To the West Coast and Back, Too funny to not share

I paid over $50 to ship this package.  I knew trying to contact the PO was a bottomless black hole with no chance of remediation or refund.  So instead I reached out to Stamps.com and asked them what my options were in a situation like this.  When they looked at the package tracking themselves they were a bit flabbergasted as well, it made no sense.  Packages do not come back to you for no reason and this one for god knows why was sent in the wrong direction.  I have heard multiple horror stories since DeJoy took over but other than substantial price increases, this was the worst first hand experience I have had.  Talk about people just not giving a fck….

So anyway after talking to the rep on the phone they said they would see if they could apply for a refund for me, despite it not really being a Stamps.com problem.  Overnight I actually received an email stating they were refunding me the shipping cost for the item, a pleasant surprise.  It was yet another example of “if you don’t ask, the answer is always no”.

A couple days ago I got a notification that someone sent me a direct message on Instagram.  When I looked at it I saw the person was an attractive asian woman with the comment “It seems you are also a sports fan”  Odd.  I responded to her asking how she found my profile, she said she likes to see scenery on IG and wound up on my profile. She then says I can call her Alisa and then she asks my name which I do not give her immediately.  She goes into her backstory which supposedly is her living in Canada for the last three years after moving there from China.  She says she is a widowed single mom.  She also says she is 34 years old and helps manage a restaurant.

She then starts asking me questions like my marital status, what I like to do, all of which had my red flags already turning redder.  I am very familiar with stories of internet solicitations by women which seem too good to be true, however I continued to play along.  She then asks me if I have Telegram, another messaging app.  She says she uses that much more than Instagram.  I told her I did and she connected to my account there. I now was sure this was all part of the playbook, to get the person off of IG or FB, wherever they try to catch targets.

So once we are messaging on Telegram I decide it’s time to end the ruse.  I told her that as much as I would like to imagine that an attractive 34 year old woman would randomly contact me on the internet I know that there are a lot of scammers out there.  I said that before I invested more time chatting to her I would like if she could send me a picture of herself holding a piece of paper with my name on it. I told her I wasn’t try to be rude, just properly cautious. After a long pause she said it didn’t sound like I trusted her.  I told her she was right, I don’t trust people on the internet blindly, it’s smart not to do so.  She said she was sorry I didn’t trust her, no picture was ever sent and the communication ended.  It was an interesting first hand experience with the dark alleys of the internet where individuals look to prey on the ignorance and loneliness of others.