It was just a word game. What harm could be had by accepting a game with another player. She started by playing M-O-V-I-E landing the E on a double word square. She waited for him to take his turn. As she began thinking of a word to tie into his V-A-N-E the message bubble came up. She took her turn and responded to his hello.
More games followed and he began to tell her such nice things. He loved her profile picture, she was so sweet, smart, funny… the list seemed to be endless. Needless to say, she kind of liked the attention, but told him it was just friends playing a game.
By day three of playing off and on he wanted to chat outside of the game. She did not but he persuaded her. They used instant messenger and he began to shower her with more compliments asked her all sorts of questions about her day. She believed she was making a friend.
Then one day he said he needed some help. His car was out of commission, and he needed to order a few things online but couldn’t get to the store to pick up an Amazon gift card… would she please send him one for five hundred dollars?
All the bells and whistles went off. She had heard of scams using gift cards and instantly became leery of him. She made excuses for why she couldn’t, and he kept saying how he would pay her back and he would be so grateful. But she was not born yesterday, and she would not be bamboozled. She told him no and then never responded to any additional game requests. Lesson learned.
Written for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (FOWC) – bamboozle
Leigha Robbins 