Yup, I fell for the ol’ magazine scam back in my college days…and i didn’t even see it coming! (Dumb & Dumber anyone?) I guess everyone has to learn sometime though, and better with small amounts than big ones.

For whatever reason, I remember this particular day as if it were just yesterday. The sun was shining, the birds were chirppin’, and little ol’ me had just began his sophomore year of College. As with many, it was also my very first time living on my own, and boy did I feel like The Man! No one had anything on me, I was invincible. Until the door started knocking.

I answered with a jovial “Why, hello! Welcome to my abode” – a courtesy I handed out to many a young ladies fellow friends over this 4 year period. But the person on the other end wasn’t an your ordinary college student, oh no, he was that of the devil! Yup, he was a modern day scammer. And boy did his eyes light up the second he saw who answered. He couldn’t have found a more naive, and less gullible, person had he set out to do so.

And with that, his words leaped out of him as if he were delivering the best news in the world – “It’s YOUR lucky day my man!” he began with, sensing my excitement in return. “Today only, you can get this Hot Rod car magazine for half it’s price!” (I believe i ended up ordering “Low Rider” mag). To which I exclaimed, “Wow, really? Gee Golly!” or something equally as idiotic.

So I grabbed my newly printed check book, printed out all sections as I had learned just a year or so before, and proudly handed him a check for $30.00. Boy, a magazine for 1/2 off! It was my lucky day :) And with that, he promptly took off w/out any more of an explanation than, “Thx kid! You’ll get your first magazine in about….mumble mumble….”. I took that for “1 month” and didn’t give it another thought.

Until 4 months passed and I still hadn’t seen a sign of my scantily clad women/car magazine :( It was then that woke up from this la-la dream of mine and realized you unfortunately cannot trust every person you meet. And what a shame that feeling was. It sucked losing that hard earned $30 (that’s 6 hours at the cafeteria!), but it was a damn good lesson for me to learn.

And it’s a good thing it happened when it did – I can’t even imagine the trouble I could get into w/ all these Nigerian internet scams going on these days! Whew. And with that, I bid you adieu for the day. It was a pleasure rolling down memory lane with you.