Ten cigarettes left, baby! Actually, I woke up at 3:00am and smoked two cigarettes before I fell back asleep. I had gone to bed to friggin’ early yesterday, I guess that was to be expected. I woke with the shakes, I mean, my hand had trouble connecting with my cellphone to turn the alarm off, it was shaking so hard. My morning routine is finished for the most part, I’m sipping my coffee and having a cigarette. The shakes didn’t come from being cold because it’s not cold in here. They’re either from wanting nicotine or caffeine, and I kinda doubt it’s the caffeine. But it could be. *shrugs* It is damp (raining all night) and chilly outside, but my place is so well insulated, I don’t feel it. I will, eventually, as I have to leave my door open in case Cooper jumps out of the pen.
So, earlier last week I mentioned why I felt I couldn’t quit on the tenth and promised updates. Pretty sure I already outlined most of it, without mentioning names or anything. A person with the handle of Larry Baier on Twitter sent out a post that he would help some of the first one hundred people to follow that tweet, and I followed it. I diligently looked up the name on Google, and yes, there was indeed a man of that name that had recently won the lottery, in Virginia. Okay, some possible legitimacy, but the real test would be, does he ask for my credit card information – scam – or not? He explains that in the morning when the banks were open – it was around 9:00 when we were messaging one another – he would send me his bank routing number and account number, along with the amounts he would authorize on each credit card. Hmm, interesting… if true, if he did really send me his banking information for me to enter at my credit cards, was he legit?
That was my first sleepless night. Yes, he contacted me the next morning, told me his bank name – Peoples Bank – gave me their routing number and then gave me an account number. I logged into my first card using my computer, as he texted me the amount on my phone, $450. Logged into card account number two, $1000; account number three, $2000; account number four, $3000; and the big account, number five, he paid $5500. He said he was sure my Amazon account would already be showing the payment credited to me – it was, but he would like to finish tomorrow paying a few more bills, as he had an appointment. Did this dude just really pay $11,950 in credit card debt for me, out of the goodness of his heart? I kept checking the accounts, throughout the day. Nothing was happening and that was the angry blog post I wrote here, around the tenth. I couldn’t sleep, I was so damn angry. How dare he raise my hopes like that? I logged into one of those accounts about five minutes after midnight. My jaw dropped. My balance was reduced by the payment amount!! Holy shit!!! I had another sleepless night, not daring to believe I really had gotten a benefactor to help me out.
Daughter was suspicious, trying to find a scam, but I had seen the proof of my accounts being reduced. After dropping granddaughter off at work, Daughter came here to watch me log into my accounts. Meanwhile, Larry texted me to say he had a few hours, if I wanted to pay a few more bills? Hell yes, I did! Daughter read all the texts; she saw I never gave Larry any of my information, but she was still suspicious and tried to call Larry at the number he was texting from. I didn’t hear the call, I was keeping my grandson busy, but Daughter said he sounded like he was from India, not Virginia. Long and the short of it, Larry wanted me to purchase items with one of the cards he paid on, for “homeless people in my area.” Daughter called Peoples Bank and after several calls and explanations, assuring them she wasn’t asking for account information, that she simply wanted to confirm the information we had was legitimate, the bank said it was their correct routing number, but their account numbers were not numbered the way this one was. And they didn’t have a customer with the name Larry Baier. One of the cards Larry “paid” was my Discover card – I love Discover! – and they told us how to contact Peoples Bank, what type of questions to ask, and immediately froze my account for me while documenting the scam.
Today, the fake payments rolled off and my balances were as they were before Larry’s game. I contacted Twitter and started an investigation on his account. And while I did good yesterday, only smoked eighteen cigarettes, today I’ve been hitting them hard. So fuck you, fake Larry Baier and I am so outtie….