When I was a freshman in college, I bought myself a new cell phone.

I had it all planned out. I bought the new one with the intention of selling my old Sony Erickson phone, which was in excellent condition and had some cutting edge features — the first phone I had that I could make my own ringtones through an app in the phone.

In the absence of today’s online sales platforms like Facebook marketplace, I listed my phone in the best place I thought, Ebay.

Within a day, I had an offer my 18-year-old brain couldn’t refuse. I was asking $200 for the phone, but this person messaged and offered me $600, but I had to mail it overseas.

Thinking at most I would be out the phone and the shipping costs, I thought why not give it a shot. I understood that it was odd to have it shipped overseas, and it was odd for him to ask to remove it from Ebay, and it was uncomfortable that I had literally no way to ensure payment.

Despite my friends and family I told advising against it, based on those copious red flags, I decided to pay to ship it anyway.

Within hours, I knew I’d made a mistake. Having taken the item off Ebay, there was nothing they could do. I had hoped the post office would be able to put a stop on the package, but it was past that point already, too.

My “buyer” kept asking me for tracking information that was not available on the receipt — and didn’t exist — refusing to send payment until he received that information.

I haggled with him for a while and even photoshopped some stuff thinking I could maybe trick him back.

After it was clear I wasn’t going to get paid, which didn’t take very long, I spent weeks essentially harassing the “buyer,” hoping to annoy him enough to just pay me something or at the very least to occupy his time so he wouldn’t be scamming others.

In the end, all I wound up with was a life lesson on scamming.

Fortunately, that’s the only time I have fallen victim to such crimes, though scammers some at me from all sides. My most common is that I “qualify for student loan forgiveness.”

I used to get two or three calls daily with this proposition, and over the course of a few years. For that reason, I generally ignore numbers I don’t know. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.

Scamming has evolved over the years, and according to our report today via Jim Poage, Monett Police Department police services representative, the thievery is ripe locally.

Poage recounted multiple instances of local residents being scammed. There was a person that received a check for a vehicle wrap, which was legitimate but was put on hold, leaving the local on the hook for $1,000.

Another was an individual impersonating the DEA, which put the Verona victim $4,500 out-ofpocket for prepaid cards the caller said were intended to “set a trap” for an individual supposedly committing fraud on the victim’s account.

The most damning, however, was a scam targeting an elderly Monett woman, who was told her husband won nearly $1 million from Publisher’s Clearing House. The catch? She had to pay $45,000 in fees and taxes to claim the cash.

There were a couple other less successful attempts, and one woman whose credit took a hit had it restored once it was determined she was a victim of fraud.

The Better Business Bureau offers 10 tips to avoid getting scammed. They include advice like not sending gift cards or cash to someone you haven’t met, avoiding clicking links on unsolicited emails, having a health amount of skepticism, using caution with anyone met online, resisting the pressure to act immediately, never sharing personally identifiable information and using traceable transactions.

All of this is great advice, but the best weapon we have against these scammers is each other. When presented with an opportunity that seems too good to be true, consult family, friends or a financial advisor or banker. See how others view what’s been offered.

Conversely, if someone else presents you a scenario, do your best to show the risk and weigh the pros and cons of the situation.

In a time where so many people can come after us, we have to be the ones who look out for one another.