God is so merciful. I see His kindness and His care on so much of my life. He is so good to protect me from myself, as it were, to look out for me when I accidentally mess up.
A particular instance of that happened just a few weeks back. One of the delivery services for one of my businesses will call about random things. To inform me of updates or changes, to confirm orders, etc. Every time they call the phone automatically labels their number as spam. I’ve learned that it’s not spam, and yet due to the size of their business, adding one number to my contacts makes little difference when they call from many, many different numbers.
Another constant with this company is that the people are a bit hard to understand. We get through it and figure things out, but it is clear that English is not their first language. So the other day when a spam number called with someone difficult to understand, claiming to be with their company I didn’t question it. They referenced a problem I was in fact having, claiming they were going to correct it – as they have before – so again, I didn’t question it.
Fast forward to today where I am now locked out of my account, the phone number on the account has been changed and the bank account has been updated to their own. So basically any sales I make go to their account and I’m locked out to do anything about it. I like to think that I am alert to scams and cautious, but this one fooled me.
And yet God is so merciful! Do you know, I received an email that things didn’t seem right in my account. So I was alerted before I lost a single penny! How kind of God! And do you know that I called customer service and explained my problem and they have frozen my account so that the scammer can’t do anything with my account? It should be restored and returned to me in the next few days. Praise the Lord! On the one hand, I’m not too pleased with myself for falling for it, but on the other, I’m just praising God for His mercy and gentleness!
God Is Gentle
This could have occurred on a much bigger and more expensive scale. Something similar could have been more personal and scary, but it wasn’t because God is gentle with me. And I recognize that and I thank Him for it. I don’t purposely create more work or fall for scams. And instead of bemoaning this situation or being down on myself (because the negative thoughts are right there, eager to remind me of my failings), I want to instead focus on God’s kindness and gentleness. His protection from what the enemy meant for harm.
I truly believe that what we choose to focus on and look for is largely what we will see. It is humbling for me to share this story, and yet I hope by sharing it, it might in turn help you to see the bright side of whatever you are going through!
God is so merciful and He loves our praise and gratitude! No matter how bleak what you may be going through may be, look for His incredible provision. Kind people, thoughtful gestures, encouraging words. These seemingly random or disconnected things may seem unrelated, but I assure you, it is simply another way God shows up for us! The Bible says He works all things for our good, we should pray for eyes to see it! As a wise man once said, it is not the Bible that is wrong, it is our perspective. Our job is to get in alignment with what God’s Word states and learn to believe it.
How to Spot a Scam
Though at this point I’m hardly the one to be giving advice on spotting a scam, I did pick up a new nugget of wisdom through this experience. On the phone {with the actual company this time} I asked the girl how to better understand if I was speaking with an actual representative of the company or a scammer.
She said that if I was the one making the call and the company asked for a code or one-time password, that was legitimate. But if I received a call, and someone tried to get these things from me, that was a problem. And somehow that finally made sense to me. The disclaimers and recordings always state we’ll never ask for such and such and yet, not uncommonly, they do. But the key difference is who makes the call, me to the company or the company {or scammer} to me.
I hope that my sharing this helps us both guard against scammers a bit more securely. Praise the Lord that the harm done is inconvenience and not lost money. God is so merciful.
Be sure to look for His mercy in your life and thank Him for it. He is so incredibly kind and gentle with His people.
Until Next Time!
Hope.