Trowel Spin – November 2025

It’s supposed to just happen to other people. Until it doesn’t

A couple of weeks ago we got scammed. A “contractor” ordered a concrete buggy. He asked for wiring information to send a money wire. Instead of sending a wire, he went into a bank branch and deposited a bad cheque into our account. We checked our deposits online, and sure enough the money showed in our account. The concrete buggy was released for pick-up, and a third-party trucking company picked it up.  

You can guess the rest. After a couple days the money disappeared out of our account. It’s all so simple. And looking back it was all so evident. But at the same time, it was a perfect storm. There were at least 4 of us aware of the transaction. Some of us had heard of this type of scam before. Others didn’t. We all had funny feelings at some point, but we were all busy and didn’t speak up or bring it into question at the right time. We didn’t verify the wire but assumed to have real money. The transaction seemed legit, so we shipped the equipment. The long and short, we got scammed.  

Being scammed has the potential to make you feel angry and violated. And it really is humiliating.  None of us think that we would ever be a candidate for a scam. It’s supposed to just happen to other people. Until it doesn’t.

One of the repercussions of scams and other forms of gross dishonesty is the inclination to create systems that make honest people pay the price. Let’s face it, if bad people didn’t steal gas, the good people wouldn’t have to pay before they pump.  

I remember reading one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, I can’t remember the title. But in it he had the reader visualize a world completely and totally void of trust.

Imagine this for a moment. You do not trust anyone. Not one person.

Not your neighbour, not the mailman, not the garbage man, not the amazon delivery man, not your spouse, not the bank teller, not your barber, not the appliance repair man. No one. Everyone is out to blackmail you in some way or another. That would be infinitely impossible.  

We live in a climate of corruption. It would be nice to think that trust and virtue is the world’s default model for business. But it isn’t. We live in a world where we simply cannot trust everyone. To trust everyone is irresponsible and naïve. But to trust no one, is much worse. Life would be impossible by very definition. We can’t let scammers keep us from trusting good people.  

I remember as a child reading this quote. “Trust in God but lock your car.”

Jesus said it best, “Be as crafty as a snake, but as harmless as a dove.”