Friday, July 22, 2011

Well this sucks...

Fired up the computer to read an alarming email from daughter, apparently one she sent to a group. She went to Spain (SPAIN???) for a short vacation, got mugged, lost all her funds, and is trapped in a hotel unable to leave 'cause she can't pay the bill and is about to miss her flight. She didn't mention the baby, and I'm optimistically assuming they're not together.

Not the end of the world, true, but having traveled myself I can understand how upsetting the situation would be - you just want to go home and have the nightmare over.

I can't call her because her cellphone was stolen, and of course she's not exactly sitting by her monitor waiting for my email. Hopefully her network will combine to get her the hell out of there. I have some assistance of my own I could offer but first I have to be able to contact her and I can't 'till she sees and replies to my email. So right now I'm just sitting here feeling helpless.

Spain? Why not someplace civilized, like Haiti? I hear the Ivory Coast is really nice. Sheesh - kids today.

UPDATE: Three comments, three warnings of a scam. You were all correct. I was born at night but not last night: I wouldn't have sent money without voice contact with Daughter. But I just got news she's nowhere near Spain. Somebody hacked her account. All's well.

11 comments:

Carl "Bear" Bussjaeger said...

What a coincidence! The very same thing happened to my son, except it was in Canada. I didn't even know I had a son till then.

Fortunately FBI Director Mueller had just released my $300 gajillion inheritance, so I was able to send the the cash via Western Union.

Big Wooly said...

Yep, while this may be a true problem, I have heard of many scams that sound exactly like this. The first instinct is to help your child, not investigate.

Matt said...

Do you have means of verifying that it is not some kind of scam?

I did have a friend travel to Guatemala last year. He was headed to Tierra del Fuego. In Guatemala his kit was stolen only thing he didn't lose was passport and laptop computer. He said hitchhiking through central america and mexico was not as much fun as it sounds.

Anonymous said...

Need coffee........took seriously.



Buck.

Joel said...

Hey, I took it seriously too. I never ran into this particular sort of scam. But though I was not really suspicious (Whoever it was didn't WRITE like daughter, but who writes like themselves when they're freaked out?) I still would never have pulled the trigger on a money transfer without voice commo. I mean, who'd do that? It's the 21st century, and I've got a phone right here in my pocket.

Carl "Bear" Bussjaeger said...

Oh.



I thought... you were just being satirical regarding a fairly common scam (the Canada variant -- often using phones instead of email -- is pretty common up in NH).

So I was just trying to be funny, too.

I'll shut up and slink away now.

Anonymous said...

That happens down here (south Texas) all the time, an individual will get a call from a relative on the Mexican side of border, claiming that if they don't get immediate funds, the cops will steal the car or put them in jail. Usually just a couple of hundred, something many people have right now.

Since you sent the money voluntarily, its hard to make a case. Nevermind its been sent to a foreign country where its already chaos . . .

The ONE good thing about having a cell phone.

Glad you weren't scammed.

Rachel Ailin said...

To be fair, I am nearer Spain than you are.

GunRights4US said...

My son fell for this scam last year and it cost him $600. Hopefully he will be more skeptical from now on.

If some of these thieving bastards put half as much energy into an honest living as they put into thieving... !

Joel said...

The odd thing is that nobody ever actually hit me for money, even when I responded with a promise of help.

Comes across as more of a sick joke than a scam.

Rachel Ailin said...

That's because Ari was able to recover my account before you (or hopefully anyone else) responded. There was a while that the account was completely out of our control, but thanks to Ari navigating Gmail's obnoxiously complex security features, we got it back.