Jicamarcababy told that his first reaction when he got the scammer’s email asking for his phone number was a massive eye roll. “They were pretending to be my CEO but the sender’s name was completely wrong, so it was apparent from the start that it was baloney,” he said.

We were curious whether Jicamarcababy shared the story with the scammer with his colleagues. “I actually got laid off temporarily from this job due to the pandemic but was kept on file for potential contracts/freelance work, so I didn’t tell my coworkers, but the fact that I was laid off and the CEO wanted to talk to me was… suspicious.”

It’s not the first time that somebody tried to scam the Imgurian. “I actually got one of these emails a while back, and I actually went to the store. When I got there they explained that they wanted gift cards, and I knew it was a scam and felt immensely stupid for going to the store in the first place. This was sort of revenge for my past self as well as others who get these messages.”

The Imgurian’s conversation with the scammer got a lot of people’s attention. In less than 13 hours, more than 129.8k people saw the post and over 3.2k people upvoted the story.

Scammers will say just about anything to trick you out of your money

The Federal Trade Commission warns that gift cards are the “number one payment method” that imposters demand from their marks. Scammers can pretend to be anyone just to trick you: from family members who supposedly have an emergency on their hands to government officials or even public utility company representatives. Or they might even try to swindle you by saying that you won a contest.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Scammers will try to manipulate you by appealing to your hopes and fears, trying to make you act emotionally. Remember—they will say _anything_ to get your money.

The best thing to do would be to ignore scammers, block their numbers, and report them if you don’t feel like wasting their time for some laughs. But if you made a blunder and paid a scammer with a gift card, the first thing that you should do is call the card company and report that it was used in a scam.