A couple weeks ago, an email arrived through my website with a request for an illustration job. The creative brief was quite complete, albeit for an interesting subject. Apparently, some “client” of the emailer wanted to produce a presentation to warn youth about the dangers of monkey pox disease.

I found the request a bit odd because I didn’t think monkey pox was much of a threat these days. I’m no expert on infectious diseases, but if someone wants to help spread the news on the value of vaccinations, I’m all for it. The creative brief came with illustration descriptions that were quite detailed. Still, I responded requesting more information about the job. The potential client proposed compensation for the sixteen illustrations inviting at one thousand dollars per 8 X 10” full-color panel. That’s higher than most jobs I’ve done in a 40-year creative and illustration career, but again, some clients just want the work done and don’t care about the budget. If luck would have it, I wasn’t going to turn it down.  

There were however Red Flags about the assignment. The person contacting explained that he was hearing impaired and would communicate via email and text. “Okay…” I thought to myself. “We’ll see how this goes.”

Progress

I did one quick sketch that took fifteen minutes and sent it to the client for approval. He said yes with hardly any feedback. That made me suspicious, but the money still sounded good.

Within a week after our initial contact, the “client” requested my address to send a check for a down payment. I stated that 25-50% as part of the initial $4000 first phase of the project was sufficient. I don’t start a job these days, especially one received online, without receiving earnest money. A few days later, the client confirmed that he’d sent a message to arrive through UPS and the US Mail.

Something in the process still felt funny to me. “I’m not sure this is real,” I told my wife and son. They agreed that I should proceed with caution. “Wait until you get a check and cash it before doing anything for them,” my wife advised.

The check arrived in a big USPS envelope. Again, the check was just floating around inside a 15″ X 12″ shipping envelope. “Who does that?” I thought. At a glance, the check looked legitimate enough. I investigated the company listed on check on Linkedin and did a search online to corroborate its location and it lined up. My wife and I joked that I should “run to the bank” to test it all out. A part of me wondered if that was the right thing to do.

Text talk

Then I received a text from the client:

“Hi Christopher, usps confirmed the successful delivery of the package to you…Kindly confirm you have received it so that we can proceed. I await your response.”

I confirmed receipt of the check and immediately got another message. “Thanks for the update. Kindly go ahead and deposit the check and let me know as soon as you do…” I took the check to the ATM machine and paused to take a photo of the document before depositing it. I had no idea if that was legal, but I did it anyway in case something odd happened with the deposit. The check had a small iridescent seal on it that looked a bit like a chip you’d find on a credit or debit card. Not having seen that on a check before, I paused before depositing it. I wondered: could that chip somehow send information back to a potential scammer? One never knows these days…

The check slipped into the ATM machine and the bank showed that the deposit registered.

The next morning I received another text: “Hi Christopher, How are you doing today? I would like to know if you successfully deposited the check. I have to give feedback to my sponsor on the payment. How’s the project coming along? Warm regards.”

To this point, nothing about these interactions felt right or authentic to me. While I was relieved in some sense that the check deposited the night before and a deposit showed up as deposited in my account, that chip on the check still made me nervous. The ATM spit out a receipt showing my prior balance and the new deposit combined. I still wasn’t convinced the check was real or that the “job” wasn’t a scam.

Then another communication came. This one raised my suspicions to another level. “Okay, thanks for the update. I’d be glad if you could confirm funds availability in your account now and get back to me. I await response.”

At that point, every red flag I’d learned in online scam training had been checked. I was no longer convinced anything about that check was authentic. Then came the text that confirmed all my suspicions. “The sponsor has requested that the 2^nd phase of the project be cancelled due to a family emergency,” the message read. “We will only work on the first phase and ensure to keep up with its deadline date.”

I decided to play along and draw the scammer out in full fashion. “Okay, so what’s that mean on refunding the money?” I asked. “I’m not using any of it until the assignment is completed,” I added. My thinking was that for legal reasons and self-protection I should construct a line of defense about ‘acceptance and intent.’ I’m no lawyer, but I’ve come to understand that exhibiting intention is sometimes as bad as actually doing something wrong. I live in the state where former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was caught shopping political promises under the mantle “This is Golden.”

Refund defund

The scammer (of course) welcomed the conversation about a refund. “Yes, that sounds good. The sponsor has provided me with her Zelle and PayPal details for the refund of the 2^nd phase. Please advise which of the information I should provide you with so you can proceed with the refund now for $4000. Thank you.”

I responded. “This is quite strange to me. I’m going to check with the bank first.” That is what I proceeded to do. Then I wrote: “I’m not comfortable with any of this process. I will inform you of the next steps when I’ve checked with the bank.” Frankly, by that point, I was hoping to gather information that might somehow track back to the sender.

That communication engendered a different tone in response. “I am sorry about the inconvenience. Yes, you may check the bank, but the bank has already confirmed the check and funded your account. She decided to cancel phase 2 for a family emergency and until the vaccination exercise has concluded. Therefore, the second phase of the workshop has been moved to a later date next year. I’m giving you $200 more for your stress and canceling of the project. This is just to compensate for the dashed expectation.”

That communication was received while I was on the phone with my bank, first through a local branch and then through the Fraud Alert national network. They didn’t indicate they’d do anything but did suggest I not send the money. The guy on the line also congratulated me on being cautious in that respect. Still, I asked, “Don’t we do anything right now?”

The Fraud Alert guy replied that the bank has to let the check clear or bounce, or “come back” as it was explained to me. My thinking was much different. Shouldn’t we get the FBI be involved? Wasn’t this an attempted crime in progress? It sure had all the marks of an outright scam.

Meanwhile, the scammer kept up his pressure to refund money. I responded, “I’m not sending you any money. I am on the phone with the bank now.”

“What did your bank say?”

I wrote back again. “Just got off. They said don’t send any money.”

Then came the emotion-based plea: “Chris, please. I hope this doesn’t affect the project in any way because your feedback is top-notch, and professionalism is impeccable. You have been been giving me the best service ever since my very first message to you. I don’t want this to affect my relationship with my sponsor.”

For all of you out there reading this, I hope you recognize the problem here: This brand of broken English is a sign that things are not right with the contact.

I replied, “Unless that check clears inspection by my bank nothing is happening. I talked with them already. I’m perplexed and suspicious by refund requests. I’m not doing that. If your sponsor is legit they can wait.”

At that point my only purpose was holding him at bay in hopes of getting some kind of investigation going. It wasn’t until that evening that I had a chance to Google “Peter Welsh illustration scam” and immediately found the thread on Reddit where a discussion about the same guy doing the same scam in various forms was shared by many others. The people behind these multiple personas and versions of the scam are apparently prodigious in their craft.

The scammer tried one more time to get me involved: “I’m so sorry this happened, and don’t feel bad. The check is legitimate, and the payment has gone through, so there’s not a compelling reason to put a hold on it. Please, I would appreciate it if you can send the money out today. You can also use money order.”

I read that message and muttered to myself…”F you…”

And after that, it was radio silence from the scammer for five hours. It is highly likely that he sensed my suspicions and moved over to another “account” that looked more promising. In the interim, I went about my business as a substitute PE teacher for the day, and drove home glad that the scammer had let up and that I’d called the authorities. On the way home, I set up and appointment to make a police report. Then I opened the original Gmail message to look closer at the photo attached to the Sender. As others noted, perhaps he’s some kind of real person. More likely not. In the age of facial recognition, this photo is probably stolen from somewhere else. Just like the check I received. It’s a fake.

I looked up the name of the company from which the check was issued. I’m not sure what to think about that. Their Glassdoor and Google reviews feature a long string of one-star reviews. They ostensibly sell automotive parts, but they must also be missing stacks of checks or else someone is creating fake ones using their company’s name.

Of course, that check that I “cashed” did not clear the bank and it immediately caused other problems. Admittedly, I did not protect myself well enough in this instance. That said, I filed the police report against this scammer. The officer shared that their department gets 8-10 calls for different kinds of scams each week. “It’s sad,” the officer shared. “People lose tens of thousands of dollars sometimes. Especially older people.”

One last shot

In late afternoon I received a phone call from the scammer. He talked in some sort of Eastern European accent, possibly Russian. Over the years I’ve worked with numerous Eastern European caregivers for my late father. These accents are often difficult to tell apart. It wasn’t a surprise to me that this guy was from some odd origin. That’s often how all of this works. Even the 2016 presidential election was impacted by fake social media accounts run by Russian interests. Meta recently announced the 4000+ fake accounts pumping out political disinformation were removed from Facebook. Scamming works at a global level these days.

My caller, whose working name is “Peter Welsh” started right in talking about whether the check had cleared or not. I was ahead of him on that, having already called the bank and checked online to see that it was “Oh Hold.” Our conversation veered from one place to another over the course of a minute. My goal was to get home off the line asap. He tried to manipulate me by telling me I was “acting weird” about the refund. I outright told him to stop gaslighting me and hung up. Then I Blocked any remaining calls from his number. I admit that I could not resist sending him a semi-nasty text. Father, Forgive My Sins.

Just think: this guy and his ‘operation’ is doing this kind of thing to dozens, perhaps hundreds of people across the country. He’s probably had success too. Even if he works 10-12 marks a week, $4-10,000 isn’t bad pay for a week’s work.

It’s a scammy world

Clearly I’m not alone in this being exposed to this scam experience. I’m sharing this in hopes that other people will be wiser and keep their guard up. To be honest: I’ve always been too trusting person in this world. That has cost me in many ways, including in business where even the people you work with have “agendas” that in some cases qualify as “scams” when seeking internal favor just grabbing additional compensation.

The love of money really is the root of all evil. I think back to a time when a fellow salesperson sandbagged his cumulative ad sales during a competition. He waited until the last minute to turn them in so that he could a $250 sales prize. Working hard in my little territory, I’d led the contest all along. Meanwhile, this jerkwad sold just enough to say ahead of me in his better territory, then walked over the board on the last day and filled in his totals. He scammed me, in other words.

Big picture fraud

There’s a ton of fraud taking place in this world. Along with scammers like this scuzzy Peter Welsh, scams take place in all kinds of places. Most common these days are online scammers (Facebook Marketplace, etc.) and cryptocurrency crooks, to name just a couple. The scams and fraud in this world include those concocted by deceptive CEOs or financial crooks (remember Enron, or Bernie Madoff?) Even seemingly “upright” corporate directors collect millions in salaries wrought from real or imagined profits while the workers driving productivity struggle to make ends meet. Wealth inequality is at a disturbing level in the United States of America.

We also see political scammers collecting millions in fund raising dollars while making all sorts of false promises to bilk money from supporters. One notable scammer in George Santos just got booted from Congress yet the likes of Trump (“Mexico is gonna build that wall…and if they don’t, we will!) still walks free. Trump excels in stealing support from millions of people even though his own University has been held culpable for fraud. The same holds true for his main business which is facing banishment from the State of New York for decades of scamming banks and the government with falsified financial reports and inflated and deflated property values. Trump is a proven crook and scammer. Now he’s on trial for host of other alleged yet well-documented crimes including attempts to steal an election, conduct an insurrection, and theft of Classified documents that include exposing national secrets to domestic and foreign sources.

Trump knows that his supporters don’t care that he’s a scammer. He’s their scammer for bragging that he’d “drain the swamp” while his administration turned out to be one of the most corrupt in US and World History.

A sucker born every minute

It’s often been said that there are “suckers born every minute” (P.T. Barnum, at right) Much has been made of this fact by huckster of many kind. Somehow, the general public never figures out who to trust. Mark Twain once said, “All it takes is ignorance and confidence, and success is sure.”

All it takes to deceive people is a bit of swagger and a carefully leveraged appearance of credibility. It’s been true since the dawn of recorded history. The Serpent in Genesis used the Word of God (“You will not surely die…) to lead Adam and Eve into temptation. According to scripture, they were the first suckers in history. But the real suckers are those who take the Bible narrative literally. Because, where did the wives for Adam and Cain come from? We’re supposed to ignore those casual details somehow?

The shocking thing is how so many people to this day seem eager and willing to be deceived. They’ll open their wallets and place their wholehearted trust––even their religious faith––behind proven scammers as if their life depends on it. There is nothing more disheartening that seeing otherwise good people get caught up in propagandistic schemes that are nothing more than artistic scams. All while the sociopathic crooks in power dishonestly insist they’ve got their victims’ best interests in mind.

Reverse prosperity gospel

None other than Jesus Christ warned against this kind of “reverse prosperity” scam system. He castigated the religious authorities of his day for taking money and gaining power by manipulating the masses through guilt and tradition. Today we have “Prosperity Gospel” preachers raking in millions in contributions while bilking people into thinking their donations will return prosperity to them. They’ve stolen pages from religious scammers of the past and modernized them through media.

These forms of religious scams are blatantly obvious, but people fall for them every day. Hell, even the Catholic Church ran a purgatory scam with its ‘indulgences’ program before one of their own priests, a guy named Martin Luther, called them to account. Purgatory and the collection of indulgences served as a money funnel to “protect” people from a place that existed only in the minds and bank accounts of the religious authorities. The many scams concocted by televangelists (End Times supplies, anyone?) and politicians claiming religious affiliation (Mike Johnson is now Speaker of the House) are no different. They are all working against the original truth and goodness that the Bible depicts in the person of Jesus.

Roped in but not duty bound

The attempted scammer successfully roped me in, but his last-minute try at gaslighting me into guilt didn’t work. Still, he knows those psychological bonds and ploys are what help him succeed. The more emotional a scammer can make a potential victim feel, the more chance they’ll get their hands on their money––and their soul.

While I nearly got tricked by the scammer, I’m grateful for having received direct training on how to identify scams before they take full effect. I was misled at first, but as the Red Flags added up, I wised up. My father wasn’t so lucky many years ago. He got roped into a network marketing scheme that cost our family $5000 in early 1970s money. I’ve had keen antennae up against such schemes ever since.

So beware. Scammers are real. They are all around you in this world and they’re committed to putting all their intellect and artistic deception to work in building “real relationships.” In fact, they’re merely trying to win your approval, steal your money, steal your vote, or steal an election they’ve already lost to escape prosecution for the crimes they’ve already committed.  All while presenting themselves as a salvation from the evils of this world. These

The sad thing is that so many people embrace these scams as absolute truth. Even worse, they gaslight the rest of us for holding fast to honesty while claiming that we’re the liars. Meanwhile the security of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness all stand at risk because so many people fall for scams and never realize they’re the mark, not the wise ones.

Christopher Cudworth is the author of several books including The Genesis Fix: A Repair Manual for Faith in the Modern Age (out of print) and Honest-To-Goodness: Why Christianity Needs A Reality Check and How To Make It Happen (Amazon.com)