By Jian Yu-xian
Translated by Wu Hsiao-ting
Photo by Hsiao Yiu-hwa
My 80-year-old mother-in-law, who lives alone, phoned me the other day. She told me in an anxious voice, “I just received a call. The caller said I didn’t pay my electricity bill and that they were cutting off my electricity. But I did pay my bill!”
“Mom, don’t worry,” I said to her. “That was without a doubt a phone scam. Just ignore it.” She was very relieved after hearing what I said.
Having had my share of run-ins with telephone-based fraudsters, I knew a phone scam when I heard one. That’s why I could assure my mother-in-law with such certainty. I was glad to put her mind at ease, but at the same time I was angry at those fraudsters for causing people like my mother-in-law such anxiety and fear.
Some time after this conversation, I received another phone call at my home with this recorded message: “This is XXX Telecom. Your phone line is about to be suspended. Please dial nine to reach a representative.” “Another scam!” I grumbled to myself. Just as I was about to hang up, an idea flashed into my mind. Instead of disconnecting the call, I dialed nine. I was met with some tacky electronic music, indicating that the call was being transferred. A few seconds later, the voice of a young man—about 17 or 18 years old—came on the line: “Hello, good afternoon.” I could tell he was trying to make his voice deeper to make himself sound older.
I cut to the chase. “This is a phone scam, isn’t it?” I said into the phone.
Much to my surprise, the man didn’t hang up or deny my accusation. Instead, he said after a short pause, “Yes.”
His honesty threw me for a loop. It aroused my curiosity, too. I began to wonder why he didn’t hang up, why instead he was being so honest. What led him to participate in a fraud scheme like this?
“Why did you become a scammer?” I asked.
“I didn’t have much of a choice. I had to make a living,” he answered.
Sympathy rose in my heart when I heard his frank reply. I thought: “Maybe his family was so poor he became an imposter out of desperation.” But almost immediately, I thought of my mother-in-law and of how that fraudulent phone call had sent her into a panic.
“There must be other ways to make a living,” I said. “Put yourself in the shoes of those you dupe. What are they to do if they have difficulty getting by after falling victim to your scams?” I tried to keep my tone even and talk as slowly as possible to avoid infuriating him into hanging up on me.
The man responded to my question with silence.
“Your voice told me you are still very young,” I continued. “You might have a great future ahead of you. Our world needs one more good person, and it can certainly do away with one more bad one. Make the world better by being a good person. Don’t make it worse by being a bad one.”
When I said those words to him, I was thinking of the following aphorism by Dharma Master Cheng Yen: “If you are doing good deeds, count me in; if you are doing evil, count me out.” That aphorism once instilled sense into a man, stopping him from robbing a bank. I was taking heart from that encouraging example and hoping to help prevent this young man from continuing going down the wrong path.
The young man’s positive response took me by surprise. “Okay. I’ll give it a try.”
Tears came unbidden to my eyes. Slightly emotional, I sincerely said to him, “Good for you. Give what I said some serious thought. You have my best wishes.”
When I finally hung up the phone, my child said to me, “Why did you say so much to a fraudster?”
I explained why I did what I did. I said I was moved by the young man’s honesty into believing that he was not really a bad guy. Not wanting him to continue going astray, the mother in me sympathized with him and snapped into action. I hoped I could awaken his conscience by sharing those words with him.
Master Cheng Yen says that our lives are brighter when we embrace positive thoughts and take action for the good of others. I believe that when we constantly harbor kind thoughts and show care for people around us, we make a difference in the lives of others. My best wishes go to all the kids that have gone astray—I hope they all meet people who can ignite a light in their lives and give them a helping hand.
