Pulling Our Heart Strings to Bring Us Down: How the Enemy Within Uses Our Empathy Against Us
“If anyone does not take care of his own relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 1st Timothy 5:8

Dead Syrian child washed up on Turkish beach
A year ago, I came very close to falling victim to a variant of the so-called “Grandparents Scam.” The scam works like this. Someone posing as your granddaughter or grandson, affecting distress, phones to tell you that he or she is in deep trouble in a distant land. She has been jailed for a given offence, and is too embarrassed to ask her parents for help. So she asks for your money. And you send it.
To pull it off, the scammer must make the victim feel that she is indeed a relative that you have lost touch with. That’s the first hurdle. But the second one is to convince the victim of the urgency of sending the money. You must act now before it is too late. Hurry.
Once the victim’s emotional button has been pressed — and there is little time to stop and think — sending a money order to her fake lawyer post-haste is a likely response. In my case, two imposters —who should be given an Oscar for their performance — succeeded in making me believe that my nephew — whom I had not seen for years — was about to be sent to jail if money was not sent to his lawyer immediately. It is a long story, but I almost bought the pitch. Imagine, a ‘smart’ guy like me. Read more






