Lend an Ear
My father passed away and I was depressed because of that. One day at the university I broke into tears and some guy I know approached me, comforted me and told me about a certain group that was supporting him and basically that the experience was changing his life.
The only problem, entering the group was pretty expensive but he said basically, “it’s totally worth it, I promise”. I didn’t give an answer immediately, but I had saved money and was so emotionally low that I really considered accepting his proposal.
Before I could give an answer, the swine flu epidemic emerged and I fell ill, spending around two weeks in bed. The very first day I could go outside, I had contact with my nephew, who happened to have varicella. That was another two or three weeks in bed for me.
After so much time, I lost contact with that guy and never ended up entering the “group”. But several months later, I met a girl, a former classmate. She was unsettled and told me. Half of our department entered that group and she was leaving, but was scared from the harassment she knew she was going to suffer, since another girl that had left earlier had that happen to her.
The group was a LGAT scam: Posing as a coaching group, they were brainwashing people and ended up destroying several lives. Also, it operated under a pyramidal scheme, so members had to constantly be recruiting people. The guy who contacted me was one of the most fervent in the bunch, being the only one who stuck around until the very end. Eventually the group’s founder ran away with lots of money.
If I hadn’t fallen ill, it’s very likely I would have accepted the proposal and would be completely poor and crazy by now.
Story credit: Reddit / jugol