A real bollywood story

Chapter 1

Got a notification.

(1/11)

So this story begins on November 1, 2023.

On that day, coming home from my menial work, I was sitting by my writers workstation (which also happens to be my bedroom), looking at my computer, rather than working. Resorting to checking my email as a way of telling my self it was relevant to getting something (unspecified) done, I suddenly found this message:

Hello sir, I hope you are doing great… Actually, I am messaging you I need some help…. I hope you can help me out a bit….

Well, helping out a bit is something that most us can and should do right? Now the one sending this message was not anyone close to yours truly, it was a freelancer I’d contacted to get some writing work done that I couldn’t do. However, I didn’t hire her as I thought her prices was a little too rich for my taste.

Nevertheless, helping out is also what I’ve been born and raised to do, so being compelled to respond I wanted to know more, at least. Only, I thought I’d sleep on it, just to prevent myself from rushing headless into whatever this would turn out to be. Since I’d received the email around 9 pm, I didn’t see any reason to reply right away and read some before sleeping. However, before I was going to bed, I wanted to check my email (a bad habit) one more time and then saw this:

I recently lost my father (past week) and I don’t have enough to do the funeral as I have given all to the hospital when he was hospitalized. I have 3 days left… I am looking for more work, so I can afford that or a little help from someone will be appreciated too… I am 21 making enough here to run a house. I would be really glad and delighted if you could offer some work. Doesn’t matter how small it is…. I am really insisting, thank you…

Having to think this over, I wasn’t getting that early to bed after all.

–

The first thought for us who have grown accustomed the internet as a place where anyone will try to get to your wallet any which way they can; to say nothing of a certain African Prince who can’t access his bank account (Or the equivalent of our times: powerball winners or billionaires on twitter who are only there to help…); was of course: Is this a scam?
Here are a few reasons why I didn’t believe it was:

1. Why take the risk?
   First of all contacting me this way, would mean I could easily contact the people running the recruitment portal and notify them of this abuse. Looking at the profile of PY I could see she was a prolific worker and this told me that she was running quite a risk, asking me for help. Someone else might react by reporting this immediately, which could be justified if it weren’t for the second thought that entered my mind.

2. Asking a total stranger?
   Second, why would she ask me, someone she didn’t know at all? The answer to that seemed very obvious: She had no one else to turn to. Or if she did, that would somehow be a less attractive option than to find a person who she didn’t knew. Of course this would also be a scammer’s tactic, to find someone you have no ties or connection to; but though it was thin, we weren’t total strangers like that. Again, this line of reasoning brought me to the

3. (as I learned) The amount was not unreasonable high.
   Okay, a smart scammer wouldn’t ask for millions, but slowly reek in that little bag, to amass it into a much bigger bag over time. But because of the argument of knowing PY just a little and that she would geopardize her position as a freelancer, it seemed plausible that she really was in dire straits.

   The amount was in the category of what an investor once told me: Never invest more than you can afford to loose.

   This wasn’t an investment, except in goodwill and being a decent human. So with that I made up my mind.

So, she would work off whatever help (i.e. money) I would provide. Okay, so far so good. As for the story about a funeral, well why would she lie about that? I know you my dear reader, might think “IT’S A SCAM!”, but I was considering how she was using the freelancer portal as a way of contacting me and how that would ge her banned immediately if I were to find out she wasn’t being truthful.
I decided to sleep on it and take contact first thing in the morning. That was the end of November 1’st.