I got this message from a classmate of mine a couple of days ago. What would you have done? She’s looking forward to hearing the comments of others…
“this morning a lady brought in two papers she wanted me to fax. i try my best not to look at people’s faxes, ’cause it’s really none of my damn business, but i couldn’t help noticing that she wanted the information faxed to madrid, spain. besides, she was going on and on about this money she won. so i’m looking at it, and it’s this letter from the ‘international lottery commission’ asking this person to fax a copy of her driver’s license to two numbers so they can get started depositing $800,000 into an account for her. i’m thinking, ‘lady, you’re about as gullible as they come.’ here’s the question: what would you all have done? what would CLIS students have argued in class if this situation was presented to them? some would say, ‘you’re a librarian. what they’re doing is none of your business. yada yada yada.’ some would say that you should tell this patron the deal.”
there just aren’t words…
If they insist on faxing it that’s their business but you *absolutely* have an obligation to warn them of the risk. If you hadn’t seen the fax that’s one thing but to know and not warn is simply unkind.
People dumb enough to do this boggle the mind but you do occasionally have to hold their hand and guide them away from sharp objects.
show ’em snopes first …” and then pull up snopes.com or something similar, and show em. Anybody, I would think, would rate being saved from a scam worth more than the invasion of privacy by you glancing at their fax.
Before you fax, just say “I couldn’t help noticing that this is similar to something I saw on
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/lottery.asp
Inform her….
I agree with Greg – you saw the fax and you know it’s a scam. You should inform her of it. If she doesn’t believe you and insists on sending it, then fax away. At least she was warned.
If you saw it and said nothing then you’re just helping the scam happen.
Same thing Happened at a Wal-Mart Last Month
Wal-Mart workers foil scam by saying, hey lady, are you sure you want to wire $25,000?
Not a bad safeguard, but where does it end? Are circ staff obligated to stop people from checking out books with poor character development?
You can’t protect people from their own stupidity
Really if she does not lose it that way it is simply a matter of time before she loses it some other way.
I have never won sweepstakes and lotteries I entered, much less those I never entered.
Let her drag herself to Kinkos which charges about three bucks a page to fax to Spain, then she will see the scam of three dollar faxing and perhaps wise up about the lottery scam as well.
Yep, warn her
I’d also offer to get her on the phone with the state attorney general’s consumer hotline. Cuz who’s gonna believe a librarian when $800 grand is at stake?
One vote for “tell them”
I’ve not had anyone come in with such a large scale scam, but have had oodles of folks with smaller scale things that were clearly dishonest. I try and find a kind way to tell them that it’s a rip off. It’s tricky, because people can get kinda cranky and defensive if they find out they were almost duped–kind of a kill-the-messenger deal. Most are grateful to not have wasted their time or money, though.
And she did…?
I’m guessing the friend didn’t actually do anything about this that time? If she did what did she say and what would she do next time?
Personally I’d tell them and refuse to send it, couldn’t you be involved in a criminal conspiracy by acting as a intermediary?