Lake Merritt Scammer Reminder
Just a friendly reminder to never hand your phone to a stranger. Even if the person seems safe, just don’t do it.
There are other posts about this, but since this happened this past weekend, I thought I’d post my experience.
My boomer aunt and uncle were in town visiting, so we took a walk around the lake. We were taking photos together just past 1200 Lakeshore on the other side of the footbridge.
A dude (probably in his 20s) ran up and offered to take a pic of all three of us. Super friendly, and immediately said we could hold his phone if we didn’t feel safe. My aunt and uncle immediately agreed.
(If you haven’t heard about the scam: the stranger gains your trust and then opens Venmo or CashApp, etc., and sends themselves $1000s while they are pretending to take your picture or entering their social media, etc.)
Anyway, when I politely said no, thank you, and signaled to my aunt and uncle to keep walking, the guy started yelling at me about how my “parents” probably pay my rent and how he “just wanted a piece of that action”. Basically, he knew that I knew what he was about to try with my aunt’s phone.
Stay safe, folks!