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May 7th, 2020
During the coronavirus, many people have been scrolling on their social media accounts out of boredom since many businesses are closed, and stay at home orders are still intact. As people are scrolling on social media, there have been many individuals who have come across the pyramid blessing loom scam on their newsfeed. This scam is bad news and makes many people lose out on their hard-earned money.
How the Pyramid Blessing Loom Scam Works
Someone posts a picture of an octagon on their Instagram or Facebook with a center and many other places where people put their names. They then send the organizer 100 dollars a piece to enter into what they think is a game, where the winner wins $800. These contestants think they are helping bless random people that need the money, but really they are joining in a scheme where the organizer takes all their money.
According to the BBB, this $100 is then sent via Venmo, PayPal, or another digital payment service, and then you wait for your name to enter the center of the circle so you too can win $800. All that’s left to do is to recruit more people to also play in the pyramid blessing loom, which means luring more people into the scam.
However, once the amount of people runs out, so does the money which leaves a lot of people without the money that they invested in this “blessing” loom. The “blessing” loom then turns into a “disappointing” loom as people are left scammed without their hard-earned money.
5 Ways to Avoid This Scam
- If someone says you can earn money on a post, ignore and report it. This is usually someone trying to take your money for themselves. You will most likely end up with nothing that they promise, other than an empty wallet. This is why if you see a post similar to the blessing loom, it is always a good idea to report it so that no one else can get scammed.
- Don’t give anyone your personal or financial information. If you give this information to someone, they can use it to take your funds or to commit identity fraud. This type of fraud can include opening a credit card under your name and leaving you in debt that you didn’t even acquire.
- Be wary of anything that doesn’t seem right. Everyone has a gut feeling when something feels off, and that should be no different when it comes to the blessing loom scam. If you feel like the post seems too good to be true, it probably is and should be reported before anyone else gets scammed.
- Make sure you are only friends with people you trust on your social media accounts. If someone random tries to friend request you and then offers you to play this game with them, chances are there’s probably a scammer behind this profile. Only befriend people you know and text your friend away from their social media profiles if they post something similar to this. This could also mean that someone hacked in your friend’s account.
- Ask questions and do your research before joining an online business. If someone tells you of an online opportunity to make money, make sure you do your research to find out if its a legit opportunity. There are plenty of scams that claim to be online businesses or a “blessing loom” game that will earn you money, but in reality, the organizer will take everyone’s money instead.
If you think that you’ve been scammed out of your money to something similar to the blessing loom scam, Social Catfish is here to help! We can reverse search most information that you receive from the suspected scammer, including the picture that they claim is them, name, email address, phone number, and username that they use on their social media profiles.
