Scammers, scammers everywhere

In our first year of med school, we were offered a free copy of a book on debt management. I read the whole thing, so I noticed I got a defective copy missing the chapter on stock market investment.“They gave doctors a book without the chapter on investment?” my business school friends asked. “That’s hilarious. Bwahahaha!”Doctors make such easy targets for scammers: high income. Very trusting. No time to double check on non-medical details. And sold a luxury lifestyle.I avoided all of these by being cheap, not earning a whole lot and staying highly suspicious. But I still got scammed recently. I’m sharing so that you can learn from my mistakes. Part of how they win is through silence.Read: Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes: Here and queerI signed up for Bouchercon, a major mystery convention, for a few reasons. They’re usually in the U.S., but at a Bouchercon in Toronto, I made friends and sold two short stories, one of which, “The Sin Eaters,” became a finalist for the Crime Writers of Canada Award. And I’m not travelling to the U.S. for the foreseeable future, but Bouchercon is coming to Calgary in 2026. Score!You have to pay for these things, and the early bird discount was disappearing. I only noticed this the night before, but the website wouldn’t take my credit card. I wrote to the email address on the website, asking them if other Canadians had had the same problem. The next day, I got an email saying that yes, other Canadians had the same issue, so I could transfer the money by PayPal to an individual email address.Weird, but I was driving five hours to Kingston and back that day. I sent a quick message out asking other mystery writers if they’d run into this, and then hopped in my car.My friends didn’t answer, and I decided to pull the trigger and send $230 USD to the PayPal account so I didn’t miss the $30 early bird discount. I did send a follow up email for a confirmation number and that sort of thing, but otherwise let it lie. About two weeks ago, I decided to check on their website and noticed that my name is not on the list of attending authors.I got scammed.PayPal’s appeal link didn’t work, so I had to call, sit on hold and explain it all manually, but the person was very nice, and in the end, I got my $230 USD back after wasting untold time.Lesson learned: doesn’t matter if you’re rushed or distracted. Pay the extra money, invest the time and do your due diligence.You may say, “What does this have to do with medicine?”It’s pretty common for physicians to sign employment or rental contracts. Did you go through yours line by line and run it by a lawyer?Or did you ask AI or your friend Billybob if that contract looked OK?Come on. You know the right answer. A stitch in time saves nine.Speaking of rentals, fingers and toes crossed that we just successfully rented our first apartment for a year. Here are a few snags we ran into.Online listings tend to be posted by rental companies, which charge additional expenses that are passed on to the renter. Then they can still be useless. Of the six my family first contacted, four didn’t respond. The two who did told us to look at the online 3D constructs or video instead of touring the place in person. What?Another might have been a fake listing. People can rent a place on Airbnb so they have access, then make a listing and show prospective renters around. They pocket multiple deposits and disappear.A rental company seemed like a good bet because they can show you multiple places and do some leg work. I booked a bunch of tours, then looked up the company. Horrible complaints online. They bought up rent-controlled apartments, forced renters out, and abuse the ones who move in. “They won’t clean up if someone’s cat pees in the lobby on Friday, so it gets tracked up and down the stairs all weekend.” “I still have blood on my wall from the last tenant.”The most terrifying was that someone died in an adjacent apartment, and they didn’t respond to complaints about the smell or properly clean up the remains. Corporations are not the answer!My friend told me to look on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji. I was worried about scams, but that was actually how we found one place that seemed legit. We’ll see how it works out.In the digital and AI, age, we’re bigger targets than ever.Stay safe.

Scammers, scammers everywhere

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Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes

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