I Thought I Was Getting Scammed At Work

Scammers are a part of reality now. It really is depressing that you have to keep your guard up so much because you just don’t know who you can trust. I have had a couple of scammy experiences already like when I thought I was being hired for a work from home job or when I thought I was about to get a Saint Bernard puppy. But this experience definitely was the most traumatic.

This is my story of how I thought I was going to lose my job.

Backstory!

One of our coworkers was dealing with some mental health issues and hadn’t been at work. We were all concerned about him. My coworkers and I discussed it during after care at the school I work at. I was really worried about him.

Several days later, our boss sends a very angry email stating that she has gotten word that people have been gossiping about him and that she would be speaking with the guilty parties when she got back in town.

I was freaked out. I didn’t feel I was “gossiping,” I felt that I was checking on a coworker. But I was scared that we were all in trouble. A coworker later reassured me that she was referring to people who were truly gossiping, passing on partial info, etc.

It was still in the back of my mind but I went on about my day.

When she got back to work, she called two of the aftercare people into her office and I was sure I was next. But, nothing happened. Again, the same coworker reassured me that the reason they were called, had nothing to do with the other situation.

Then…I’m in the computer lab with the students and I get an email from her.

“Please send me your phone number. “

Even though, I thought it was odd that she didn’t have it, I immediately sent it. I figured she was not in the office or something.

And I was completely freaked out.

Am I In Trouble?

I was contemplating how I was going to react if she yelled at me or if I was going to be fired or if I was going to be able to keep my attitude in check if she did, in fact, yell at me.

Not long after, she texted me and told me to call her asap. I told her that I would but when I did, she didn’t answer. She then texted me and said she was in a meeting but needed me to help her with an important matter.

An Important Matter?

That’s when it hit me. This was an impressively poorly timed spam!

I am a pretty good employee but I’m not that high on the totem pole. Why would she need my help, specifically?

I immediately tracked down someone in administration and asked if that was her number. She laughed (because it wasn’t just me, haha) and said “No! Block that number!”

As I was blocking it, they were moving on to requests for me to buy gift cards for them, etc, etc.

I Should Have Known Better

Once that the panic was over, I realized how obviously fake the email and communication was. Signing “Kind Regards” to a work email? What was I thinking?

The good news is that I could go back into the classroom and tell my coworker that I was not in trouble after telling him that I was. And we had something to laugh about the rest of the day. 😂

The moral of the story is that some people suck and that if you didn’t do anything wrong, you shouldn’t assume the worst. Unless, of course, the worst is a spammer.