New Era Scamming: Lessons from a Young New Yorker's Fraudulent Landlord Experience

Scam Nation: You've Been Hooked, I Have Tooand It’s About to Get Much Worse

Once upon a time, back in the distant era of my early 20s, I was a young Arwa Mahdawiconfused, clueless, and craving the big city. The dream was simple: secure an affordable, chic Manhattan abode that wouldn't have me sharing a bathroom with some stranger. But fortune was not on my side; instead, fate bestowed upon me the ultimate New York City unicorna modestly priced Chelsea loft, conveniently located.

The deal seemed too good to be truea room in a spacious and stylish apartment shared by an eccentric photographer and his dog. The photographercertnly unconventional but in a cultured New York art scene wayappeared not as a predator but merely eccentric. He had the credentials of celebrity photography, which seemed plausible. I forked over $2,000 with my heart soaring. But alas, it was a scam.

A few days prior to my scheduled move-in date, a string of excuses poured infrom his father's death that required delay to an exted artistic project abroad. While I empathized about the loss and admired creativity, I began to suspect the integrity behind the apartment. Yet, after several delays, the landlord himself did return the depositthe first clue pointing towards potential fraud.

I eventually learned from a 2023 Deloitte survey that Generation Zmy cohort at the timefalls prey more often than their grandparents do. This finding revealed my early exposure to scamming was not unusual and didn't define my character's lack of sophistication.

The tale exts beyond me, touching upon many who fall for scams in a world increasingly fraught with deception. Even seasoned journaliststhe ones expected to scrutinize informationare falling for schemes. Take the BBC Look North presenter, who was duped out of almost half his life savings by a scammer posing as his bank. And there's Charlotte Cowles, a financial advice columnist for New York magazine, whose story went viral after admitting to being tricked into believing she was handing over $50,000 in cash to a supposed CIA agent.

The dawn of is ushering an age of scamming and cheating where anything could be fakereality morphs as technology advances. It takes just seconds for voice cloning, and video deepfakes are becoming more accessible than ever before. In February 2023, it was reported that a finance worker lost $25 million to fraudsters who successfully manipulated him into believing they were his company's chief financial officer through a video conference.

As we navigate this new era of manipulated facts and untrustworthy truths, skepticism becomes a crucial tool. : if an opportunity seeo good to be trueor if it is real estate in New Yorkit probably just might not be as advertised.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist who has shared her experience with the pitfalls of scamming and the lessons learned from them.

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