[Synergistic Explosions]

Some of these guys make more than you think scamming online. I got scammed out of 25 bucks to one of them. Turns out he did the same thing to dozens of people at that site.

Several months later I saw him in a free roll tourney at the same site. I've seen him before, but he would never answer me in chat. This time he did. I think there were several people at the table who he scammed. I think the constant berating he was getting put him on tilt, so he began spilling the beans.

He said we were all idiots, which was true. He said he has gotten thousands from people, which I believe, at different poker sites with player to player transfer features.

He was literally admitting to scamming us and laughed at us for being idiots to trust someone online. This is true of course. This instance was my first and only time I loaned someone money online. The thing is, he was so good at it. I mean in the weeks before I loaned him the money he was able to get real chummy with me. I actually thought he was a good dude. He was a good tourney player also, and was winning some good money. He would of been the last person I thought couldn't be trusted for 25 bucks.

But I should have known he was a scamster when the first time he asked to borrow 25 from me. He said he had western unioned money to the site and it should be there in a few hours, but he wanted to enter a tourney starting soon. He even said, and this was the warning sign I should of saw, that he would pay me back 30 that night when the deposit went through.

I think thats the tell tale sign, loan me 25 I'll pay you back 30. It works on a persons greed. Especially when you trust someone almost as a friend.

But it was a cheap lesson to learn early. Now I have no problem turning down online friends requests for a short term loan. And I've gotten a few, and some even with the pay back extra beyond the loan amount.

Live and learn.