Dear Editor,
I feel like I was scammed twice. Once by an unknown low life caller and by Digicen. More Guyanese than ever rely on alarm systems, grills, gates or CCTV cameras to help protect their families. But statistically, you are more likely to be the victim of theft online or over the phone than a physical break in at home. If you do a study, you will find that Guyanese lost more money to online scams, phone scams and digital fraud.
A few days ago, I received a phone call from a number with the service provider’s logo, so I thought it was someone from service provider calling me. Immediately, into the conversation, I realized that it wasn’t the service provider but a phone scammer. I continued the conversation because I was curious. Having counseled many people about avoiding these scammers, I wanted to make a case study of this experience. He began by telling me that I won $200,000. I knew it wasn’t true, but I played along. I need to pick up the money at the service provider’s office. I knew no company would give away money like that. Not in Guyana, for sure, and not anywhere else.
Next, the caller sent me a text message and asked me to give him the code number in the text message, which I did, even though I knew it wasn’t a good idea. But I was playing his game. Letting him think, he was smarter than me. That was my first mistake. Never give out your code. Because that gave him access to my service provider’s account, which means he can continue to have access to my account. As the conversation continued, I found the con artist to be very convincing. I was told that I won a car. I need to go to SuperBet and pay them $20,000 and pick up the car. The con artist sought additional information. I knew that the caller was trying to keep me on the phone as long as he can so he can continue accessing my service provider’s account. I knew the game he was playing, and I was playing it. I was doing research so I can write and inform readers about phone scammers. I wanted to learn how these scammers operate.
Eventually, I disconnected the caller and contacted Digicel. I was more disappointed and disgusted with the service provider than with the scammers. The company had little compassion for what had happened to me. They blamed me. They treated me like it was all my fault for what happened. They didn’t give me a refund. All they did was apologize countless times. They refused to investigate the caller. Even though I had the caller’s number and text messages, they said they can’t do anything. They can’t even reimburse me the money I lost, which wasn’t much. Editor, I wonder if this happened to me, a wise old head, when it comes to con artists and scammers, how many more people have had this experience every day and don’t publish or report it.
That said, I want some American phone companies to come to Guyana and open business here so I don’t have to do business with this service provider. I’m sure the American companies would have reimbursed me. Let your readers know that anyone call telling them that they won money, they are scammers. Hang up the phone immediately. The phone company needs to use my experience to identify and investigate the caller and take down a larger crime ring that is stealing money from thousands of Guyanese. Editor, my advice is not to waste your time reporting the matter to the phone company because they will not return your money. They lacked compassion for people who have been ripped off.
Sincerely,
Anthony Pantlitz
