“Hi dad (…) my cell phone is broken.” Here’s how Father Paulo Duarte, a 43-year-old Jesuit with tens of thousands of social media followers, was approached by a “Hello father, hello mother” scam that has claimed over the past year and a half that thousands of believing victims are transferring money to children who got into trouble.
Before exposing the scammer and already contacting the NDP – he described the same thing on his social networks – the priest, a native of Portimão, had a “conversation” with a bandit who asked to transfer 684.87 euros at an ATM. The priest even suggested that he put a mobile phone (“fallen in water”) in rice to dry, but the scammer replied that it did not work and even gave some information about ATMs.
Already tired, the priest taught the swindler a lesson: “What you are doing now is actually stealing (…) I hope that you will never suffer the harm that you have already caused (…) with this scheme. Hell exists in the lives of many people because of an attitude like yours. I pray for you”. Paulo Duarte in the complaint urges “to warn all the most vulnerable people not to make any banking transactions and payments, based on requests in messages, without first contacting someone for confirmation, even if it is the police.”
Author: Sergio A. Vitorino
Source: CM Jornal
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