Daniel Leamy, the OUSA Finance and Strategy Officer, has given away $1,000 worth of iTunes vouchers after falling for a scam designed by president77091@gmail.com.
In a series of emails constructed on a dusty Friday morning, Daniel sent hundreds of dollars of his own money to someone masquerading as OUSA President Keegan Wells. It was only when he received a message from real Keegan reading “please don’t tell me you fell for that,” that Daniel knew he was “fucked”. In other news, Daniel is running unopposed for the Finance and Strategy Officer role for next year (gulp).
The scam happened on a trip to Queenstown in mid-sem break with the boys. Speaking about his failures to Critic, Daniel stated that he “woke up one day to an email from a ‘Keegan Wells’ and I thought “shit” what does Keegan want? I just want a break.”
After an initial email, the scammer told Daniel (verbatim): “Here’s what i want you to do for me because I’m a little busy right now. I on incentives and aimed at surprising some of our diligent staff with gift cards this week […] I want you to pick the gift cards for me and I will refund you once am done […] Can you get this done today?”
Daniel clarified that this type of ‘reimbursement’ practice was not uncommon within the Exec. He was also with a bunch of dusty mates who had vibe checked the situation. After sending the scammer photos of five iTunes gift voucher codes valued at $100 a piece, ‘Keegan’ then replied, “Thanks a lot, I got them all. I need you to get me another 5 pieces because I still need them.That means I will be sending you 1050 […] 50 extra for the inconvenience I cost you.” After sending over another five voucher codes, Daniel received yet another (virtually identical) email asking him to send over eight more vouchers “because I still need them” according to ‘Keegan’. Thankfully, Daniel had finally cottoned on at this point.
“Fuck it ruined my day,” Daniel said to Critic. “It’s just brutal, if I was actually broke I’d be fucked.” He mentioned that the scam actually cost him even more than $1,000, as he needed to drink away the pain and was still in Queenstown. Reacting to the incident, one of Daniel’s mate’s Jesse said, “I actually feel bad for him to be honest. Obviously it’s all pretty funny but if that happened to me I’d be pretty dark about it.” Daniel is definitely still dark about it.
Taking a different approach, the real OUSA President Keegan Wells told Critic, “Who’s to say Daniel isn’t just a very charitable young man? He knew he was getting swindled but realised the scammers are also experiencing this cost of living crisis […] Instead of sitting here judging the best finance and strategy representative this town’s ever god damn seen, maybe you should open your hearts and wallets to those less fortunate than you […] We should all try to be a bit more like Daniel really.” Critic is unable to 100% confirm or deny that this quote is from the real Keegan or not.
Though the $1,000 was Daniel’s own money, many have been quick to point out that being scammed is probably not what you want from the man in charge of the OUSA Exec budget, with Jesse stating “the fact that he’s the Finance and Strategy Officer just makes it even better.” Addressing these concerns over his suitability, Daniel merely said, “I’m aware that it’s not a good look at all from a finance and strategy officer but students can have faith in me because I will never be that dusty ever again in my life.”
“I’m wary that there will always be a scam coming through my inbox,” he continued. “Before this I was like, ‘No way could I ever get scammed. How do people fall for this shit?’ Now I’m just like, oh...” Oh indeed, Daniel. Oh indeed.