Today(20:36 Yerevan time) a stranger stopped me on the street and asked for help with 20,000 AMD (about $53), saying he was in trouble and something had happened to his machine. I sent him the money via a card transaction, and he promised to return it in “2” — I did not fully understand whether he meant May 2 or 2:00 AM Yerevan time.
He gave me his phone number so I could call him if needed. He looked well-dressed and had the latest iPhone. He also showed me some Instagram page as proof that he was not just a random person (though I am not sure why that was necessary).
Now I am starting to feel suspicious. I dont understand why he didn’t just call his friends for help instead of asking strangers on the street.
I will not participate in this market.
That is all I know for now, will update in comments if anything happens.
Update 2026-04-20 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): Market will resolve Yes only if the stranger returns the money voluntarily before May 2 without a personal meeting. Otherwise, resolves No.
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@fornever sorry to hear about the outcome.
Maybe it will cheer you up to know I have a way for you to make your money back, and then some. All you need to do is send me 50K mana, and I'll ...
too soon?
@fornever The thing of course is that it isn't you I am sorry for. I am sorry for those who are in a bad spot for real, for whom this dude raises the distrust level. And sort of sorry that you in fact shared this story, due to the way it turned out. It was a gamble of course. If it would have payed off, trust in our fellow people would have immesurably improved, so the odds were good enough, in that people's expectations of having to be on guard, probably haven't suffered all that much.
update: i called him 5 hours ago, but he did not answer. it seems he is now in Armenia, not outside the country. i also messaged him on telegram 5 hours ago and tried calling again a few minutes ago, but he is still unavailable. i have not received the money.
i am starting to think that i trust people too much. maybe it is because over the last two years i have mostly been surrounded by people who think like me and work with me, and i have rarely interacted with people outside that circle. i might have lost my ability to understand whether someone is trying to deceive me.
there is chance that he is not a scammer and he just busy, and transaction was canceled by the bank. but even in that case, i do not really care whether he is a scammer or not. the next time i am not going to be polite with him.
To be more clear, i will resolve the market to Yes only iff he returns the money voluntarily before May 2 without meeting him personally. Otherwise I will resolve market to No.
I value my time more than $53 but I thing what was happened is good experience for me. Sorry for turning this market to the personal blog :)
update: he said that he already sent the money back, but not via card-to-card transaction and it was bank transfer to my card, so it should arrive on Monday. he said that if I do not trust him then he can send proof of transaction, but I told him that it is not necessary. I am sure that he is not lying. All this story seems very suspicious but I think he can not lie so much. His main work is in Armenia and I know sufficient information to find him and he also knows that it will be easy for me to find him. Money is not big and I am sure that he can not just lie me and do all of this for just $53.
@Quroe only card number. He transfered money from his bank account to my card, which only gets processed on working days, ehile card-to-card transfers processed immediately.
he said that if I do not trust him then he can send proof of transaction, but I told him that it is not necessary. I am sure that he is not lying. All this story seems very suspicious but I think he can not lie so much.
Given that you admit it is suspicious and you felt the need to make this market in the first place, it may have been a mistake to not ask for the proof of transaction
@fornever if he "accidentally" sends you too much money, whatever you do, do not return the excess. A lot of scams revolve around fraudulent transactions (by them), followed by a legit transaction (by you). The fraudulent one gets clawed back sometime later, but the legit one -- the one that came from your account -- remains.
update: I connected to him via telegram and he said that he is outside of Armenia and will send my money back today
update: I called him and phone number is not available :)
Are you Turkish? Is the moral of the story "Armenians cannot be trusted"?
Trying to promote a little ethnic hatred here? /s