F: Doing good, searching for what to invest with my grant winning money. Hope you have gotten yours too?
ME: What grant is this?
T.F: Have you heard about the empowerment free grant?
ME: No
T.F: The promotion is made to some facebook user; in order to benefit it’s a randomly picked profile on facebook and they get £200,000.00 did you get yours from them ?
ME: No
ME: Is it for users in the UK only
T.F: No, it’s for everybody. Right now people are being approved for large sums of money to start a business, pay for their education, medical bills, and even to buy a house
ME: No, I haven’t heard about it or know anyone who has been approved for any money
T.F: I don’t know if you have not heard about it ..It’s not advertised publicly; do you know where to apply for the Grant?
ME: No, where do you apply?
T.F: Click on this link to find them out https://www.facebook.com/Online-Agent-James-Mc-Douglas-551530995011604
Message him, tell him you are ready to apply for the empowerment grant.
ME: OK I’ll message him and see the outcome thanks for spreading the news
ME: How much did you get?
T.F: £200,000.00

So I clicked on the link and it took me to a page of a dude named James McDouglas a self-described online agent and government official. So I sent him the message telling him I am ready to apply for the empowerment grant. This was the response and ensuing conversation:

ME: Hello I’m ready to apply for the empowerment grant
J.M: OK, Hold on, let me check if your profile name is still available on our grant winners list.
J.M (after 20minutes): Congrats your profile name is still available on our winners list here and your winning money is still available for claiming. Are you ready to claim your winning money?
ME: Yes, I’m ready to claim the winnings
J.M: CONGRATULATION!!!, You’ll have to Fill some Details, So that the FedEx can Locate your destination at the point of Delivery of your Winning Package & for Momentum Security reasons.. Are you ready to fill the form now?
ME: Sure
J.M: REQUIREMENT DETAILS:
FULL NAME :…. FULL ADDRESS :…. DATE OF BIRTH :….. MARITAL STATUS : ….. CELL/ MOBILE NUMBER :….. CHECK OR CASH:……………. OCCUPATION :….. FILL THE INFO ONE BY ONE AND SEND IT BACK TO US HERE AS MESSAGE.
ME: True George; 123 a street brooklyn ny 11207; 2/15/2016; single; 347-123-4567; check; government bureaucrat

This is where I fucked up. I provided James McDouglas with the legitimate information; could it just be part of the scam, a test to see if I was ready to give them what they wanted? Now I don’t know how it will be used in an effort to scam others, or even create a fake Facebook profile. I guess time will tell.

J.M: Certificate of prove will be issued to you, issuing you your certificate will let you have a confirmation for the FEDEX shipping company who are bringing your winning money and Finally, you are charged for Delivery fees, Tax and Case file fees and are you ready to get this done after 12hours and Your Full Home Address.

It was at this point that the light bulb went off in my head; paying money under the guise of fees, and taxes to get a larger sum of money? This sure sounds like the banking scam that the Nigerian crooks are running; and the Jamaican lottery that the Jamaican rip-off artists are running. These motherfuckers never seem to amaze me. I decided to carry on the conversation just to see how far it will go and to confirm my suspicions.
ME: Yeah
J.M: Your shipping fees and case file fees is $700 and your winning money is $200,000.00. The means of Payment is Via Money Gram Transfer. Are you ready to make the Payment so I can give you the Information to make the Payment Via Money Gram.
ME: OK
J.M: Can you make your payment today and so that we can deliver it next day. We will attempt to deliver your win money in 12hurs to your door step
ME: Yeah
J.M: Here is the FedEx delivery cashier name and Address to make the payment to at MONEY GRAM store. Name. Ladeen gitchuway. City. San Francisco. State. califonia. zip code. 94102
How long will it take you to get this done?
ME: what’s the hurry?
J.M: We Guarantee 101% & Assurance that once you make the payment your winning money will be deliver to you 12 hours after the payment is Made. Millions of Facebook User’s has already gotten their Winning Packaged. We want you to comply with us and we’d want your Honesty, Sincerity & Co-operation.
ME: It will take me 2 hours
J.M: I promise you that FedEx will be there at your house front door to deliver your money two hundred thousand dollars $200.000.00 to you.Ticket number: B 9564-7560-4545-100 with serial number 3631/02 drew the winning: 23/098/45/59/26/989/

My suspicions were indeed correct that scam artist wanted me to send them the money right away thinking that greed will drive my actions. But, unknowing to him I came to my senses a while age. I did a quick Google search which confirmed that this scam as being going on for the past two years. I also found out that my friend’s Face Book account was hacked, and a fake account set up. That was confirmed when I saw that I actually have two profiles of him, the fake profile do not have his personal photos or the consistency of the types of stuff and personal comments that my friend makes. I unfriended that fake profile, and told my friend about it. So if you are on Facebook and a friend is attempting to put you onto the $200,000 empowerment program; odds are your friend’s Face Book profile is fake and be aware the whole thing is a scam.

Watch out because there is no such things has getting Money for Nothing

Sting