Have you been scammed before? If yes, how did you feel about it? How did you move on or go through the experience? How did you overcome it?

You see, brethren, no one wants to be a victim of fraud or scam. It is not just a painful experience financially, but emotionally. Losing your hard-earned money, especially if it is a huge money, can leave you feeling frustrated, angry, and ashamed.

Just this week, I was scammed on Facebook. I lost 1,400php ($25) as a result. I found myself thinking about the whole situation, how I was enticed by the scammer’s offer, how I ignored my intuition that this could be a scam, and how foolish I was to fall into that trap.

Nevertheless, as I mentioned before, great lessons come from great failures.

Even though getting scammed is an unpleasant experience, there are actually important lessons we can learn. So, today, I want to share with you 3 spiritual lessons I learned from getting scammed. These lessons are not only useful in situations of fraud and scams, but rather, you can also use this in other challenging experiences in your life.

So, I highly recommend you listen to me and learn these spiritual lessons.

1. Be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove

Let’s go to Matthew 10:16:

¹⁶ “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”

Yahshua was telling us that we are like sheep in the midst of wolves. In simple terms, we are living in a dangerous world. Wolves are intentional in killing and eating helpless and unguarded sheep. It is in their very nature to harm their prey. They don’t hesitate.

In the same way, scammers and fraudsters are like wolves. They intentionally deceive people and take advantage of them.

So, what was the instruction of Yahshua for us? Since we are like sheep in the midst of wolves, we are taught to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Wise as serpents

We need to be wise as serpents. What is the wisdom of serpents?

In general, serpents or snakes try to avoid trouble as much as possible. If they are discovered, they are quick to hide and look for a safe place. They are wise enough to avoid trouble rather than go through the experience.

This should teach us that we need to avoid scams in the best way we can. In my case, I wasn’t becoming like a wise serpent when I got scammed.

At first, when I saw the offer from the scammer, I got interested. They are actually offering a super huge discount for online services that I need for work.

So, I sent them a message. What I failed to realize is that if the offers are too good to be true, it is more likely to be a scam. Imagine, a subscription of 35,000 pesos ($628) a year, you’ll only pay 1,400 for it with no expiration!

I went on to message them. I was actually hesitant at first. However, the scammer sent me some proof that they are legitimate and they truly deliver the services they offer.

I was convinced and so, I sent them the money. Once I sent them the money, the scammer stopped replying to my messages. And boom, just like that, I lost my money.

So, remember, be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. I believe I’m wiser now with the experience that I recently have. So, to help you become wise as a serpent when it comes to scams, here are a few more tips:

1. If the offer is too good to be true, it is most likely a scam.
2. Only transact with trusted sellers. Go directly to their website instead of going through a third-party agent.
3. Talk to existing and previous customers.
4. Research the seller. If there are not enough details about them or their identity is ambiguous, don’t proceed.

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2. We can all become scammers without knowing it

If you think about it brethren, when I wanted to get a super huge discount, which is gotten from obscure and shady transactions, I’m also becoming a scammer. How? I’m becoming a scammer to the real service provider.

If I indeed got the lifetime subscription, I didn’t pay the service provider, but rather the scammer. I have become part of the scam. I’m enjoying a service that I didn’t pay properly.

In Exodus 20:15 we read “You shall not steal.”

Stealing involves lying, cheating, and deceiving. Obviously, scamming people is a form of stealing. However, there are those forms of stealing that we might not be aware of, and thus, we become scammers as well.

What are the ways we become scammers without knowing it? One is when we cheat in our exams, we become scammers. When we tell a lie, we become scammers. When we use software, online tools, or various services without properly paying for them, that’s a scam. When we watch pirated movies, that’s a scam as well.

As you can see, we must live a life of honesty and integrity. You can’t build a godly character without these two. If we are honest in the little, we can be honest in much.

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3. Be forgiving

One of the most undesirable feelings, when you get scammed, is the feeling of regret. You try to replay in your mind over and over again the experience. You tell yourself, “If only I did this. I did that.” You need to forgive yourself. 

Forgive yourself

We read in 1 John 3:20:

²⁰ For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

So, stop beating yourself up. Stop getting sad and depressed. It might be difficult, but the only way is forward. There’s no use in dwelling on something that you can’t change any more.

Forgive the victim

Next, if you know someone who got scammed, be forgiving as well. The last thing the person needs is another person making him/her feel even worse.

The person just got scammed, you don’t need to reinforce the fact that he/she got scammed. What that person needs is someone who would provide comfort and wisdom.

We read in Ephesians 4:32: 

³² And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. 

Forgive the scammer

Finally, be forgiving to your scammers. I know how easy it is to hate to death your scammers. In your heart, you might wish the scammers to die or get what they deserve. You might wish that they would get sick, get into an accident, or evil may come upon them.

However, as followers of Yahshua, we need to follow His examples. When Yahshua was hanging on the torture stake, one of His prayers include this in Luke 23:34:

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

If Yahshua can say that to the people who were killing him, how much more we should say this to people who do lesser evil to us, like scamming us, right?

Aside from that, Yahshua instructed us to pray for our enemies. We pray that these people will stop their evil ways, change their lives for the better, and live a life of honest hard work.

Once you do that brethren, you can be more at peace with yourself and with God. You simply surrender the situation to God’s justice, mercy, and love.

Final words

Indeed, getting scammed can be a difficult experience, but don’t waste your experience and learn from it. I was scammed and these are the lessons I learned:

1. Be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove
2. We can all become scammers without knowing it
3. Be forgiving

With that, I hope that you learned from the bad experience that I had so that you don’t have to go through it to learn the same lessons.