By D grace of God: a story of a scammer to a saint.

How many of us has received that email at one point of our lives from a Nigerian Prince asking for help to send some little amount of money so that he can then get his millions in a bank account currently frozen and once he has access you will be generously rewarded.

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I've worked in the fraud department of a bank a long time ago and have received countless complains of people getting scammed and having their life savings cleaned out. One of the saddest part is these people are mostly the elderly who are living off their life savings and pension. I remember one call that this elderly woman was crying because all the money in her account was taken because she gave her account number and password so that as she was informed that it is needed so that the transfer can be done smoothly. Your heart just aches as the only thing you can say is you'll forward the request and will be investigated further. By the time it is reported the trail would have gone cold and the money transferred to a non disclosed account and the reversal of the transfer is almost impossible.

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It grew to a point that it was so big that the banking community issued a memo and placed a number of countries in Africa in a blacklist because of the prevalence of the scam.

So I came across this video where a man from Oregon named Ben Taylor recieved a message in Facebook from a Joel from Liberia asking for help. The message read as follows:

“Helo Sir, wel my name is Joel from Liberia, West Africa. Pls I beg u in name of GOD, I need some assistance from u, business or financial assistance dat will help empower me pls,”

How many of us has recieved something similar and just closed that message. Ben decided to talk to the person not because of charity but because he wanted to waste the man's time because the more time he wasted the less chance that this person would be able to scam someone else.

The internet is full of these guys who record, waste the time of scammers and inform the authorities once they have enough evidence. I applaud these unsung heroes who do their part to eliminate these bad people.

He even made a whole YouTube channel chronicalling the conversation he was having with Joel. It can be watched below:

Pleasant Green

It is a 14 episode channel that journeys the conversation and action done.

So he learned that the man wanted to earn money so he can help his community. Joel told Ben that he was a journalist teaching English to young children. They agreed that he would send money but Joel would need to work for it. He would buy photos of his life and community in Liberia. Joel was a bit apprehensive on this but in the end he tried to comply.

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Twenty blurry pictures like the one above was sent to him. It was bad and of no quality at all. He surmised that Joel was using a cheap fliptop phone was about 15 years old like those old Nokia models that took awful pictures.

So he took a leap of faith and sent Joel a $28 dollar camera and gave him tips on lighting, steadying his hands before shooting the picture. Fundamental stuff in photography.

The first few pictures were still blurry but Joel was getting better.

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Slowly Ben began to see life in Liberia.

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He was struck by this man who continued to message him and send him pictures. If this was a con man he would have moved on a long time ago and looked for an easier mark. Yet here he was striving to do something to make his situation better along with his community.

So at this point he gathered enough images and with the help of several people helped create a book of photography of Monrovia, Liberia. They named it By D Grace of God because Joel would often end his communication with that. He was intent on raising $2500 in Indiegogo but was able to raise over $13,000!

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By D Grace of God by Joel was a sure hit! He told Joel about this and asked what he'll do with the money and he said he will help buy school supplies for the children. He'll initially need $100 dollars to buy stuff for 100 of the youngest kids.

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I share a similar advocacy of helping young children with their school supplies. Our foundation is committed to give young indigenous Aeta children a chance to be able to study and make a difference in their life. I admit I was bit teary eyed with this one.

This was a story of hope. Of changing things for the better. Of making a difference in one man's life that would ripple out and make a difference in a community.

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Our world has turned so cynical and negative these days and we are motivated by our greed and wanting to acquire more and more. Sometimes it takes one man to put our faith back to the goodness of humanity. Sometimes its about taking a leap of faith and believing in that humans can be good.

I am linking the video I watched below in case you want to be believe in the goodness of people.

I am encouraging everyone to kindly vote & support @surpassinggoogle
By typing @steemgigs as your witness