One of the lures of the Internet is the promise of possibilities.

Complete a survey? Money in your account.

Sign up for free samples? Items on your doorstep.

Enroll for coupons? Deals in your email.

Hoping to save — and maybe even make — a little money, I added my email to their subscriber lists.

Surviving on one income as a single parent is difficult, and the implied ease of securing bits of cash and goodies and the minimal risk involved were a bit seductive.

No harm, no foul, right?

Well … if annoying phone calls, weird emails and no income or free items are considered harmless, then I guess I made out unscathed — after two months and still going.

At least, I hope I did. I suspect the verdict is still out as this Kafkaesque experience continues to unfold or, more likely, unravel.

Forty calls … and still counting

The red flags would have been more evident — if I cared to see them.

The biggest one was the series of questions I believed I had to answer in order to receive the free items or take the money-yielding surveys.

I signed up with a few different websites and discovered these questions — many of which were repeated — seemed to be part of a tedious, but hopefully, rewarding process.

Answering a few questions couldn’t hurt, I thought.

Do you suffer from erectile dysfunction? No.

Do you need help paying back your student loans? No.

Do you require medication to control your pain? No.

Do you use catheters? No.

Answering “No” to these and other inquiries, I foolishly believed I had sidestepped any possible telemarketing traps and scams. My free items and easy money were within my grasp. However, I quickly learned I was wrong.

Within 24 hours, my cellphone began ringing. And ringing. And ringing.

From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. numerous phone numbers scrolled across my iPhone from various locations in Maryland.

I picked up the first couple calls, hoping it was a perspective employer who saw my resume. Instead, a recorded voice told me not to be alarmed, but they wanted to talk to me about my credit card.

Another caller wanted to discuss the warranty on my vehicle and how to extend it.

Kidney dialysis was the topic of yet another caller.

I eventually muted the ringer after a few coworkers directed annoyed glances at me, a clear indication that their patience was running thin.

I firmly believe they would have run over my cellphone with their cars if they had to endure my phone ringing — the sound of crickets — for more than 40 calls.

That was the first day.

The second day was worse. The number of phone calls increased.

I was stunned.

I picked up a few calls just out of curiosity and discovered that my “No” responses to the earlier questions seemed to translate into opportunities for some businesses — legal or otherwise — to try to change my mind. “No” did not mean “no.” The worst offender has been a business that wants to extend the warranty on my car.

By the third day, I entered my phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry.

The phone calls are far less frequent now and when they do interrupt my day, I simply tell the caller:

“Is this a recorded line? If so, please do not call me. I registered my number on the Do Not Call Registry.”

That ends the call at that moment, but the determined ones are sure to call again in a day or so.

Millions of dollars and creepy strangers

Please understand … I signed up to make money and obtain free items I need.

I may not have a lot of money but I’m certainly not stupid, so when I checked my spam folder for important missed emails, I stumbled across some that just made me laugh.

I had only heard about — never received — these little gems, but now I am part of an exclusive group of privileged individuals who have millions and millions of dollars at their fingertips for a nominal fee and the release of my confidential personal information.

I could be a millionaire! Me! That’s what Bill Gates — a Bill Gates, anyway — told me in this excerpt from an email he sent me:

“I BILL GATES and my wife decided to donate the sum of $5,000,000,00 USD to you as part of our charity project to improve the 10 lucky individuals all over the world from our $65 Billion Usd I and My Wife Mapped out to help people. We prayed and searched over the internet for assistance and i saw your profile on Microsoft email owners list and picked you. … as you could see from the webpage above,am not getting any younger and you can imagine having no much time to live.”

Remember the King of Nigeria money scam? Unfortunately, I have not hear from him, but I did receive some good news from Mark Davis, an international diplomatic agent, who dangled a large sum of money as well:

“i was sent from the United Bank Of Africa [UBA] Benin Republic, West Africa to delivered your ATM MASTER CARD of$15 million us dollars to your destination home address and right now am at the City of Corpus Christi, Tx. 78413 US And i want you to send text message to me now  wit this number (361)368-1469)OR Email (diplomatagent173@gmail.com) and give me all about your information to avoid wrong delivering.”

These financial scams are commonplace nowadays, but some new ones popped into my junk folder that made me feel uncomfortable:

Emily wrote: “are you ready for this evening ?? please don’t let me without answer!!

Frank: “hello it’s me, did you forget me ???”

Nellie: “hello What are you doing ? will we meet today …?”

Erika: “What are you doing ? Stop sending your photos !!!!”

Clearly, I don’t know these people, but they appear to know me. I realize these communications are intended to incite me, their tone familiar by design, perhaps to eventually direct me to some porn hub.

Could you imagine if my partner — thank goodness, I’m single — saw these emails? I do hope they stop soon, because they are just creepy.

To this day, I have not received any free items or made any money from those many websites where my email has traveled.

And now I have to worry about identity theft as well. Fortunately, I can keep the lunacy at bay. Who knows? I may have a bizarre second blog on this lovely topic.

And dear reader, if it’s too good to be true, I’ll make sure to let you know.

For more information on scams, check out www.scam-detector.com or www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/scam-alerts.

 

Editor’s note: Aside for a couple deleted sentences, I did not edit the emails referred to in this post. I think the poor grammar, punctuation and spelling reveal the character of our cons, but don’t be led astray by well-written scams.

On Thursdays, I will be sharing a blog about a day in the actual life of a single parent. Every fourth Thursday, instead of a personal post, I will put together one where I assemble news on and about single parents nationally and globally.

I would love to hear from you! Feel free to send any comments and questions to me at singleparentandstrong@gmail.com. I am also on Twitter @parentsonurown and can be found by searching #singleparentandstrong.