I was nearly scammed.....was this ethical?
Preface: Back in April I reached out to a small Poker Facebook group that I've been apart of.
I wanted the challenge of coaching someone who was a losing micro grinder to see if I could improve their ROI.
I wasn't doing this to get rich, I was doing this as a test method to get myself to study more, as I'd feel obligated to study and get better myself in order to help this other individual.
How I did get scammed, but got my money back:
An individual who I saw post regularly there responded to my "ad". He had already grinded the micros on his own and was down almoat $3,000 playing mainly .01/.02.
He already had $140 on ACR so I agreed to buy those funds from him, but keep in his account for the stake. (I verified he had the money in his account
He stated he owed a friend $150 and I could just PayPal the friend the $140 to cover his debt, so I did
He agreed to the terms of the backing deal, that included that if he breaks the terms, or ends the backing deal himself. He owes me the full backing amount including make up. He agreed.
I told him to start playing .02/.05 and to not worry about losing. I did a 30 minute coaching session with him and left him on his own. We agreed to chat againn3 days later.
After the 2nd day he told me he was already down $30 amd asked if I wanted him to jump to 2NL. I said no, stay at 5NL. I told him that I expected him to lose and I was ok with it and that we'd review the next day.
The next day, I go to message him on discord, and I was blocked!!! I check FB and I'm blocked there as well.
I reach out to the admins of the FB group but he'd already deleted himself.
I ended up emailing the friend who's paypal I sent to and explained the situation. I told him I'd do a chargeback if I was not paid back.
He got the scammer to unblock me who admitted to still having $95 of my money but not the full $140. I told him to give me the $95 which he did. Then blocked me again.
I thought over this $45 for a month and was still not happy with it. I tried reaching out to the friend again with no luck.
I decided to do a chargeback and was refunded the $140 from my bank/paypal.
Both the friend and the scammer contacted me immediately calling me a scumbag (LOL).
I was now +$96, and had no intention on profiting from this, but I wanted the scammer to be held responsible.
I told the friend I'd pay him back the $140 as soon as the scammer sent me the $45.
The scammer didn't have the $45 and didn't know when he'd get it. They offered for me to send back the $96 and the friend would just take it up with the scammer.
I friend was getting super pissed. I could tell that the scammer cared about that friendship though...and I wanted to prove a point....so I declined.
I stated that I would pay the friend back $140 as soon as the scammer paid me $45...we went back and forth several times.
However the scammer eventually paid me today!!!
Was it super unethical to hold the friends money hostage so to speak?
Fwiw. I planned on paying at least the $96 back eventually if not paid back by the scammer, but was going to wait atleast 30 days.
