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How do you "buy" something that has a negative price? Does the victim have to use their own credit/debit card to receive the credit? If so, that's an immediate and serious problem. Fortunately I don't have to try to make extra money because a Prince from Nigeria is sending me $5 million dollars for helping him "rescue" his fortune from a hostile government.

It's a slow burn scan, similar to fraudsters who scam people on online dating sites. The scammer builds up a level of trust between the client and scammer by asking the client to do certain things, and the scammer does other things that build a level of trust for the client. A two way dialogue is started. The big hit comes later, maybe days or weeks, or even months down the line. Anyone who is not gullible would have disappeared off the radar quick. It is similar to gambling, and the gambler who cannot stop putting bets on, because that is what they hope to find: someone with a addictive personality who is not quick on the uptake. I cannot work out in total how this scam is operating - I admit - other than starting the dialogue, but that is all the scammer needs. It is no different to sales methods employed by car salesmen, who once they get a client interested, start to negotiate the price, give away add-ons such as a free warranty, gasoline, etc. The bigger picture is the sale of the already overpriced car whatever it takes, the big hit.

True, and I wish you'd hurry up and make the payment so I can get my fortune back.

A long-standing question has now been resolved. Today, June 2nd, is National Rotisseries Chicken Day. See https://nationaltoday.com/national-rotisserie-chicken-day/#:~:text=National%20Rotisserie%20Chicken%20Day%20is,that%20seals%20in%20the%20flavor. Tomorrow June 3rd, is National Egg Dy. See https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-egg-day-june-3rd/, Chicken comes before egg.

Well, it seems we will not default. I watched the PBS Newshour last night (Thursday evening) and this was just a little before the bill passed the Senate. It was mentioned, in a worried tone, that senators do not like to work on Friday and of course they do not like to work on Saturday or Sunday. Yep, that was very worrisome. But this can cut both ways. I see that they passed the bill late Thursday. Whew! God forbid that they actually have to work on a Friday or the weekend, but they averted that crisis. Good for them

The purpose of a scam is to scam people. Beyond that, it is hard to tell just what their routine is. However: Possibly nothing that has been done so far is illegal. I believe that scams sometimes start slow. The first task is to find a sucker. "Here, do this and you will make lots of money" or "You have won a jackpot" or something. Then the name is put on a list and they come at the sucker from a different angle. I would advise your friend to be seriously skeptical of anything that appears on her computer for quite a while. But then I think that is good advice for all of us. There is no free lunch.

There are a few possible schemes that this can lead to but I suspect it might be an elaborate start to a simple fake cheque scam. What I suspect would happen is that fake company would overpay, say $1000 instead of $100, in a form that cannot be cashed immediately, traditionally a cheque. They then ask the victim to pay back the overpayment and naturally the cheque will later bounce. Other possibilities involve issues with the money transfer that need to be lifted by paying some fee, or by obtaining the bank details that can then be used in a follow-up scam.

There's a whole genre of youtubers that bait scammers. They (the scammers) are found in poor countries that have little interest in policing activity that involves cooling the wallets of people in wealthy (UK/europe/USA/Australia etc). According to the ACCC ~$2,000,000,000 was lost to scams in Australia last year. What they don't mention is that Australians lose ~$30,000,000,000 to legal gambling outlets each year. There's an even darker side where gangs enslave people and force them to ensnare victims.

It’s a pity that you don’t read Dutch. We have both a booklet explaining how to handle the most common irregularities and an app, android and Ios, that does the same, guiding the director with a decision tree. You answer yes or no to the questions and the app tells you what the decision should be. Of course it can’t solve the comparable call problem or a claim, but it’s quite handy. Free for all at the site of the union (bridge.nl), but unfortunately for you only in Dutch.