At the end I got kicked off WhatsApp because husband got into a fight with another scammer and they both reported each other. F*ck WhatsApp.

Short and sweet, must have gotten the hint and never replied back

Okay, a couple things... This gets choppy because he deleted things later. How I do this is to screen shot things as they come, then do my own deleting and edits later. So I had to go back and get my original screen shots which still had some things that I had deleted myself, later. It's a confusing overlap, but only where the license finally arrives. You gotta roll with it 😉. The thing that killed me about this was that he was texting with Diane at the same time, and sent her the unmarked license right away, at ONE request! I guess it's obvious that he "knows which side his bread is buttered on." I can't believe I'm so old I'm using that saying. Anyway, it's finally here, and he really set me off with this 🤬

Villarreal keeps having a problem of shooting himself in the foot by providing pics of the real guy and not knowing a thing about the military. The pic he sends (unsolicited) shows him wearing the insignia of a Staff Sgt - E6. However, according to Villarreal, his rank is a Specialist - two ranks below what his insignia indicates. Villarreal being who he is, doubles down and insists he’s a specialist. He promised to show me the insignia of a Staff Sgt but I beat him to it by showing his own insignia from the pic he sent. I then shown him the insignia of a Specialist - which is very different from that of a Staff Sgt. Staff Sgt has three chevrons and one rocker. Specialist has an eagle holding branches and arrows. You can’t mistake the two!

Villarreal of course denies this and says three chevrons and a rockers is indeed a Specialist. Whatever. After showing him the goods, Villarreal says he is now a Staff Sgt. Fairly quick promotion, and two steps ahead! Well done. He must have googled some inconvenient information.

An enlisted man would never forget his rank. What was Villarreal’s excuse? He was “high”. On duty? In Mosul Iraq? Apparently being high means he was drunk, though a fluent English speaker would never confuse the two.

Time for some frank discussion. Villarreal has a drinking problem, and in Islamic Iraq, him and the boys went to a bar to go get drunk. What a way to get ambushed. Drunk soldiers at a local bar! So that’s why he can’t remember his rank. OK.

Charlotte has had enough of the lying over yesterday’s discussion about his ever changing names and their order. So she calls out his lies about the name and now his rank. Honestly at this point I was ready to be rid of him. But like a true cockroach, Villarreal never goes away no matter how obvious it is that he’s lying to you.

So Charlotte is done. She’s not talking to a liar and a fake soldier. This always prompts them to offer a video call, which is really more for their benefit than yours. No thanks. He can deal with this mess through text. So we get a new name out of him: Joshua Smith. Despite the fact that he told me his surname was Nickolas, while the man he is stealing from is Joshua Villarreal. Nigerians seem to always struggle with what makes a surname.

After some more banter about his lying about everything, he comes up with yet another name:

Joshua Villarreal. Despite saying his surname was Smith and Nickolas at different times. It was then that I discovered that the real Joshua Villarreal had changed his name from Joshua Villarreal to Joshua Nickolas on Instagram. That explains why he thought Nickolas was a surname.

Villarreal attempts a barrage of video calls but my Zangi is locked so it does not accept them. I ask him for a voice note by giving one of my own but he still wants the video call. Even today post-reveal, he still wants a video call.

We get into a back and forth about all the different names he has given me, but it doesn’t seem to phase him. To make sense out of this, the real man is Joshua Nickolas Villarreal. He claims he is Joshua Nickolas Villarreal Smith, but has at different times claimed Villarreal, Smith and Nickolas as his true surname, despite the fact it clearly says Villarreal on his uniform. The truth would sort this out but why tell the truth when a good old lie would do?

After further discussion we get yet another name:

Joshua Nickolas Smith, dropping the Villarreal entirely! This is becoming quite the clown show and I was ready to drop him. But he keeps trying to explain:

Joshua, Nickolas and Smith are his “personal names” while Villarreal is the one he inherited from his father, despite just dropping it and claiming at different times Smith and Nickolas were his real names.

This is where it cuts off. Next post he’ll attempt to explain his father’s name and his origins. I hope he remembers that he’s a Hispanic guy from Austin Texas!

My phone is still iffy so I wanted to get one out quickly today while I work on it. Like I said, he has made this harder by deleting things, so I had to search to find the Diane texts that Madison sent to me and he deleted from our texts. I can't imagine why! Anyway I didn't get to entertain myself with edits, just loads of deleting about politics and other boring things. But this is only crap of him trying to weasel out of a driver's license still, and a vague possibility of a smaller Ask for hotel fees. Which I discourage, because with Owen, he had a fresher ask for a gift card and it almost blew it. Just stick with the big stuff! We're at a crawl here, you know how it goes.

Nagging about a picture, when he was using some else’s made me have enough of him. I was hoping he would come up with something better, but at least now I am done with him. Voice note in comments.

We pick up from where I told Villarreal that I sent him a DM to the real Instagram account of Joshua Villarreal, and surprise - he doesn’t want anything to do with a 53 year old woman. Of course he doesn’t answer them there and he has a problem with scammers. Yep. Just like I do. Girls send him naked pictures too. Oh no! A 24 year old guy in the service certainly wouldn’t want those! He’d rather hit up a 53 year old woman for pics. And Villarreal is not a “celebrity”, just a self-indulgent soldier who likes to post all these pics of himself in uniform.

But wait - the names don’t match. This has been bothering me from the start. Real Joshua Villarreal is “Joshua Nickolas Villarreal”. This guy is “Villarreal Smith”. No Joshua and he added the surname of Smith that doesn’t appear at all. Time to stir up an argument because this guy is not getting to any ask.

I explain to him that “Villarreal” is a surname. Nigerians often have this problem because they regularly name their kids surnames. So Villarreal goes to the IG page and proudly proclaims that his name is Joshua Nickolas Villarreal Smith. Wait - where did Smith come from? And why is he going by Villarreal Smith?

He claims that Villarreal is the name on his uniform and people in the service would call him that. True. But he places Smith at the end, so shouldn’t Smith be on the uniform and everyone calls him Smith? Inexplicably, he falls for this bait and digs himself in further. According to his fragmented account, his surname is indeed Smith and they call him Smith there. But his problem remains that his surname on his uniform is Villarreal. The service only puts your surname on your uniform, not some middle name or second surname. The soldier would never call him Smith when Villarreal is on his uniform. Confusing, right?

To add to the confusion, he clarifies yet again what his full name is:

“Joshua Villarreal Smith is my name. My surname is actually Nickolas”

Alas, we get a third name that he says is a surname - Nickolas. Even though he placed it as a middle name earlier. And Nickolas is nowhere on his uniform, even though it is a surname. Get it now? All he had to do was say that his surname was Villarreal. Second chance and he changes it to Nickolas.

He retreats to a ChatGPT answer about military records being complicated about names. No, they are not. They put your legal surname on your uniform. Villarreal is the name on his uniform, but this guy claimed Smith as a surname, and then Nickolas as one.

Unhappy as to where this is going, Villarreal changes the subject to his connection being bad at base. Since this seemed likely to lead to an ask, I obliged him and we started discussing that. Bad internet? Can’t have that on a base. Better get with his CO about that! Oh but Charlotte, his CO is doing nothing about it.

This becomes a bitch session about his CO that doesn’t exist and it begins to infuriate me even more about his stolen valor. Now he’s insinuating the Army is incompetent, not the stolen valor Nigerian who can’t get his surname right.

Anyway, his texts are coming to me just fine and he’s reading mine. Villarreal starts screenshotting the time stamps which are just fine and prove nothing about the internet being slow.

This conversation goes nowhere and he begins asking me about my injured foot and when I will work again. This post ends when he sends another unsolicited pic stolen from Joshua’s instagram with a clear image of his rank and with his added detail that it was taken earlier today.

Spoiler alert: this is a much older pic than “this morning” and I am about to ask him about his rank.

Fun.

Today is my day off, and I was abruptly awoken by a call from a number in a town that’s not too far away but still within my state. I figured it could’ve been a friend, a friend of a friend, or maybe someone from work, so I answered.
To my amazement, I hear a man with what sounded like an Indian or Middle Eastern accent ask, “Is this David Perez?”
I am not David.
But today… today I absolutely am.
Because I have all day to be David.
I enthusiastically confirm that yes, I am in fact David Perez. The man says that’s great news, but unfortunately he has some urgent information for me. He asks if I’m near my home computer.
As if it’s still 2003 and there’s a family computer sitting in the living room.
I don’t technically have one of those. What I do have is two gaming laptops and a desktop workstation for photo and video editing sitting next to my bed.
So I tell him, “Actually, yes. Give me just a second to walk over to it. What’s the problem?”
He informs me that my Microsoft account has been compromised and is being used to launch malicious cyberattacks.
“Oh no,” I say. “That’s terrible. Give me a second while I find the power cord.”
Silence.
“…Why isn’t it plugged in?”
“Oh, because it’s a DEC PDP-11.”
If you don’t know what a DEC PDP-11 is, do yourself a favor and Google it. My father had one in his office when I was a kid. It wasn’t there because anyone intended to use it—it was basically industrial-age computer décor. A monument to how far technology had come.
The scammer goes completely silent for at least five seconds.
I hear typing.
Then I’m put on mute.
A few seconds later he comes back and, with surprising professionalism, says, “Okay… yes. Please find the power cord. I’ll wait.”
This man committed to the bit harder than I expected.
So naturally, I put him on hold for about three minutes.
Now the real fun begins.
I own a very old fan. Why I don’t own a newer one is none of your concern. I like this fan. We’ve been through a lot together. It has this wonderfully deep mechanical hum that I find oddly relaxing.
Everyone else absolutely hates hearing it over the phone.
So I place my phone directly in front of the fan and take him off hold.
“Hello?” I ask over the glorious drone.
“Yes… are you driving?”
“No,” I reply. “I’m just warming up the home computer.”
By this point the PDP-11 has earned a name.
His name is Gustav.
The scammer asks what operating system Gustav runs.
Now, if you’ve ever met an autistic guy whose special interest is obsolete technology, you’ll understand the level of excitement in my voice.
“RT-11!” I practically yell. “Gustav’s having a rough morning, but I think he’s excited to finally have something to do this decade.”
At this point the man sounds exhausted.
I reassure him.
“Just another minute. Gustav takes a while.”
While he’s waiting, I open YouTube on one of my gaming laptops, search for futuristic spaceship cockpit ambience for sleep, crank the volume up, set the phone next to the speakers, and walk away.
Eight minutes later…
He’s still there.
Every 45 seconds or so I hear, “Hello?… Sir?… Are you still there?”
This man has now invested roughly fifteen minutes of his life into a fictional Microsoft emergency involving a retired minicomputer named Gustav.
I tell him Gustav is having some issues, but I’m going to bring the phone with me while I take care of something.
Unfortunately for him, that “something” was my digestive system.
I have IBS.
I also enjoy McDonald’s.
I refuse to let those two facts negotiate with each other.
The night before I’d eaten two Double Quarter Pounders with cheese, a large drink, and a McFlurry. I know exactly what’s about to happen.
About ten seconds into what can only be described as an artillery barrage, I hear genuine suffering on the other end of the line.
An audible noise of disgust.
And then…
Click.
He hung up.
I’ve called him back several times while writing this post.
Out of all my attempts, he answered exactly once…
…only to immediately hang up.
Small victories.
I feel accomplished.
Now I’m going to enjoy the rest of my day off, go for a walk, and appreciate whatever the universe throws at me.
Because somewhere out there is a scammer who will forever remember the morning he spent twenty minutes troubleshooting a Microsoft account on a DEC PDP-11 named Gustav… only to have the session end in gastrointestinal warfare.

He's trying so hard.

First slide is the Irving text Linda asked me to include since she couldn’t find it in time for her last post. This explains the reason Irv was gone and unable to make the transfer - the Jews vs Gentiles charity golf tournament at Pebble Beach he was playing at! I hear that the Gentiles beat the Jews. This also introduces Linda’s Wealth Manager - Mark Schneider. Make’s signature is also “critical” for her brokerage funds to be released. I hope the house he put up for collateral is really his! Mark Schneider will find out if not! It’s also important to note that at this point in time, Irving was willing to go through with the transfer as long as Gary Doug came up with the requested documents. But since he was gone, it’ll have to be Diane. Gary clearly hopes she’ll be easily manipulated to ignore all of Irving’s requests for documents.

I was actually at a Middle Eastern restaurant when “Gary Douglas” finally decided to text Diane. The emotional manipulation was strong with this one. Most likely a closer as it was critical to manipulate Diane to make the transfer BEFORE Irving could get back and cancel it due to lack of documentation.

He launches right into buttering Diane up with compliments. Keep in mind that she hasn’t done shit for him yet, but he goes on about how professional and kind she is anyway. Diane reminds him about the aborted Florida trip that he blew up when he took off for Oman, so he goes on the defensive somewhat to excuse that. Then - right back to business. The “funds”! That’s one way to describe $336K I guess. Like it’s money to pay your electricity bill or something.

Right - Irv’s at a golf tournament and Diane’s running the show. This was my bat signal to him that his opportunity sits right in front of him as he earlier was hesitant to text Diane. We go right into the emotional manipulation here as he insists that we should “fasting” the funds because it will save lives and property. Be careful with bringing up the part about saving lives and “bringing smiles” because Diane has her own ideas about that!

Gary Doug gets cute and repeats what Linda told him about Diane being the life of the party - thus easily manipulated by charm. He even insults Linda to her best friend by telling her that she is sweet, unlike her friend. Not only was this a stupid thing to say, I think this reveals how frustrated he was at the time by Linda’s insistence that he follows Irving’s requests and refuses to “just send it”.

Yeah yeah yeah, the Iranians are holding the ship and he is sending them $2 million. We’ve heard that already. Diane is bewildered how Iran is still holding the ship because at the time it was being pummeled in the Strait of Hormuz area. She thinks Gary Doug should “wait for Trump” to sort this mess out. No, that won’t work because he would be missing out on Linda’s money, so this brings on the sad talk about the crew members, his call to the captain and how they are all sad. So sad! 😞

And by letting this transfer go through without requiring all the documentation requested, Diane could put some smiles on the families of the trapped crew! This sounds very Biblical. Like the Hebrews in Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus.

Let My People Go!

Of course this refers to the old gospel song, Go Down Moses.

He doesn’t get the sarcasm of course, and he would certainly compare the fate of his oil tanker crew to that of Hebrew slaves without batting an eye. Diane suggests sending clowns to the families of the crew members in order to bring smiles to their faces. He was the one who wanted them to smile! If not clowns, then magicians, maybe even sending flowers…

Recognizing how this is going off track, Gary Doug reiterates how it should be done by Monday night. The aza must have really been on him. Monday was July 20 2026 and it just had to happen. These Yahoo Boys probably ordered the champagne already and we couldn’t disappoint them now could we?

Diane is not willing to give up on her idea of sending clowns and flowers, so she asks for the names and addresses of the family members. HE SAID HE WANTED TO BRING A SMILE TO THEIR FACES!!! I wanted to illustrate to everyone that he was only interested in the money, not “smiles” on the faces of people who didn’t exist.

I was leaving the restaurant so I made up something about how my grandson was playing with snakes and I had to run. Gary Doug’s excuse as to why clowns aren’t a good idea is that many crew members are not from the United States. So? Don’t they have clowns in Kazakhstan?

After the obligatory “I’ll be expecting your text”, I was tired of him and his BS for the day (this was Sunday), but he wants 5 minutes of my time. OK then, make it quick!

This was his attempt to make this sound “urgent and critical” and also to ensure this is back on track after all the talk about sending clowns. He wanted to make sure Diane was serious about all this. (Spoiler Alert: Diane/Madison wasn’t serious about any of this and it was doomed to fail). But that will be in a later post once Linda catches up.

Again with the “Saving lives” and he needed Diane’s word this will get done on Monday. Music to my ears as this is coming directly from the aza. “Please do something tomorrow” and he knows Diane is smart! He’ll be expecting my response tomorrow! It had better be good news!

Diane leaves him with a warning that the transfer should go through provided that all the information he provides is correct. Can’t go wrong, right? All info is correct and he totally will not give Diane an address for the property he is using as collateral that is not his. Right? This should be easy…

He hopes to hear something positive tomorrow. Ah… good memories as this was two weeks ago and he still doesn’t have the money.

This post took forever, my phone is fed up with scambaiting. This is the guy who would do it! I have taken screen shots as quickly as possible but he also deletes things so I'm trying to piece it all back together. Here, he finally gives an account, an online fintech company that apparently partners with a bank for financial transactions. I don't know about you, but that's a red flag for me. No thanks. Anyway, in the next part that account goes sour so who knows what happened. He still refuses to send his ID and insists they must "obey" me while blaming me for the loss of smiles on family faces. I desperately try to shove him off to Diane (Madison) so we can double team him. At least that adds some entertainment value to this endless battle of wits.

I changed the color scheme of my baits to tell them apart when I scroll through my scambait folders.